Too Much Fly Tying Stuff

[Mark K]

Okay, I've now got so much crap that when I need something. I can't find it.

Where/how do you store your stuff? Do you use one of those oasis type benches? Did you make it? Can you post a picture?

Have you ever made a big unused material purge and just pitched a bunch of crap, just to consolidate and make things neater? I'm really starting to follow the "Less is More" philosophy.

Is there any rhyme or reason to your organization?

 

 

[Gary L]

Mark, How about something like this. It appears to be compact and could be stacked I would imagine.

 

http://www.flyhatch.com/xq/ASP.product/p.P...FEC/product.htm

 

You also could look at some of these storage methods for Boats. No reason they wouldn't work in a home.

 

http://www.easyviewtackle.com/

 

 

[Guest rich mc]

i use shoe box size clear plastic containers. marked on the end by material. chenille, hooks, tinsel, fur. hackle feathers and synthetic. i have a few plano trays that hold my threads . since my material is in the basement i go down , choose the items i need and place in another plano tray and tye upstairs. this has also helped in keeping me focused on tying just one pattern like 6of each before i start mixing colors and tying something different. now since i made alot of flies i hav ethe problem of storing them. luckily most will go into new member tackle packs, and others donated to the fly table at the blowout. rich

[John Loebach]

Mark, do you have a fixed location that you use? I have some stuff on shelves in sterlite shoe boxes that works well to keep stuff seperated by type, hair in one feathers in another, flash in another. That way you narrow down the search from the start. Eventually you will get to where you know you have things you will never use, when you organize & purge give the stuff to another beginning tyer to practice with, or bring your castoffs to a tying nite & share with the group. Furniture is nice but costly & any system you think is ok eventually you will outgrow or end up with stuff packed elsewhere. Small boxes like plano makes are great for lead eyes & beads, buy a hook organizer box at a fly shop they are worth it. Last if you tye on trips or in other locations have a box or bag that can cover some materials & tools is agood thing, I use a soft sided tool bag (cheap ) that fits this great.

[Guest]

I probably have more "stuff" than some fly shops. And I'm always getting new stuff to try out. But then I'm fanatical and have an entire basement to fill up at my disposal. Because I travel to shows a lot to tye, I keep all the material to tye a single fly pattern in a single large plano box. If I want a Fodder, I just need to grab one box, the Georgia Bullfrawg, another box and so on. Yes I have a lot of duplication but I tye and use more than most people. It simplifies it for me. I don't have to look in ten boxes to find stuff to tye one fly. Even more so, I don't have to find ten boxes to put the stuff back when I'm done. I do have a large ten drawer storage unit that has materials that are for no fly in particular (yet). It's a kitchen pantry storage unit from Home Depot. It's my experiment box.

[Mike G]

Mark,

 

I started using transparent shoe boxes to file soft plastics. The envelopes fit nicely. When my fly materials overran my old kit, I turned to shoe boxes from habit.

 

Rich,

 

I really like the idea of keeping different materials in different boxes.

[Norm M]

Mark ,

 

I don't have fly stuff but I store my extra stuff in tackle boxes that I get at garage sales real cheap .

 

My wife does all sorts of different crafting things and uses differenent sized plastic containers up to 30 gallon size or so . She puts stuff in various sized ziploc bags and then puts the bags into the containers . The containers can be stacked on one another . She makes labels out of pieces of masking tape that go on the containers . If she gets rid of something or adds something it's just a matter of taking off or adding a piece of tape .

 

By the way , if you need the room , you can purge all your spinning stuff down my way . I'll make the sacrifice and find room in the garage somehow .

[asherman]

I use plastic boxes for larger stuff like buck tail, craft fur and long packages feathers. For hooks, chenille, and other small stuff, I use expandable multi-pocket folders that I buy at office supply stores. These folders provide plenty of room when expanded but get pretty small when closed with the elastic closures.

[BartBurgess]

As for tying desk. I did a "trailer park" job on 57" WhiteGate work bench. I built and added the backsplash, which has been a lifesaver. The top has 19, dowel pegs at 3.5". Each peg will hold 3 spools of thread. The second shelf keeps a portion of the mess at eye level. Three drawers below-one is pulled out-well, because I have so tying crap shoved in into it. Material storage I use the 7" pop tops for chinelle, dubbing,-you can get these in sectioned boxes for hooks, beadheads, etc.-HobbyLobby. I also dig the 9" "Chinese take-out" boxes with the clear top-These are made by "Versatainer". Cheap, durable, easy to stack...Hey, what about a "material swap"?

*Hey, the below picture is "honest". I have tons of storage, I just need to follow my wife's advice and uhhhhh, well put everything away.

[jude]

Bart, if you're trying to make me jealous, it worked. Nice set up!

[BartBurgess]

Bart, if you're trying to make me jealous, it worked. Nice set up!

 

Jude,

The backsplash, flash holder, etc. all are a super easy and inexpensive build. Probably the coolest aspect of using a work bench is this particular one is 34" tall . Puts my vise up high, no hunching over..

[jamie shard]

Since space it at a premium in my tiny house, I use this method...

 

First all my material is stored in drawers in my basement. I use several sets of plastic "flat" files (stack on left side of picture) for feathers, flashabou, rabbit hides, hook storage boxes, deer hair, etc. I use a set of plastic pull drawers made for screw/nail storage (on middle shelf on right side) for beads, thread, wire, rubber legs, and other misc. small stuff. All my flies are stored in another set of plastic drawer cases or tackle boxes (top shelf and middle shelf left side). So it is all packed into a small area.

