Recommendations for a GOOD tube fly vise

Ah. Well with metal tubes I see how you
would need a flared liner. Perhaps there is
some polyethelene tubing out there somewhere,
in rolls. That does melt and flare.

I haven't done it yet myself, but I don't see any reason
you couldn't tie giant tube flies on Teflon. Might want
to move up to 16 guage. The key to using
it is to rough up the outside with sandpaper.
Then you can slip it onto a needle, pinch
the whole works horizontally in any vise,
and then cover the tubing with a foundation
of thread wraps soaked in CA glue.

At that point you can tie anything you want
on it. And it could easily be 6" long.
Does metal have to be part of the design?

For long tube flies tied without metal tubing
(Teflon or polyethelene only) you would have
to get fatter tubing, 14 or 16 guage perhaps, and then
use a long 'soft sculpture' needle as the mandrel.
I buy those at sewing stores for making my own bodkin needles.

On 3 Jan 2006 03:14:26 -0800, wrote:

Ah. Well with metal tubes I see how you
would need a flared liner. Perhaps there is
some polyethelene tubing out there somewhere,
in rolls. That does melt and flare.

I haven't done it yet myself, but I don't see any reason
you couldn't tie giant tube flies on Teflon. Might want
to move up to 16 guage. The key to using
it is to rough up the outside with sandpaper.
Then you can slip it onto a needle, pinch
the whole works horizontally in any vise,
and then cover the tubing with a foundation
of thread wraps soaked in CA glue.

At that point you can tie anything you want
on it. And it could easily be 6" long.
Does metal have to be part of the design?


Yup, the weight. That purple fly is tied on brass, copper, or
aluminum to get different sink rates out of the same fly pattern. The
pushrod tube works fine for larger flies on plastic tubing as it's
stiff, flares well (to prevent material slippage) and accepts material
without preparation. It also stays put well on my homemade mandrel,
just not the factory one.But since I tie mostly metal tubes now, I
need a better vise for them -- the spinning is getting on my nerves.

Currently I'm using plastic shafts from cheap cotton swabs as liners
for my 1/8" O.D. tubing and they work fine but I need something to fit
3/32" O.D. tube, that's another problem. I don't want to tie
everything on 1/8".



Peter

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Sandy asked:
Does metal have to be part of the design?



Peter replied:
Yup, the weight. That purple fly is tied on brass, copper, or

I make weighted tube flies, on plastic tubes only, with
no metal tube involved, by using lead barbell eyes
as part of the fly. You get those as heavy as you want.
If you need real weight, just wrap the tube with lead wire,
then soak with CA glue.

G.E.M. Sandy wrote:
Sandy asked:
Does metal have to be part of the design?



Peter replied:
Yup, the weight. That purple fly is tied on brass, copper, or

I make weighted tube flies, on plastic tubes only, with
no metal tube involved, by using lead barbell eyes
as part of the fly. You get those as heavy as you want.
If you need real weight, just wrap the tube with lead wire,
then soak with CA glue.

Yup, do that for warmwater ties but I don't do it for steelhead flies.
It's strictly an aesthetic thing. There's some debate amongst tube
chuckers as to whether plastic or plastic plus weight is superior to
copper etc. I do know that the same fly tied on plastic or aluminum,
used on the same sinktip, won't get down nearly as far as one down on
copper. Others claim a different experience. However, I've stood on a
rock and cast 10' of T1-4 plus the plastic/aluminum into a run and it
never touched bottom once. Replaced with copper and it was bounce,
bounce, bounce. I'm sure plastic plus big lead eyes would do the
same, however, a slim fly tied on copper really cuts through the water
column fast..

Try these;


http://www.graysofkilsyth.com/needle-flies.htm

The Renzetti tube fly vice head is a bit useless. I built my own.
Using an engineers pin vice, a one way roller bearing, ( to allow
rotary tying),and some stainless steel. I use the appropriately sized
needles for mounting.

