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fishon, the wood sealers I use are Devcon Two Ton epoxy or Solarez high gloss uv cured polyester - neither is often found at local home centers. JMHO, there are a couple of problems with "wood sealers" per se. They are intended to seal wood grain before applying finishes, and that's all. If they are water based, I don't expect them to withstand water intrusion. If they are solvent based, I worry about compatibility with a solvent based topcoat like Dick Nite S81 moisture cured urethane, which is one of my favorite topcoats. I want to strengthen balsa baits as much as is practical during the finish process so I like to use a waterproof durable product as a sealer/undercoating/primer (choose your term). Either of my choices does that. I'm not saying you can't get away with a less durable, less waterproof sealer. If you only want to make the wood grain lay down, any sealer can do that, so it's player's choice. Everyone has to work out a finish regimen from the many available choices. Since there is no custom engineered set of undercoats/paint/topcoat designed for crankbaits, we have to find a set of coatings that do what we want and are compatible with each other. One of the simplest and most effective is to use epoxy as both an undercoating and a topcoat. Both D2T and Solarez are are cured finishes that are more or less chemically inert after application, so they work with many topcoats - epoxy, solvent based urethanes, etc, etc.

I have had the topcoat peel off Rapalas's. The only way a topcoat will bond !00% to another surface is if its plastic to plastic that melts into itself. I don't think it is possible for a wooden bait especially balsa to be bulletproof or hammerproof. Like I said before I topcoat with Etek on top of coats of Solarez and have never had a bait peel yet. It is a longer procedure than most like to do but it works for me. Another thing that i do is after curing the Solarez I let the baits sit for a week to fully cure before I start to paint. I work that extra time into my workflow.

I did make another PVC-tailed Plopper, but with an even wider and deeper tail fin. Guess what? It turned when I shot air past it, but not in the water. I put it next to my successful Plopper tail, and the original's tail, and I finally saw what was wrong. I had made the end of the fin so wide it transitioned back into the body of the tail past the shaft, or axis of rotation, so it was fighting itself when I dragged it through the water. I removed some material to get the connection to terminate even with the shaft, and reduced the size of the end of the fin and, plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is, because it swims now. I had avoided this problem by dumb luck with my first tail because I tried so hard to duplicate the original, I Not understanding how the fin worked, I just figured bigger is better. Lesson learned (I hope).

Use Daylight bulbs, I believe they are the 5K or 5700K bulbs. Makes a huge difference. I have a 4 strip T8 Fluorescent bulb (5700) fixture then 4 recessed lights with 5K bulbs in it. Colors look the way they should.

I use a brad point bit, and get very little tear out. The nice part of Solarez is that it is made for surfboard repairs, so a patch bond really well. For small repairs, I just use clear nail polish, but I'm only building for me.

Nedyarb I use a small bit and then a medium then the largest. bits need to be really sharp. I also hold the bait in a solid vice so there is no movement.

Bass100, you present a very good point. The material was Azek. I usually use cedar. The Solarez cracks just as bad and the wood does not crack or break. This characteristic is why I only do through wire with pvc lures now. Dave, I trust Marks assessment more that mine! That's why I know something must be going wrong here. I'm going to send Solarez an email right now. I will defiantly include this link, thanks for the idea!

I shot it at 315 and worked great thanks, just takes some getting used to, alot more steps but baits came out great.

Good thing fish don't carry hammers

I think workshop images belong here, not in the gallery. The gallery should be reserved for lures etc. Dave

The simple answer to your question, the blades are too big period. 1/4oz bait you want no bigger than a #4 willow on the swivel and a #2 colorado on the shaft, and I often use a #3.5 willow for a bait I want to burn. There are a ton of ways to tweak spinnerbaits, I make baits for specific purposes like burning, slow rolling and everywhere in between but that is for another discussion, the thing you want to do right now is downsize those blades.