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smitty919

saltwater builders???

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Smitty.....The reason I asked is that I worked there about ten years ago. I spent my coffee breaks outside smoking with the hvac guys. One of them was an avid fisherman and and we would trade off stories. His boss was the hvac co. owners son. RJ....they would mention a Smitty when they were talking. Just figured it might coencindentaly be you.

Andrea.........those are wicked cool...........

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Well.......Here is my first attemp. I found a peice of 1" x 2" pine in my garage. I dont have much in the way of tools so I had to make do. I dont have a vice so a 3" c-clamp had to do. I roughed out the side profile with an electrig jig saw. The rest was done with a 1" wide rasp and a 1/4" wide file. I didnt even have any sandpaper so I stole the peice that was in my sanding block. It was already used medium grit. I think its time to hit the hardware store. This didnt take very long.....about 20 minutes. If I had a belt sander I could probably do it in about 5. I would like an honest oppinion. Is this any good for a first attempt at the wood working part?

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Well.......Here is my first attemp. I found a peice of 1" x 2" pine in my garage. I dont have much in the way of tools so I had to make do. I dont have a vice so a 3" c-clamp had to do. I roughed out the side profile with an electrig jig saw. The rest was done with a 1" wide rasp and a 1/4" wide file. I didnt even have any sandpaper so I stole the peice that was in my sanding block. It was already used medium grit. I think its time to hit the hardware store. This didnt take very long.....about 20 minutes. If I had a belt sander I could probably do it in about 5. I would like an honest oppinion. Is this any good for a first attempt at the wood working part?

wow that would be a great first plug for any one

very nice think thats a great shape for mullet.

now that you got thrw the easy part now comes the hard part thats the lip placement and belly weights.

if you like a sideline coach let me know i will give you as much help as i can.....

kimbermaria@comcast.net

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Thanks.....I will take you up on that.

For starters.....this thing is 5-1/2" long 5/8" wide and 1" tall. I dont want it to sink to much....1 or 2 feet would be great. I modeled it after a lure I have in my tackle box exept that it is about 20% bigger. I can copy the shape, and angle of the lip. However, Im not sure how much weight to put in and where. Can you put all the weight in one spot or does it need to be disributed? The model I copied has a treble about 1/2" from the front and one on the bottom about 1/2" from the rear.

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I'd start by adding the lip, line tie, weighted hook hangers, and sealing the bait. Then add the split rings and trebles you want to use, and see how the lure sits in the water. You can use a bowl of water to test.

Add weight to the hooks (either lead wire or split shots) until you get the distribution and sink rate you want.

Then drill and epoxy in the weights, or melt and pour it, which ever you prefer. Myself, I don't melt because I've gotten more than my share of lead fumes over the years.

If you want it to run 1-2 deep, I'd weight it so it just barely floats (allow 3 grams for paint and epoxy), and use the lip to get it down to depth. Trying to get a lure to suspend at that depth, or any depth, is a nightmare, at least for me.

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Anybody know if polyurethane paint will stick to varnish? I want to undercoat the pine body with Helmsman varnish because I have a load of it and I hate mixing and useing epoxy. Also, does Gorilla glue work for the eylets?

Also, I have .030" stainless wire for the eylets and plan on making them in twisted fashion. Should the hole for it be tight or loose?

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Anybody know if polyurethane paint will stick to varnish? I want to undercoat the pine body with Helmsman varnish because I have a load of it and I hate mixing and useing epoxy. Also, does Gorilla glue work for the eylets?

Also, I have .030" stainless wire for the eylets and plan on making them in twisted fashion. Should the hole for it be tight or loose?

Can't help with the varnish/poly question. Maybe someone can weigh-in with some personal experience in using varnish as an undercoat. However, some of these things you just have to try-and-see.

I would caution against using Gorilla glue or any of the similar "ultimate" glues. They foam up while they cure, and the degree of foaming varies with humidity and moisture content of the glued surfaces. So, you'll likely have to clean rock-hard glue foam from your eyelets, and it's extremely difficult to completely remove from the eyelet. You can try it, but consider this a word to the wise.

The eyelet holes should be just large enough so you can poke some epoxy into the hole, and then press (and twist) in an epoxy-coated twisted wire eyelet. Too small and you'll have difficulty being sure you've got complete epoxy coverage, too large and you make more work for yourself.

Learn to work with epoxy. Repeat after me: "Epoxy is my friend." By not using epoxy for certain tasks, you're making your work more difficult, and you risk compromising both the strength and quality of your lures.

Hope this helps, good luck!

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Can't help with the varnish/poly question. Maybe someone can weigh-in with some personal experience in using varnish as an undercoat. However, some of these things you just have to try-and-see.

