Reels & Making Them

by John Betts

with Michael Hackney

In creating Reels & Making Them, John Betts transcribed hundreds of pages of shop notes made over a period of two decades. The manuscript consists of over 450 pages of beautifully handwritten text and illustrations. More than 500 photographs and drawings illustrate the background, ideas, procedures, and sequence of steps used to make reels of aluminum, brass and exotic woods.

Reels & Making Them was published electronically in sections over a period of ten months. Each handwritten and illustrated page was individually scanned, color corrected, and assembled in to a PDF file for viewing, downloading or printing a personal copy. Although John is offering this book for free, it is a copyrighted work and you are not permitted to sell or redistribute copies of it.

The Eclectic Angler is offering a Reels & Making Them" DVD containing PDF files of the individual sections and the entire book in a single PDF file that can be conveniently printed or read on your iPad, iPhone, Android or other mobile device.

The book has its own support forum for announcements and discussion, so feel free to join in.

September 30, 2011 -	These sections complete the electronic edition of Reels & Making Them! adds Section 23 - The Aerial Reel Foot, Section 24 - The Line Guide, Section 25 - The Handler, Section 26 - Making Different Handle Screws, Section 27 - Drilling Holes in Spool Plates for the Handles, Section 28 - A Screw Slotting Jig, Section 29 - Scribe and Pencil Lines, Section 30 - Finishing, Section 31 - Using the Aerial, Section 32 - Four Odd Fish and a Good Cast, Section 33 - A Pathway to... ...Defining What We Do, and Section 34 - Final Thoughts. Plus a Map to Contents and Errata and a section on The Slip Clutch added to the end of Section 6.
August 4, 2011 -	adds Section 20 - Springs, Section 21 - The Compression Nuts, and Section 22 - The Hanger
June 14, 2011 -	adds Section 17 - The Center Pin, Section 18 - Making the Aerial Spindle Part II, and Section 19 - The Latches
May 12, 2011 -	adds Section 14 - Fitting the Spokes and Cross Members, Section 15 - Making the Hub and Drilling Jig, and Section 16 - Making Screws and Spokes
April 12, 2011 -	adds Section 11 - Why Aerials?, Section 12 - Making a Rose, and Section 13 - Drilling Spoke and Cross Member Holes
March 12, 2011 -	adds Section 9 - Creating Blanks and Section 10 - Turning Back and Spool Plate Blanks/Mandrel/Aerials
February 12, 2011 -	adds Section 6 - Making a Nylon Arbor, Section 7 - Making a Spindle Part 1, and Section 8 - Assembling the Reel
January 12, 2011 -	adds Section 4 - Making Earlier Reels and Section 5 - Bending the Frame Rings
December 17, 2010 -	adds Section 3 - A Diary
November 19, 2010 -	the initial release of Reels & Making Them includes the cover, frontis plate, front art, Table of Contents, Introduction, Section 1 - Shop Drawings, and Section 2 - Practice