rofish

No, never. Any kind of liquid will better penetrate a material if the liquid is thinner. Propionate solution is much thinner than thinned epoxy, so it will go deeper into the material. There are tons of information on this site about the penetration process of propionate solution into light wood, such as balsa, and the ways to achieve this. On the other hand, I think you do not want a through penetration of the wood by a sealing material, because the problems it can create (the solution deep inside the wood will not dry up completely, leaving some solvent inside the lure, which is surely a bad thing). Also, such deep penetrating solution can change the density of the light wood). Anyway, I stopped playing around with the idea of sealing the wood deep inside the lure). Devcon 2T is a tougher material, and it has the advantage of leveling out the surface, and I'm not saying that you cannot achieve a smooth surface using propionate solution. But epoxy is heavier than water, and you'll need to use it again as a topcoat, which might again change the density of the whole lure. So this is your call. Any sense in what I am saying?

Or beer?

Assuming you have mixed equal quantities of the 2 components, as volume, one trick to extend the working time is to add about 20 - 30 % thinner and mix well. I use a thinner designed for nitrocellulose products. Others use acetone. Or alcohol. But first you have to know if the paint you use will not be ruined by the solvent in the epoxy. You can also try heating up the mixture with a hair dryer.

I would not put together lips and hook hangers in terms of gluing them in. For the twisted wire eyes I use, a 2 hours epoxy is better than A 30 min. epoxy such as Devcon 2T, because it allows me to glue the twisted eyes into more crankbaits than in the case of using a 30 min. epoxy. From what I have learned here on TU, etex is a longer cure epoxy, so I think it could be used successfully for the hook or tow eyes. The lips require a shorter cure time for the epoxy, and Devcon 2 ton is perfect for the job. You can also use a 5 or 10 min. epoxy, but with an epoxy mix you can glue in 1, max. 2 lips. If you use a longer cure time epoxy for the lips, you have to permanently check the alignment of the lips until the epoxy hardens a little bit. While the lure hangs on an S wire, you might have the unpleasant surprise ( I know it because it happened to me) that the lip moves a little bit left or right, especially if the lip has a little play in the lipslot. I always leave a little play in the lip slot so I can align the lip from every direction. Or, you could use any type of fast glue just to glue the lip in place, and then, while spreading the epoxy on the lure as topcoat, pay attention to glue the lip all around the edge where it meets the body of the lure.

Esoxbuckeye, If you want to glue 2 pieces of lumber to make a thicker wood, then plane the resulting lumber to the thickness you need, this will lead you to an unsuitable piece of lumber to make crankbaits. When you plane this wood, chances are that the center line will not be actually in the center. So first you need to plane the lumber you have to the same thickness, which is half the thickness you need for the lures, then cut out 2 pieces of the outline of the lure, which you will then glue together with the through wire in it. Secondly, if you have the lumber with the center line made out of glue, it will be quite difficult to drill holes in the center line for ballast and tow eyes. So if you want to use the stock you have, do the planing first. For my through wire crankbaits I use epoxy to glue them together - fast curing epoxy. Perfect bonding. Cannot compare with polyurethane adhesive, since I have not used it. First I make the 2 parts perfectly equal, using a disc/belt sander, then I drill 2 through holes in them, where I put 2 toothpicks, which fit snugly, to keep the 2 parts together while shaping/sanding, because such operations are easier to make without having the wire eyes already in place. Then I install the hardware and glue the 2 parts together.

Most probably, you have a problem of non symmetrical distribution of weight, from top to bottom of each section. Can be from an uneven density in the material, or lack of symmetry of the lure (left - right) or unproper placement of the weight. It happened to me too, with my crankbaits. Even if I tried to to make everything symmetrical, and the lure appeared to be perfect, when I put the lure in water, with the cylinder lead pressed a little into the vertical holes which I made into the belly, to find out how much weight is needed for each lure, I sometimes saw that the lure does not sit vertically in the water, but at an angle (left or right). In such cases I make a hole on the other side of the lure, at about 1/3 of the height of the lure from the bottom, in which I place a small piece of lead. The leverage of that small piece of lead will correct the sitting position of the lure, bringing it to a vertical position. You can glue different weights on the side, to see how much weight is required to bring the lure to a vertical position. Of course, this would work in case your swimbait would stay afloat, but yours is already a sinking one. Plus you would need to know if you will add weights to all segments, or just one, or just to the segments that have already weights in them. But I think it would be worth trying this method. I am sure that your swimbait will not sink at a much higher rate.

