Had to make something, to tie something!

So got thinking on what fly to tie next???
As no fishing for a few more days still, can u believe it - no fishing now for several weeks!!!!
This due to that I can't fish for the next four days with wife in Sydney over the weekend, thus me looking after my beautiful and adorable rug rats, then its school back next week but then its only a week today before the saltwater fly challenge starts (Sept 9th-11th) - so not that long to go till a flyline is cast in a divine purposeful act!!

And so if you can't SWOFF you might as well tie flies!

But again which fly??

To help decide what to tie - I spent most of any computer time available looking through all the screen shots I have taken of flies over the last few years. Lots of shrimp and crabs I have yet to tie.

However, there seemed to be many, and I mean many, screen shots of 3D type, fat bodied baitfish flies.
And the majority of them had dubbing brush parts.

So did some more online research - to buy a 'u beaut' store bought dubbing device was too long to wait for - AND NO MONEY (remember wife focused on building a house - go figure with so many places to fish and species to catch round Darwin - where are her priorities??????) buying dubbing brushes also didn't suit my personal philosphy of 'do it yourself'.

This underlining philosophy is based on what my grandfather (who taught me fly fishing) said -
"using someone else's flies (or in this case dubbing brushes) is like getting someone else to father your children for you - when its actually more fun to do it yourself!"

As a consequence and given my background with countless farmers and Aussie pioneers in my ancestry
- I am attuned to where you can't - you make do or make it yourself  -
so I started looking online at home made dubbing brush devices. With all that is out there in my head I proceeded to design and make one for myself

Then after lunch with my math students working 'hard' on their chapter review and test prep for next week's math test, while they sat outside the woodwork room in the early 'build up' humidity and heat (lol) - I took 20 minutes to build one out the bits and pieces in the woodwork room. Like a couple of eye bolts, some extra 1/4 inch nuts and washers, a spring out of an old busted tool, a few bits of timber cut to size from scrap timber and with Brad nails from my nail gun and 'no nails' mega-glue hold it all together - there you have it, one dubbing brush device!

First draft anyway - may change the design after 20 or so dubbing brushes are made if it proves an unsatisfactory process involved in making the brushes on this design. I think I might want it to make dubbing brushes 5-10cm longer (currently 27cm). But I am feeling confident in its success - especially after learning and taking on board all the info out there from the other tyers on the web who have built and used their own devices - who have freely shared their ups and downs etc

So this is it below with a foam pad to lay wire onto, then dubbing materials, then second strand of wire, then lots of twisting

I made the support pad for the brush to be able to be shifted aside - it slides out of its supports on the base - so once moved out of the way after a couple of twists, the fibres can spin freely once the twisting starts

Below is the drive end, where the battery drill will be attached to fully twist the wires together thus creating the brush. see the couple of locked nuts to hold the bolt in place so it doesn't slide back and forth. The height of it should match the height of the battery drill when attached. regardless, I tried to made the base heavy enough, so it is more stable but might need to a more purposeful support for the battery drill at a later stage.

This is the other end. I placed a couple of bits of timber beside the eye bolt to stop it twisting. There is also a spring to assist in bolt movement as wire shortens and maintain tension on the wires, when it is twisted to form the dubbing brush

Will update you soon, how I go making some brushes over the weekend.