great way to make slides.

hey guys.  as all of you may know by now i figure i am the only guy in the usa that has taken an interest in slide fishing.  with that being said it is imposible to get anything you would need .  soooo i have been makeing my own tackle.  i have been makeing slides and catching good fish with them so i think its time to tell how im makeing them so mabey you guys can save a few bucks.

i will post pix as soon as my phone stops being a jerk.

anyway.  here in the US i couldent find spring steel for a resonable price.  so i work at a marina. and we get are uniforms cleaned every week.  well when they come back they are all nice and neet on wire coat hangers.  these coat hangers are springy, 2.4mm and galvinised steel.  so i found a video on youtube and made a jig out of aluminum to make slides.    it worked and there awsome.   

so if your looking for a cheap steel rod to make slides with try coat hangers.  they have been working great for me.

oh and if your woried about them rusting out.  yes  they will.  i have found that puuting them in a jar filled with wd40 or cooking oil stops this but you need to do it every time you go fishing .  

hope  this helps.

jason

ps.  i also didnt need to weld or solder the eye loops.  what i did was make an extra bend at the end.  when im done i put a peice of shrink tube over the joint.  this has held a 5 gallon bucket of water no problem.  thats in the range of 70 lbs.  if you put 70 lbs of weight on any surf rod it will explode.  in theory i dont see them failing.

Awesome, a few of us also make our own slides and it saves a lot of money but more importantly the quality of what we make is far better than the bought stuff. Personally I use 2mm S/S Spring wire and I solder it.

Just a warning about not soldering the loop, the swivel or loop connecting the swivel to the slide will never break when pulling with the rod, it snaps when the sharks roll and wrap the trace and leader around their bodies and suddenly the slide is the connection between 200-400lb steel and a 1,2-2mm Leader. When the shark flexes while it is wrapped way more than 70lb can be exerted on the slide and this is when your weakest link will be tested.

Here is one of my slides

Good on you for the DIY.

Also look at using Tig or Mig welding rods they come in 1 meter lengths and 3 slide can be had per meter of wire.

The size Diameter used is 2.0 mm to 2.4 mm.
There will be no need to protect them from corrosion.

If you are not keen on soldering the power swivel in Just wrap the wire back on it self 1 and a 1/2 turns would be more than adequate

Mango wrote:

Good on you for the DIY.

Also look at using Tig or Mig welding rods they come in 1 meter lengths and 3 slide can be had per meter of wire.

The size Diameter used is 2.0 mm to 2.4 mm.
There will be no need to protect them from corrosion.

If you are not keen on soldering the power swivel in Just wrap the wire back on it self 1 and a 1/2 turns would be more than adequate

Click to expand...

Yip the Tig wire works very well if you don't have soldering facilities because it is soft but won't get close to the strength of spring steel.
The Spring wire you will NEVER wrap around 1-1/2 times.

As Fluke Said NEVER .Even the slide coils are pain with the spring and my hands cant take that punishment any more even the 2.4 tig are starting to hurt maybe just getting old

As Fluke Said NEVER .Even the slide coils are pain with the spring and my hands cant take that punishment any more even the 2.4 tig are starting to hurt maybe just getting old