[hazmail]

pete - very sharp work and excellent result. can't help with the wire twist, but some of these pliers look interesting. Just thinking , can you twist the wire first and slide a large 'split shot' down along the wire - do you fill with molten lead or just bogg? pete

[Yake Bait]

Haz & Sagatious,

The pre cut and dril idea sounds like a good one. Twisting the wire will draw it dowin into the hole making it a non issue.

Question with regards to filling the hole with lead, it is molten to lock the wire in place. The balance is epoxied to get a clean finish.

Rofish - the first hole I drill is the main tunnel, followed by the hook eyes and recessed areas on the nose and tail. Because the baits are longer than the quill travel on my drill press, the drilling operation has to be done in a couple of steps. The key is to do a good job with alignment relative to the bit and once you have it, keep it clamped in the vice until you are ready to flip over and to the other side. I have to do the lead hole last because until the bait is assembled, I'm not sure where it needs to be to make the bait sit level in the water. In hindsight, I haven't done myself any favors making a different shape every time I build a glider because the lead placement cannot be pre-determined. After I test this one in progress as well as my Carp II lure, I have a good blueprints documented so that I can repeat without as much fooling around. Got the idea of documentation from my buddy who homebrews and takes extremely detailed notes about the process.

[Tony Maxwell]

Pete,
Excellent explanation and pictures. Why didn't I think of something like that?? Keep up the good work. Hope the weighting is a non-issue. Just being nosey, what kind of wood are you using?

[Yake Bait]

Thanks Tony. The wood is maple and it always breaks my heart to paint over that beautiful wood grain. I just finished coating this lure in 2T epoxy and is is turning as I type. Hoping to give it a test run sometime early this week weather permitting.

[Spike-A-Pike]

Pete,
That bait looks great in the little thumbnail, but when I open it to full size, it about knocked me out'a my chair. BREATHTAKING!!!

[Crimson_Death216]

Beautiful lure Yake.

[mark poulson]

I keep track of layout, weighting, and hinge and hanger locations by making a tracing of the lure on a piece of paper and marking and labeling all the locations and weights right on it. After I cut it out, I have a template for another with all the info right on it.

[Yake Bait]

Did exactly the same thing on the last two. I plan to photocopy the template for future use on new lures. In the past I used the original template for stencil work, no more!!!

[kubotek]

If i may ask a question? Yake bait how do you get the eye hooks attached to the main wire that runs from one end of the bait to the other?
I have started to draw this up in my cad software. I'm going to get it CNC cut hear at work. I plan on using your idea here. If you don't mind that is. I can also drill it at work on a Bridgeport. we have up to 12 inch drills here. so i would have the depth without having to drill from both sides.
That is an option for you also. By a longer drill!

[Yake Bait]

Please feel free to use the idea, that is why I shared it. After drilling the through tunnel from nose to tail using a 1/8" bit, I switch to a 1/4" forstener bit then drill from the belly to the tunnel.

If I had a lathe or a drill press with longer quill travel that is the way I would do it. Longer bits do not help since I have a 12" drill press and they become impossible to get into the work piece and chucked.

On a different thread a great suggestion was offered by Hazmail where a nail is used to reference where your drill bit goes and then you place the pice on the nail and go right through it. I tried it but with an 8" lure I need the stability of a vice and have to get through it from both sides due to 3 1/4" quill travel.

The next step is bending the drop loops shown in the photo. Thread the main wire through and the belly hooks hang off of it. You need to be able to make a tight loop on the internal side to get it to fit in the hole. If there is some interest, I will get some photos the next time I do this and put it up on a tutorial.