 

 

 

Like craig, I tend to tie one style of fly at a time. I grab all the material I need for a given pattern and then find a nice place to sit. I've recently started attaching my vice to a board, so I can really sit anywhere in the house. My vise has a small light attached, so lighting is always good no matter where I'm sitting.

 

 

 

That's it! Hope that helps.

 

-jamie s

 

p.s. Yes, that's my bobber collection hanging from the cieling. If I'm not catching a lot of fish, I like to hunt for bobbers.

[Mike Flyrodder Miller]

I've got way more than most can imagine between tying at shows, doing custom tying and working at Bass Pro, I've got more than a fair amount of material and it always seems to grow. I get something for a job and of course always have some left over that adds to the pile. Or that new material you just have to get. So I went to storing in clear shoebox style boxes, hinged top totes, and multidrawer clear.white storage cabinets available at Walmart, Target, or The Container Store. I have my frontroom and dining room dedicated to my flycasting and flyfishing equipment, classes, etc.

 

I used to do what Craig does by isolating material to a particular pattern, but am starting to slowly get away from that with the exception of those patterns that I know I will always be tying at a show. It got too cumbersome when I switch patterns routinely especially for custom tying. I had to remember what was in the dedicated bags and with a lot of dedicated bags I began to see a pattern of WAY TOO MUCH duplication of materials.

 

So, now I keep all of the natural deer hides in one tote, the miscellaneous furs in yet another tote, Rabbit and Squirrel magnum and standard and crosscut strips and colored deer body hair patches in another tote. Yarns are in one drawer of a large drawer storage bin and all of the bucktails in another drawer. Large feathers or skins such as geese, pheasant skins, wings, etc. are in another drawer. Hackle, capes, etc. are in two large boxes with cedar inserts to keep out the bugs. I have separate shoe boxes for hooks, chenille, dubbing, pheasant tails, hares masks, glow bug yarn/McFly Foam Yarn, marabou, squirrel/kip tails, foam, etc.

 

I eventually moved away from the three (3) thread rack stands (2 are 6 rows of 10 posts/row and one is 12 rows of 10 posts per row) that held my thread on individual posts on top of my storage cabinets, etc. They worked fine when my thread selection was stable, but as it grew, it became more difficult to manage any organization to the thread. Should I sort them by color, thread size, or types (i.e. gsp, wire, uni, floss, polydubbing, tinsels, etc.) - what was I to do? Since space is at a premium I went to divided Plano boxes that allow me to put each type in it's own box one organized as necessary with small dividers. I put wires in one, floss in another, gsp in another, etc. It allowed me to decrease the space my threads took up, I could reorganize it much quicker, and I could add one color, size, etc. without a major reoraganization of the thread racks like I used to do.

 

These Plano style boxes prove to be very versatile. The crystal flash and Flash-A Bou are in 1/4" diameter tubes or the packages they came in with the corners cut off to keep them neat. All of that is then put into a Plano box with the small dividers removed so that each type is together (i.e. 3D holographs, crystal flash, midge crystal flash, Flash-A-Bou, etc.). By removing the dividers in the Plano boxes I'm able to sort long materials and keep them neat. Things such as rubber legs, Enrico Puglisi Fibers, etc. all become a breeze to store now because I can sort them easily and not have to rummage through a shoe box to find the one at the bottom. The shoeboxes on the other hand work well for things like marabou or chenille that can be stacked on end so that you can see everything at a glance when you open the lid.

 

As for my bench, I picked up a spare saltwater mount for the post to my Renzetti vise and mounted it in a slab of Corian that I laid over my benchtop. It's an offwhite color which makes for a good tying background and makes it easy to find material when I lay it down. Before I bought a spare vise for travel to shows, I used to just take my vise off the mount and toss it in my bag where I kept my pedestal base. It makes for a very nice setup. I also mounted the support for my giraffe light on the bench where it's convenient but out of the way. I have a support stand attached to the side for my heat gun, glue gun, and Dremel for those special patterns.

 

I anchored a "Waste Troll" under the desk that lifts up or pushes under so that when I need it, it is right under the vise for clippings or to clean off the desk top. I have a TV/VCR/DVD setup next to the tying area so that I can tye as I watch TV ro watch a tying DVD/VCR video. I can also use it for my DVD version of "Benchside Fly Tyers Reference". The Setup is on top of two 4 drawre filing cabinets that allow storage of patterns, articles, recipes, etc.

 

I've attached a few pictures of the way my setup was a few years back. I've modified it a bit since then, but it gives the general idea. It's next to the area where I have my four bookcases with tying and flyfishing references and have my table setup for flytying classes.

[Mark K]

JAY-ZEUS!

You've got more stuff than the fly shop you work at!

[Jim Kast]

 

A Sith lord's cave, these tying dens are. Much black magic they hold. With presents of animal hair and feathers, your long rods and floating line cast magic spells upon the river. Questioned the eel grass and algae in late summer, many an isa member has, but just the rivers way of keeping these spells from her creatures, is it. Yeeeeeessssssssss.

 

(Sick am I. 102.5 degree fever do I have. Much cold medicine. Funny everything seems. Get to the doctor soon I must. Body aches.)

 

Dude, if you need a ride to the doctor let me know. I'm starting to have flashbacks of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb! Starting to worry about you, bro!

[Norm M]

Jim,

 

I'd normally say a post like Eric's shows a need to get out and fish but judging from the reports he has done that. He just needs to quit bogarting whatever he's taking and let the rest of us have some.

 

'sides the Doc's can't cure flashbacks , thankfully.