Having trouble with Dyna King and small hooks

[SFMike]

I have a Dyna King Trekker Jr that is about 3 years old. It has two grooves in the jaws and those are absolutely great for holding big steelhead size hooks. No slip or movement at all. But when I try to tie smaller flies now, I can't get the vice to hold well. The grooves are too big to hold a small fly and I've broken a few hooks where the grooves bend the hook to make the hook fit inside them.

Just last night I was trying to get a good grip on a size 10 scud hook and it was nearly impossible. I'd have to crank down the handle so hard that I thought I would damage either the jaws or the hook and even then the hook would slip sometimes while I was tying. And this is trying to hold the hook with the flat part of the jaws; I'm not trying to hold the little hooks in the grooves.

I'm sure a few other people have this vice and hopefully can give me some info on it. Am I doing anything wrong or do I have to get a different set of jaws to hold small hooks? And I'm not even talking about size 20 or smaller. I'm having trouble holding size 10-16 hooks. I'm hoping that somehow I'm just doing something wrong and there's an easy fix. But at the moment, I feel like my old $20 Thompson Model A held those small hooks better!

thanks a lot for any advice or info.

Mike

[paulegan81]

IMHO you should order a set of Midge Jaws from dyna-king and when you do have them send you another collet(sp) and O-ring...... when changing the Jaws the edge of the jaws can scratch the threads of the ring causing uneven tightening......
Just leave the ring on the jaws and change both pieces at once........
the midge jaws are serrated and hold hooks down to size #24, prolly smaller but that is as small as I have used........

Hope this helps
Paul.......

[oldtrout]

What Paul said. The midge jaws are on my vise a majority of the time.

[SFMike]

Thanks for the replies. I sent Dyna King an email too about it. I'm going to look into the midge jaws, but shouldn't their standard jaws be able to grip a size 10 hook?

If I do buy the midge jaws, is it pretty easy to change the jaw types back and forth for when I want to tie big steelhead flies? And are the midge jaws pretty expensive?

cheers,
mike

[paulegan81]

Dyna-Kings large Jaws are not serrated and their for do not hold small hooks very well for up and down movement......

on your trecker I am not sure but it should be as easy as spinning the collete loose and pulling the jaws out and then sliding the new ones in and then secure the collet ..... just make sure you get an New collete with your jaws....

Last time I bought a pair they were around $35..... and the Jaws only come with a one year warranty,... Life time on the finish
In other words they (Dyna-King) will polish your vise for you as long as you own it If you pay the shipping.....
It is a great vise nun the less and my Midge jaws were chipped when I tried to put a large hook in them to close to the tip and it sprung out when tying..... i didn't have my large jaws with me and someone asked me to show them how to tie some big o'l bug????? this was years ago and now I just have both sets in my kit at all times......

Hope this helps.......

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I would think the standard jaws should hold a #10 or even a #16 hook?

We have very little problems with DynaKing vises and they are the first choice in a quality vise for most.

We have sent a few of them back over the years and they are usually fixed no charge.



**Our Annual Kiene's Fly Shop Expo is next Saturday so if you bring your vise there will be lots of top tiers there who can check out your vise jaws.

[SFMike]

I just talked to Karen at Dyna King and she said they've seen the standard jaws hold up to a size 32 hook! However, like Paul mentioned above, I've had trouble with the smaller hooks slipping up and down. She thought that maybe I just wasn't really cranking down the vice enough. She also said that they could add serrations to the smooth part of the standard jaws so that they hold smaller hooks better. That sounds like it might be the cheapest and easiest solution.

I'll try the vice again tonight and really crank it down, but if I feel that the vice isn't gripping well enough I'll send it back for repair and see what they can do. It sounds like they have excellent customer service and will really try to fix my problem instead of just trying to sell me a new vice or pair of jaws. So hopefully it will all work out...

[Hairstacker]

Although I don't own a Dyna-king, I'm surprised "really cranking down" is the suggested answer. Wouldn't that potentially risk bending/breaking some part of the vise?

Something doesn't seem right, as Dyna-king vises are noted for their hook-holding ability. You might also try posting this at www.flytyingforum.com just to see if any others have run into the same issue -- there are a lot of Dyna-king vise owners at that site.

[Mike R]

I have a kingfisher (same jaws as trekker) and regularly tie flies down to 18 and have tied 26's on it. I just put the hook in there and clamp it down. It will move a little but it'll hold enough to break 6/0 thread. That's enough for me.

See ya,
Mike

[Jgoding]

You shouldn't really have to crank down on a vice to secure a hook. I remember I used to do that when learning and all it did was break the hook or indent the jaws. When I started tying again I bought the Dyna King travel vise as their jaw design seemed pretty solid. Held hooks pretty well in my opinion but the vise just didn't suit my needs. I looked at getting one of the Dyna King rotaries but opted for a Nor-vise instead and haven't looked back.