Well after using a few different bobbins from Dr. Slicks, Griffin and others I decided to give Rite bobbins a try. I liked the idea of an easy to adjust tension control. I bought two of them.
One is working as designed but the other the ceramic stem became loose and is no longer in a fixed position. Anyone else have this problem? I could send it back and they would send me another one under warranty, but I don’t want to mail it in and wait for it to return. Any ideas on what type of glue I should use to reattach the ceramic thread stem?
I do like the adjustable tension mechanism, I wonder about the all ceramic tube instead of a steel tube with an ceramic insert. I wonder what will happen if I drop it. I also don’t like that I can’t read the label on the thread in the bobbin. With many bobbins on the bench it would be nice to know what it is loaded with, without having to remove the thread from the bobbin to find out. Any ideas there?
I bought two of these bobbins and find that they need just a tad to get use to. I do like the tension control on them. Now I tye with Danville 6/0 thread and for my Catskill dry flies Uni 8/0. It’s very easy to tell the differance between these two threads so this is a non issue for me. Now most of my tying is done on an all ceramic Tiemco bobbins and love them. No problems in 15 years of use. Just need to clean them out once in a awhile to remove any wax build up. Now when I bought the bobbin at a fly fishing show I met the creator. Heck of a nice guy and backs his product. I would tell you to send it back for two reasons. One you get a new bobbin and hopefully will be happy, second you help him fix any issues that he might have not ran into during the manufacturing process. Now the bobbin has performed as it should for me with no complaints or issues. Lastly having to wait for a bobbin is not really an issue if you have a least two. Lastly I went back to an old style of tying where no bobbin is used at all. So I figure If I can tye a fly without a bobbin then I wonder why I even bother to own them any more.
Send it back to the manufacturer. They are very nice people and will turn it around pretty quickly. I remember them mentioning that the epoxy used to anchor the ceramic tube was a fairly exotic product, so it is best left to them to fix.
If you drop the bobbin from a sufficient height and on to a hard enough surface, it will break. But again the manufacturer will repair the bobbin for a nominal fee so not a major concern considering the advantage of the bobbin itself.
Finally you can identify any thread size by just looking at it and the manufacturer by the spool it comes on, so I’m not sure why seeing the label is important, but everyone is different.
If you have 8 bobbins or more on the bench and you tie with 70, 140 and 210 and you have 6/0 and 8/0 threads, I like to see the labels to make sure I know what I am using. I can tell fairly easily between 6 and 8 by feel, but it is one thing to know what is on the spool today, but walk away for a couple of days and come back and this old guy gets confused. So how can you tell by looking at the spool and you can’t read the spool label that it is 6/0 or 8/0 without picking it up and feeling the thread? Tell me something obvious that I have missed. I’m always willing to learn a new trick.
While I appreciate that the Rite Bobbin people are “nice” and will respond positively to any feedback or returns, I bought a couple three years ago at the East Idaho Fly Tying Expo and both have had the same problem as mentioned by Clay. So, if feedback is important, which I and I’m sure many have provided these folks with, but the very same problem still remains after three years, what good has it done. I truly like my bobbin, but I had to fix it with some epoxy, but it shouldn’t be my or any other product consumer’s problem to fix, especially after so many complaints and years of the very same problem.
When is the manufacturer going to not only listen, but DO something about it. These bobbins aren’t cheap, so it appears the manufacturer is doing okay. And I would assume they are sending out replacement bobbins with the very same problems as the ones being complained about.
Just had to rant a little. Sorry, and Clay, good luck.
? High Performance two-part epoxy adhesive
? Fast curing, sets in 5 minutes
? Crystal clear, ideal for jewellery, Glass and Ceramic
? Waterproof, Oil and Chemical resistant
Thanks Rookie for the link, I enjoyed reading the thread. I called yesterday and the lady that I talked to said that he would call me back last night. Something must have come up since I didn’t receive a phone call. It will get fixed one way or another and I have to more experience using this bobbin before I come to a final opinion on the product. I’m not a happy camper right now, but that might change.
