I"m looking for a fly turner for drying flies but really don’t want to spend the money they go for. Any good ideas for a home made one and where did you get the parts 
Thanks
Ken
Start with a BBQ motor from the thrift stores…I’ll let others tell you the rest…and of course other ideas:cool:
I used a Mirrored ball motor I picked up at Spencer’s Gifts for about $13 then just built a stand for it out of plywood and a piece of foam. Used epoxy to attach a bolt to the motor , to use for the foam to mount on. Heres a link to the motor. I picked one up at the store to save the postage.
I’m an electronics nut, so this solution may not work for you.
Many hobby stores in metro areas (Radio Shack is a possibility) sell motor kits with gear reduction systems for under $10. Really, all you need is a DC motor (with an appropriate AC adapter) and a gear set that will give you a nice and slow (300-ish) revolutions per minute. I’ve seen kits that do this in kid-oriented science stores. Stuff a block of foam onto the drive shaft of the motor, and it’s the same thing as a $60 plus drying system.
300 revolutions / min !!! Mine runs at 10 rpm—the rotisserie motor works great. BILL
If you want to “tinker” go to the local Goodwill or Salvation Army store and pickup a child’s motoroized car or truck. (They will look at you funny just as when you go into Michael’s for fly tying things).
After striping down to the motor, gear box and axle; you will have all the parts to build a portable motorized dryer.
I used one wheel to hold a foam wheel and cut off the second wheel. By varying the number of batteries you can slow down or speed up the motor. You can get as fancy as you want with your design.
Mine cost $3.00 and a little time in the workshop…
I haven’t used one myself but have been told that Microwave plate turner moters work well.
Eric
make one
http://www.onlineflytyer.com/article_drier1.asp
http://globalflyfisher.com/tiebetter/epoxy_rotor/
Lol. Yeah, that was a late night typo. I meant 3 - 10 rpm.
Gees, Normand, you never fail to amaze me with your knowledge of this FAOL website. WOW!
Bruce
WOW! thank you for the insult!
WOW! Thanks for the insult! Not EVERYTHING is on this FAOL site! If you can find then post it!
Normand, I meant that as a complement. I appreciate your wealth of knowledge. You save a lot of people a lot of time.
Bruce
Normand,
I am also in awe of your ability to locate and direct folks to stuff, both on the site and over the net.
Amazing skill. I admire the time and effort you must have expended to acquire this ability.
You’ve saved me hours of aimless ‘clicking about’ over the years, and I appreciate it.
Thanks,
Buddy
bucktails+streamers:
Check out item # 360228322996 on eBay and then go to this guys “store”. He has everything you need, and more, and is a real pleasure to do business with. I bought two motors from him last year, and shortly after putting them into service, one died for no known reason. I called him and he sent me a brand new replacement at his cost, and apologized for the inconvenience. His machined aluminum couplers are very well made, and his prices are quite reasonable. I make my own plastic rod couplers for doing rods with them.
Cheers
I used a micro wave plate turner motor from a curbside microwave. Works great! Works on houshold current…i.e. No batteries needed!
However, do read up on doing this, as I understand that a capacitor(?) inside the microwave can hold a “lethal” or at least “startlingly heavyduty” electrical charge…
Cost: motor…$ 0
Bowfin47
I use a microwave plate turner, it’s a bit slower (5rpm) but it does get the job done. I’m sure you can find a cheap mw at a thrift store.
BTW, I agree with the “Normand The Great” comment, he is not only knowledgeable but has also given a lot of people a lot of free goodies.
I don’t want to high jack the thread, but why do you something to rotate the flies? I just use a styrofoam block and let them air dry. What am I missing?
thanks,
hNt
Maybe it’s one of those things you want to have because everybody else does (in my very case, not saying anybody else’s is). I put mine together and have used it around 2 times, I prefer to rotate the vice…matter of preference I guess.
If you’re using slow-drying (24 hr) epoxy, keeping the flying moving prevents the epoxy from sagging before it dries. The thicker the coating of epoxy, the longer the drying time (and the bigger the risk of sagging if they’re not kept in motion).
Slow rotation is enough to avoid the problem. The larger the wheel, the more flies you can mount on it to dry at the same time (so you can epoxy a batch of them and not have to rotate them individually while waiting for the epoxy to set).
I suppose you could hit the same problem with 5-minute epoxy though you wouldn’t have to let the flies rotate as long.
Any kind of finish being applied that might sag (ex: painted popper bodies) could benefit from the same thing.