Sorry to disappoint you. Mark Poulson has already tried such plano box material. I think it can be used, being soft they wouldn't break, so this may be an alternative to polycarbonate. On the other hand, they are a little too soft, so I think they would wear out if the lip would touch gravel or sand on the bottom of the water. So using this material is a matter of personal choice.

GDille, Lots of good advice from Diemai, but I think he just forgot to point out the most important one: the first section has to be longer than the other ones. If the first section has to be also wider than the rest of the body, as he says, that is a matter for discussion, but first, it has to be longer, especially if it has the shape of an "esox". Look how the esox lure looks like, Jeep's version: http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/index.php?app=gallery&module=images&section=viewimage&img=6710 If you look at the swimbaits that Diemai makes, you will also see that the first section is longer than the other ones, and also bigger (taller) so having better chances to create vortices. So either you try to make a longer (perhaps also wider) head section for the lure you have, or just attach a lip, which should make the swimbait work.

Bugpac, there might be another solution to make the top part of the lure more buoyant. Foam, PVC, balsa, etc. is good, but using them will contradict your idea of making an indestructible lure, and I think you'll need to replace the floating material quite often. Besides, it might affect the action of the swimbait, as Mark Poulson said. What if you use air as floating material? Maybe the best floating material there is? To do that, you need to make larger holes in the upper part of the lure, then cover them with metal sheet. I think aluminium sheet will do, especially if you would put some small bars across the holes, which will connect the 2 side metal sheets, to make the construction more durable. You could design the metal sheets to fit in a frame, so that the lateral surfaces would be smooth. Maybe attach the metal sheets with small screws and epoxy, or just epoxy. Also, you could design the upper part to be thicker than the lower part, so that you could trap more air in it. Just an idea to think about. But I cannot disagree with what Sonny Barile said. The weak link will still be the line.

Geppa, it seems to me that you have used hand tools to do the carving, and not a Dremel type rotary power tool, or maybe both? I would be interested to see a picture of the tools you use for carving details on your lures. Perhaps other people would be interested too.

BobP, according to the data you have, basswood is lighter than poplar. But the poplar wood I have is lighter than the basswood. In fact, I do not have basswood, but lime, or linden tree, as it is called in Europe, including England. They both belong to the same family, the Tilia.It took me a long time before I could figure out what basswood is. It seems that basswood is lighter than lime. Click on Tilia americana and then on Tilia europaea in the link below: http://www.worldagroforestry.org/Sea/Products/AFDbases/wd/asps/SearchSimple.asp The following link shows how much the density can vary for poplar and basswood: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/wood-density-d_40.html

I also think there must be some kind of connection between you and some world famous Italian artists. Welcome in this world of crazy people (that's what the outside world may think of us) who are most passionate about their work.

I love poplar wood. It is very tough, and still very buoyant, so the crankbaits can have a very lively action. And you have to bear in mind that a lively action of a crankbait is not solely the result of a very buoyant wood you have used to make it. It also depends on many other factors. Hope you will agree on this in some time ... The wood, even if it was kiln dried, will take in moisture from the air. After I finished shaping and sanding the crankbait, I would install the hardware, then I would dry the blank in a dried, warm place, before I would put a coat of anything on the lure.

Craig, I think you should be more specific as to what you mean "overlapping" in this case. One way to achieve this is what Hazmail said. But there might be real overlapping scales on a lure, like in this image: http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/index.php?app=gallery&module=images&section=viewimage&img=4284