Walton's Engine, where furling began...

FAOL Community Fly Anglers Online
1

Hi,

I finally met Mike Hackney last weekend, and his brass repro of Walton’s engine is pretty neat:

http://www.eclecticangler.com/waltons_engine/waltons_engine.html

Not quite the same thing as furling from tools you can find/adapt at home, but pretty neat :slight_smile:

Kat

2

Kathy -

Those are pretty neat little “engines” ( “The little engine that could” comes to mind ). But at $200, I think I’ll keep looking for components to build my own.

They seem to work on the same principle as the jig I’ve been using, except for the third hook which permits reversing the direction of twist ( for mechanical furling ) without reversing the direction of cranking. I’ve been thinking about building my new jig incorporating a third hook for that purpose, but hadn’t thought of the approach used in the Walton’s Engine. Need to rethink the design, although I do think it is a bit more complicated than the design I have at this point.

Thanks for posting the link.

John

3

Kathy,

Darrel Martin let me use his Walton’s Engine to furl some snoods for horse hair leaders, then showed me how to do the same thing by hand. Doing them by hand yields the same results, but not as uniform as when using the Walton’s Engine.

Thanks for posting that link. I’ve been looking for a place to buy one.

REE

Oh My!! I just looked at the hand made brass reels as well. Wouldn’t that look sweet on a dark flamed 4 wgt bamboo rod. Oh, I happen to have just such a rod. Hmmmmm.

4

Thanks for the link Kathy. It was great meeting you too and I look forward to coming up to Maine for the SuperBoo!

Darrel Martin bought one of my engines this summer. There are photos of it and others I’ve made on my photo site: http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/f237558691

I’ve made 10 of them now plus my personal engine. They really are a labor of love. Here is a blog post I made on how I construct these: http://eclecticguy.com/2009/07/26/waltons-twisting-engine-a-labor-of-love/

I’ve been asked to write an article for a machining magazine on how to build these but I have a book to complete first!

cheers,
Michael
aka EclecticGuy

5

That looks almost like the tool my dad used to use to make rope, only his was biger than that… Where do you know Paul from ? He lives about a 15 minute drive from me… Weve visited with one another a few times exchanging ideas and whathaveya…

6

John, I just reread your post and wanted to clarify something. All 3 hooks rotate in the same direction. The Walton’s Engine was meant to furl 3 strands of horse hair. I make 3 strand furled leaders with mine as well as horse hair line.

cheers,
Michael
aka EclecticGuy

7

Michael -

Having seen the internal parts and schematic, I picked up on that.

Thanks for the second link - I found the comments on smallparts.com which looks like it has the components I’ve been looking for.

John

8

John,

I’ve used the machine Michael made for Darrel Martin for making horsehair snoods. What a work of art. Fine craftsmanship all around. Turns smooth as silk. No jerks, bumps or slack. Gotta get me one of them.

REE