There are plenty of platforems available for those of us who enjoy wrapping fly rods - but does anyone have plans for building one? I enjoy woodworking as well as rod building and since I don't need a motor to turn the rod as I wrap I'd like to build the contraption myself. Thanks.

Bob,

What I'd suggest is to take a look at the various commercial units available - plenty of people make them and nearly all the dealers carry one or more. Check their sites and look at the photos that depict each unit. Remember the features you think would be useful and jot those down.

In many cases, even if you make your own, there are component parts such as rollers or tension devices that could be purchased and used on a stand or jig of your own design.

I'd make sure to take a look at the rod jig offered by Fast Tackle (link to the left). I think it shows some ingenuity of design that you might find useful.

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Bob, I recently built all my own rod building tools. I used mostly scraps from my lumber bins. If you would like to e-mail me off-line at glen.raven@verizon.net I can send you some sketches and photos of what I built. They are generic enough to fit any work area. I have a fully equipped shop, but you could build them with a table saw, drill, and sabre saw. I'm probably going to build some other tools so I can turn more than one blank at a time for drying. That one is challenging my creativity right now.
Let me know how I can help.

Rick,

Consider a drum-type dryer. Picture two round wood discs, where any number of rods are fastened to the outside of the discs. Then, through the center of the discs is a long steel rod, tube or bar that is supported on each end by a stand or from the ceiling. On end end of this bar is a pulley that is attached by belt to a pulley on a motor. The motor can be mounted to one of the supports.

The length of the center bar is made long enough to allow the longest rods you envision working with to fit inbetween your supports. Obviously, the longer the center bar or tube is, the larger diameter it will have to be to prevent sagging.

These type dryers take up very little room considering the number of rods they can dry at any time. I have one that I used for repair jobs and it still hangs from my ceiling at about head height. It's out of the way, so no shop room was wasted, but was readily available when I needed it. I believe mine is set up to turn 10 rods.

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That is just what I did. I checked out all I could find. Then I made mine so it fits in my lap. Wrap while watching TV. Used three floor board pieces. Center one slides in and out for the long sections of rod. Thread carrier holds four spools of thread. I used a spring for thread tension. I also used a eight inch spring for tension to back up in case of Boo-Boo's.