Thought I'd show this neat rod building jig I found at a flea market today. It looks like a homemade jig to me. It has some unique features to it. I'm going to do a video about this one and another old cast iron one I have and I'll be sure to post a link here when I get that done. For now I wanted to show a quick picture of this one and see if anyone else had ever seen one like it. I know I haven't seen one like it. There are a couple of things about it that lead me to believe that it is a homemade setup and I'll get into that on the video. It will look nice on a display that I plan on building in the near future! I tried it out and it isn't the easiest jig to use. A couple of modifications could make it a neat little setup, but I plan on keeping it as is. It has a great patina to it and looks to be pretty old...I feel the need to leave it as is. Anyone else seen another one like it? It seems to work one one side for tip sections (smaller diameter stuff) and the arms can be swung around to the other side where there are larger V's for the larger diameter parts of a rod. The thread tensioning setup has a really neat way of preventing the wing nut from loosening while in use, but I'm going to save that for the video!
My hat is off to whomever built it, they had some good ideas!
Will keep my eyes peeled for the vid.
Frank
That's pretty cool, Kevin! I beats the heck out of laying the rod across your lap and using a book for a thread tensioner. :)
It isn't as easy to use as the one's I sell...but it is pretty creative and looks really neat too. Someone came up with a pretty unique tensioning setup. I was able to figure out how they did it in just a second but I'll admit I don't think I would have come up with it myself. It was pretty ingenious and simple. The tensioning isn't particularly smooth, but it could be improved upon by adding some plastic and metal washers similar to what I use on my jigs. Still, the design is pretty clever. Can't wait to show it off in a video!
Not high jacking your thread and this isn't homemade, but here's kind of a cool old Herter's wrapper.
That is the other cast iron one I own. It isn't the easiest thing to use either ;D
Neat idea, but in use it isn't any better than a cardboard box and a book for thread tension IMO. I'm a little spoiled by my wrapper I think 😆