Daho Needle Tech Tips

General Usage Helpful Hints

These are helpful hints that can assist you in doing many of the basic tasks that are required in using hollow spectra needle tools. They are discussed here, in detail, so that all of the procedures that use these basic tasks can just reference them in their instructions.

Starting a needle at the end of your hollow spectra line - One of the more 'challenging' tasks, at first, can be to initially insert the point of your needle into the middle, hollow section of your spectra line. The spectra line is usually fuzzy at the end and will flatten out when any pressure is put on it, making the center hollow chamber of the braid difficult to find.

The recommended place to work with your needles is on the edge of a table or other flat surface. Put the line on the top of the table, straight for a foot or so, and place the end of the line at the edge of the table. This position gives you the ability to position the needle in the right position so it appears that it is extending from the line's position.

You need to use the point of your needle, the smaller the better for this purpose at first, to find the center of the spectra line. Once you have found the hollow center of the braid, the outer part of the line should look consistent in color and texture, and your needle should go up inside the spectra line easily, depending upon the outer side of the needle and the size/weight of the line.

If your the point of your needle keeps going through the line or you can see the needle being exposed through the line material in a non-consistent manner, your needle is not in the hollow center section of the line. Try and repoint the needle toward the center of the spectra line when trying to insert it, will help find the open braid center.

Trying to make the end of the spectra line more round can also help. Sometimes a little twirling action on the needle will also help it find the center of the braid. If you think the end of the spectra line has been abused too much, cut off an inch or so and reposition the line at the edge of the table and try again.

It really very simple to do once you have the hang of it.

Inserting a needle into the side of the line - Many procedures require you to insert your needle into the side of your hollow spectra line. In this task, you also are looking for the hollow center of the braid as when you are starting at the line's end. But in this task, you must start the insertion of the point of the needle at a 45% angle to the spectra line.

Once the point of the needle has entered the spectra line and before the point hits the table surface, start bringing the angle of the needle down towards the line while searching for the line's hollow center. A good way of doing this is to hold the line down on a table surface about 1/4" down the line, and using the inserted point of the needle, lift up the line a little while it is bunching up, searching for the center.

As with the end entry method, once you have found the hollow center channel, your needle will start going up the line and it will also be a consistent size and texture.

Feeding the needle inside the hollow center of the spectra line - Regardless of how you started your needle into the hollow center braid of the spectra line, feeding the needle and its attached contents, if any, is done the same way. You always want the line stretched out straight, at least a foot or more if possible, on a table or other surface. Sit with the needle in hand, pointed at the place the line comes off of the surface about 6 inches away.

Thread the line onto the needle, keeping the needle in the same straight line as the spectra line being pulled off of the table surface. The shape of the needle point will keep the needle in the spectra line's hollow middle as long as the needle and line are kept in a straight line.

Pull the line over the needle, from the point down a few inches on the needle. You will develop a process with your hands to pull the line onto the needle with one set of fingers and hold it on the needle with the other hand until it bunches up on the back part of the needle.

When this happens, hold the needle close to the point, and reaching toward the back of the needle, slide the bunched up line off the needle and down any attached lines, being sure not to put pressure on any attached lines that could release them from the needle.

You can continue in this manner until you have gone as far as needed to complete the task. When you are at that point, you just reach up and hold the line at the point of the needle, fold it over and push the needle point out of the spectra line. After the needle is removed, usually along with any attached line ends, the spectra line being threaded, will have no ill effects from the process.

Hollow spectra line and needle sizes - The middle of each size/weight of the hollow spectra line is only so big. We have attached our recommendations of applicable spectra line sizes for each of our needle products on Product Offerings page. If your needle is very difficult to thread inside of your hollow spectra line, you may want to recheck our line sizes. Our needle should go up the specified size/weight of the Spectra lines we specified with our products. But, all brands of hollow spectra line products are not exactly the same size. Also, each person using our needles may have different perceptions of what does, and does not, work right. If your needle feels tight while threading it in the spectra, you might try to use your fingernails, in a light manner, to move the line down the shaft of the needle. If you still think our needle is too large for your spectra line, you might try to first run an appropriately sized loop splicing needle up the line to 'open up' the line. This opens up the braid structure a little so that a larger needle can comfortably fit into the line.