The complete Reels & Making Them electronic edition is NOW AVAILABLE on DVD-ROM!

Please note, this disk will not work in your television DVD player, you must use it in your computer. Simply insert the disk and double click the file named StartHere.html.

Reels & Making Them by John Bett's was published digitally in sections over a period of about ten months. It is free to download and print for personal use. However, the files are quite large. As a convenience, The Eclectic Angler is offering a DVD-ROM that contains the individual sections in addition to a single PDF file of the entire book. The book is 452 pages and the single PDF file is 964 MB. The DVD contains about 1.8GB of files.

The September 30, 2011 release completes the electronic edition. It contains all of the previous sections plus 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.

The August 4, 2011 DVD-ROM contains all of the previous sections plus Section 20 - Springs, Section 21 - The Compression Nuts, and Section 22 - The Hanger. These sections expand the previous editions on making Aerial reels.

The June 14, 2011 DVD-ROM contains all of the previous sections plus Section 17 - The Center Pin, Section 18 - Making the Aerial Spindle Part II, and Section 19 - The Latches. These sections expand the the April and May editions on making Aerial reels.

The May 12, 2011 DVD-ROM contains all of the previous sections plus Section 14 - Fitting the Spokes and Cross Members, Section 15 - Making the Hub and Drilling Jig, and Section 16 - Making Screws and Spokes. These sections expand the previous month's sections on making Aerial reels.

The April 12, 2011 DVD-ROM contains all of the previous sections plus Section 11 - Why Aerials?, Section 12 - Making a Rose, and Section 13 - Drilling Spoke and Cross Member Holes. This section begins what is essential a second book contained within Reels & Making Them titled Aerials.

The March 12, 2011 DVD-ROM contains all the previous sections plus Section 9 - Creating Blanks and Section 10 - Turning Back and Spool Plate Blanks/Mandrel/Aerials

The February 12, 2011 DVD-ROM contains all the previous sections plus Section 6 - Making the Nylon Arbor, Section 7 - Making the Spindle, and Section 8 - Assembling the Reel

The January 12, 2011 DVD-ROM contains all the previous sections plus Section 4 - Making Earlier Reels and Section 5 - Bending Frame Rings

The December 15, 2010 DVD-ROM contains all previous sections plus Section 3 - A Diary (51 pages).

The November 19, 2010 DVD-ROM is the initial release of Reels & Making Them and includes the book cover, frontis plate, front art, Table of Contents, Introduction, Section 1 - Shop Drawings, and Section 2 - Practice.