Watched a neat demo at the FFF Southern Council Conclave, welding fly
lines. Okay, you slice the fly line about an inch down to the core.
Put 3" of shrink tube (1/8") on the line, turn the line back on
itself, push inside the shrink tube. Now you should have a small loop
of line sticking out of the shrink tube.
Take a low temp (up to 500F) heat gun and put the aluminum cone from a
cookie press/icing bag over the end. You should end up with a 1/2"
hole coming out of the funnel. This will serve to focus the heat.
Shrink the tube evenly, leaving one end "unshrunk." The shrink tube
will protect the line cover from going all over the place when it
melts. The line will fuse to itself while the tube shrinks. Cut
shrink tube off and you have an loop to loop your leader to.
Alternately, you can make sink tips that will loop directly onto your
fly line. Also, you can cut off the end of an old line and turn it
into a sink tip by welding a sinking line onto it.
Frank Reid