Fly Tying Bobbin - DIY Style

This version comes nothing close to those you buy from tackle shops, it fact it does not even look the same. It is because I come across Shout Bobbin knoter that inspire this simple and cheap design, totally different from those you get from fly tackles manufacturers.

In fact I am not keen to invest on a proper one is because I don't really need to tie beautiful flies, I make those easy to make flies for spin cast only. Because of the cheap cost of those DIY flies, I can afford to cast them to those high risk area, and the loss are pretty high. Furthermore, the last time I enquire, a Taiwan made reasonable good bobbin cost in excess of SGD30, too expensive for me to buy and experiment, I have better use for the money.

The items I used are whatever I have in my house, spend just some time to think thru the design and quickly assemble them, spend less then half an hour to make this, and a while later for the 5 minute epoxy to dry. Cost me close to nothing, if you are missing an item, just search around your house for something similar and use a bit of imagination.



First up, these are the materials.
Short piece of Steel Band - 1
Small Drinking straw (Yakult ) - 1
Cut Balloon holder stem - 1
Cut Balloon stick -2
Long Screw - 1
Various Washers - 4
Sewing Machine Bobbin - 1

I needed the Balloon holder stem and stick to reduce the diameter of the hole in the steel band to holder the straw.
The yakult straw is the smallest straw I have and is closest to the diameter of a commercially available bobbin.
I needed an extra length of balloon stick to be inserted between the screw and sewing machine bobbin to reduce the free play.

Use plier to make a 90 degrees bend, the position of the single hole should sit directly in the middle of the bobbin after assembly. So a bit of trial and error needed.

This is how the the balloon stem, stick and straw line up in my case. Remember all these is because I need to reduce the diameter of the hole in the steel band so that the straw can fit without too much free play.

This is how I line up the items for assembly, however in this pic I forgot to include the short length of balloon stick to be insert between the screw and the bobbin. Due to a vast difference in diameter of screw and bobbin, without the balloon stick, there is just too much free play.

This is how the finished product looks like, I use 5 minute epoxy to hold the balloon stem, stick and straw assembly firmly together.
How much tension I want I can adjust the screw.
I also adjusted the length of the steel band cause my bobbin is narrow, should you use a wider one, increase the distance.





Viola, a quick and simple DIY bobbin. I can make it look better by painting the steel band and have some better looking and more fitting screws. But no matter, the important thing is that it works as it is intended to.