# home made fly reel



## 615groundpounder

I just finished up building a fly reel from scratch.  A former machinist and now more tinkerer.  This is now my second build.  I learned alot from the first.  This one is an all aluminum reel with an open bore design that I came up with.  The spool actually rides on 2 o-rings.  It is sized for a 3 to 4 weight rod and weighs in at 4.93 oz.  For the light weight a fancy drag wasn't necessary so I designed a click pawl drag for it.
Here are a few pictures.


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## cpowel10

Wow that looks great!


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## AL trout bum

Now that is cool. Very nice looking reel! I imagine people asking you on the water what kind of reel you are using and you replying, "Mine." Very cool.


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## Nicodemus

Man, that looks nice!


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## Paymaster

That is one sweet looking reel! You done good!


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## yaknfish

Looks great! How about calling it "one-off" or "custom", instead of "homemade?" When I saw "homemade", I was expecting something wittled out of wood.


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## 615groundpounder

yaknfish said:


> Looks great! How about calling it "one-off" or "custom", instead of "homemade?" When I saw "homemade", I was expecting something wittled out of wood.



I know this was tongue and cheek and I see your point, but...
When I see the term "custom" associated with some type of gear you usually see a standard run item simply decorated up.


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## spaz1

Very nice looking!!


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## seeker

Truly a work of art.  I love it.


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## Cliff Speed

That's pretty impressive! It only makes me think of about 100 questions I want to ask you about the preparation and tools involved in making this thing. LOL. I guess you must own, or have access to a lot of machining equipment then? Because I can't imagine this is the kind of thing the average person can just attempt, like rod building or something, correct? How did you acquire the information or specs to know the appropriate size to make this reel for a 3 or 4 weight line? And have you fished it yet? I believe I recall seeing a thread on NGTO with the first one you built, if I'm not mistaken.


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## 615groundpounder

Cliff Speed said:


> That's pretty impressive! It only makes me think of about 100 questions I want to ask you about the preparation and tools involved in making this thing. LOL. I guess you must own, or have access to a lot of machining equipment then? Because I can't imagine this is the kind of thing the average person can just attempt, like rod building or something, correct? How did you acquire the information or specs to know the appropriate size to make this reel for a 3 or 4 weight line? And have you fished it yet? I believe I recall seeing a thread on NGTO with the first one you built, if I'm not mistaken.


I went to work for a small machine shop my senior year in High School.  Worked there for around 7 years where I acquired my machining skills.  I still have access to some machine shops but not my own.  For this build a lathe, a mill, and a rotary table were all highly used.  There was a good bit of hand work with filing and such too but you could not really do it without a mill and lathe.  As far as sizing the reel I just looked at some of my other bought reels and approximated sizes.  I did not take any strict  measurements off of any other reels as far as copying.  I did get the idea of using o-rings for the spool to ride on by looking at a reel making forum where someone else had tried it.  I have never seen an open bore reel and thought out how to accomplish it.  I did make a practice tube and nut just to make sure I could get a good fit before trying it on the real thing.  
And yes, I did post the first reel that I made on NGTO.  It is functional and pretty but it has its quirks.  Its main frame was made out of a couple of used large brass thrust washers.
Here are a couple of pics of it.








And in use.




I am glad that you all like it.  I definitely have fun with the creativity of rod and reel building


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## T-N-T

615groundpounder said:


> I know this was tongue and cheek and I see your point, but...
> When I see the term "custom" associated with some type of gear you usually see a standard run item simply decorated up.



I like "hand made"  And, nice.  I mean really, NICE!  I really love building things myself that look good, function well and get the attention of others.  Priceless.  Keep it up!


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## Cliff Speed

By quirks do you mean it has some functional problems, or do you mean it is quirky in appearance? It's pretty cool that you are making reels. There are a lot of people who build their own rods, but you don't hear about many making their own reels. Do you build rods too? Although it seems intimidating I think I'd like to try that sometime as well, like a graphite or fiberglass. Making a bamboo rod sounds really difficult but fun, and it's probably the only way I could ever afford one. LOL. I don't know that I'd ever actually try to make a bamboo rod though.


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## 615groundpounder

Cliff Speed said:


> By quirks do you mean it has some functional problems, or do you mean it is quirky in appearance? It's pretty cool that you are making reels. There are a lot of people who build their own rods, but you don't hear about many making their own reels. Do you build rods too? Although it seems intimidating I think I'd like to try that sometime as well, like a graphite or fiberglass. Making a bamboo rod sounds really difficult but fun, and it's probably the only way I could ever afford one. LOL. I don't know that I'd ever actually try to make a bamboo rod though.



With my first reel, it has quirks in its workings.  I love the appearance.  The spool is smaller than the frame so with the handle on such a small diameter its a little awkward to reel.  Also there is a gap large enough for the fly line to flip over the spool and into the frame if you are not careful while reeling it in.  Other than these two things everything functions properly with it.  With my design with this latest reel I should not have either of these problems.
And yes I have built some rods too.  I have built 4 flyrods so far.  A 10' 4 wt, 10'5 wt, 7'9" 3 wt, and a 9'6" 7 wt.  
Here is the 10' 5wt with some feather work.