I would caution against using Gorilla glue or any of the similar "ultimate" glues. They foam up while they cure, and the degree of foaming varies with humidity and moisture content of the glued surfaces. So, you'll likely have to clean rock-hard glue foam from your eyelets, and it's extremely difficult to completely remove from the eyelet. You can try it, but consider this a word to the wise.

The eyelet holes should be just large enough so you can poke some epoxy into the hole, and then press (and twist) in an epoxy-coated twisted wire eyelet. Too small and you'll have difficulty being sure you've got complete epoxy coverage, too large and you make more work for yourself.

Learn to work with epoxy. Repeat after me: "Epoxy is my friend." By not using epoxy for certain tasks, you're making your work more difficult, and you risk compromising both the strength and quality of your lures.

Hope this helps, good luck!

Amen!

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I bought a clamp on bench vice tonight from Home Depot. ($21.00) I was using a 6" c-clamp which was really hard to work with. However, this thing is super greasy with black industrial machine grease. I am going to have to spend tomorrow evening cleaning it with alcohol and relubing just the threaded areas with some clear "3 n 1". I think it would be immpossible to keep the black grease from transferring to my wood bodies.

BTW..........I read just about every thread on paint, sealing, and undercoating. Im going to try the polyacrylic as a sealer and top gloss coat. From what I read, the standard acrylic paints wont have a problem bonding to it. I am going to do brushing for now. I can do it in the kitchen then......and not have to worry about to much mess. ...and I got some marine epoxy to use on the eyelets. Nasty stuff, but I guess the little batches that have to be made for eyelets is livable...........

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I use weighted hook hangers for the initial weighting, and then spit shot and lead wire, adding them to the hooks until the right weight is achieved. Then I pack it into the weight hole, which I predrill and seal, and hold with thick crazy glue, and then with 5 min. epoxy to fill the hole. If the hole's too deep, I take the lead out and put in some crumpled newspaper. Pushing the lead back in packs down the paper as far as it needs to go to get the lead past flush, but still as close to the bottom of the lure as possible.

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Thanks.....That sounds like it will work for the situation Im in.

I found a pattern for a simple flat sided twitch bait. The pattern reccomends using beech but I only had white pine and a peice of scavenged whit oak. I like working with pine cause it is real easy.....but I wanted to try working with the oak to see what it was like. Needles to say I will stick with the pine. I ended up with 2 bodies in oak and 1 in pine. Because I changed the density of the wood the reccomended weight probably wont do the trick. I will have to play with the size of the weight to make them all sit right. Also......The slab of white oak I scavenged was full of staples and it was so old and dry that the edges kept popping out. I had to do some major filling.

Anyone know what pallets are made of these days. I have access to a ton of them in work that arent weathered. They look pretty new. I was thinking of scavenging some boards up.

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...

Anyone know what pallets are made of these days. I have access to a ton of them in work that arent weathered. They look pretty new. I was thinking of scavenging some boards up.

Pallets are made from a variety of dense woods. Oak is perhaps the most common, as it stands up to forklift wear quite well. Oak is stubborn wood to make lures from, but will work.

Feel free to use domestic pallet wood for lures, but be aware that the buoyancy of the wood you encounter may vary widely. Some pallets come from overseas, and may be made of whatever's available. Those pallets may have also been fogged/soaked with insecticide, and for obvious reasons are not a good choice for lure building.

Hope this helps, good luck.

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Ok.........I finally finished that lure. I sealed it using polyacrylic. The paint is just some art store cheap acrylic paint. I dont think it is good for this sort of thing because it is real thick and doesnt lay up nice. I gave it a top coat of polyacrylic also. All of it was brushed on. I think I did ok with the wood working but my painting skills are just not there yet. The bait is about 5-1/2 inches long at about 1-1/4oz.The bill is not lexan as I didnt have any at the moment. I ended up using a plastic bass guitar pick. It is tortex plastic and not flexible so I thought it might work. It floats like it should in the sink and I will give it a cast in to the river tomorrow evening.

Also depicted is an attempt at a Divani No Twitch. I tried foiling it is painted with the same stuff as my other lure. Let me know what you think..............

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Walked over to river to give these a cast or two. I was very happy with the results. I twitched the lipped bait and it dives, wobbles then resurfaces maintaining its balance. I think I got real lucky with that being my first lure. The "Divani No Twitch was wicked. I put it out and cranked it back at various speeds. It has a really tight wobble and can be burned. I can see this being worked on the surface for blues here in Jersey. I am not so happy with my finishing though. I will be reading through all the tutorials tonight to try and better my abilities. It seems ashamed to put in hours and making something that works well only to have it look like some kid fingerpainted it.

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hay looks good.

dont be so hard on your self the painting can be just as hard if not harder than the carveing.

if it was easey every one would be doing it .....

it just gived you more of a idea on all the work that goes it to a good or great plug.....

just wait till you find what works great for you and you try to reproduce it thats fun real hard fun.

did you seal it with any thing or juat go with what you had ???

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