mark poulson

The more I look at that bait, the more I like it. Great job, and very creative.

Try the circuit board 12"X 12" sheets from LPO. At $8.99, that works out to $.06+ a square inch, and it's easy to cut and shape. You can cut it with Wiss snips or strong scissors, so you don't need machinery, and you can sand it to your final shape. I put blue painters tape on part of the full sheet at one edge, trace out the lip shape I want including a center line, and then just cut to the line.

If you take a piece of paper, wrap it around the lure where you want the lip slot to go, and line up the two ends of the paper on the far side, holding it snug to the bait, your lip slot should be close to even. After that, you can clamp the lure into a vise, with the jaws padded to protect it, and use a hand saw of some kind to cut the slot. I use a dovetail saw, but a hack saw will cut it fine, and the blade is rigid enough that it won't wander. Just go slow, check your alignment often, and know that you probably won't get the slot perfect, but you can move the lip in the slot until it looks right to you. Use some shims to the lip so it looks like it's at right angles to the lure's body, epoxy it in with the shims holding the lip, and then shave the lip if need be to get it right, once the epoxy had set. A center line on you bait and on your lip make that part of the alignment easier. Trust your eye, and don't glue anything until it looks right to you. All this hassle will help you remember to cut the slot while the blank is still square next time. It did for me!

Does the weight of the powder coat slow the blade's spin?

I put my glitter into my plastisol after it's reached 350, to kick over, and has cooled down to 330+-.

For fast, like ready to fish in 10 minutes, Solarez UV cured resin. Clear nail polish is a good overnight option, if you coat one morning, and fish the next.

#3. People are so afraid of bubbles that they don't mix the two parts well enough. Mix smaller batches, mix them well, and do fewer baits each batch, and you'll find the soft epoxy problem will go away.

Who makes/sells Polysol?

I was given a couple dozen Mexico Poe's by a buddy which all had the bills installed crooked. The lip slot had been cut slightly off, just enough to make the baits do barrel rolls. They also had varying degrees of cracking, and misaligned line ties and hook hangers. My job was to straighten the bills, fix the line ties/hook hangers, repaint, and re topcoat. He also wanted them turned into suspenders/slow rise. I wasn't sure it was even possible, but I said I'd try. I used my heat gun to soften the bill on my test bait, and was able to twist it back to square, without it coming loose or cracking. Once I figured out how to do it, I was able to re manufacture all the baits. But getting them to suspend was more time consuming. No two baits weighed the same, so each had to be ballasted individually, by adding a little too much lead, and then drilling out enough to get them right. What a pain! I wound up using Solarez to topcoat them, and dipped the bills, too, just in case heating had weakened them. Just a little reinforcement. I told him, next time, I'd just buy him some new baits that worked! I've made several knockoffs using the Poe's deep diver as a model. They fish well, but no better than a lot of stuff on the market right now. The main thing that sets the old baits apart, to me, like a lot of the older wooden baits, is that they are silent, and the brass screw eyes seem to deaden the hook rattle sound a bit. So they are stealthier. Plus, because of the lousy manufacturing, a lot of them kicked out at a certain speed, so they had a hunting action, by accident.

I find pointy heads come through weeds better.

I am just a hobby pourer, and pour only for myself and my buddies. I add my colorant after I've stirred in my flake to my already heated plastisol, so I can see how the flake I want to use affects the color. I also don't reheat over 335, if I can help it. When I'm adding fresh plastisol to some leftovers that I've already poured, to make more of the same color, I do get it up to 350 again. Then I add more flake and color. I've noticed that the "extended" plastisol does seem to be a little less crisp in color, and I wondered why. Now it makes sense. Thanks.