Rookie, after you fixed it yourself, did if come apart again or has it been working OK since? What is your current opinion on these bobbins compared to others now that you have used it a couple of months past your original issues.
Next time before I buy something I should have asked my friends here what is the right product to buy.
Normand, thanks for the idea of writting on the bobbin itself, I always don’t keep the same kind of thread on the same bobbin, I still don’t have enough of them. Looks like I need more bobbins.
Send it back to the company so they can send you a replacement. I have been using Rite Bobbins for many years, I have at least a dozen of them all loaded with different threads. None have ever caused me a problem, they make a good product. Send it back so they can see what happened and can send you a new one that won’t cause you any problems in the future.
I actually love the bobbin. The repair has held quite nicely and no further problems. I will probably end up buying a few more. the owner told me, as you read in the thread, that it was the appropriate repair. I don’t like sending things back if I have the ability to make the same repair. that is just me though.
Same question, why should the consumer have to make a repair in order to be happy with the product? Shouldn’t the manufacturer learn to get it right the first time? I guess I’m beating a dead horse…
Three years ago did you contact the company or are you just going to beat that horse forever?
In any process there will be problems. Not all things go right all the time, sometimes product gets through quality control with defects, it is how a company handles and the frequency of these defects that show the quality of a company. It appears from the responses on this board that this is a quality company.
I vote for the fact this is a quality company and product. They offered to fix or replace mine but it was my choice to fix mine myself. They advised me my repair was right on and I have had no further complaints.
I would recommend them highly. It is very possible someone else might not care for the product for whatever reason. I guess that is why there are so many styles and manufactures out there to choose from.
For me, the Rite bobbin fits my hand well and actually helps compensate for some of my clumsiness. That alone is worth the money.
I disagree that they are a quality company if they are still putting out the same inferior product. Yes I did contact them, and they offered to replace the item, but, according to what I’m reading here, not much has changed since. I do like the bobbin (now that I’ve fixed it myself), but to hear now of the same problem I had three years ago, as well as to hear many responses that have experienced the same, seems to me the Rite Bobbin people don’t respond much to the feedback.
Even though the owner was out of town on vacation, he called me today. We had a nice chat. I tend to agree that companies some times have problems and it is how they handle it that makes me vote next time with my dollars. I have some companies that have earned good marks from me in the service department and others that I WILL NOT do business with again no matter how neat the product looks on the shelf. Places like Scientific Anglers and Rio for lines are great, William Joseph has great customer relations and a warranty that is actually solid. Others like FishPond have burned a bridge with me and I will never buy from them again.
Rite Bobbins have been responsive to my needs as a customer and will probably buy more of them.
And that is your prerogative. However you are basing your judgement on a very limited number of cases. Just as many people have already chimed in and said that they’ve had nothing but good luck with Rite Bobbins. So why is your limited experience a better indicator than their’s?
Like Sagefisher, I have quite a few Rite Bobbins (8 or 10, can’t remember), bought over the span of six years, and while I’ve performed minor repairs on them from time to time, they are still the best bobbin on the market, in my opinion. Furthermore, the few times I have had major repairs (e.g. shattered ceramic tubes), I’ve sent them back to the manufacturer and they fixed them for a perfectly reasonable fee in very little time.
No product is going to be flawless and eventually everything breaks. What distinguishes good customer service from bad is what happens next. The folks at Merco have always gone out of their way to make things right in my experience and I’m not quite sure why you find it necessary to be so shrill in your criticism of them. Dead horse indeed…
I love my Rite Bobbins, I won’t use anything else now.
The reading of the spool could be a problem, but if you are like most people you have many bobbins and tie a staple of the same flies. So you could load some bobbins with your “every day” spools and you will know what those are, and save some bobbins for switching spools for your other flies.
Quite by accident, I found a thread that will work rather well with the Rite bobbins. I had some guidebrod thread and it is marked on the edge of the spool so that the Rite bobbin won’t cover up the thread size. Just wish that I could still find it for sale.
