Part 2: Making Spider Bodies

[Bruce Tomaselli]

There must be a cutter or a way you can cut your own spider bodies. Anybody have any ideas? I'd been willing to pay for a few size 8 and 10 to use for forms. I keep thinking there has got to be a way to make your own.

[jim cosgrove]

[jim cosgrove]

really simple bruce,i make these with a simple paper hole punch.fold the foam and put in the punch to make two connected circles

[Rob Bowen]

These guys make all kinds of foam cutters. They are a little pricy, but they are great.

http://www.riverroadcreations.com/index.htm

[David Devine]

Morning Bruce, I seen a video of a guy using spent cartridge casings to cut foam, he was using a 30 call.But a 22 might be better. He also had some he crimped into an oval I am going to give it a try. Tight lines, Dave

[jim cosgrove]

i believe those are by a member named don?a good friend of mcscruff"s.

[Rob Bowen]

That is a great idea. I'm going to try that when I get home.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

I call the Cosgrove versions - "Two-Disc Spiders," because, well, they look like two discs joined together.

They can be a little tricky to get them cut, yet still leave the adjoining segment so they unfold into the Two-Disc shape. I find the size of the cutter has everything to do with making this work, and the aim is to cut out the folded disc on only three sides.....

And I have used spent cartridge casings for this job for some time now. I use the following

.30-30 (.30")

.357 Magnum (.38 Special, or 9mm P also work for this size)

.41 Mag (.40 S&W Auto)

.45 ACP (.45 LC)

You could go even smaller, if you want. I don't find it necessary, and its somewhat more tedious and fiddly than I like.
The smallest I would consider is quarter bore, say .25 Auto, .243 WCF, etc.

[Rob Bowen]

Do you think you could just tie in two separate disks? Or does that not work very well?

I'm away from my tying equipment so I can't try it myself.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

You can do that: Ive done something like it, in fact

Just pinch one side of a foam disc to create a little "tit," then tie the tit to the hook shank. Once both discs are tie in, hit the tie point with a bit of CYA, or head cement if you like the old school way.

Once the legs are tied in between the discs, a bit of dubbing or a wrap or two of hackle should hide the tie point and blend things together.

But use light wire, or dry fly hooks. The foam discs don't float much weight and a heavy hook will pull the fly down.