Mine looks like this;
http://www.carrilon.com/fly-fishing/...ttachment.html

This works very well, but does not allow rotary tying;
http://www.kman.com/Tubefly.htm

This one works, ( scroll down);
http://www.snowbee.co.uk/access2.htm

Both of these work well, ( Scroll down);
http://www.fishingmegastore.com/acat...cessories.html

TL
MC

On 3 Jan 2006 16:10:46 -0800, wrote:

Try these;


http://www.graysofkilsyth.com/needle-flies.htm

The Renzetti tube fly vice head is a bit useless. I built my own.
Using an engineers pin vice, a one way roller bearing, ( to allow
rotary tying),and some stainless steel. I use the appropriately sized
needles for mounting.

Mine looks like this;
http://www.carrilon.com/fly-fishing/...ttachment.html

This works very well, but does not allow rotary tying;
http://www.kman.com/Tubefly.htm

This one works, ( scroll down);
http://www.snowbee.co.uk/access2.htm

Both of these work well, ( Scroll down);
http://www.fishingmegastore.com/acat...cessories.html

TL
MC


Thank you Mike, the Snowbee sounds about right. The anti-reverse cone
head caught my attention immediately as the reverse problem has been
biting me pretty bad. Reverse wrap some ribbing and the damn Renzetti
unwinds!

As I already own a Snowbee 15 footer, I know what a quality product
they turn out.

Peter

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Peter Charles schrieb:

On 3 Jan 2006 16:10:46 -0800, wrote:

Try these;


http://www.graysofkilsyth.com/needle-flies.htm

The Renzetti tube fly vice head is a bit useless. I built my own.
Using an engineers pin vice, a one way roller bearing, ( to allow
rotary tying),and some stainless steel. I use the appropriately sized
needles for mounting.

Mine looks like this;
http://www.carrilon.com/fly-fishing/...ttachment.html

This works very well, but does not allow rotary tying;
http://www.kman.com/Tubefly.htm

This one works, ( scroll down);
http://www.snowbee.co.uk/access2.htm

Both of these work well, ( Scroll down);
http://www.fishingmegastore.com/acat...cessories.html

TL
MC


Thank you Mike, the Snowbee sounds about right. The anti-reverse cone
head caught my attention immediately as the reverse problem has been
biting me pretty bad. Reverse wrap some ribbing and the damn Renzetti
unwinds!

As I already own a Snowbee 15 footer, I know what a quality product
they turn out.

Peter

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I bought the Renzetti tube head a long time ago now, and was very
disappointed in it. Not only does it not hold the tubes, but the longer
tubes wobble about because the mandrels are too flexible. This can
drive you nuts.

There are some mods available, but they strike me as being poor
stopgaps.

Try the needle flies, you will be pleasantly surprised. One may also
use lengths of stainless steel welding wire in various diameters, to
suit any situation, and this is cheaper than using needles of course.

I have not used the snowbee vice myself, but a friend has one, and
likes it, and I trust his judgement.

TL
MC

Here is a pic of one I built. The construction shouls be obvious, is
easy to do, and quick.

http://img281.imageshack.us/img281/9855/pict00025zr.jpg

The Pin vice is mounted in a one way roller bearing, ( these are sold
at model building shops etc). The bearing is mounted in a drilled and
machined stainless steel nut. This is a good fit, and a smear of epoxy
is added to the outside of the bearing before mounting. One does not
have to machine the nut at all, ( as you can see, I turned the
hexagonal nut round here), but the bearing must of course fit
accurately, so precise drilling is required.

The other end of the pin vice is screw-cut to accept the stainless
steel dome nut, which is drilled and tapped to accept the operating
lever.

The Teflon is merely a spacer.

The Nut is also drilled and tapped to acdept the vice stem.

Takes about an hour to make, even without any machines. One can add
all sorts of things, but they are not necessary.

TL
MC

On some later models, I used a longer stainless steel cylinder, instead
of a simple nut, and drilled this behind the bearing, in order to add
a small spring loaded "locking pin" which, when released, drops into a
hole in the pin vice shaft, and locks the head completely.

Over time, I tried quite a few things, but this simple design has
proved far more than adequate.

TL
MC