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mmayo

Fly Tying Station or Bench

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A friend asked me to build a fly tying bench for him. He has been quite taken with fly fishing, enough to buy a second home in Utah very close to great trout fishing areas. He gave me a box of assorted fly tying equipment and the maximum dimensions his work area would permit. The work below is primarily made of a single piece of African mahagony with supporting pieces and spindles made from ebonized hard maple.

 

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Yes, I finished the bottom too. It is a bit sad it may never be seen...

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Let me know what you think of it.

 

[email protected] (2nd letter is a lower case L)

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Nice work. But I have a similar workplace so I have a few points or questions:

1. I think I would find the work space between the arms cramped, but what matters is what your friend thinks.

2. I'm guessing one of the items standing on the left is a bodkin (tool with a long needle point). I learned a long time ago not to store a bodkin (or an exacto knife) with the point up. We aren't always careful when we reach for a tool. It only took me one time of impaling my hand on a bodkin to get the point.

3. Where will he put his vise? Does he have a pedestal vise? If not he may still be able to use a clamp vise depending on how tall the rubber feet are. I used similar feet on mine, and I can put one jaw of the vise clamp under the board.

 

I see this is your first post. We'd like to hear some more about you. How about going to the "Introduce yourself" forum and telling us all your secrets... where you are in the world, what have you tied? What do you fish for and where, etc...

 

and welcome to our gang anyway!

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standing on the right... not left (the bodkin). If it is, I'd suggest drilling a fine hole in the bottom of the existing handle hole, and inserting the bodkin needle point down.

 

cheers!

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standing on the right... not left (the bodkin). If it is, I'd suggest drilling a fine hole in the bottom of the existing handle hole, and inserting the bodkin needle point down.

 

cheers!

 

There is a BODKIN, but it's point down. I think you're seeing a BOBBIN THREADER. It's bendable wire to thread the tread through a bobbin tube lol.

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By George, you're right! I never noticed that little pointy thing hanging down below the arm till I enlarged it. I could see the threader but couldn't make out what the other two were.

 

When I stabbed myself, I wasn't even reaching for the bodkin.... was reaching for the scissors a bit carelessly. Looks like our Mr. Mayo anticipated the problem.

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To the left of the bodkin is the whip finisher. The wire of the whip finisher is almost completely "edge on" to the camera angle in all but the first picture.

That is some beautiful wood, mmayo, and a nicely finished tying station.

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Yes, the needle end is DOWN for protection.

 

I delivered this to the new proud owner and he was very happy. After looking around this forum I see that entire rooms are devoted to fly tying with roll top desks used as their bench. I made this as a favor to a friend and HE is happy and that makes me happy. He has an area only so big that he willing to devote to tying and this bench is exactly that size. Fred does want another one and it may well have different dimensions and will surely want changes or use different fly tying gadgets.

 

See the attachment to see what I usually make - long range tackle boxes!

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post-56929-0-76588000-1440134124_thumb.jpg

post-56929-0-80257700-1440134186_thumb.jpg

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Mayo.... there's something to be said for the kind of station you built vs a big roll top desk type.... it's more or less portable. I have a dedicated work bench for my hobbies (fly tying and digitizing analog recordings like LPs). But I have a small work station similar to yours that I can pick up and bring into the family room when a good TV show is on, or watch a movie from my recliner. I can put it on a TV tray right in front of me and tie right there. I can also take it to NC when I spend time up there (2 or 3 months at a time).

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Nice work.I love the African mahagony.Where did you find the wood for this?

African mahogany is readily available in Southern California. I shop primarily at Austin Hardwoods and Hardware plus Tropical Exotic Woods. If you like or love wood it is like Mecca to visit either one.

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When I was in college, I worked at a warehouse that distributed stuff to stores for sale. A lot of stuff came from overseas (oriental) believe it or not, in crates made of mahogany. With cardboard stapled on it. I managed to salvage quite a bit of usable wood out of which I made several things. You'd have to glue up several boards to make a large board, but that's more stabile anyway. All you have to do is get a job loading trucks in a warehouse :-)

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