Two thumbs up for this outstanding tutorial and the plans. I would add a few thoughts of my own.
When I first started learning the art of woodworking I noticed that many beginners had a similar motto, "We do things right because we do things twice". If you plan to invest the time, efforts and cost into building your own traps then do it right the first time. If you spend the extra time and $$$ from the start you will have a set of tip ups that can last for generations and become heirlooms.
I sure can appreciate the budget minded who cut corners and use much cheaper parts but I would not go this route when I figure in my time and efforts. I had a bunch of leftover Teak wood from other projects so I used it for my tip up build. Teakwood is very stable around a marine environment as is Mahogany. I bought all high quality parts that I could find, SS fasteners, plastic or Aluminum spools, Aluminum or SS trip tubes from either Heritage or Jack Trap if you can source these parts. Building with the highest quality parts did in fact run the finished cost up to and maybe more than I could buy the tip ups for from either company. The project was certainly Time Intensive in the end but well worth it IMO. I spent a few months sourcing all the stuff and cutting all the sticks from my stockpile of Teakwood. When I had some spare time I worked an hour here and an hour there until I had all the parts ready to go for the final assembly. I did not have the great plans found here so it was a bit of hit and miss along the way while copying from existing tip ups that I already had. As is often the case with lots of my woodworking projects, once a few buddies or others see the finished product they tend to need them more than I do and start bidding to buy them. I don't even remember who it was but out on the ice while fishing a complete stranger eyed my tip ups and started asking lots of questions. At the end of that day after I got all picked up and ready to head home that guy came over and asked if I would sell the set of 5 tip ups to him. At first I said No but he was pretty intent on going home with them as a gift for his son who was about to graduate from medical school and he did have a pocket full of cash. On the drive home I did have some regret for having sold them but when I got home I had more than enough money to buy a full set of super nice Oak Jack Traps that arrived a week later ready to fish.
