Sig Barnes (of the Pat Barnes Fly Shop West Yellowstone....sold to Bob Jacklin in 1981) tied a zillion flies with a foot pedal rotary vise made from a foot treadle sewing machine. She could spin forward or back. I think that contraption is at a museum in Vermont now.

I've been tempted to make one but it recently occurred to me you can buy a small DC motor for next to nothing. It wouldn't be hard to build one. Variable speed plus forward and back might take some head scratching. Hmm. Electric drills do that. An old 120 volt drill might work as a power source. Then all you'd need would be a foot controller. In the DC world you can buy those for MinKota trolling motors.

Does anything like this exist? Has anybody done it? They must have. The hard part is who? I could ask Jeremy Fielding on youtube. Might have to do that.

Who knows? Perhaps with an old VSR drill you could use something like this...
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Singer-Sewin ... /269368659

Tom is correct.They are everywhere,Now the treadle would be downright 19th century tech.I left 1 in the barn when i sold my old house 3 years ago.It was there when we bought the place in '90 and still seemed to basically function.I could not give it away at the time.I have one of those rotary vises that has a big wheel on one end and the jaws are directly in line on center.I don't really tie much that it can be used for but it really spins pretty well and is made well.Would be good for someone tying bulk chenille bodied jigs or something like that.I thought of using it as a low speed micro lathe type thing for making balsa poppers.

Really want to see what you come up with.

I sew to this day on a 1930's knee controlled old variable speed Sears machine and have sewn on lots of old Singers with a motor controlled with a foot pedal. I've also worked on many treadle machines.

What I can tell you is due to many electric motor factors and/or belt or roller slippage, controlling the start-up speed can be tricky on older machines and even on modern variable speed motors. If you push down too hard or fast with your foot or knee, in a instant, your fly could be spinning faster and more often than the correct amount of controlled revolutions you are after.

If I was inclined to create a "motorized" rotary vice, I'd go with a treadle as they are way easier to control.

You can cannibalize what you need and put your own table top on it. As matter of fact, about 20 feet from my fly ting area I have the base of an old treadle machine I use for a table with just a new table top added to the cast iron base. The treadle mechanism is still in place.

Have fun!

Here's a photo of my small lathe table sitting on the frame from a New Home sewing machine. Note, the flywheel is on the right hand side, which is the typical setup. I have not made use of the treadle, but it still works just fine. I disassembled the original rusty frame, had it sand blasted, and repainted. Replacement belt material is available from McMaster-Carr. The next iteration of the table top will be wider to include drawers down the sides like the old sewing machines. You can never have enough drawers or table space.




This image of Sig Barnes at her vise was taken from the American Museum of Fly Fishing web site, specifically a page in their Archives Portfolio entitled Montana Fly Shops. I've lightened the shadows to make the sewing machine frame more visible. Arrow number 1 points to the normal fly wheel, while arrows 2 and 3 point to pulleys on an additional shaft that transfers the motion to the other side of the table (and reduces the speed a bit). While it is difficult to make out, the drawers face the side where Mrs. Barnes is sitting. The vise is on her right.




This image of the vise on display at the Yellowstone Historic Center also had the shadows lightened to bring out the frame details. Note, the setup allows tying with the vise on the left side, opposite to the image above. The business end holding the fly is quite different. The drawers are repositioned and the vice was moved (note all the holes from past experiments). The two-piece treadle appears to be a shop modification like the additional shaft. Another photo of Sig Barnes sitting with the vise at her left can be seen at the Pat Barnes Trout Unlimited Chapter web page.




Sandy, from your recollection, which side of the vise did Mrs. Barnes work from?


Tom

Fascinating stuff.

Bamboozle,

The photo of Mrs. Barnes, posted on the Pat Barnes TU website, shows her sitting on the other side of the table, with the vise on her left. That photo above shows her with the vise on her right. Maybe one of the photos was only for publicity. But in each photo the vise and drawers were mounted on the same side of the table as Mrs. Barnes. Perhaps she switched her technique at some point?

For us mere mortals, it would be nearly impossible to switch the vise to our opposite side. For a right handed tyer, the treadle motion needs to be on the left, either by reworking the frame, or by using a secondary shaft. These old sewing machine frames are cast iron - not steel. You can't just slice, dice, and reweld them like some automotive, YouTube-horror channel. A secondary shaft along the back of the table would be easier to make.


Tom

I wish you luck, keep us posted.

But the one thing this thread has done is give me a craving for a Dynaking. The treadle would be neat, but just having a really nice rotary would be a good step forward for me.

I have a regal that I use almost exclusiely. I have a Renzetti traveler but it's too flimsy and I haven't put the time in to get rotary tying down. I think having the vise be rock solid would be easier to learn on.

I remember the first time I saw a Norvise in action. I was watching Harley Reno tie water walkers. It was mesmerizing. I think you need to put some time in on any of the rotary vises to get good at it.