I have tried every type of shaft possible haha. I have made two of them and extended the s shaft. I just wanted to see which was the most comfortable and I am glad I did. I started by wanting the under the elbow shaft. I almost ordered one for $100+. I made one for around $25 and realized I hated it. The weight was only slightly better and it was not good in waist deep water due to the drag. I am glad I only spent $25 to find that out.
I then tried an extension on the S Shaft. This was a huge difference in weight and is a good option for someone who doesn't have the time to build one nor the money for a straight shaft. I think its a good temp option. So while I figured out what I was going to do next I used this. I was going to just use it for the summer and then buy a plugger in the fall or spring. But then I decided to build another because I had most of the parts already...
So I built a straight shaft one with the unit behind the elbow. I tested it yesterday and it was great. Very light, no wobble or anything like that, and I could very easily swing it all day. I found an
aluminum broom handle at lowes for $4 and I made my handle out of
PVC for $5. I didn't like the bike handle and this pvc one is much better and I wrapped it with a velcro strap but I think a piece of neoprene that holds a beer/soda can would be good too. I put links on this words to lowes so that you can see what I used. If anyone is looking to make one its very easy. You need a hack saw and drill. The holes for drilling are 1/4 and screws are size 1/4-20. Pretty simple to do. Any PVC you use should fit a 1/2'' piece of PVC as this is the same size of the S Shaft.
Here are some pics:
Some other things I did to this...
I have a plugger lock that I had bought for the first one I made that I used to attach the lower and upper rods although I dont think its needed at all and if you wanted it sturdy I believe a piece of duct tape would do the job. I used all plastic screws. I used a Oscillator saw to carve holes in the arm cuff so that I could fit a strap in there.
Total cost would be $36.19 if you were to buy and make exactly what I show here and had none of the parts already. As I said I already had most of this stuff from my other project and things laying around my garage so I actually just spent about $9 to make this.
Here is a breakdown of the parts. I looked them all up so if anyone wants to build this they would know how much it approximately costs:
Pole: $4.50 - lowes
Arm Strap for arm cuff: 4.90 - ebay
Screws (7): 4.84 - lowes
Handle: 5.59 - lowes
Lock: 10.89 - ebay
Velcro for handle: $5.47 - lowes