As many of you know I am a big fan of using dubbing brushes in tying many of my flies. The dubbing brushes really speed up my tying, allow me to be very creative and are almost indestructable. I designed a dubbing brush twister that many of the folks hear on FAOl are using. I continue to get inquires about selling them but my job has kept me too busy. That being said, I had a couple of folks ask recently and when I polked around in my shop/garage, I found some blocks that I had already cut and routed so I finished them up. in the process, I came up with a very simple idea to add power to these dubbing brush twisters if you have a Dremel, electric drill or battery powered drill. I simply inserted a stainless steel set screw into the twisting knob. You can then put an Allen/Hex wrench into your Dremel or Drill, insert it into the set screw, and you’re in business. I tried these out and it works great, REALLY speeding up the twisting process. I’ve attached a couple of photos so you can get a better idea of what I am trying to discribe.
Three of the dubbing blocks I had ready to complete are JUMBOs made out of Rock Maple. As you can see in the last photo when compared to the “regular” sized dubbing twister, these are the HumVee version of dubbing twister almost 16 inches long.
Anyway, I wanted to share this with the dubbing twister crowd and if any of the folks that purchased dubbing twisters from me need any help in making this adaption to their existing twister, drop me a line, I’ll be glad to help out.
Sorry to keep you in suspense, I actually took a day off and took my wife out to celebrate our 38th wedding aniversary:) The cup hooks is a very simple way to apply power to a manual dubbing brush twister. I actually use the small eye hooks used to make fishing plugs. Simply drill a hole in the center of the twisting knob and insert a closed-eye hook. Then, put an open-eye hook in the chuck of your electric drill or dremel. Hook the eye hooks together and start the drill very slowly. It will allow you to twist a dubbing brush in about 10 seconds. This thread was started because I found another way that seems to work a bit better in that it provides a more “positive” connection between the drill and the knob.
I bought one of your twisters. It works great manually. Making a peacock brush is much easier than using a real herl, and usually looks better. I use Ice Dub Peacock, and the Black peacock.
Hi, Jim.
I bought one of yours a couple of years ago. It is great. Thanks.
Have you, or anybody, come up with a way to make a brush out of thread instead of wire? I’ve tried, but it wants to unravel.
Joe
I make brushes out of well waxed silk thread. I have some 3X5 cards with slits cut into the sides. When I finish a brush I store them on the 3X5 cards. If they’re stored for a little time the wax hardens up a bit and unraveling is no longer a problem.
Hi, Ron.
Of course! I hadn’t thought of using waxed silk - like Leisenring did, sort of. Except without the spinning block. Thanks! With Jim’s jumbo-sized block I’ll just find something to hold them in place that’s bigger than a 3x5 card.
Joe
I’ve also had good success by running a dubbing needle coated with head cement up the length of the “top” thread before I start the twisting process. Then I lay the top thread on top of the dubbing material and start the twisting process. After the brush is fully twisted. I lift the “hand-held” end about an inch off the block and pull it tight and hold for about 30 seconds. This gives the head cement some time to dry and will keep the thread twisted. You can also use super glue for this and the wait time is about 10-15 seconds.