Having treated myself to a full rotary vise whose price rivalled a mortgage payment, it was not enough for me to leave all that mechanical wonderment alone.
Per my last post on the features of the Dyna-King Excalibur, I suspected the rotary capability of the vise was linked to the kind of flies tied rather than a “must have” feature that would benefit fly tied on the vise.
My surmisal was based on my own viewing of other tiers featured at shows and club gatherings, as well as viewing the fly shop reviews via YouTube. Most of the fly shop reviewers wax eloquent about the rotary feature, but subsequent reviews, or flies tied in later episodes, only show the occasional use of the rotary function, and almost always on large flies. Small flies simply don’t lend themselves to the use of full rotary function.
Opinion is always the easy part …
… especially as we grow older. To be fair to this mechanical marvel, I needed to practise using the rotary feature to see what it offered … and to see what it did well, versus the more traditional vises we’ve used for the past century.
For testing purposes I ran about twenty dozen trout flies through the vise to test how rotary function assisted (or hindered) me on both dry flies and nymphs. I ran sizes 16 through 6, for the testing. The smaller sizes tended to be dry flies and the larger sizes were heavy Stonefly nymphs. I used both beaded, non-beaded, and barbless hooks.
I found that two kinds of rotary use is possible …
The first is the thread is moved out of the way of the work area and the bobbin deposited on a stand or arm. The yarn or hackle is wound, and the thread returns to the area to tie off the material.
The second type is the thread contains the item to be wound, like dubbing, and the bobbin is held at your belly while you feed the material to the rotating shank.
Preliminary finding: Not at all surprising. The larger the hook meant the more turns of material used in hackle or body – and that meant more turns for the rotational feature – and therefore more use.
Finding #1: Small hooks are at most four or five turns, and if the thread is snagged by the hook point (as part of rotation), dubbing will explode off the thread, and the work paused while you re-dub the fur back on.
Finding #2: Despite being able to watch wire ribbing get laid onto the body, it was not easier to get more even spacing or concentric turns, because the lumps and bumps of earlier steps and tie off points cause the stem to settle where it wants versus where you desire it. The ability to see the wire go all the way around, versus losing sight of it on the far side of the hook, did not make it easier to apply.
Finding #3: Hackle was identical to wire rib above. If you crowded the head with earlier elements of the fly, the rotational application of the hackle was not easier, as the lumps and bumps of prior steps made the stem slip to one side or the other.
Finding #4: We don’t consider the “spin” of the shank when we mount hooks, as rotation is still a new member to our toolset. In my testing I had to reposition every hook to ensure it rotated smoothly. Eventually I gave up and adjusted the vise barrel only … allowing a “wobbly” rotation to be acceptable. This saved time versus removing and repositioning the hook to get the precision rotation. Different bends and sizes require the hook to be mounted differently on the Excalibur as the slots in the jaws change the grip on the hook. Small hooks are mounted on the tip of the jaw, large using slots, and the in between sizes added somewhere between the tips of the jaws and the meaty slotted area. This change of location alters the spin on the hook, and will require a vise barrel adjustment to spin smoothly. “Wobbly” was more efficient than repositioning the hook, so I would consider this a bit of a hindrance or time sink…
Finding #5: Depositing the bobbin onto a vise extension or arm, usually required me to remove the thread when rotation was complete. The small angle formed between the shank of the hook and the resting place for the bobbin, was not large enough to allow the hook eye to NOT snag the thread when the vise was rotated. Dyna-King provides and arm attached to the vise that allows the bobbin to be rested away from the working area. Unfortunately, the eye of the hook often catches the thread as it is rotating, requiring you to remove those turns once the rotational portion is complete. This added time to each rotational step, making it a hindrance versus a nicety.
In summary, I did not feel that the rotational capabilities of the Dyna-King Excalibur (or any fully rotational vise), outweigh the costs associated with its purchase. Rotation in of itself was often a hindrance instead of a benefit, and for the average trout fly tier, it is really questionable whether a full rotational vise provides any advantage whatsoever.