Making your own reel with a CNC

[Jmf81]

Hi all,

Just a quick question. If someone had a hobby CNC machine, could you make your own reel out of curiosity?

[JasonGotaProblem]

Hi all,

Just a quick question. If someone had a hobby CNC machine, could you make your own reel out of curiosity?

Yes. Very much so. Nothing is as easy as it sounds. But yes it's absolutely been done.

[jurelometer]

Not doable if your intent is to build an entire reel with a hobby CNC mill.

Assuming that you already have CAD/CAM expertise to go from idea to CNC machine instructions, you can cut some usable sideplates out of aluminum with a hobby CNC mill with a vice on the bed. You will have to send them out for polishing and anodizing, unless you want to go down that rathole too. It gets exponentially  harder from there, requiring more machines, equipment, tooling, fixturing, and expertise.

Real professional machine shops often have all they need to build most of a reel, and in fact many of the smaller reel companies are now or started out as a machine shop with a reel side business. So reels definitely can be made outside of a factory manufacturing environment.

If you hunt around the site a little, you can see some hobbyist reel part projects by myself and others, some simple and some pretty impressive.  And if you take a look at the Cortez Conversions board, you can see what a talented professional can do.

And BTW, welcome!!!

-J

[Rocket Dog]

anything is possible with some time and money.

[oc1]

Start with a fly reel.  Take up fly fishing if necessary.  When it comes to cutting gears the difficulty goes up an order of magnitude.  Way way back when, Shakespeare made first-class reels but still bought their gears from a specialist.