This technology has many benefits in the engineering, medical, manufacturing, & scientific fields. In fact, they're just starting to scratch the surface of what all is possible with 3-D printing.
So it had to happen, right? Someone has taken 3-D printing & applied it to fly tackle - specifically fly reels. Really, no joke. They take the blue prints, if you will, for a basic fly reel & load them into the printer & out comes a little plastic fly reel.
Now, I'm not exactly sure if I'm a fan of using 3-D printing for things like that. Science & medicine, sure, but to make fly reels? Why not, some would ask. Well, because the material & the methods seem to remove any 'human' element to the reel. I fly fish for many reasons & none of them are clinical - or probably practical - reasons. I want to know somebody who has been trained (& as such has dedicated themselves to learning the skills needed) had their hands in making my fly tackle. Come on, at the very least, keep a human somewhere in the actual process of making it.
Maybe I'm looking at it all wrong? I don't know.
Well, how do these reels hold up? How do they actually perform? We get to see just that in the video below. Enjoy: