I seem to be asking a lot of questions about where to find something lately. So I was determined to find this myself without asking, but failed for the last week miserably so here goes again.
I have a Fish Pond Coyote traveling tying bag and in it, it has 4 of these tubes that you put your tying thread in. Well I want to carry more thread/floss/wire than the 4 tubes will allow. I want to find some clear plastic tubes to put spools of thread in. The ones in the bag are 9" long and 1 1/4" in diameter. I have been to every hardware store in town, even thought of getting some clear PVC and making them myself but can’t even find that.
Shove me in the right direction fellows. Again, thanks for your constant assistance. I am coming to the conclusion that I really don’t tie flies. I think I just collect stuff for fly tying and talk about it a whole lot. Then once in a while I actually make something.
Those would work, but I don’t need 25 of them, thinking 4 or 6 tubes. Probably need only 2, would take a couple extras but not 20 extra. Thanks for the thought though.
Does it have to be clear plastic? You should be able to get a length of pvc pipe and label it on the outside with contents. Put Wire in one and floss in another etc. End caps are readily available where you buy the pipe.
I do not know what these costs, but, I know that you can purchase clear plastic tubes to cover fluorescent light bulbs with so that if they “blow” it will contain the glass. You can see these in commercial kitchens, bakeries, etc. No end caps that I know of. You might check at your local hardware or electricial store. Like I stated, I do not know how expensive these tubes are, but, they do exist.
PCV, schedule 40 or 80, is just way too heavy for this, but I did make a rod tube out of it. A bit heavy for that for travel, but it keeps the rods safe in my closet when not being used.
The first thing I saw with Uline is the 25 quantity order as well, but 25 of the 1.5" x 6" tubes is only $15, and 25 of the .75" x 8" is only $18.25.
I would take the Uline info to your nearest Fly Shop and see if you can make a deal to get them to buy (at your cost) what you dont want, and they try to sell the rest in the shop. The larger tube (spool size) could retail for $1.99 easy, netting them over a buck profit for doing nothing.
Or, you could just contact Fish Pond at http://fishpondusa.com/contact.cfm and ask if you can get “replacement” tubes directly from them.
You guys are goooooooood! I have called and left a message at FishPond, no response yet.
The reason for the clear tubes is so that you can see what you have in them.
There are a couple of good suggestions in this thread. Will make some calls tomorrow if anyone is around or on Monday if everyone is closed for the weekend.
I even stopped at a pool / spa place to see if they had any clear PVC. I work with PVC in another hobby of mine often - building ornamental ponds for koi. Chewydog and Tyronefly both of those options look great. Here is the clear PVC and Acrylic tubing: http://www.aquaticeco.com/search/0/clear%20pvc but PVC would be heavy like someone else mentioned.
Quite an interesting thread with some good ideas put forth. I use plastic pill vials from our local drug store. They are about 6 inches tall with a 2 inch diameter. They hold three spools of thread easily.
I thought I would enclose a picture of the FishPond thread tubes in this thread so everyone can see what I was originally talking about. While I like the FishPond Coyote bag itself, the hook boxes were junk and were replaced tout sweet, (damn fast) and thread tubes, while being OK, the length is off just a bit. You will see in the photo that they can hold 6 spools with extra room or if you put 7 spools in them the lid won’t shut or falls off easily. You have to look at the photo and the white caps carefully to catch this. So I am not locked into the FishPond thread tubes. If I put 6 spools in them they work fine.
Hopefully will get a cost from FishPond on Monday and will check out some of the other spool tubes then too.
Note, this wouldn’t be my tying bench method of holding spools, there are better ways or racks for home use, but when traveling with your tying gear the tubes work out nicely.
Do you know somebody who works in an operating room? Lots of orthopaedic instrumentation comes in tubes of just the right size–they are what I use to store my extras
also, try a craft store–in the beading section they have clear stuff that might work for you
You should also look at: www.dan-bailey.com
They are fly tying supply business with a good reputation.
They have 4 sizes for specific fly material applications.
I like Panman’s idea best so far…how ‘bout glue two together, end to end, now you can have six in one with two tops so you don’t have to unload as many to get at the deepest thread spool. Tell the pharmicist what yer doin’ with em and i’d say he’d sell you some cheap or even give you some…
Tyrone, thanks for the link. I bought these. Fish pond wanted $5 per tube. The shipping was high on a small order $9.72. I first did it with just 6 tubes and the price was the same when I went to a doz. Maybe will sell a couple at the fly tying class this winter. If not, I will have some new storage devices handy.
