Anyone have any idea where I could find some info on building fly reels (in particular, some blueprints/designs for the various components)? I’m just curious how feasable this is. I know that I could get the guys at Bellinger to make one of theirs to my specs (I’m wanting maple side plates/handle with NS hardware/accents), but that would be prohibitively expensive, plus I’d really love to be able to make it myself. I could just take the measurements from another reel, but then, I’d probably have to buy that reel in order to do so. Any thoughts would be most appreciated.
I agree with Hans. If you are going to all the work to make your own, why not make one that people will say “wow, where in the world did you get that incrediable looking reel? Where can I get one?”
Jonezee
Look for the file: MIFlyreel.pdf or something like that.
Pretty much, if you have a lathe and milling machine and know how to use them, you can use these plans and modify them to make your dream flyreel. Short of having the machines, you would at least need to be able to cast the parts to shape and design it in such a way to only have to do some rudimentary work to it (say drilling and tapping). Maybe there’s something I’m missing, but this is more complicated (to me at least) than building a rod where you can get away with rudimentary and homemade equipment to complete the task.
Wow! Thanks guys, that was exactly what I was looking for. And yes, I’m planning to design it myself, I was just looking for some designs to base it off of. I’ll probably end up coming up with the design and taking it to the local machine shop where I had my planing forms made, and then doing the woodwork (side plates)myself.
