Tight ass Dubbing Brush Twister
Ok, so this is nothing really new, it’s a dubbing brush twister aka dubbing brush machine- whatever. It makes dubbing brushes. This particular one is ugly, fairly primitive, has no distinctive little brass goo-gaws and you will probably hide it behind all the brand name stuff on the fly tying bench. Will you care if you spill your beer on it or your retriever chews a corner of it off in the back of your pickup on a weekend outing- no. Why? Because it only cost you 15 bucks and an hour to make it.
After poking around the web looking at all the dubbing twisters floating around out there I finally decided when I had a minute or two I’d try to make one. These days that means mid to late winter. After a bit of rummaging around ACE and True Value and the drawers and cans in my shed I finally assembled enough stuff to fill a wheel barrel. It turns out I only needed about 1/100th of the stuff that I actually started out with. Here’s the parts list.
Dubbing brush twister parts
From the hardware store:
1 coaster (wheel is 2 inch I think)with removable axle
1 tension pin (about 3 inch) to replace the coaster axle
1 cup hanger screw
8 very small plastic o-rings to fit on nails or screws to hold wire ends
5 minute epoxy (if you don’t have any)
From the shed, garage etc:
a piece of 2×4 about 12 inches
a piece of 1/2×4 about 17 inches
Small screws to screw down coaster
Small screws for wire tension mounts
Nails
Tools (in a perfect world): table saw, router, chop saw, battery powered screw gun).
What I used: an old chop saw (blade wore out from last summer), router, battery powered screw gun, and hammer.
Remove axle and pound in tension pin
I started out by removing the axle out of the coaster and pounding in the tension pin. I figured out where the coaster, the dubbing block and tension pegs should mount and marked it on the 1/2×4.
Coaster with hook glued in place
Then I mixed up a bit of 5 minute epoxy and glued on the cup holder hook.
While that was setting up I mounted the dubbing block with sheet rock screws and mounted the tension pegs and wire holder.
When the hook was set up good I mounted the coaster and that was pretty much it. Granted this is pretty much the test model. I’m sure I will want to play with the width and depth of the grooves and possibly make some kind of table that can be removed so that once you have a few twists on the wire you can pull it out so you don’t bind up longer dubbing material. Maybe just not screwing down the 2×4 would do the trick. KISS. Keep it simple stupid!
Finished dubbing brush twister
It was really pretty painless even for me, Primitive Pete. Remember Primitive Pete from wood shop class in high school?
Primitive Pete
Bob Villa I’m not. But, if you’re like the greater share of us that just got a** raped by wall street and the rest of the scam artists and can’t afford the Gucci gear these days, here’s some recession relief to get your dubbing twisting done on the cheap.
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I think anything that can save me some cash and tie great flies is a good post. I might have to make one of these up!
If you are into dubbing loops and brushes it’s a cheap way to get it done.
Great idea and very simple, thanks.