I’ve just completed building one of Jim Smith’s dubbing twisters and am having a great time playing with it. I now have some questions and comments about making dubbing brushes…
What is everyone using as a source for wire? I’ve stripped out some speaker wire and that is the best that I’ve found so far. It even has both the copper and tin plated copper (silver) color wire strands that look to be about 32 AWG. So what other sources of wire are there out there?
Has anyone painted the trough where the wire and dubbing material go white? I was noticing as I was adding some cream dubbing that I was having a little trouble determining how much I had on since it blended into the oak color. Just curious.
If you build your turbo twister out of oak, the brass inset nuts will shear off rather than thread in. Stainless is probably a better choice if you can find it for the harder woods.
I could only find a fairly small knob at Lowes for the end. A larger knob would probably be better and I may construct a new one from wood. Has anyone made one that could be hooked to a cordless electric drill?
Jim - thanks for sharing your plan in Fly Tyer Magazine. I’m having a blast!
To do the cordless drill thing…drill a little pilot hole in the center of the knob and screw in a small cup hook…chuck up a similar hook in your drill and have at it…I actually got that idea from Jim.
Re: the wire …you can get spools at craft stores that work quite well…some colored…but when I run out of purchased wire I think I will stick to the electric wire you mention…I have a bunch just the right size…of course you can gather various diameters also…
Welcome to the world of dubbing brushes. The best commercially available fly tying wire I’ve found is the UTC Ultra wire in the small size. It is soft enough to not break when twisting the dubbing brush. As far as other sources, I’ve found a few non-traditional as well. I happened across a funky Christmas decoration that was just VERY fine copper wire that you were supposed to strng out like tinsel on a tree (I think). Anyway I found it a the Goodwill store for 50 cents per package and I now have at least a couple of lifetimes worth of this wire. It is so fine that I can use it to make dubbing brushes for hooks down to size 16 or possible even 18.
I also found the knobs available at Lowes to be too small. I ended up ordering knobs from knobsdirect.com. They are very well made and the correct size for the dubbing twister only cost about 85 cents each. As far as the brass breaking off in hardwood, they will also break off in fir so I made sure to drill the pilot hole just a bit larger to prevent this from happening.
You’re right about the dubbing trough in that light colored is better. I kept the wood light and have no problems with light colored dubbing. That being said, you could line the trough with a strip of white paper. That way, you can remove it if you ever make dubbing brushes with white dubbing. Just a thought…
As far as making a powered dubbing twister, you can power the one you have fairly easily. As Duckster said, simply drill a pilot hole in the end of the knob and insert a closed eye hook. Then, insert an open eyed hook into your cordless drill and hook it through the eye on the knob. I actually went all the way to building a powered dubbing twister with a 1/20 hp motor, but the whole contraption is a bit cumbersome and it’s not exactly the kind of tool I want to lug out into the living room to twist brushes while I’m watching TV. I use the original modle for that.
Again, good luck and please share any good dubbing brush tips/tricks you learn and/or any good receipes for dubbing brushes.
Thanks for the info. I’ll look into the larger knobs. I’m still debating just making one with a small handle on it like a fly reel. Now that I’ve done a few more, and if I had a proper wheel, I don’t think the powered unit would have much advantage really.
I’ve been doing some brushes with Aunt Lydias rug yarn and they look great. Been mixing some colors and got a real close match for a hare’s ear I’m going to have to try. I found some wire at Wally World in the craft section (no Hobby Lobby here in Paris, TX - nearest one is an hour away…) that was made for necklaces. It works great except it never breaks. I finally just take the brush off when I think it’s done and trim it up.
I was watching a video done by Jan Siman of the Czech Republic and he references and sells a soft brush for dry flies. Apparently he uses thread as the base instead of wire. Has anyone tried this and how do you hold it together after it’s spun?
I also make dubbing brushes using thread. To do this, I position the thread in the dubbing twister and add the dubbing material. Then I lift the top section of thread and run a brush with Zap-a-Gap or similar super glue down the top thread. Now, lay the top thread down on top of the dubbing material and spin the brush. You need to hold the completed brush taunt for about 15 seconds after you’re done spinning the brush to give the glue time to dry. This is the way that I do it, if anyone else has another methoid, please jump in and share.
Thanks Jim. I’ll give that a try. I’ve got some CDC I want to try to make some caddis with.
