Skeeter

Sounds like the wood grain raised up from getting wet. This is a problem with pine. Dave has it right. To get rid of the raised grain, you will need to sand it down smooth again. Or you might try to clearcoat the lure with FC and then just paint over it. Then put another coat of FC to clearcoat the lure after painting. From reading Daves' posts, FC is light. I know that you could do that with Devcon, but Devcon is heavy and it may ad the weight back to your lure. This would keep you from having to sand the lure. Skeeter

Beautiful work Dave. I can't see where they could get any better. Skeeter

Really nice paint job. Skeeter

Perro, Thanks for the drawing and all of the help. Thanks to the rest of you too. We got 18 inches of snow here last night, so I might be a little slow in getting out to my shop to do some work. But, I should have the body finished next week sometime. I have an original from my customer. I need to take it to the water to see how this thing swims. Then after I get mine done, I can compare them. Thanks again fellas. Skeeter

Try using a dowl rod or a nail head and dotting the eyes. It works well on crankbaits. Skeeter

My customer talked to Henlin. Seems the originals were made out of balsa. Some work is going to have to be done to re enforce where the eyescrews go. I know how to strengthen the balsa, but it seems to me that since the lip and the body are a one piece wood that the lip could really take a beating if it is a bait that is used to dig. I'll keep you guys posted. I really don't do these kind of baits, but it will be a break from the usual type of work. Kinda looking forward to it. I am finishing up some 20ft. deep divers for some customers this week and should get started this weekend on it. Skeeter

Very nice indeed. I like the firetiger. Skeeter

My guess is that it is a Norman tiny N. Skeeter

Boys, boys, boys....... Ya just make it too hard. Go to Wal Mart in the hardware section and get a couple of packs of screw hooks. Get the smaller diameter ones. Drill a 1/32 hole in the back of the lure where you will put the hook hanger and just turn one in a few turns. You can paint the lure and hang it to dry all in one shot. Skeeter

The epoxy this guy shot was thinned. The whole thing is the timming mixing, shooting, and cleaning before ANY of this stuff starts to set up. Even if you used a cheap gun, it seems pretty expensive still to shoot one or even two (which you would have to be lucky to do) baits. Skeeter

OUTSTANDING JOB!!!!!!!! Truely professional work. Skeeter

Will do Jed. I lined this client up with someone that does the flatfish, but he wants me to do it. I look at it as a challenge. Maybe we will see just how good or bad of a bait maker I am. Skeeter

Bassjudge, Yes, some claim to have sprayed Devcon through their airbrush. They say it works. Do a search on spraying devcon. I have a post somewhere on here where someone said that they did it and I kinda challenged what it would take to do it. They said that I was corrrect. Bottom line is.... you can, but you better be quick and thorough at cleaning your gun. You will only have about 12 min. to mix, shoot and clean before it will become a real chore to get it out of your gun before it starts to harden. Personally, I would not recommend it. Skeeter

Sorry in getting back late to yall. I have a customer that wants some made. It is not really my cup of tea. But he really wants me to make them for him. He sent me one of his better ones for a pattern today. The thing weighs nothing, like it is made out of balsa. It doesn't appear to be weighted in any way. He said that he thinks the originals were made of basswood. I have never messed with basswood, but it makes sense with as light as the original is. This will be a bit of a challenge since the lip and the body are made out of one solid piece of wood. Everything will have to line up just right. Will eyescrews hold in basswood? Skeeter

Does anyone know what type of wood the original SPS Flatfish was made out of? Also, were they weighted? Skeeter

What a beautiful child. Congratulations to you and your wife. My prayers are with all three of you. Skeeter

Why? There beautiful the way they are. Skeeter

You've done a good job. Very nice looking baits. Put a picture up when they are finished. Skeeter

The best way to do a line tie is to take your wire and bend it in a U shape. Heat the wire and put it through the lip where you want it to be. Bend the wire back to the end of the lip and insert the lip into the bait. Take a look at the flat baits that I have in the gallery and you should be able to see what I am talking about. Skeeter

I believe that the problem is the legnth that the weight is going up inside the bait. You never want a weight to pass the center point of the lure in my opinion. I always compact my weights to be as close to the bottom of the lure as possible. The reason the others probably worked was because they were banded on the bottom of the lure. Skeeter

Devcon is tough. So as long as the area is covered then the bait is protected. If you think that you need a second coat to help the looks of the bait then you can do that with no problem. But be careful.... If you weight your baits close then the second coat of Devcon may add too much weight to the bait and could cause the bait to slowly sink, especially in cold water. Skeeter

It is the heat that causes gasses to expand. Skeeter

The one real problem that you could have with Devcon is that heat causes it to cure quicker. To much heat causes gasses to form along with bubbles that were not there to begin with. If it gets too hot too quick then the epoxy really thickens and the gasses and bubbles will become trapped making the finish look really bad. Skeeter

The main reason for the weight is to cause the lure to sit at a more severe angle in the water so that it will dive quicker. As was said, it also effects the action of the lure. The best way to do this is to put the weight in the chest of the lure. However, if it is a plastic lure, then this would be an easy way to do this. The reason I don't like weighting a lure this way is because it causes a bait to roll back and forth as it wiggles. It really cuts down on the way the lure emitts vibrations. Bagley did this similiar thing years ago by putting the weight on the lip under the line tie. When they started chest weighting Bagley lures here in North Carolina about 15 yrs ago, this was Bagley's way of doing it without more drilling in the lure. It didn't last long. The best way to do this is chest weighting. Skeeter

If you have a light enough touch with the gun then you might be ok. Otherwise I would go to lacquers and shoot translucent paints like candies and pearls. Skeeter