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Lip Slot Jig

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Problem sorted, perhaps mods could delete post No1 and this text.

The problem is that the shaped body inevitably has curvature around the sides, this makes the use of the band saw very difficult to get a ‘square’ cut for the lip slot. The solution is some sort of jig to hold the blank.

We have all seen the Austin outdoors video, were James Marshal inserts a lure body (painted) into a jig of pins (20 seconds into the video):

this method works fine for James’s blanks, as his bodies have flat sides. My blanks have rounded sides, so this method would not be stable. I designed a different type of jig.

I made a mold of the rear end of the standard body, from Bondo, using a short length of PVC water pipe, glued down onto an old ceramic tile, as the mold box. I waxed the body, to prevent adhesion and made sure I only inserted half way, to prevent locking the body in the Bondo. A smear of wax inside the PVC tube helps, but the Bondo does not bind. A light side tap with a small hammer releases the pipe from the tile (slight chipping of the tile, but not a problem).

Make sure the master is up against the side of the pipe, this allows plenty of material for the next process. A length of scrap wood or something similar may be necessary to hold the master in the Bondo, while it sets.

Using the belt sander, I sanded a flat on the mold, parallel with the lure body. This flat rests on the belt sander table and holds the blank at the correct angle for slot cutting. The sanding of the flat will take some tweaking to get it perfect and will require a few sacrificial blanks to get it right. If you are making your own blanks, this is not a big problem, but if you are paying $3 a pop for them, it may be a little painful.

If you sand too much off, you can always glue a piece of wood to the base and continue adjustment. Another modification would be a wooden base with three adjustment screws to fine tune the alignment.

In use, it only takes seconds to cut the lip slot. This jig does not position the slot, merely holds the blank parallel to the band saw table, enabling different angled slots to be cut using the same jig.

Dave

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Problem sorted, perhaps mods could delete post No1 and this text.

The problem is that the shaped body inevitably has curvature around the sides, this makes the use of the band saw very difficult to get a ‘square’ cut for the lip slot. The solution is some sort of jig to hold the blank.

We have all seen the Austin outdoors video, were James Marshal inserts a lure body (painted) into a jig of pins (20 seconds into the video):

this method works fine for James’s blanks, as his bodies have flat sides. My blanks have rounded sides, so this method would not be stable. I designed a different type of jig.

I made a mold of the rear end of the standard body, from Bondo, using a short length of PVC water pipe, glued down onto an old ceramic tile, as the mold box. I waxed the body, to prevent adhesion and made sure I only inserted half way, to prevent locking the body in the Bondo. A smear of wax inside the PVC tube helps, but the Bondo does not bind. A light side tap with a small hammer releases the pipe from the tile (slight chipping of the tile, but not a problem).

Make sure the master is up against the side of the pipe, this allows plenty of material for the next process. A length of scrap wood or something similar may be necessary to hold the master in the Bondo, while it sets.

Using the belt sander, I sanded a flat on the mold, parallel with the lure body. This flat rests on the belt sander table and holds the blank at the correct angle for slot cutting. The sanding of the flat will take some tweaking to get it perfect and will require a few sacrificial blanks to get it right. If you are making your own blanks, this is not a big problem, but if you are paying $3 a pop for them, it may be a little painful.

If you sand too much off, you can always glue a piece of wood to the base and continue adjustment. Another modification would be a wooden base with three adjustment screws to fine tune the alignment.

In use, it only takes seconds to cut the lip slot. This jig does not position the slot, merely holds the blank parallel to the band saw table, enabling different angled slots to be cut using the same jig.

Dave

Nice one Dave. Thanks for sharing that mate.

Phil

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Great idea Dave. In the last picture it looks as if you have a sliding miter gauge on your band saw. If so, couldn't you adjust the angle on the miter gauge to the desired degree of cut for your lip slot and then use the miter gauge as a guide to make repeatable cuts when cutting multiple lure blanks? If possible, you could also attach some sort of stop to bump the nose of the lure against to position it. This would cut out all the measuring and layout needed to mark the lip slot. I'm pretty sure you've already thought of this.

