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Show Us Your Flytying Space

12K views 63 replies 31 participants last post by  VanAllen 
#1 ·
So it's been a couple years since I last posted this topic and I can't seem to find the old one....must be time to do it again then.

Show us your pics of your flytying desk / area. Last time, I got a couple good ideas from them.
 
#2 ·
When I told the Old Lady I wanted to take a picture of my flytying bench to post on the forum...which sits surrounded by her gear in the 'quilting room'...she said 'not until she straightens the room up a bit'.

Wimmin. I still get hell about leaving the seat up.
 
#3 ·
No. :)

Actually, it isn't a flytying location as much as an entire office. It looks messy right now because I'm tying flies and crap is all over everywhere. The office is used for writing, cartooning, tying flies and mess'n with the 'puter. Tis my "man cave".





 
#4 ·
This is my roll around portable bench that usually occupies space between the La-Z-Boy and the TV. I bring out the materials to tie one or two patterns at a time and tie all I need of those patterns before starting on the next one. It makes for a well organized and uncluttered work area. This has proven to be much more comfortable than sitting in my main tying area and facing a wall and as a result I am tying a lot more often.

Ive
Table Furniture Wood Television Desk
Table Furniture Wood Television Desk
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Arthropod Insect Invertebrate Pest Terrestrial plant
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#5 ·
Nice setup, GAT. I have a den in which I once had a large bench...but found I had always had crap all over it. More importantly, I found that I missed my wife's company, so I consolidated with a moveable small bench down in her quilting room....where we spend many an evening watching shitty netflix horror flicks (she loves 'em...the gorier the better), her working on a quilt, and me swilling beer (and slowly tying flies of increasingly dubious quality).

I'll try to post a picture later, but I think you'll find it a pretty mundane setup.
 
#6 ·
I have a mess right now and some storage issues. My wife said today I am hanging out of my alloted tying space.

I do like the roll top desk and the drawers are stuffed with materials. I need to buy rolling drawers to cart some less used items into the garage so I can get rid of many bins stacked on the floor.
Picture frame Furniture Wood Building Table
 
#17 ·
I have a mess right now and some storage issues. My wife said today I am hanging out of my alloted tying space.

I do like the roll top desk and the drawers are stuffed with materials. I need to buy rolling drawers to cart some less used items into the garage so I can get rid of many bins stacked on the floor. View attachment 22433
I always wanted a roll top desk. Thought it would make a great fly tying station.
Jack
 
#9 ·
ooo....a JVice...don't see them everyday. Somehow I had a preconceived notion that your flytying space would be bigger and a lot messier JackD. Now tell the truth...this pic and desk are obviously staged and the other thread of the waste material is what you cleaned off to take this pic....right? :D
 
#14 ·
My bench is nothing special--just a home made plywood counter held up by angled supports (you can't see that from the photo anyway). But I've also included a photo of my light tent for photographing flies. Two cheap umbrella strobes from Alien Bees plus a box with a wire frame over it, on which I drape some gossamer wedding gown material, to diffuse the light, so there are no hard shadows in the closeups.

Auto focus doesn't work with closeup rings behind the lens. So use a tripod and manual exposure and manual focus. I shoot a half a dozen test shots and then choose the best exposure for the rest of the current run. My camera has a "live lcd screen" and that's what I use for focus. If you use a hand held magnifying lens directly above the live lcd screen you can almost see the pixels in the image. That makes super sharp manual focus a breeze.
 

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#16 ·
You all have nice spaces. I've often thought about having a rolling tying bench like Ive's that I could use while watching TV or just to be in the living room with the Missus, while she is reading in the evening.

Like Gene, mine is a combo fly-tying, home-office space. A single rolling office chair can swivel 180 degrees to work on my computer and back to tie flies - it makes working at home a losing proposition, I'm afraid.

The main desk is an abandoned, post-yard-sale freebee, with an inexpensive shelving unit to the side to store more materials and pattern books within reach. I also now have a rolling unit with sliding drawers on the other side of the tying desk, which I didn't have when these pics were taken a few years back (I also have a lot more photos of my grandson, who is now 7, and ties with me occasionally).

You all must have better eyesight than I do. Many years ago, I purchased an inexpensive 2X magnifier light with an extension arm for tying small flies, but I use it for all tying now. The window opens into our back yard and provides natural light when I'm tying during the day (which is rarely, however).

For photographing flies, I keep a piece of neutral shade mat-board beside my desk to slip behind the vise, and use the magnifier light and a high intensity light to provide lighting from two angles. I'm not after professional quality fly pics, just ones good enough to share with friends and our forum from time to time.

Dick

Table Desk Engineering Computer hardware Circuit component


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#48 ·
You all have nice spaces. I've often thought about having a rolling tying bench like Ive's that I could use while watching TV or just to be in the living room with the Missus, while she is reading in the evening.

