DIY Slide maker

Right guys this is a quick diy about how to make a slide maker and how to make your own slides.

it is how I do it. it works for me.
please feel free to comment and share your way of making them.

It is quite easy to do it and at the end of the day, much more rewarding, in catching a fish with equipment you made yourself.

Just some back ground:
I have always been a rock and surf "salt water angler" and my vision in life was to catch big fish.

no sharks, just big edible fish.

in 1996 I met the pioneer who actually invented the slide, but he never went on to produce and distribute it.
he was Jack Doonan, an Irish engineer and local angler in St Lucia. a brilliant angler I should add.

the slide was a conversion from the old clip "cuda clip"

since then I have only produced my own slides and all of my fish have been caught on my own slides.

so yes, a big reward for me over the years.
I have also made some slides for a tackle shop in Heidelberg, where I would make 100 slides and I would get 25 out of the 100 made.

the big problem was to source the correct wire.

it has been discussed several time which wire one needs to use when making your own slide.

I even tried making them from galvanised spring steel. this did work, but as salt water and galvanise don't mix it was a flop.

over time I have come to the conclusion that stainless spring steel wire was the best to use.
several anglers use tig wire 316 stain less steel.
it must be noted that the tig wire is not a spring steel wire, hence the use of beads between the bend and locking arm

the bead prevents the slide from deformation when big pressure is applied to it.

further is have found that the best wire to use for slides is 1,8mm thick.
1,6mm does work but with heavy pressure it will start to deform.
I even used 1,2mm wire and caught plenty of cob and Garrick on them.

with me being able to turn plenty of slides as well as fishing with my own slides I have found that a 3-5 turn slide works best.

I am in the proses of playing more since I have achieved my goal posts in life with regards to size caught.
so now it is time, to fine tune certain aspects of my angling, cause currently I want quantity and not quality.

so the more fish I can catch now, the more rewarding I hope it will be.


so lets get to the point: the slide maker.

What do you need:

240 mm flat bar, I used 8mm x 40 mm.
1x no2 phillps screw driver
1x 5 or 6 mm allen key.
1x 130 - 150mm 10mm round bar steel

seen here Is the steel flat bar.

the steel flat bar was cut in 2x pieces of 65 mm and 1x piece of 100mm.

the 2x 65 mm pieces were clamped together and a pilot hole was drilled through both flat bars at one.
the height from the top was about 10-12mm

the reason why I used 8mm flat bar is the play in the slide maker shaft is less.

the pilot hole was then drilled to 6mm.
seen here the screw driver now through the vertical bars.

so here, the screw driver handle was removed.
also with it a 10mkm steel round bar of 150 mm in length "the handle"

you will also see that when I drilled the 6mm hole, I sommer drilled 4x 2mm holes on each top corner.
the distance was about 2mm from side to side.

these small holes are used to bend the steel wire as will be seen later.

here one can see the two upright bars welded as well as the handle.
the handle has a bend of 50mm and a hole of 6mm was drilled into the steel round bar, where the screw driver fitted through.
the screw driver is also flattened on the one side and this prevents one from pushing the shaft too far in.
it thus acts as a stopper.

from the other side, the 4x 2mm holes which is used to bend wire

so with that done, the allen key is pulled closer.
the reason for using the allen key is that it is hardened steel.
no you need to grind away 2mm of steel from the allen key.

the allen key is cut much longer then what is needed.
this allows for the proper clamping of the steel piece to the screw driver shaft where it will be welded.

seen here the allen key piece being clamped down. the spacing is just about 2mm.

here it is welded.
note that the back end will be cut off.

seen here the back is is cut off.
the front tip of the Phillips screw driver has a 2mm cut in it. I am currently exploring on how I will be using that cut.

but to this point, the slide maker is done and you can start making slides.

also note, the distance where the allen key piece is situated. if it is too far left, you will struggle to remove the turned slide.
if it is too far right, the shaft will not move away enough for you to remove the slide.
the distance on mine:
allen tip to the left is 25 mm. allen tip to the right is 40mm

it must be added, that when the handle is hanging the allen piece is on the top which allows for the easy fitting of the steel wire between shaft and allen steel bracket.

so right, now you can start to turn your own slides.

if you don't have a steel work bench like me, then you will need to drill 2x holes in the base of the steel. you would then need to fix the slide maker on the side of a work bench as the handle moves past the bottom of the slide maker.

right.
looking at this, you will see the wire is placed at and angle.
if the wire was placed straight, you will battle to clip the slide in.

right from there keep pressure down on the spring steel wire and start turning that handle.
as you start turning you can now start moving the wire at 90 degree to the shaft.
look closely at the spacing when turning.
seen here a 4 turn slide.

you need to practice plenty as you need to end with the turn where both the wires align as can be seen here.

from here on its your decision how long you want the back end turn.
I use a standard plier to grab hold and then bend the wire.
thus I have a uniform spacing.

so with the bend at about 90 degrees. you then need to choose the length of the front section.
you can then cut it off.
there is not a standard length that I use.
if you are going to silver solder the wire then you can cut it much shorter.
if you don't have a flame, then cut it off longer.

so decide if you want to fit a weight or not.
it is your choice. slide the weight up the shat of the slide.

now you can fit the front tip back into the slide maker on the longer slide "the one you will not be welding"
now make 1 turn on the slide maker.
the protruding piece of wire might catch on the bottom, but a 65% will be enough.

I did not fit a weight on this slide.
2mm is quite heavy and do you really need the weight?