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Making A Fly Tying Bench
Fritz made his own fly tying
bench, saving money.
By by Fritz Nordengren
I'm tying some flies and learning the basics.
I've found that I really would like to have one of those
fly tying benches -- the ones with the work area and a
place for your tools and your spools of thread. Cabelas
has one for $80. Orvis has them from $150 - $300. But
I've learned from the web, a way to make one for under
20 bucks.
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| What do you do with all
the fly tying stuff you need to "roll your own"
flies? |
First off, the problem. Fly tying has a lot of "stuff".
I have feathers, hair, hackle, beads, and hooks, ranging
from big to almost microscopic to my 43 year old eyes.
And I can keep this stuff in a box, on a shelf, but when
I start tying, the "stuff" goes everywhere, my tools get
hidden and nothing is where I want it to be.
So I started looking in catalogs and web sites for a fly
tying bench. They aren't really benches as much as they
are small workspaces that rest on a table or desk.
For example, Oasis (www.oasisbenches.com) makes a nice
selection and variety of sizes of benches. With most
benches priced at $100 - $350, I wasn't sure I was ready
to invest at that level for my first year of trying.
But the solution came from a number of web sites and
posts on fishing forums, which I modified to come up
with my own solution. And I'll share it here with you.
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| A maple carving board
set of three boards, some dowels and magnetic
strips are all that is required |
I was walking though my local * Mart store when I found
a Maple Carving board set -- 3 different sized carving
boards for $9.99 That's when I developed my plan and set
out to build. At the same store, in the craft aisle, I
bought a 1/4" x 36" dowell and a 7/16" x 36"dowell for
less than $1 each and then some 1/2" magnet strip for
about $2.00.
The exact measurements of the board are not important,
however, the larger board measures 17 3/4" x 11 1/2".
The two smaller boards measure 9" x 11 1/2" and 6 3/4" x
8 3/4". In my design, I wanted space to mount my tying
vice, and space for tools or various sizes, and some
recessed cups for holding things.
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Here are the boards cut and dowels
inserted for a dry fit, ready to
assemble and glue in place. |
I also wanted pegs to hold spools of thread. To
do all this, the first thing I did was saw the
two smaller cutting boards in half length wise.
The longer of the boards would become the left
and right bench arms, and the smaller would
become the thread rack and the small
compartments.
After cutting the boards, I sanded the cut edges
smooth and the laid out each board in the
properr place on the large cutting board. All
three of these boards have blood groove to catch
the juices while slicing. I left that groove up
on the large board and down on the smaller ones
, but its a matter of choice and style. |
Once I had my placement, I clamped the boards with
simple c -clamps and then drilled the holes for the
dowells. A drill press would make this a snap, but I had
no trouble drilling straight holes with a handheld
drill.
Then came the dry fit. The thread dowels are 3 inches,
the supporting 7/16" dowels are 4 inches and 6 inches.
Once I was happy with the fit, I used 5 minute epoxy to
glue up the bench. You could use Gorilla Glue, Wood
Glue, or any other craft glue for wood I suppose.
The finished bench. I added two strips of magnet, one to
each arm, to hold hooks in place before putting them in
the vice. The holes drilled through the lower shelf in
the rear rest ont he base board, creating a compartment
for glue, a spool of lead wire, or anything else. I left
the bench arm (left) flat and it holds a fly box with
foar to let the fies dry if needed. Finally, the tob
back shelf holds 24 spools of thread.
The blood groove on the base should slow down the amount
of things that get dropped to the floor, and make a good
place to rest an X-acto knife. The arms are set slightly
forward, which also means there is room in the back to
drill or clamp an extension arm lamp or magnifier.
I think you are only limited by your imagination in
these designs. This could easly to refitted to be a rod
building bench or a reloading bench. It might even work
for a pouring area for home poured jigs.
Good luck, if you make one, post pictures of your ideas
to the forum so we can all enjoy your work.
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