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finlander

Weighting Lures That Use Screw Eyes...

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Say you have the center of gravity where you want to place your front screw eye. And you would like the weight/lead to be there too. Is it ok to use lead in the hole where the screw eye is to go? Or use already poured, thin pencil type weights in front and in back of the screw eye? Does anyone pour hot lead into lure, especially one you have painted and sealed, one you have tested in water, and found out it needs lead or more of it?? yust vondering...da Finn

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@ finlander

I most likely weigh my lures individually in a water bucket , first tape on the weights on the temorary laquered blank(to prevent water sepage on the blank) ,....I never do it on a lure , that is already painted and topcoated .

This way I determine about amount of weight and neccesssary location .

I would mark the weight locations on the blank and embed these afterwards .

I never cast molten lead into a lureblank , .......I've heard of some Dutch and Belgian glider jerkbait builders doing so , but never on a finished lure but unpainted blanks only .

They'd cast more lead than neccessary into the lures ,........ whilst water bucket testing they'd drill out lead again to have the lure sink at desired rate and position .

If I should find , that ballast is neccessary right at a screw eye location , I would rather put the weights fore and aft the eye , as I most likely would have epoxied it into the body already prior to weighting and painting .

But in this case one might also utilize a longer shanked screw eye and put it right through the lead weight .

Olive or ball inline sinkers are well suited for this , as one only has to extend the line hole for the screw eye shank to pass through .

I have done this on rare occassions on "Spook" type topwaters , when I wanted the ballast to sit right at the very tip of their tails .

I would even carve the sinker to a conical shape to make up for a smooth transition with the wood blank .

greetz , diemai :yay:

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I just came up from 'da shopppe' and had a few 6-7" bodies waiting....I grabbed the drill and long but and drilled thru the bodies, nose to tail. Never tried on a small bait, just the larger 12 to 15" trolling lures. Went real well, better on the 2nd bait. Maybe I will need to go to a heavier wire, as this stuff is too thin for muskies. A heavier wire down below might act as a keel weight too. I hadnt been down in the shop for a week, so it was fun, trying new things. Not sure what to use to fill the void in the holes where the wire goes thru. I'll take any ideas. A wood glue is prolly cheaper than using epoxy. Doesnt that Gorilla Glue expand as it sets??? Thanks for reading, just rambling now off to bed.

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@ finlander

I haven't used other but epoxy before to glue in such thru-wires , like you've described ,....... as I don't only wanna fill up the void and/or seal off the interior of the blank , but really bond the harness to the wood as well !

I would get the liquid glue into the bores by sucking through with my mouth , closing all other exits with my fingers , ........never got it into my mouth , as it becomes quite hard to suck through once the holes are getting filled up and my epoxy glue is not that extraordinary liquid as well .

Certainly I would still apply glue onto the wire as well before inserting , so I can achieve perfect coverage with glue .

I do not thing , that using thicker gauge wire for the hook hangers would make sucha big difference in terms of ballast on 6" to 7" baits , surely they would require some lead into their bellies still ?

good luck , diemai :yay:

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Thanks for the tip. One fellow here in Michigan would use sawdust, and then moved on to small pieces of papertowel stuffed down in the holes to fill the voids. That was on the big baits where he used thru-wire. I used an 1/8" dia drill bit to do the damage. It went so smoothly I was shocked. Wish we had warm weather here. Dont know if there is any open water still. Lead is going in the hole where the belly hook hanger drops down. Two ton epoxy sets up so fast I love to use it but I have all this Etex that I could mix up and use in the holes too. Stand a lure on its nose or tail and pour. Will let ya know. Thanks, Bruce

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@ finlander

No wonder , that you are looking for a cheap alternative , 1/8" is a pretty large bore to fill up !

I would only drill holes of 1,5 to 2,0mm , that's about half as thick(wire shaft 1,2 to 1,5mm) ,....... but I won't do these on blanks longer than max . 4" , as the thinner bits are pretty much more subject to wander off center as your thicker one , .........only one or two crawlers , that I had rigged this way , were a bit longer than 4" .

Made these for an American muskie guy ,.... for my local pike I would have rigged screw eyes only !

But I most likely chosse this method for lures with rotating head portions only , so the centre wire shaft would be glued into their rear portion , the front portion would rotate on that shaft .

For thru-wired crankbaits a centered wire shaft is not absolutely neccessary , so I would either cut a slot in the belly and set in a wire harness or make the lure of two halves with the harness inbetween , .....it's just more hazzle-free IMO than drilling a long center bore .

I am sure , that pouring in Etex would work out ,......for my previously mentioned "sucking" method I take 5 min epoxy glue , not as liquid as Etex at all( and my bores are smaller)!

good luck , diemai :yay:

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Finlander, as to dripping hot lead into a wood cavity - you can do it but it is not very secure. The hot lead tends to char the inside of the cavity, making no bond with the wood. Slap the bait on the water to clear weeds and Kapow! - the lead shoots out the bottom. If you do it, suggest you pour into a hole that is wider at the bottom than at the surface. I much prefer to epoxy in the ballast. You can screw a screw eye into a lead ballast (I'd drill it first and add epoxy to the hole).

Diemai, I always wondered how you guys glued thru-drilled wire frames! I never thought of smooching the crankbait!

Edited by BobP
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