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Oops. Forgot to put in a description.

.092 sst screw eyes and sst bicycle spokes, in PVC AZEK decking lure.

Mark , that filled up crosswise hole , is there a weight inside or it just was in your PVC material before ?

Thanks for sharing , anyway !

Greetz , Dieter

Very nice Mark. That is how I hinge mine (after many different trys) and it seems to be the most efficient and works great.

Dieter,

It's a plastic jig rattle I put in cross wise, which I find rattles more when the lure moves side to side.

The bondo you see on the underside of the head section is where I put the ballast. I had predrilled a hole in the second section for ballast, too, but didn't use it, so I tucked in a small piece of tissue paper, tamped it down smooth, put on a drop of crazy glue, and then bondo'd it shut, too.

Thanks, Sapper. It took me a lot of trial and error, mostly error, before I arrived at this hinge design, and I'm happy with it now.

Hey, Very nice looking. How easy is the pvc to carve? i have been looking for a new blank material because I dont have all the power tools. I have been making mine with files, a hand scroll saw, drill and sand paper haha.

atrophius,

Sorry to take so long to answer.

PVC decking is plastic and wood fibers. It can be worked just like wood, but it tends to melt a little if you put too much pressure on it with a belt sander, or use a dull blade on a power saw to cut it. It also melts slightly if you use a dull drill bit on it.

I use files, rasps, and sand paper for final shaping, and they work fine.

The dust is kind of sticky, and there are faint fumes when you machine it, so be sure to use a dust mask and have good ventilation when you're working it.

The upside is it's hard, and totally waterproof. It holds hardware well. I drill a small pilot hole for my screw eyes, and use brush on crazy glue on the threads when I run them in again after I've first gotten them adjusted for the right joint spacing, and run them back out for gluing. I reset the hinge screw eyes one at a time, so I always have one that's set right as a guide for the other in each pair. I've found that, once I've run them in with glue, even if I want to readjust them again, they hold really well, and I can just let the joint coating epoxy hold them after that. There's no rotational strain on a paired hinge system.

It carves well, because it has no grain. I use a Dremel with a sanding cylinder to carve my gills and mouth details. Nothing too detailed, just a general impression-type thing, but I do use a carving knife to clean up the hinge recesses, and the material carves very easily.

Google AZEK, and you should be able to find some.