Like Gene, mine is a combo fly-tying, home-office space. A single rolling office chair can swivel 180 degrees to work on my computer and back to tie flies - it makes working at home a losing proposition, I'm afraid.

The main desk is an abandoned, post-yard-sale freebee, with an inexpensive shelving unit to the side to store more materials and pattern books within reach. I also now have a rolling unit with sliding drawers on the other side of the tying desk, which I didn't have when these pics were taken a few years back (I also have a lot more photos of my grandson, who is now 7, and ties with me occasionally).

You all must have better eyesight than I do. Many years ago, I purchased an inexpensive 2X magnifier light with an extension arm for tying small flies, but I use it for all tying now. The window opens into our back yard and provides natural light when I'm tying during the day (which is rarely, however).

For photographing flies, I keep a piece of neutral shade mat-board beside my desk to slip behind the vise, and use the magnifier light and a high intensity light to provide lighting from two angles. I'm not after professional quality fly pics, just ones good enough to share with friends and our forum from time to time.

Dick
Dick
You have touched upon a very important item in your comments-photography and lighting. Lighting is so key to getting a good photo of a fly which is not the easiest of subjects to photograph. I am playing around with some different lighting set ups
Jack
View attachment 22441 dick

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#25 ·
RE> magnifier light

I'll have to try that. I have CRS and CSS (can't remember and can't see). I use 3x and 5x jeweler's goggles. But they're a pain.
Mine cost $19.95 at Home Depot and uses a regular 60W bulb, or equivalent compact fluorescent. There are significantly more expensive such lights available, but I haven't felt handicapped by this one. It didn't take me long to get over the annoyance of having something between me and the vice; the light and lens suspend by the arm from above, so it doesn't get in the way of my hands. Some styles have a ring light around the lens to make the illumination more uniform, but they make the barrier between you and the vice even bigger.

I bought a small lighted lens that clamps onto the vice post and has a small LED bulb in it, but the flexible arm isn't long enough to position it where I would like it to be and the light isn't bright enough to illuminate much.

Dick
 
#26 ·
I bought a small lighted lens that clamps onto the vice post and has a small LED bulb in it, but the flexible arm isn't long enough to position it where I would like it to be and the light isn't bright enough to illuminate much.
I made the same mistake. I've scratched the devil out of my magnifier and the store where I originally bought the unit no longer sells them. So... I tried the craft store and bought the product mentioned above and it was a waste of money.

So I'm still looking.

Well what do you know, I found the same magnifier I was using before. It's made by Daylight and I clamp it on my vise. The lens isn't lit but just the right size so it doesn't get in the way.

For 30 bucks (plus the shipping) I guess I'll have to order another one.

 
#27 ·
I like these threads because I can get some new ideas! I am very fortunate to have the spouse that I do because she enables my fishing. She bought me the table, giraffe system, and frame for the giraffe, for my birthday many moons ago. It is in our family room so I can talk to her while we both watch the tube and I work on my tying.



Another view. The bookshelf has my fishing library. The rod tube has my first fly rod; it is retired now.



All of my stuff is in the next room over. I just grab what I need for each pattern and take it in the family room. I had this set up for reloading but sold all of that a few years ago and expanded my rod building and fly tying stuff. It is also right next to the garage so it is easy to load and unload my stuff during season. The white tube above the mutt is a z-axis 7100 blank that I will start working on this week. It is also snowshoeing season around here hence the ski poles.

 
#28 ·
I'll take a picture of my limited setup when I get everything put back together. At the moment everything is taken down and put away while I am building my first rod. My desk is special though. It was built by my great grandfather, three 8x8" drawers on the left, a center drawer for small items, a 8x8" drawer on the right top and a 8x16" file drawer under that. It may not look like much, but to me it is very special. The only downside is that I have a clamp vise and the only place to secure it is in front of the center drawer so I lay down a piece of cardboard on the top and bottom and clamp onto that. As for my materials, I use the partitioned plastic boxes for hooks, beads, dubbing, and thread/wire. Feathers go in one drawer on the left and fur goes in another.
 
#32 ·
Here's my little world, I used to have a large roll top desk... it was perfect when my kids were young and inquisitive.
The cork peg boards on the wall came with the desk, View attachment 22520 it came from Fred Meyers a few years ago....worked perfect.
Wow, that the perfect fly tying desk. I wonder if it was intended for scrap booking? All those drawers are unusual.
 
#37 ·
Mine hasn't changed since the last time, except it got a bit messier. Here's my tying area after a desk tidying.


Mark, I like your taste in cabinets. I got mine from Fred Meyer, I think, about 8 years ago.


My wife's tying area is much neater than mine. She has the same cabinets. What can't be seen is the 12 foot long wall made up of plastic rolling drawer units and the under the bed totes we use to keep the full bird skins and animal pelts.
 
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