With all of the different tube fly supplies out there keeping track of the needles for each brand can be a real chore not to mention expensive!  There are a couple of tube fly adapters out there and they all claim the same things: "holds tubes secure without spinning, fits all tubes..."  After trying a few of them I have finally settled on the Eumer tube fly adapter as the most versatile and highest quality.  Unlike the HMH adapter, Eumer has added a few more mandrels and a tightening chuck to their adapter which allows you to tighten down the tube to actually prevent it from spinning.  Here is how it works:


To start you simply clamp the adapter in your vice just like a hook.  The wide surface plate does a nice job holding preventing the adapter from moving around in the jaws.  After the adapter is in place you select the mandrel that fits the tube you are working with and slip the tube over it.  Next, you insert the end of the mandrel in the adapter and tighten the knob on the bottom, which holds the pin in place.  Finally, for and extra tight fit and to prevent the tube from spinning you tighten the chuck up on the tube.  Simple and effective!


Most tube adapters do not have the chuck and rely solely on the pressure of the pin to keep the tube from spinning.  The Eumer adapter with chuck allows you to hold a wide range of tubes very secure. 

The Eumer adapter also comes standard with five mandrels.  Three of the mandrels are of different diameters and feature brass heads which prevent the tube from coming off the end.  The additional two mandrels have two different tapers for a pressure fit tubes. 

In Sum: Of all the tube adapters I have tried (and that includes most of them) the Eumer adapter is by far the best.  The clamping surface holds the adapter secure, the chuck allows for a tight no-turn fit, and the inclusion of five mandrels make this unit the best out there.  I tried tubes from HMH, FITS (Guideline), Pro-tubes, Tubeology, and Eumer and with the exception of a few of the FITS tubes, which require a two-part tapered mandrel they all worked great.  I did have one of the brass caps pop off the adapter when tightening down a plastic tube, but a quick fix with 5 min. epoxy fixed it and it has worked very well ever since.

Disclosure- Eumer provided the featured products free of charge for me to review. I was not compensated in any other way for this blog post.