Swinbait Lure Turner

[sammy01007]

I am having a lot of trouble fastening swimbait peices to my lure turner and still able to coat the entire peice in one shot, or even worse, having the peice move resulting in uneven distrabution. I have been looking for photo's in the forums, but any I have found show lipped baits.

Looking for pics and recommendations of how to propperly fasten these things.

Is there anything about a building a swimbait that is easy, besides testing my patients???

[mark poulson]

Here's what I built:

http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/3590-my-paint-shop/

It's two 18" plywood discs with a rotisserie spit passing through them, and the lures suspended between them. It looks like a little Ferris Wheel, and I got the motor and spit from a BBQ replacement kit at a local hardware store. 1 rpm motor works fine, since the farther out on the disc I suspend the lure, the faster it turns.

If I space the lures, I can coat them with epoxy easily in place, and they move slowly enough I can check them for coverage as they turn, and stop them if needed to add or subtract epoxy as needed.

[sammy01007]

How do you attach your swimbaits. It looks like you have eye holes in the plywood. Do you use wire from the bait to the turner? I had tried something similar, but used string, which didn't work because the string allowed the lure to rotate independantly of the turner.

[nedyarb]

Probably rubber bands, that's what I am guessing!

[mark poulson]

I don't use epoxy for a top coat anymore, so I don't use the turner. It's up in the rafters in my garage.

But here's how I rigged it when I did use it.

I used paper clips, hooked into the eye bolts on the wheels and through the line tie and the rear hook hanger on the swimbaits.

If I used a larger hitchhiker coil in the tail to attach a soft plastic tail, I clamped a hemostat onto the spring, and then use a paper clip to attach that to the eye bolt. Because the swimbaits were heavy, I put some tape, either blue tape or duct tape, onto the coil wire to give the hemostat something to grab onto, so it wouldn't slip.

In hindsight, it would have been easier and more fool proof to drill and attach a screw eye temporarily through the center of the hitchhiker for lure coating, and then remove it and seal the hole with D2T when the lure coating was done. Or just wait until after coating to attach the hitchhiker coil, which was seated in D2T.

I found that swimbaits were too heavy to suspend with rubber bands. But they work fine for smaller baits.

I found I couldn't come up with any top coat system that would protect wood baits from water intrusion, sooner or later.

So, when JRHopkins ( ) turned me on to AZEK PVC decking, which is hard, strong, buoyant, and totally waterproof, to use as a building material instead of wood, I began moving away from epoxy. I found I could use all the same building methods and hardware with PVC that I had used with wood, with no downside.

The totally waterproof nature of PVC let me switch to water borne urethane instead of epoxy, since I not longer needed a coat of armor to protect the wood.

For me, it works fine, and cuts a full day off my building time.

I still use wood sometimes, but only for small cranks, and now that I've found AZEK trimboard, which is as buoyant as balsa, I think my wood bait days are over completely.

But I'm just a hobby builder, building for myself and a few friends, so I only have myself to satisfy.

[sammy01007]

Thanks for the info. I bought some PVC to try as well. Working out of a Brooklyn Apt, I found the PVC difficult to work with. Plus there was no easy way for me to get the stuff, HP and Lowes are long walks from the train stations, had a very small selection, and carrying the stuff home was not fun either. But, come Feb, I will be moving into my first home in NJ. After aquire some electric tools, maybe I will give PVC another shot.

I have not seen anything but 1/2" thick PVC here in Brooklyn. Is it possible to get the stuff in 3/8" think, or would I need to cut it down?

Until then, I will keep fighting my battle with my Basswood swimbaits. I must say, I have been trying to get a good swimming swimbait now for a year with minor triumphs and many failures, but never get tired of trying!

[Sonny.Barile]

Sammy What area of Jersey are you moving to......

[markinorf]

I don't use epoxy for a top coat anymore, so I don't use the turner. It's up in the rafters in my garage.

But here's how I rigged it when I did use it.

I used paper clips, hooked into the eye bolts on the wheels and through the line tie and the rear hook hanger on the swimbaits.

If I used a larger hitchhiker coil in the tail to attach a soft plastic tail, I clamped a hemostat onto the spring, and then use a paper clip to attach that to the eye bolt. Because the swimbaits were heavy, I put some tape, either blue tape or duct tape, onto the coil wire to give the hemostat something to grab onto, so it wouldn't slip.

In hindsight, it would have been easier and more fool proof to drill and attach a screw eye temporarily through the center of the hitchhiker for lure coating, and then remove it and seal the hole with D2T when the lure coating was done. Or just wait until after coating to attach the hitchhiker coil, which was seated in D2T.

I found that swimbaits were too heavy to suspend with rubber bands. But they work fine for smaller baits.

I found I couldn't come up with any top coat system that would protect wood baits from water intrusion, sooner or later.

So, when JRHopkins ( ) turned me on to AZEK PVC decking, which is hard, strong, buoyant, and totally waterproof, to use as a building material instead of wood, I began moving away from epoxy. I found I could use all the same building methods and hardware with PVC that I had used with wood, with no downside.

The totally waterproof nature of PVC let me switch to water borne urethane instead of epoxy, since I not longer needed a coat of armor to protect the wood.

For me, it works fine, and cuts a full day off my building time.

I still use wood sometimes, but only for small cranks, and now that I've found AZEK trimboard, which is as buoyant as balsa, I think my wood bait days are over completely.

But I'm just a hobby builder, building for myself and a few friends, so I only have myself to satisfy.

Hey Mark,

I dont wanna hijack this thread, but I wanted to know about the pvc. Whats the finish like? Is it dense enough to prime without much filling?

[nedyarb]

Mark, will probably answer your question. But I use it and just spray primer right on the PVC. It looks good.

[mark poulson]

I used to use primer, but I found that Createx bonds to the PVC just fine. I use the primer to get a smoother surface if I want that, but, for me, it's a step I skip, since primer usually needs to dry overnight to let all the solvents escape.

I find that Createx paints have enough body to fill any surface texture that's left after I wet sand my blanks with 400 grit paper, and the top coat fills in the rest.

I'm a carpenter, and love working with wood, but if I'd have known about AZEK decking and trim board when I first started lure making (I think JRHopkins told me about it as soon as it became available) I never would have used wood for lures in the first place.