Furling Motor

[ducksterman]

Wouldn't a variable speed sewing machine motor be about ideal ....especially since I have one already?

[Denny, the one you mentioned seems like a good one.] Works for me!! Denny

[JohnScott]

Duck -

The furling jig that I designed four years ago and have used regularly since, does twist both legs at the same time while they are connected to separate gear driven hooks. After the legs have been twisted an appropriate number of times, they are then joined together on a single gear driven hook and furled under tension by countertwisting an appropriate number of times.

The advantage, to my way of thinking, with this system, is control of the product and uniformity from leader to leader.

As far as using a motor, that seems like more trouble than it is worth, and some unnecessary expense. It takes about ten minutes to furl a leader with my system. The majority of that time is spent setting up the material to be furled, and finishing the leader after it is furled with a shorb loop on the butt end. Probably less than four or five minutes is spent twisting and then countertwisting / furling the leader material.

Don't get me wrong, I think a motorized jig based on the one I use would be really cool, and especially one that had a built in rev-counter, so I wouldn't have to count while cranking out the twists and furls. Just trying to keep things simple, and reduce expense along the way.

John

P.S. I think I posted some pics of my furling jig a while back. If you are interested, let me know and I'll see if I can identify / retrieve it for you.

[ducksterman]

John,

I would be interested ...probably have seen it but I've seen so many and they all seem to have their own variations.

[JohnScott]

Duck -

Follow the link. It is post #4 in that thread.

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/s...=furled+leader

John

[ducksterman]

Thanks, John, do you manually pull on that shock cord to control the tension?

[Silver Creek]

I seen either an variable speed electric drill or electric screwdriver used. I've even seen one of those battery operated hand held plastic fans modified to furl a leader.

[JohnScott]

Thanks, John, do you manually pull on that shock cord to control the tension?

Duck -

I do manually handle the cord, but do not have to apply much tension, if any. Between the friction of the sliding post holder on the body of the jig and the friction of the cord around the end post, there is enough tension to keep the twisting in good order.

While countertwisting / furling, I usually do apply some tension while the leader stretches in the initial stages of furling, and then relax tension when the leader wants to contract again in the latter stages of furling.

If I ever get around to building a new jig, or refurbishing the one I have, I think I will resign the tension mechanism. I have in mind installing a small wheel at or near the end of the jig and let the tensioning cord run over it to a small container below the body of the jig. Fill the container with enough pennies**, or sand, or whatever to apply a reasonable amount of tension to both the twisting and furling material.

John

** Probably more than $.02 worth !!

The thing I like about the manual cranking set up, or a mechanized system with a counter, is the uniformity that can be achieved after some simple testing with various materials.

Seems to me the 90% thing is subject to the amount of tension being applied during the twisting process, not a very precise thing, especially from one person to another. Denny's subtract 10 seconds before breakage approach as described in the other thread that is going on right now, is interesting, and likely would result in uniform leaders, given constant twisting and furling speeds.

[ducksterman]

Put me down in the twist to just before pigtailing camp. It seems to me that not only gives uniformity but ...at least in some people's opinion the tightest furl...and supposedly performance....sort of living on the edge though..I've crashed more leaders that way than before.

[aged_sage]

ducksterman:

I use the sewing machine motor, wired through a dimmer switch and a micro-switch. No need to count revs, seconds, or anything else. I can twist both legs simultaneously, transfer to the middle hook,which turns in reverse, and furl the two legs together in not much more time than it took to type this! The micro-switch turns everything of at the proper initial twist and the final finished length. I furl at something in excess of 300 rpm, based on actual tachometer measurements. I fail to see how any other set up could be faster than this. I will put the uniformity of my leaders up against any and all others out there.

aged sage

[Jack Hise]

Aged Sage;
I use a Dremel Tool at 8000 rpm. No counters, no weights no spread sheets, just the feel aquired after years of furling and I'll put mine up against anyones!

I have built furling boards for several members and have taught them the simple way to make an effective furled leader without the use of Spread Sheets, Rpm Counters, etc!

Furling leaders is an art as well as a science. It is really quite easy as several of us have discovered. Methods, materials, tecniques may vary, as in any art form, but they can all produce a Furled Leader that does what it is supposed to do, cast a fly.

Furling leaders is not the Rocket Science some would like us to believe.