The only other method I could think of was to do some type of ‘furled’ loop where I would pretwist the thread, lay the dubbing material down, fold the thread over, then let it furl. Not sure if this would work or not, and it seems like a lot more work than using the glue method.
I’m still waiting for someone to present a way to make a good peacock dubbing brush . I know it can be done because I ordered some from some where once…very durable.
Ducksterman until you find your source for the peacock dubbing brushes this may help.
The method is used to tie some of Alec Jackson’s flies. Simply tie in a few strands of peacock herl, letting your bobbin & thread hang vertically. Take a hackle plier and clip onto the very end of the peacock herl include the hanging tread. Continue by bringing the bobbin upward and tie in with a simple loop of tread onto where you first tied in the peacock herl. In essence you have a dubbing loop. Now take a sheppards hook or dubbing twirl and spin the peacock until the entire loop has fluffed up. Now you can wrap the peacock herl arround the hook shank, etc., etc. Hope this helps.
Don
Thanks, Don…been there done that and it is probably the most durable way to do it [except for a dubbing brush]…also have twisted the herl with a single strand of thread…or of wire [tied in as for ribbing]…but as we’re discussing above dubbing brushes are not only fun but have certain advantages and I would really like to figure out how to do it with peacock.
As soon as I saw this thread, I knew you were going to ask how to make the peacock dubbing brush!! Ever since you started asking about it, I have been trying to figure it out and not having any success either. I sure hope someone figures it out before you and I both “go over the deep end”!
The powered assembly of peacock herl into a dubbing brush requires securing the peacock herl strand at both ends along with the thread/wire.
Think outside of the horizontal Turbo Dubbing Twister,think how you would do it on the fly hook in your vise with a manual dubbing twister.
A fixed cup hook with herl secured by the wire, opposite end with clamp attached to battery powered drill (low speed) clamp both the herl and wire,now bring the wire back to the strarting point (cup hook) wrap it arround the cup hook to secure…power up the twister and you have a quick dubbing brush with peacock herl & wire.
You can construct this either horizontally or vertically, no base required to hold the dubbing as in the turbo dubbing twister.
Sorry to bring up such an old thread, but I just built my dubbing twister this past weekend. I have made a couple of dubbing brushes using 32 ga copper wire. They look too big for anything smaller than about a size 14 hook. I am wondering what you guys use on hooks smaller than that. Can I get size 32 wire to wo rk down as small as a size 18 hook? Thanks for any help or suggestions that you can suppy me. By the way, I built my twister using a small crank assembly rather than a round knob. It works wonderfully. Jim Harper
Just a comment about energizing the dubbing twister. I don’tknow if I’dconsider it a suggestion because I haven’t tried it so I guess it’s more of a ‘why don’t you try this and see if it works’. The dollar store near me, name is ‘Dollar Tree Store’ usually sells a plastic hand held turbo fan. It’s small and I think it takes 2 AA batteries. Anyway, it’s probably no big feat to remove the head and put in some type of hooking devise. Then all you’d have to do is mount it to the end of the dubbing base or hold it as it spins. Not sure what the spin speed is but it’s nowhere near as fast as a drill and probably easy to control. It would be cheap to experiment with something like this. Cost is just $1. Just a thought.
Does anyone have a copy of Jim Smiths dubbing twister Article or a picture they could post. I have used herl brshes before and loved them but I did not see the article. I am interested in building one. From what you have been saying it sounds like a great idea.
Well, I got the magazine and am now rounding up the parts. The little hardware is no problem. Bearings however only come in a pack of 16 at the stores here (way to many) and I cannot find the knife to dismantle and everyone looks at me like I am a knob when I ask for one of them :? .
From those of you who have made one, what is the inside diameter of the bearing in either mm or inches such that the knife fits. I have one more spot that I can check for it, if they don’t have it, off to plan B.
Plan B:
I may just have to order the bearing off Ebay (they are 8mm inside diameter and I can but 1 at a time) and then just make a knob and axle out of some oak, probably less trouble 8) .
Dwight
ps> 1/2 the fun is in the gathering and assembly, good thing I already have the wood, now should it be oak or Bird’s eye maple…
Ever since you started asking about it, I have been trying to figure it out and not having any success either. I sure hope someone figures it out before you and I both “go over the deep end”!