Joe

Skeeter, I almost hate to do this to you after all you have been through, but here goes. I work in my garage. It has heat and A/C. During warm weather the Devcon seems to flow on fairly smoothe, no problem. When the days are cold( I'm still in the garage 68- 74 degrees) The Devcon seems to be verry thick and goes on in globs. If I cover the entire bait with this extreemly thick coat and put it on the wheel will it still level out and dry properly? It seems the working time I have with a batch of mixed Devcon is about three min. I mark the syringe every 1/4 in. , for the baits I'm making, 1/4 in. covers two lures so I'm mixing only what I need to coat two baits at a time. Sorry to keep beating a dead horse, but this is the most important step. Thanks, Joe P.S. Did you receive the package?

Hi Guys, In one of the post sometime back, it was said that some types of plastic was not good for lips. I beleive the problem was cracking in cold weather. A friend gave me several peices of a product called OPTIX, by Plaskolite the sticker says acrylic sheet. Does anyone know if this product would work for lips or is Lexan the only material durable enough to use? Thanks, Joe

Hi Guys, I have upgrated to the Paache VL, had been using an old Badger 200. The instruction book does not give a lot of info on the adjustment wheel that is in front of the triger. Do you have to reset this for each type of paint used or is it pretty much a perminant setting once you get everything working properly? I am currently using Createx paints. Thanks, Joe

I have been using the Minwax polycrylic for about six weeks now. After sanding my baits, I dip the lure in the sealer shake off the excess and rotate for a few hours. the next day I lightly sand and repete the process. The Polycrylic will cover wood grain, not allowing it to show through. After sealing, I put Two coats of white Krylon primer. I know some guys here have had problems with the Krylon, but so far I have not. After the prime coat, I paint with Createx. The topcoat is two coats of Devcon 2. The reason for two coats is I have some fairly sharp edges on my cup faced popper and the extra coat was needed to protect this thin edge. The finish looks great, with no grain showing ,but as I said, I have only been using the polycrylic a short time so I'm not sure how it will hold up over the long haul. Joe

Chip , I have been following your tutorials and really enjoy them. Keep up the good work. I remember in a post some time back you explained how you cut the slot for your bills. Would it be possible to show how this is done in your tutorial? I think I understand how its done, but to see the pics would be great. Thanks, Joe

I have used both scroll saws and band saw for many years not only for making fishing lures, but also for cutting out very small carvings such as duck pins and fish that are only 3/4 to 1 1/2 inch in size. Both type saws work well for the task, especially if you choose the right blade for the job at hand. With a 1/8 in. band saw blade, you can do just about anything you could do with a scroll saw. The scroll saw is best for detail work and soft woods. If I were able to have only one type saw to use, it would be the band saw. My band saw is an old Sears model on its own base, but I have seen recent sales catalogs from Sears with bench top band saws for $99.00. My scroll saws are Delta and ryobi. Both are fine sawsand those sell for about the same as the bench top band saw. Joe

Brad, Check Jans Netcraft or Barlow. Both companies carry unpainted plastic baits. Joe

Hi Ken, Thanks for the info. I understand exactly what you were saying. I started making some five inch long top water baits and this looks like a good way for me to shape them. When I saw your photo and noticed the square block in the center of each pair, it looked like something that came out of a jig of some type. I'm allwaws looking for new and better ways of doing things and I appreciate your answering my question. Thanks, Joe

Ken, Were the lures shown in your pic carved on a machine? If so, What kind? Thanks Joe

Hi guys, Yesterday I received a fax from the Louisiana Director of The Fishers Of Men Trail. It seems Frank Evans, the Senior Editor for Fishers of Men lost his home and belongs in a fire on Dec.7. He is in need of anything and everything. He even lost all of his fishing tackle. If any of you would like to help out in any way, PM me with your fax number and I will send a copy of my fax to you. I failed to mention, Frank Evans lives in West Virginia. Thanks, Joe

Skeeter, If you would like to sell that lure I would love to have it . I really think it would produce in the area I fish. Please PM me with details. Thanks, Joe

Jim, thanks for the info on this bait. Do you know of any suppliers who may carry these lures, I would love to try them in my area, but would not chance loosing the only one I have. I wonder if anyone on the site would be set up to duplicate this bait? Thanks, Joe

Hi Guys, Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! Over the weekend I had to put in my time x-mas shopping eith the wife. While out, we stopped at a flea market and I found two lures that were too good to pass up. One of the lures has a body of a crankbait with a squared hard plastic bill. The main body is 1 3/4 in. long. The remaining 4 in. is a soft plastic tail similar to an eel. The entire bait is soft plastic, but if you squeeze the main body you can feel the hard inner body where the single treble hook is attached. There is no name on the bait. If you were to remove the hook, the bait would look like a letter opener, the main body, the handle and the tail the knife part. Any ideas as to what this bait may be? It looks like a bait that would work well for shallow water bass. Thanks, Joe

