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Griffond

Scrap Dowels Laying Around

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So I have a bunch of scrap dowels laying around from pine to oak and maybe even a couple of aspen ones(popal) I've made some small sunfish poppers out of the little ones but I have some nice chunks of 1 1/2" and larger to 2" that I was thinking about making into musky baits I've used them a few times to try and come up with some stuff along time ago and have pretty much been modifiing them to get them to work correctly... heck I even made a lure out of a broken hickory broom handle just for the fun of it... hard stuff to shape thou... any thoughts on the woods... or easy shapes I dont have alot of tools to work with but I'm just shooting for basic jerk baits.

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taper both ends for a jackpot stlye topwater or taper one end and cut the other at a 45 degree angle for a burt stlye dive and rise jerkbait, here some links

http://www.muskyshop.com/modules/cart/products.php/page/32/id/903/name/PoesGiantJackpot

http://www.muskyshop.com/modules/cart/products.php/keys/burt/page/1/id/684/name/DrifterManiaBurt9

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Riley I like the Jackpot idea that looks like something I could do with hand tools...since I don't have a lathe...

Got a link for the woodchopper type your talking about?

It works quite well to shape round dowels into spindle-shaped lure bodies either just with a carving knife knife and sandpaper or a disc/belt sander and sandpaper , ........off course it takes considerably longer and also a certain amount of elbow grease , ..........but when working accurately it would be hard to differ such blanks from lathe-turned ones , .................I started out this way as well about 20 years ago .

The latter is shown in here , as from 3:02 it is shown how to do the tail taper on a sander and with final hand sanding :

The carving method goes as follows :

-mark center of dowel end , draw a circle around center to resemble the about dia. at dowel end , ........draw a line around the circumferrence of the dowel somwhere away from the end where you wish the transition of the tail or also nose taper to begin .

-take your knife and start carving a blunt taper at the marked end , ......make sure to possibly take away equally sized chips , after every knife stroke turn the workpiece a littlle further around in your holding hand , take good care about equal material removal all around the circumferrence .

You should carve this blunt taper almost down to your circle marking at the dowels end center , just leave some "flesh" for sanding .

-now lead your knife a bit downward away from the dowe'ls end and carve away material at the transition of your blunt taper to the original dowel diameter , again make sure to take off equally sized chips all around the circumferrence , .....always remember to turn ,...... turn , ..... turn your workpiece , ....DO NOT carve on one spotor level alone !

-this way your blunt taper becomes a little more rounded , .....when done with that level on the dowel , still go further down the dowel to carve off material equally along the circumferrence , .........always lead your knife at about the same level around the circumferrence , always take away about equally sized chips .

-you'd procced this way , until you're satisfied with the shape and grade of your taper , ........do not carve right down to the transition line around the circumferrence , but leave some flesh for sanding again .

-with sanding it's the same again , .....after every pass you'd turn the workpiece a little further , ......constant turning and equal material removal is the key to an equally spindle-shaped lure blank having centered tapers on it's ends .

EXECEPTION :

If you should have found a spot that became too thick or out of center , you must sand this one back to level naturally , .....this should be the only occassion that one needs to remove material at only one spot or level of the taper !

To determine whether the taper is running centered to the outer diameter of the dowel just roll it over your workbench and eyeball down the taper from it's end , you'll see quite well , whether you need to rework on certain spots .

You can furnish blanks with a taper on one or on two ends this way , BUT , .......you must leave a reasonably large dowel portion untouched between the two ends , as this must be your reference for sufficient centering of the tapers(if making a taper on either end , first finish one side COMPLETELY before starting with the other) .

Naturally , for topwater lures you want to use only the lightest timbers you can get , possibly still lighter than pine , ......sinking gliders can be made out of less buoyant stuff .

Hope , that you could figure out about my humble explanations , .........good luck , 61diemai :yay:

BTW , ......google for "Woodchopper Lure" to access pictures , .......guess , that they are no longer made .

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Wow as usual diemai good video I think I watched that one on youtube a little while back just forgot about it... at 3:02 in your video what did you use to make those cuts with?

Sorry , mate , ...maybe it's not quite clear to figure out , ....this is also done on the sanding disc shown at 3.07 , ........first two paralell aligned curved planes , after sand to a square alignement and finally to an octagon , ...afterwards start to round off , .....either with a "Dremel" coarse sanding drum or coarse sandpaper , ......remember that constant turning and equal material removal is the key thing to remain centered with the taper .

The first grinding on the sanding disc takes a little "twist of the wrist" , as the single planes are not straight but somewhat curved , ........practise would occur whilst working ;) !

good luck , diemai :yay:

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I wonder if I can cut those angles with a table saw... and then round the edges

..............you would need some kind of a rectangular cornered jig to clamp the round dowel into , ........cracked my brains about it many years ago , but to me personally this freehanded grinding is the best and easiest solution , .......don't have a bandsaw , anyway .

Maybe make yourself something roughly similar like this :

http://www.klo-und-so.de/images/product_images/popup_images/rasoschs45rs-1.jpg

But instead of a ring of sheet metal you would do two semi-squared blocks of wood connected with a bolt and nut on either side , both countersunk for plain edges and with an approbiate bore in center to accommodate your dowel diameter .

This way you could clamp your dowel letting the end to be tapered sufficiently protruding , so you could access it with the sawblade to do four cuts everyone 90° offset to the previous one .

To do a octagonal taper , you would have to turn the workpiece around for 45° after having cut 4 planes .

Or , a bit more simple , ...take carpenter clamps and such an angled jig :

http://www.schneidladen.de/media/Sony$20Schneidlade$202$20003.jpg

Clamp your dowel into one corner , let the end to be tapered protrude an cut two opposing planes , .........you'd have to loosen the clamp now and turn around the workpiece for 90° , fix again and cut the other two planes , ..........for an octagon switch arounf for 45° again .

But one would have to take care about the clamps won't squeeze and indent the dowels at unwanted locations , .......probably use some kind of protection pads , .......last option would be woodfiller , ......anyway .

Disadvantage of both jigs would be , that you would hardly be able to see the sawblade , as the jigs would stand in the way , maybe one's gotta look from the side ?

OK , mate , ...this just theory , .....my weird ideas on a short term :lol: , .......up to you whether you wanna try it out !

greetz , diemai :yay:

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I was asking a friend of mine that does some machining to see if we could come up with a way to make a coning bit of some sort kind like an over grown pencil sharpener... thats actually what I used to put end on dowels I used to make sunfish poppers with the kids... worked great... they painted them and I just added the eyes and the hooks after dipping them about three times in clear coat ;-) just need to find something a little bigger to make those noses on those jerk baits... good news is another neighbor just gave me some more dowels... these are oak 1 1/2 inch good musky wood lol

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