Flip-Flops at Walmart

[Bluegill Budd]

Check you local Walmart. The Walmarts in my area have children's flip-flops on sale for 98? a pair in lots of different colors.
They are great for cutting foam cylinders to use as poppers.
$3.00 and I have all the black and yellow I will need for a long time.

[ScottP]

Budd,

Thanks for the heads-up. Do you use plug-cutter bits in your drill to harvest the cylinders?

Regards,
Scott

[Bluegill Budd]

I made my own cutters from a 45 Long Colt case (bass) and a 38 Spec case (bluegill). I use them in a hand drill.

[Uncle Jesse]

Scott, Grab the next wrecked automatic umbrella you find. The staff is hollow metal, either brass or chrome plated steel. You can cut it in length that suit you, I use about 4" and sharpen the edges on one end. Drill several bodies and punch the out with a dowel, long machine screw, etc. More than about 4 get difficult to expel. My favorite was a hexagon shaped shaft, it does great. Around 3/8" is the largest you can do, but I have a 3/4" from EMT.

[ducksterman]

Or you can grind out an opening in the tube....

[Buddy Sanders]

And, for les than $10 you can buy a set of punches at Harbor Freight.

They go up to 1/2 inch, have the plug expelling slot already in them, and will last a lifetime. The thin 1/8 and 3/16 inch ones work great for tails on dragonfly/damsel fly patterns, 1/4 inch and up for ants/hoppers/poppers.

I like to use a drill press, but they work just fine in a hand drill.

Buddy