The Making of a Spey Reel

[Mark Shamburg]

Hey guys,

I started working on the wide drum version of my spey reel today. I thought I would share a step by step pictorial of the process.

Moderators: If this is too far off topic please let me know.


The first part to make is the cage of the reel. This is the biggest, most complex and time consuming part, so I want to get it out of the way first.

The material: 4" diameter 6061-T6 Aluminum round bar stock.



Cutting the stock to length in the horizontal band saw:



The "Puck." The weight at this point is 2.05 lbs.



The work piece chucked up in the lathe.



The first cut: facing the part.



A pretty face.



Cleaning up the OD.



Then the part gets turned around in the chuck, faced and the excess material gets hogged off the OD.



That's when my camera ran out of battery today. After that I drilled a big hole in the center of the part and used a boring bar to hog out a ton of stock from the inside of the piece.

All the work so far has just been very rough to get rid of all the excess stock. Tomorrow I'll start on the finishing steps.

Mark

[bigbadbrent]

too cool, excited to see the entire reel

[trico22]

Mark it looks sweet and thanks for sharing.

Dave

[KJK]

Really interesting to see this first hand, step by step. Most of us have seen or built rods ourselves, and flies, but a reel from bar stock I have not seen. Looking forward to see the outcome.

[BLACK FRANCIS]

awesome! can't wait to see the rest.

[Robert Meiser]

VERY COOL !!!

This will be a fun thing to watch ... Good on ya Mark and thanks for sharing.

Meiz

[dutch_m]

mark
it's nice to also see you over here on this great site , i'm sure everyone is going to enjoy your posts while you make the reel , slap a wooly handle on it when your done , i still remember seeing your first reel with that handle ,

you must of got the spey bug bad this fall , please don't tell me your out with the bamboo rods and onto bigger things ,

next fall we should hook up for a few days and swing some
''bow river''

[Jamey McLeod]

Sweet! Keep the pics coming.

[softhackles]

Very cool.

[borderfly]

That is so cool can't wait for the next steps!

Borderfly

[sinktip]

This moderator is enjoying it very much. Keep it going!

[Speyco]

Hey Mark! Glad to see you are on board here now as well. I have enjoying your others posts on ccrf for a while now. You are master builder for sure and its nice to show all the work that goes into a piece like this.
Tim
www.speyco.net

[NB Rob]

ohhh yeahh!!

I'm looking forward to following this one through. I used to work in a machine shop while I was attending college. This stuff never gets old.

Can't trust anyone that wouldn't find this interesting.

[fishin jimmy]

Years ago, I saw a local reel maker mill something like what you are doing. Keep up the good work & post more photos.

[chadchaumont]

oh man, this is good stuff!