Barry, That sucks! I hope you have notes, so making a replacement isn't too hard. I remember Greg telling you the snap was open. I use a heavier snap from LPO on my chatter baits, and on my lure testing rod, because I've had them open up in the past, too. These are harder to open, with a little heavier wire. I'll bring some to you on Sunday. I remember the picture you sent me of your open bait, showing the through wire harness and the lead on the belly hanger shaft. Balsa is definitely more lively! Whoever finds your bait will have found a pot of gold!

Just be sure you remove the cap, or loosen it really well.

Well, I fingered it out. As usual, operator error. In my zeal to have a nice, deep curve in my tail, I wound up with the part of the ballast that was behind the belly hanger above the center line of the bait. I should have known better, because I raise some of the ballast in my square billed cranks above the center line on purpose, to make them hunt because they are a little unstable. But, I was in such a hurry to try and copy Barry Sterud's balsa crank that I completely missed this goof. My solution was twofold. I wound up shortening the tail and raising the tail hanger about 1/4" and that helped, because it raised the center line of the bait. Then I removed the 3 grams of ballast behind the 3 gram belly hanger, and placed it forward of the belly hanger. Problem solved. This was with the 1/2" thick cranks. The thinner baits don't seem to have enough buoyant material to be able to overcome ballast that high above the center line. They are so sensitive! Hahaha The 3/4" thick cranks have more buoyancy, so I was able to put a 1 gram lead ball rattle directly above the belly hanger, and above the center line, along with 3 grams in front of the 3 gram belly hanger, and those cranks X really hard, but don't wobble. I'll post some pictures in the Hard Baits Gallery tomorrow. Right now, I'm waiting for the inside temp., 88 down from 90, to match the outside temp which is "only" 80, so I can take a shower and crash. Whoever invented AC forgot to invent free electricity. Here's a link to one of the two pictures I posted in the Hard Baits Gallery: http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/15932-barry11/ It's too hot to just do nothing!

I replaced the plastic fan in my wobble compressor. Unfortunately, I waited ten years between buying the replacement fan and installing it. One of the hazards of having lots of construction equipment. Because the compressor had an eccentric motion, the fan came with several different mounting holes, and I had forgotten exactly how the fan oriented. I wish I had had a cellphone camera back when I took it apart. I mounted the new fan, and turned it by hand a lot, just to be sure it was oriented correctly before I turned the compressor on. Even then, my heart was in my throat when I hit the switch the first time. Do like Ben says, and take lots of pictures!

Garreth, Someone here on TU suggested putting my dipping jar of resin into a container of hot water, to help it go on thinner. I do that in the winter. I used to use a hair dryer to get my D2T bottles warm in the winter, so they would flow more quickly. Now I'm just going to let the sit in hot water for a few minutes. I don't top coat with epoxy anymore, but when I did in the past, I'd hit the mixed epoxy with a hair dryer to get it to flow out better when I brushed it on. Because I was heating the epoxy after it was mixed, I shortened my working time. Even though it was easier to brush on, it set faster, so I learned to mix less and do fewer baits. Mixing another batch is way easier than trying to even out epoxy that has begun to set up. Heating the individual components while they are unmixed doesn't seem to affect their shelf life, at least not for me.

I think Dale has a great idea! How about a crankbait glossary, so we all speak the same language?

Thanks guys for all the replies. My project for today is to try and solve this. Since the two cranks I made wobble so much, they will become my first test subjects. I'll report back what I find.

Thank you so much for clearing up what has always been a mystery to me.

Since the flat sided baits are thinner, I did have to use less ballast. But not much less. And the ballast is low, up from the belly. I put some clear nail polish with mylar bits onto the baits, and they flash a lot as the wobble. Since the water here is off colored, and it's usually windy, I think that will help them to be attractive as reaction baits. But I am puzzled as to why they wobble, when their fatter cousins, which are exactly the same size and profile, but thicker, don't.

I was using Del-Mart .015 and .035 red glitter that is at least ten years old.

My watermelon/red flake baits came out muddy looking with orange flake, even though I used watermelon colorant, and red flake.