[captsully18]

Have a question for you but it is off topic. Will send pm.

David[/quote]

oops! can't send you a private msg. NM

David

[borderbasser]

Hey captsully, try wiskeyunit167@yahoo

[mark poulson]

borderbass,
Try using masking tape to hold the parts until the glue sets. Or duct tape, or scotch tape, or any tape that will hold them. Masking tape is just cheap, and easier to handle than the other types.
If you have a close fitting joint, the wood glues mentioned will have enough strength to hold, and the joint will fail in the wood itself, not at the glue joint.
Do you drill the female part of you hinge slot after you've shaped everything as one?
You do some nice carving, and that's a clever hinging method.

[borderbasser]

Thanks Mark. I didn't think about using tape. I build the bait as one solid piece. Before I cut out the profile from the block, I drill a 5/8" hole where I want the pin to be, cut out the bait and get it shaped and sanded down to size, and then once it is finished, cut through both of the sides at the center of the hole to seperate the the joints.

TJ

[bdhaeh]

Incredible looking baits. I too have been thinking about trying the 3:16 hinge system with wood, just haven't gotten around to it yet. It is by far the best looking hinge for swimbaits. I have a couple of questions. Did you use a dowel for the actual hinge? Can we see a video of the bass?

Bravo!

[borderbasser]

Thanks bdhaeh. The hinges are made from a dowel, but I'm not sure what kind of wood it is. One word of caution though on this set up...especially on the smaller baits. On the bass bait, I was able to pull the tail section apart during a stress test (I used Devcon 5min), but I just reglued it since the tail section should not have much stress on it since there is no hook hanger on it. The only think that worries me is it may hit the water hard and just right and break it loose again. The problem, if you look is obvious. The part that seperated was the top hinge (could have just as easily been the bottom). If you look, there is not much glue surface there due to the profile of the bait. If you will go back and look at the pic of the bait that has not been painted, I reversed the hinge on the tail. In other words the top and bottom hinges are glued to the midsection and the middle one is glued to the tail. By doing this, I was able to get more glue surface on the top and bottom without sacrificing the glue surface of the middle one. I hope that makes sense. Oh, and by the way I don't have a video of the bait...wish I did.

TJ

[mark poulson]

The problem is that you're glueing to end grain on the lure itself. End grain is usually closed, so there's no way for a good mechanical penetration. But the hinge method is too nice to give up on. And the dowel stock is probably birch, since that's what most lumber yards stock.
One thing you might do is some oval sst wires, like an elongated C, that would embed in epoxy in the lure body, and in the face of the hinge. It's a little more work but it would provide a good penetration into the lure body, instead of just a face glueing situation. I think it would be relatively simple to embed them into the hinge first, making sure there is not overflow onto the round hinge face. After it sets, sand again, and put the epoxy on the lure body, filling the holes where the sst wires will seat. Then put it together, tape it, and clean the excess with alcohol. I think it might be too hard to get it right if you try to do it all at once.

[captsully18]

Originally Posted by mark poulson

The problem is that you're glueing to end grain on the lure itself. End grain is usually closed, so there's no way for a good mechanical penetration. But the hinge method is too nice to give up on. And the dowel stock is probably birch, since that's what most lumber yards stock.
One thing you might do is some oval sst wires, like an elongated C, that would embed in epoxy in the lure body, and in the face of the hinge. It's a little more work but it would provide a good penetration into the lure body, instead of just a face glueing situation. I think it would be relatively simple to embed them into the hinge first, making sure there is not overflow onto the round hinge face. After it sets, sand again, and put the epoxy on the lure body, filling the holes where the sst wires will seat. Then put it together, tape it, and clean the excess with alcohol. I think it might be too hard to get it right if you try to do it all at once.

Hey Mark, what if you joined the two pieces with twisted wires? Drill holes in the dowel, epoxy in two twisted sst wires, when set drill matching holes in the body section and glue dowel in? Sounds like it would work to me, but what do I know?

David

[borderbasser]

One thing I have considered trying is cutting a groove around the hinge and wrapping a sst wire around it set in the groove, and then on the backside twist the wire together like a hanger. Then, just drill a hole in the body where the glue surface is and glue it all up. Ofcourse, for asthetic reasons, a guy would probably want to fill in the groove with epoxy or something else, and sand smooth so there is no evidence of the wire. That is what is keeping me from doing it...seems kinda labor intensive. I have really been avoiding doing this anyway if possible, because it is so nice not having to deal with the problem of having the hangars and the hinges crossing paths inside the bait. So far though, I haven't had much luck pulling the hinges apart on the larger sections. I haven't pulled with quite all my might, but I think I have pulled on them much harder than any bass is going to. The only way to know though is to just go and fish'em and see what happens.

TJ

[captsully18]

TJ, I want to thank you for this thread, and your ideas on hinges. Last night I modified one of my wooden baits that I had not finished. It was already shaped for the hook-eye/pin hinge, so I just used my drum sander to shape the joints for a 5/8 dowel, measured the distance, cut dowel, then cut into three pcs., glued them in, voial, had the best performing hinges I have ever had. Didn't look nearly as good as yours, but with practice who knows. Many thanks for your insight and pics.

David