I sure wish someone made the old nylon winding checks that the Clemens catalog used to carry. They were made or sold by Cork New York and you could dye them with Rit dye to whatever color you wanted.
I am just about out of them and would sure like to be able to get some more. They could be put on the blank and then pushed down into place as much as 8 inches or so with no problem. Wishful thinking on my part, I guess.

Most white plasic will dye with rit dye. If you have a lathe you could turn them to size dye them then put them on the rod. I ususally make all of my own winding checks from black delrin. I have some white plastic stock that will dye with rit, I just haven't done any yet.

I have a lathe, that isn't the point. These I bought by the hundreds for about 10 cents or less each and were great winding checks. I would like to find more of them.

This strech a lot (not tryed to dye them) [www.mudhole.com]

Black vinyl is not going to take a dye at all. These winding checks were a clear/opaque nylon and would readily take and retain any color that you dyed them. Thanks for trying to help!!

Randy -
The closest I've found I found at Ace Hardware and were sold as nylon bushings - they take a dye pretty well (RIT in hot water) but they hardly stretch at all so you need to buy a bunch in different inner / outer diameters & ream them out.

What about shaping a reel seat arbor Spry paint it and then spray some clear over

Bill - willierods.com