The first and most important part I had to take care of was a motor. I needed something with a very slow spinning rate. Most commercial fly turners spin between 3-7 RPM, so I wanted something that fit in to that range. I found a few inexpensive motors that I would have had to wire myself, but I chose the easy route by purchasing a disco ball motor that was already wired with an AC plug. Not only was it already wired, but it came in a housing that had holes for mounting. I was able to get the motor for $15.99 shipped.
To mount the motor, I found a scrap peice of 1x4 about 10 inches long in the garage. I used a metal shelf mounting angle ($1.79) as a vertical support from the base to the motor. This allowed me to mount the motor with the spinning shaft aligned horizontally.
The last step was making a wheel to connect the flies to while they spun. I purchased a wooden circle from a craft store for fifty cents. However, I had to find a way to make the spinning shaft more apt to connect to the wheel. To do this I used a brad hole T-nut. First, I marked the alignment of the holes on the center of my wooden wheel. I then coated the spinning shaft in epoxy and slid the T-nut over it and let it set. I drilled out holes where I marked the wooden wheel. Instead of searching for micro sized bolts that would fit through the brad holes on the T-nut I came up with the idea to feed nails into the holes and cap them on the other side of the wheel with a foam block. This makes it very easy to remove the wheel when necessary, but is still sturdy enough to keep the wheel in place while the flies are turning. To complete the wooden wheel and make it seat flies, I used a strip of mounting tape around the edge to connect a strip of 1/4 inch thick foam ($1.19/sheet).
Overall I spent under $20 to build a very functional tool, saving me at least $50. Here is a short video clip of the turner:
Where did you find the motor?
ReplyDeleteI found it on eBay by searching for disco ball motors.
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