When I stumbled upon this series of videos, showing a machinist / craftsman taking us through the process of them making their own fly reel I watched these videos with great interest. In each video we're looking over the shoulder of the reel maker. I could watch videos like this all day long!!
So if you're curious about how a skilled machinist might make their own reel &/or you enjoy watching folks at work performing interesting tasks, check out the video below. In this one we're watching him make the spool for his reel, but you can watch the entire series (which you can see on youtube) as he takes us through his process of making a reel from beginning to end. Enjoy!