Ben

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You are on the ball Ben. The mitre guage is there as a rough guide, just for now. The next project is a sliding adjustable edge mitre, that uses the edge of the band saw table. the jig will be located between two pins, this will confine the jig and still allow me to cut the slot width in two passes. Haven't completed the design idea yet, which is why I held back on the idea. I deliberately left the mitre in the pic, to show you that I was thinking in that direction. My guess was you or Diemai would have mentioned it, LOL.

Dave

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You are on the ball Ben. The mitre guage is there as a rough guide, just for now. The next project is a sliding adjustable edge mitre, that uses the edge of the band saw table. the jig will be located between two pins, this will confine the jig and still allow me to cut the slot width in two passes. Haven't completed the design idea yet, which is why I held back on the idea. I deliberately left the mitre in the pic, to show you that I was thinking in that direction. My guess was you or Diemai would have mentioned it, LOL.

Dave

Great minds think alike. (you and diemai) and then there are those of us (me) who just happen to step in it every once in a while. :P

Ben

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Dave - am I missing something here/? I can't see any pictures.

Pete

I have a slight problem, I have managed to delete every pic I ever posted. Jerry is working on it, but it looks like I am going to have to re-upload all the pics, could take months! Here's the discussion: http://www.tackleund...650#entry152650

Here are the pics for now.

Dave

post-14497-038235200 1284091337_thumb.jpg

post-14497-081676400 1284091362_thumb.jpg

post-14497-006128600 1284091398_thumb.jpg

post-14497-038235200 1284091337_thumb.jpg

post-14497-081676400 1284091362_thumb.jpg

post-14497-006128600 1284091398_thumb.jpg

post-14497-038235200 1284091337_thumb.jpg

post-14497-081676400 1284091362_thumb.jpg

post-14497-006128600 1284091398_thumb.jpg

post-14497-038235200 1284091337_thumb.jpg

post-14497-081676400 1284091362_thumb.jpg

post-14497-006128600 1284091398_thumb.jpg

post-14497-038235200 1284091337_thumb.jpg

post-14497-081676400 1284091362_thumb.jpg

post-14497-006128600 1284091398_thumb.jpg

post-14497-038235200 1284091337_thumb.jpg

post-14497-081676400 1284091362_thumb.jpg

post-14497-006128600 1284091398_thumb.jpg

post-14497-038235200 1284091337_thumb.jpg

post-14497-081676400 1284091362_thumb.jpg

post-14497-006128600 1284091398_thumb.jpg

post-14497-038235200 1284091337_thumb.jpg

post-14497-081676400 1284091362_thumb.jpg

post-14497-006128600 1284091398_thumb.jpg

post-14497-038235200 1284091337_thumb.jpg

post-14497-081676400 1284091362_thumb.jpg

post-14497-006128600 1284091398_thumb.jpg

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I have a slight problem, I have managed to delete every pic I ever posted. Jerry is working on it, but it looks like I am going to have to re-upload all the pics, could take months! Here's the discussion: http://www.tackleund...650#entry152650

Here are the pics for now.

Dave

Thanks Dave, I now know what you ,mean, I recently saw I was 100% full too, so I deleted quite a few pictures but nowhere near as many as you, hope you get them back, a lot of history there. Pete

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Thanks Dave, I now know what you ,mean, I recently saw I was 100% full too, so I deleted quite a few pictures but nowhere near as many as you, hope you get them back, a lot of history there. Pete

The pics will be comming back one way or another, even if I have to shoot them again.

What did you think of the jig? It has been working well so far.

Dave

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The pics will be comming back one way or another, even if I have to shoot them again.

What did you think of the jig? It has been working well so far.

Dave

Yes Dave forgot to have a look :blink: - Nice, very simple but effective, I was wondering why you would not do it before you started, but then the penny dropped, this is something anyone using a machine is going to have to come to terms with - Or if they are like me, forget to cut it in the first place.

Pete

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