Comments on: Twin Twisting Machines

By: EclecticGuy

EclecticGuy — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:53:09 +0000

I forgot to mention the wire trick yesterday – I was on my way out the door to camp with my Boy Scout troop.

By: CM_Stewart

CM_Stewart — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:00:43 +0000

Now THAT is the trick. I don’t have music wire, but I’m sure a needle held in my fly tying vise would do. Thank you EclecticGuy!

By: EclecticGuy

EclecticGuy — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:43:22 +0000

I use a 4″ long piece of .02″ diameter music wire and wrap similar to a nail knot. Once the loop is positioned and the snood knot wrapped, I start to cinch the whipping and when it is snug, remove the wire and snug the wrap up all the way. I hold the wire in my left hand with the snood and loop and wrap with my right hand using a fly tying bobbin with silk thread – a very short bobbin that I made by cutting down a longer one.

By: CM_Stewart

CM_Stewart — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:04:47 +0000

I don’t think that’s the trick, the trick, which I haven’t learned yet, is how do you hold the snood when trying to wrap the thread. It’s too flexible (4 hairs) and doesn’t seem to me to be at all like a rod blank, which is rigid and sitting in a jig. When I put any tension on thread the snood just bends and the thread slips. Do you hold the knot in one hand and wrap with the other or do you have a jig?

By: EclecticGuy

EclecticGuy — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 12:13:11 +0000

Thanks CM_Stewart. Yes, these make snoods and I do whip the knots with silk thread.

The whipping technique for attaching guides to a rod blank is the same as whipping with silk. The “trick” is to use a short piece of thread, make a loop in it, lay it along the snood and wrap over that. Then put the end of the wrapping silk through the loop and pull the loop out – which pulls the thread end underneath your wraps. It takes a few seconds.

By: CM_Stewart

CM_Stewart — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:46:15 +0000

Beautiful (as always).

Since the engines make snoods that must be knotted together to produce a line, do you whip the knots with silk thread? I find that task to be much harder and more time consuming than twisting the line (and with one of these engines, the twisting would be a breeze). Have you ever run across a jig that would hold and turn the line (similar to a jig for holding and turning a rod blank when wrapping the silk on the guides)?