Mouse Trap Rod Winder By Brian Ahern, Helena, Montana This is an actual drawing of the rod winder that I used from 1971 to about a year and a half ago. With one side of the mouse trap bar cut off the trap serves as both a spool holder and a device to adjust the thread tension. The bar is bent to adjust tension. For this little article I tried a couple of different makes of traps and Victor was the only one that did not come apart. If your area lumber yard custom cuts, you may well find usable stock in their scrap bin. Mine was ¾" pine from the ends of an apple crate. While employed at Kicking Horse Job Corps in Ronan, MT, in the 70's, rod building classes were held in the evening and each corpsman that built their own rod also built their own Mouse Trap Rod Winder. This is a fairly straightforward project. The stock can be purchased from a lumber yard or craft shop. Michael's pre-cut ½ in. and 1/4 in. plywood is just the right size, and inexpensive. With this stock, the only cut necessary is the V-cut in the supports. A drill to drill pilot holes and for attaching the sides to the base, screw, sticky-backed felt and a tube of glue and a mouse trap is all you need for this project. The sides are screwed and glued to the base as is the mouse trap. This served me well for a number of years. When I got back to rod building after an absence of 25 years I built a new winder so I would look more classy along with these fancy new Graphite Blanks. ~ Brian Ahern (Rovercat) Hatches Magazine Subscription Price: $6.95 for each issue The Premiere issue is ready for shipping & the Fall 2008 issue will be available September 1st.