And here is the 9'6" 7wt with carbon fiber grip and reverse chevron thread pattern.


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## AL trout bum

Functional art my friend!


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## Cliff Speed

Those are great. I think I like the look of the 7 weight best though - kind of futuristic looking or something.  I think if I ever try it, I might like to build myself a shorter, 3 wt small stream rod like the one you mentioned building, but I'll have to do my research because right now I haven't a clue how it's done. LOL. Seems like a challenging but fun activity though.


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## bluemarlin

Very Impressive.


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## 615groundpounder

Cliff Speed said:


> Those are great. I think I like the look of the 7 weight best though - kind of futuristic looking or something.  I think if I ever try it, I might like to build myself a shorter, 3 wt small stream rod like the one you mentioned building, but I'll have to do my research because right now I haven't a clue how it's done. LOL. Seems like a challenging but fun activity though.



There are several companies that sell kits.  A kit would be the way to go for a first build.  Most include everything you need except for the glues.  Then they make kits for the glues for everything that you need with them.  Hook and Hackle (hookhackle.com), John Stockard flyfishing (jsflyfishing.com), or Mudhole.com are just three of some very good companies to do business with.  Most come with some simple instructions.  But youtube is your friend.  Look up some "how to" along with rod building on youtube and there are some great video instructions out there.  If you are a decent fly tier you can build a rod.  The first rod I ever built was the John Stockard 7'9" 3 wt kit.  Not very expensive and a good one to learn the how to's with.  Before you finish the first one you will be planning your next!


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## Cliff Speed

I'm actually inexperienced at fly tying - I've only tied the simplest of things like San Juans and Woolly Buggers - but I am mechanically inclined, good working with my hands and I'm artistic, so maybe I won't have too much trouble. If I were to buy a kit, it would be toward the end of the year - I just got a new fly rod outfit over the holidays. But I will look into all that stuff you mentioned. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I'd love to hear how that new reel works for you, if you haven't gotten on the water with it yet. I hope it does great.


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## T-N-T

The john stockard rod you mention, is this going to of acceptable quality to fish with?  Assuming its put together properly of coarse.  I Really have a thing for the do-it-yourself things in life.  I live in the sticks and have lots of time on my hands.  So, building things is kind of a hobby.


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## 615groundpounder

TopherAndTick said:


> The john stockard rod you mention, is this going to of acceptable quality to fish with?  Assuming its put together properly of coarse.  I Really have a thing for the do-it-yourself things in life.  I live in the sticks and have lots of time on my hands.  So, building things is kind of a hobby.



The first one I built was with the Rainshadow blank.  Rainshadow and Forecast blanks are both very popular and well known blanks that have been around for quite a while.  Nothing wrong with their quality at all.  They are on the cheaper end cost wise for blanks but their quality is fine.  The XI blanks that Hook and Hackle have are also nice blanks for the price.  But you can spend as little or as much as you want with rod building.  I have done both  I will say patience and don't rush any step with rod building.  Again, watch some youtube videos on it and you will see how easy it can be.


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## FROGSLAYER

Very nice! I love that feather work and the colors of that rod too!


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## dtala

I passed on looking in here first time because I figgered it was some kind of tin can, line wrapped, home made thingy.

Dang it, that is a work of art. Thanks for posting.

  troy


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## SmokyMtnSmoke

GP, that is some really nice craftsmanship. Wish I had those mad machinist skills. It has characteristics of the Teton Tioga reels, of which I have a few ::ke

I've built several rods on those Forecast blanks. My fav is a 8' 4wt 4pc that is my go to Smokys rod. It's not pretty but the trout don't seem to mind.


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## Georgia Hard Hunter

WOW!!! Mad Skills!!!!


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## jigman29

I work in a machine shop and i can only imagine the amount of time that went into that.You did a fine job for sure.


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## HamiltonWise

Thats an awesome reel! Last year I drew one out on auto cad and was in the process of designing the drag. I know how much work goes into designing it as well as machining something like that. I was unable to start my reel because I wasted my time trying to learn g-code so I could do it on CNC, but that was challenging and before I could start on a manual machine the semester was over. But yours is great and I know you spent a lot of time designing and building it. And does your latest reel not have a spindle?


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## 615groundpounder

The spindle is the tube.  The tube is one piece part of the main frame.  I pocket milled it out with a rotary head.  I then put it in the lathe and threaded the end and added the o-ring grooves for the spool to ride on.  
Here is a pic while it was still a little rough.


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## 615groundpounder

Put some fish slime on it today by means of some native Browns.


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## Willfishforfood40

What a true American craftsman and artist. What a great story of the build of the reel and rod then to top it off catch a fish with it. My hat is off to you sir.


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## bullsprig1100

Awesome reel and Brown!!!.....I love that blue spot on the gill plate. FYI, Assuming you caught that gorgeous Brown in the United States, there are no native Brown Trout. Only wild Brown trout......Native implies that they existed here always, wild means born in the stream, river or lake where they were located.


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## huntfish

That's really awesome and a true craft.   

A little company called Galvyn started the same way, building for themselves....


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## outdoorsman2020

All i can say is amazing and it looks great.


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