Homemade spooling station

Over the holidays I got a new reel and I really did not want to use my half ass spooling method of sticking the filler spool on a pen and trying to hold it with my feet so I made a little spooling station.  I looked online to get some ideas and then headed off to the hardware store.  With less than an hour of work and about $10 in parts (I had lug nuts and scrap plywood already) the spooling station was ready.



Here are the parts that I used:
1, 8 inch long 3/8 inch carriage bolt
4, 3/8 inch cut washers
2,  3/8" fender washers (I though I needed these and used them but I could have lived without them)
2, 3/8 inch nylon washers
1, 3/8 inch wing nut
1, 3/8 in nut
1/2 inch diameter compression spring
2 lug nuts ( I have no clue what size but the spin freely on the 3/8 inch bolt with a bit of wiggle room
small piece of plywood
small 2x4
and some wood screws



I decided to test it out by spooling my reel backwards to ensure that I got all my braid to fit.  One thing I forgot was I needed to de-spool the reel and then re-spool the line onto anouther empty filler spool before I spooled it back onto my new reel.  For this to work I needed a de-spooler too, so I made one.  It is made from parts of a broken rod and is super crappy but it got the job done.



Overall the spooling station worked really well.  I was able to put the line on with no twists and with the spring I was able to set the tension exactly where I wanted. I tried to use the line counter in the picture to figure out how much line fit on the reel, but I think the braid slipped more than a bit as I got very different values every time I transferred line from one spool to the next.   

The De-spooling rig works great Just remember to take it of off the pole. I was in a hurry one year and left mine on.  To make a long story short my pole ended up about a foot shorter and become a flag staff. I know rookie mistake!

Stevehawk

Looks great Ndogg. Thanks for the detailed write up. Looks like I have another project to add to the list

Aww man, you mean I've gotta rep the hobbit (pen between the toes) spooling station by myself now??

Very cool Nate. I've always seen those things in BPS and Cabelas catalogs and thought they'd be cool but just too much cash. This is a great cheap alternative. Very cool.

I do similar.  I use a tennis ball instead of the spring, because that's what I had handy that I thought would make a good tensioner.

-Allen

So what's wrong with using a pen and holding it with your feet?  lol  This has been my method of choice since i started fishing

Nice little setup there. I imagine that you'll get a lot o use out of it.

I have used two methods up till now. First, lay spool on side and run line through phone book. Phone book provides stop for spool to push against and weight of pages provides tension. Second, put spool in drawer and close against a sock. Anything works, but for a small amount of effort I think I will follow ndogg and build a nicer one. I do like to change my mono fairly often.

Very cool Nate! Did you install that pretty wallpaper too?

So what's wrong with using a pen and holding it with your feet?  lol  This has been my method of choice since i started fishing

Nice little setup there. I imagine that you'll get a lot o use out of it.

Couple things wrong.  You don't get a good consistent pressure if spooling braid.  And if you do 5-6 reels at a time, like I do, your feet get annoyed.   

-Allen

So what's wrong with using a pen and holding it with your feet?  lol  This has been my method of choice since i started fishing

Nice little setup there. I imagine that you'll get a lot o use out of it.

Couple things wrong.  You don't get a good consistent pressure if spooling braid.  And if you do 5-6 reels at a time, like I do, your feet get annoyed.   

-Allen

Also it can put a twist/kink in the line. If you're spooling a spinning that'll be more of a problem than conventional. Having the spool vertical with the line coming off straight directly to the reel is the best way to get the line to lay nice and flat.

I have used two methods up till now. First, lay spool on side and run line through phone book. Phone book provides stop for spool to push against and weight of pages provides tension. ...

Great minds and all that.  I have an old unabridged dictionary I use for spooling and as a gluing weight.  The 'M's give about the right tension.

So what's wrong with using a pen and holding it with your feet?  lol  This has been my method of choice since i started fishing

Nice little setup there. I imagine that you'll get a lot o use out of it.

Couple things wrong.  You don't get a good consistent pressure if spooling braid.  And if you do 5-6 reels at a time, like I do, your feet get annoyed.   

-Allen

Also it can put a twist/kink in the line. If you're spooling a spinning that'll be more of a problem than conventional. Having the spool vertical with the line coming off straight directly to the reel is the best way to get the line to lay nice and flat.

The two methods I described were for levelwind reels, which is what I would use ndogg's setup for. For spinning reels I lay the spool flat and let it uncoil and usually use my fingers for tension. I sometimes put the spool on the ground, the phonebook on a chair and pass the uncoiling line through the phonebook for tension. I try the spool one way and check the twist. If it is bad I flip it over and try that. If it is bad both ways then I try to the normal way I do it for casting reels (unrolling vs uncoiling) and pick the least of the evils.

I found wives make good tensioners. Read this any way you choose...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I found wives make good tensioners. Read this any way you choose...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I mostly noticed the plural on wives and it is raising some questions. How many wives do you need to stack on top of a spool to get the right tension? Whose wives are you using? How do you get permission - or do you not? In the end it may be simpler to just build ndogg's jig

First the wallpaper came with the house.  I feel it gives the garage a nice quaint feel. 
Wives or at least my wife makes a horrible tensioner.  I tried to have her help me spool a few spinning reels once. About half way through the first one the spool was spinning around on the floor and my wife was nowhere to be found.
I am going to refine the design a bit by adding a permanent clamping system to it but for now my big clamp works.