Hi Guys, I found another use for the pvc pipe. Cut a length of 1 !/4 in. pipe in half lengthwise just like the sanding tool. Glue this peice of pipe to a 3 in. wide by 6 in. long peice of 1/4 in. plywood with the concave side facing up. Be very careful to keep the pipe level and straight. Take some 1/4 in. thick foam packing material and glue it to the inside of the pipe. Next time you have need to cut a slot for a crankbait after it has been carved, all you do is place it in the recessed area of the pipe, push down, the foam will hold it in place, and proceed to cut the slot. No rocking or moving out of position. Joe

Art Brush, Thanks for the help, I will go back and make those changes later today. I have a tournament this weekend coming and I will test them again at that time. I guess little set backs are a part of this game,but It's hard to put in all that time only to have something like that happen. Then you begin to second guess yourself and wonder if there was something you could have done to prevent the problem. Thanks again, Joe

Art Brush and Mylures, I had only one coat of Devcon 2 on the baits. Would it be better to put two coats from now on? On the other completed baits, can I go back and round of the sharp edges and recoat? Thanks, Joe

Hi Guys, I finished eight cupped face popping style baits. These are top coated with Devcon 2. The baits look great and the finish coat had no blemishes or voids. I used two of these baits this past weekend, caught fish on them and all was going good untill I took a good look at one of the baits. The Devcon had cracked around the edge of the cup face. The rest of the bait still looked fine, but the very edge did not hold the finish. I have a pretty sharp edge on the front of these baits and I guess that is the problem. How fine an edge can you put in a bait without having to worry about this happening? Or is there a trick to getting the finish to hold at this spot? Thanks, Joe The baits were well cured before using ( 2 weeks )

A couple of regular pencils with unused erasers is what I use. The eraser as is for the first color and a second eraser trimed down in a childs pencil sharpener for the smaller dot. Joe

Hi Guys, If any of you are like me, the least favorite part of making lures is the sanding. I have been doing something for about a week now and it works great. I'm not sure where the idea came from, so I don't know who to give credit to. Take several 4" lengths of various dia. plastic pipe. Cut the pipe length wise. This gives you two exact halves 4" long. To the haves, apply some sticky backed sand paper, several different grades on each size pipe. The inner side of the pipe can be used to sand tops, backs and belly's of lures and the outer side, when covered can be used to sand the inner bends of baits. The best part of doing this, is that the tops and bottoms are are perfect mirror images , perfectly ballanced as far as shape goes, right side vs. left side. I would think this would work well for those of you who are using balsa as it is very soft and I'm sure you could shape much of the bait this way leaving less to carve with a knife. Let me know what you think. Joe

Piddler, the crankbait bills I have, came either from Jans Net Craft or Barlows. I order from both and I can't remember from wich they came. Joe

Skeeter, One more question. As I mentioned, I'm using 2 - # 4 hooks. Would The action be better if I were to use a # 6 on the rear of the bait? Thanks, Joe

Skeeter, Thanks for all your help. On my next batch of baits, I will do as you said and increase the width to 1/2 in. You mentioned 10 ft. of depth for every in. of bill from the nose of the bait out. Is this when the bill comes straight out the front with no angle? Last night I tried the completed crank in the pool. As you said it would , the bait had a very wide wobble. It really looked good. My pool is 4 ft. deep and 24 ft. long. Starting a retreive from one side and using a med. speed, the lure dives about 2 1/2 ft. With a longer cast, It looks like you should be right on with your 5 ft. depth prediction. If I increase the width as you recomend, should I go to a larger bill, or will the one I'm using now be ok? Thanks, Joe

Hi Guys, Thanks for the info. Skeeter, the crankbaits I'm making are flat. The baits are 3 inches long, 1 1/4 in. tall and 3/8 in. wide. The bill is from Barlows and is 7/8 in. long and 3/4 in. wide. The bill has round edges and the line tie is attached to the bill. I was told that this set up would allow the bait to run 3 to 5 feet deep. The bill slot is 15 degrees. Does this sound right to you? I have completed three of seven baits at this time, but due to family activities over the weekend, I have not had a chance to try them in the water. The bait is carved from Spanish Cedar and weighted with 3/16 oz. weight. At rest , with 2 - #4 hooks, the bait rides with about 3/8 in. above waters surface. Thanks for your help. Joe

Hi Guys, I have just completed my first crank bait of seven I have started. I installed the bill just as Coley and Skeeter had instructed. The lure really looks great, but the real test will come when I try it in the pool. I have cut out all the lip slots before carving the baits, so I know the slots and angles are all the same. What I'm not sure of is the placement of the bill in the slot in the final assembly of the lure. The bill looks good as far as being straight in the slot. My question is, how exact does the bill placement have to be? I know we want it as straight as we can get it, but are their any little tricks to help out with this or is it enough to center the bill by eye only? Once the bill is attached, is their any way the lure can be tuned if it does not run correctly? Thanks, Joe

Hi Chip, Thanks for the info. That web site should be very helpful. You mentioned Parma paints, is that a brand name, or type of paint. Why do you choose to use it over the other paints? thanks, Joe