Lure--Prof

If you're not fishing in Hi-Def, then you're ignoring advertising's latest buzz word!...or you're not using TaterHog's baits, or finding your fish with Lowrance's latest equipment...etc. Tater uses the term (with a wink) to describe his highly detaild lures.

Either a Happy Belated, or an early Happy Birthday 2010!! It sounds as though you had a great B-day, what with the Boss, Bar, Band Babe, Billiards, and Bacon!! Congrats, Dean

This either A Happy Belated Birthday, or a real early Happy Birthday 2010! I'm glad it was a 4-B B-Day! (Bar, Boss, Bacon, and Babe singing!) Dean

Straighten your needle the best you can using a flat surface, such as a piece of glass for a guide. Then keep it for a cleaning tool. Get new parts asap. Some of the hobby stores carry some needles etc, for Iwata, such as Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and Hobbytown, so if you have one of those near you, you might give them a call.

Sand the bottom lip to blunt it slightly and make it "spit" and dart better. Also, do not use a loop knot, snap, or split ring, but tie a tight knot directly to the line-tie and pull it downward towards the lip. Work it aggressively, keeping it moving quickly with a soft tip rod. The modded Pop-R should dart erratically and dive a little while doing it, while making a nice "pffffttt-pfffffttt kind of sound. It is a heckuva weapon for particularly post-spawn bass worked this way. Weeds and/or clouds will lengthen the duration of what is normally an early morning bite. Dean

Yup! Dean

If your Etex is too hard, you aren't mixing equally by volume. Etex mixed correctly, and this is one of its advantages, has some give to it, and is much less prone to cracking than Devcon and other harder curing epoxies. This has long been established on TU, (and other sites) by many lure builders over many years, and is one of the reasons that it is a favorite coating of many Muskie lure builders. Its resistance to cracking is one reason why I've used it for years as a seal coat for many balsa lures, although I still will use a harder curing epoxy if a very small and thin flatside lure needs some added stiffness. I've never had E-tex develop big nasty cracks as Brett describes so I suspect that Whittler and others are right on the money with their advice to measure precisely by volume, as per Envirotex's directions, and not weight. And like BobP says, expansion caused by water swelling will also crack epoxy coatings. That he has never had this problem suggests that this is caused by unequal volumes, as in more hardener than resin. Thoroughly mixed using little too much resin results in an almost rubbery quality to the coating, that, while completely cured per se, never full hardens. Dean

So sorry to hear of this, Michael, the best you can do is just be supportive of your daughter---I would encourage her to have professional counselling for post-traumatic stress, preferably from a female psycholgist, as talking to another woman would help put her at ease. I know you're not asking for advice here, that you just need to vent, but that is the best way I know of for you to help her, because she will be dealing with this event, and she needs the best help she can get in doing so. I know it would make you feel much better to wipe a gravel road with this POS bass turd, and then pave him. I have a like-new set of tires on my truck, I'd sure be willing to put some miles on him myself. His violence probably comes from being a victim of it himself, as No Good begets No Good, but he failed to rise above his conditioning, and forfeited any rights to sympathy in my book. He's going to learn just how harshly the prison system deals with those who hurt women and children once word gets around, and in prison, word always gets around. This NGSOB may get religion. Best Wishes for your family's healing. Do some lure and bike painting therapy, there is no better way to heal from this than immersing yourself in that which you do best. Your healing will help your family's. Dean

Pete, this has been on my mind for some time now: Do you lure builders below the equator have to turn your lures counterclockwise in order to keep your epoxy from drying lumpy? (Tater, please explain to IndianGuideNamedVinny about how the water spins counterclockwise when draining from a sink or tub in Australia. I know he was home-schooled.) BTW all, I used to advise those building turners to get a 3 rpm rotisserie motor, because of the common knowledge on this board in those simpler times that common discount store rotisserie kit motors turned 3 rpm's. Mine was not marked, so I wrongly assumed that my turner speed was 3 rpm's, and it was discussed back in those horse and buggy days, whether 3 was fast enough. Dean

Well there ya go, Kaptain Krash! You probably have it plugged into an extra hot outlet...or you've hot-rodded it and aren't sharing your speed tricks. Perhaps you've added the aero packages to your alligator clips, and swiss-cheesed your rotors resulting in a massive unsprung weight reduction. I hope you've safety-wired all your rotating parts, and even if you have, I'd still wear some OSHA approved protecive goggles when you're running that baby. You don't have it geared so high that it takes 2 hours to get up to that speed do you? With all of that top end, I hope it doesn't fall flat on its face when turning those big swimbait body parts! I'll bet you have to run an auxillary cooling fan on that motor, don't you, you old epoxy-slinger, you! Had enough already? Dean

Glad you got your turner going. Did you actually count the # of turns it makes in 60 seconds? just curious... Mine makes exactly one revolution in exactly one minute, which makes is about half the speed of yours. After all these years, I am saddened to learn that I've been turning my Devcon and E-tex too slowly...I'll just take it as a learning opportunity:yay:

A) Slightly off-topic, but luremakers generally do agree that lip splinters are quite painful Then (obviously), quit feeding them dog biscuits unless you are training them for production work (expect the work to become less inspired, with a resulting loss of quality)

This is just an example folks, of what spraying too many clearcoats in a confined area without proper protection, and ventilation can do to you. You've been warned!