Where can I buy swinger hinges?

[tincatinca]

No chance of fishing but I did manage to spend a fair bit of time in the shed this weekend. I have managed to rough out most of the parts for three assemblies and I must admit that I am quite pleased with the results so far. Everything is centered around the bankstick clamp which can be used either to connect the monkey climbers or the swinger. Had a few hairy moments boring out the swinger blocks but thankfully they have come out okay. Everything seems to work well and I have now just got to sort out the heads and how to attach them. Having spent a bit of time looking at what is available I think I will get some of the Gardener lightweight bobbins and find a way of attaching them to the arms. Once I have done that I can then fine tune everything, makesome additional weights for the climbers and trim off any excess. Need also to modify all the screws to the correct length, and find some longer 5mm srews for the swinger stops. With a bit of luck should then have them completed next weekend.

 

 

 

 

[Anderoo]

Looking good Tinca. Much more interesting than bream fishing!

 

(By the way, I've been reading about Tony Miles' exploits at Queenford recently. He had 4 bream in 8 years! He doesn't talk much about rigs, bait, when fish were caught, or much else in any detail though, unfortunately. Great stories though.)

[tincatinca]

Looking good Tinca. Much more interesting than bream fishing!

 

(By the way, I've been reading about Tony Miles' exploits at Queenford recently. He had 4 bream in 8 years! He doesn't talk much about rigs, bait, when fish were caught, or much else in any detail though, unfortunately. Great stories though.)

 

Thanks Anderoo. How are you getting on with yours. If you are having problems with any bits drop me a pm and I will see if I can help you out. Bream dreams . I must admit to have had some too. At that rate each swinger will rise once in every seven years.

[Rob Ward]

I've been thinking about this a little and am considering butchering a set of swingers and replacing the arm with a two foot version:

 

I'd use these with a two foot bankstick extension so they're not mounted directly under the alarm and could go up or down two feet without quite hitting the rod or the deck!

 

Andrew - rather than swinger hinges you could just extend a normal swinger and then add one of the hinged line clips from Solar or similar:

 

Edited January 11, 2010 by Rob Ward

[Anderoo]

Yes, I'm just going to get a cheap set of carp swingers off ebay (ones with a hinge at both ends and a decent adjustable line clip) and replace the short arms with long ones. I still want bobbin heads so they can house betalights. Nothing fancy and not perfect, but I can't see why it won't work well enough for bream!

[Rob Ward]

I don't know why I've never thought of this before but I've got a set of those Fox illuminated euro swingers that I bought years ago but never really used.

 

 

I'm sure I could just drill a small hole into the plastic head to accomodate an extension arm and then fit a lightweight bobin head with a hinged line clip - jobs a goodun and all the boxes get ticked?

Edited January 11, 2010 by Rob Ward

[tincatinca]

There are three main problems that I have found when playing about with long arm swingers these being rigidity in the arm, the weight at the end of the arm and the ability to conrol the movement in the arm.. I played about with the fox swingers and made new arms approx 2 foot long but they bent all over the place and would certainly have caused problems on striking. Using the same dia stainless wire, the best I could achieve for the swingers to work properly was with an arm about a foot long. You could have used a thicker wire but this would not have produced much benefit and would have involved too many mods.To me personally the key is to maintain rigidity in the arm and that brings the problem of additional weght at the end of the arm. For example if you had an arm that was say 3 feet long and the bobbin assembly at the end of the arm weighed 1oz, the down force at the end of the arm would be a minimum of 3oz. It is because of this problem that I have gone down the route that I have using aluminium tube for the arms. It is both light and reasonably rigid.I would like to have used old rod blanks but could not find anything suitable. My own opinion is that you do need to counter balance behind the pivot point which coupled with a small sliding weight at the front enables you to set the from neutral to fully loaded. Imagine a standard fox swinger with a long arm and the adjustable weight placed at the end. The downforce at the end would be considerable. Just imagine a bite from the fish of a lifetime and the indicator not working properly resulting in a lost fish.

[Anderoo]

I don't know why I've never thought of this before but I've got a set of those Fox illuminated euro swingers that I bought years ago but never really used.

 

 

I'm sure I could just drill a small hole into the plastic head to accomodate an extension arm and then fit a lightweight bobin head with a hinged line clip - jobs a goodun and all the boxes get ticked?

 

Almost! The only other thing I would want is that I can attach them anywhere up or down a bankstick, rather than just at the top below the alarm. If you can clip it anywhere, you can have (for example) a 2ft arm which, if clipped halfway up the bankstick, would allow for a 4ft drop.

[Rob Ward]

There are three main problems that I have found when playing about with long arm swingers these being rigidity in the arm, the weight at the end of the arm and the ability to conrol the movement in the arm.. I played about with the fox swingers and made new arms approx 2 foot long but they bent all over the place and would certainly have caused problems on striking. Using the same dia stainless wire, the best I could achieve for the swingers to work properly was with an arm about a foot long. You could have used a thicker wire but this would not have produced much benefit and would have involved too many mods.To me personally the key is to maintain rigidity in the arm and that brings the problem of additional weght at the end of the arm. For example if you had an arm that was say 3 feet long and the bobbin assembly at the end of the arm weighed 1oz, the down force at the end of the arm would be a minimum of 3oz. It is because of this problem that I have gone down the route that I have using aluminium tube for the arms. It is both light and reasonably rigid.I would like to have used old rod blanks but could not find anything suitable. My own opinion is that you do need to counter balance behind the pivot point which coupled with a small sliding weight at the front enables you to set the from neutral to fully loaded. Imagine a standard fox swinger with a long arm and the adjustable weight placed at the end. The downforce at the end would be considerable. Just imagine a bite from the fish of a lifetime and the indicator not working properly resulting in a lost fish.

 

Say I took the above swinger and drilled a small hole in the plastic head to accomodate an additional 12" section of aluminium tube and then fitted a lightweight indicator head like these:

 

 

The counterbalance weight would remain in the same place and can be pushed back behind the pivot point so wouldn't the only additional weight be the aluminium tube and indicator head?

[Rob Ward]

Almost! The only other thing I would want is that I can attach them anywhere up or down a bankstick, rather than just at the top below the alarm. If you can clip it anywhere, you can have (for example) a 2ft arm which, if clipped halfway up the bankstick, would allow for a 4ft drop.

 

Two foot bank stick extension?

 

If the indicator is two feet long and sits vertically two feet below the alarm wouldn't that give you the desired effect i.e. it could go up or down two feet, haven't looked at the ultimate bobbin thread for a while is the consensus now that a longer drop is needed?