mark poulson

Have you tried sealing the bill slot with diluted D2T first, to seal the wood and make the gluing surface stronger, before you epoxy in the bill?

The product I use is AZEK decking, and here's their website: http://www.azek.com/ This particular brand is buoyant, hard, and strong. I'm sure there are others, too, but this is the only one I know about.

That is too funny! The same people made on about being a on a fishing prostaff, and I just saw it today: http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7646123/

Ben, Sealing wood and making it both waterproof and hard was my downfall when I was building jointed swimbaits out of wood. I tried just about everything, with limited results. There always seemed to be a failure somewhere, and water got in. Since I switched to PVC, I have cut several days off the building process, and the lures are totally waterproof and hard. The decking I use is, AZEK, is buoyant enough for top water poppers, but it isn't as buoyant as balsa, so my PVC poppers aren't as lively as either hollow plastic or balsa, but they do work, and cast like a bullet with a baitcaster, so I am much more accurate with them, and can hit boilers at a greater distance. MuskyGlen, I find the decking works and machines like wood, but you need sharp tools. And shaping it with an occilating sander works really well, but I have to use light pressure, or the plastic melts and gets grabby. I'm saying all this because I've read your posts regarding musky and pike lures, and, although I don't fish for them, I think PVC would be a perfect material for lures for those toothy critters. It holds up to salt water fish really well.

I've found that, for me, the crackle effect happens when I put a strong film paint, like high gloss, over a low film strength paint, like flat or low gloss, while the first coat is still tacky. As the stronger film dries, it wants to shrink, and it pull hard enough on the lower strength fim to make it crackle. It's kind of like what happens on a mud flat when it dries out. The surface mud starts to shrink, and since it's on top of a still wet layer, it cracks into small sections.

Pit, I hope to have time today to take a couple of pictures. I'll post them in the Gallery, and let you know when I do.

Frank, That is a slick method. You make it look easy. I use a cajun meat injector, and now I see how much easier it is to use a real injector. I hate you.

Ben, The one thing I would say to take into consideration is whether you want a lot of sealer soaked into a balsa lure. I think the air that is trapped in the woods structure is key to it's buoyant, lively action. If enough sealer is soaked up, I think it might change the characteristics of the lure, as opposed to a shallow sealed balsa lure. Have you tried thinned D2T epoxy as a sealer, two coats? Or propionate, several dips? Or super glue, two coats? All of those methods are used with success on balsa baits by forum builders here. I only use a hair dryer for heat setting, so I don't know what a real heat gun is capable of doing. Having said that, when I used to use a penetrating sealer, Minwax Wood Hardener, and soaked my blanks in it, I had to use my hair dryer on high to heat it afterwards and drive out the hidden, trapped solvent, which would show up as bubbles at the end grain. Otherwise, the bubbles would appear when I heat set the paint job, and ruin it. I found that the hardener didn't really protect the lure any better that the Minwax Poly Acrylic that I use before it, because it didn't make the lure any harder, so the wood was still easily dented, and the topcoat and paint scheme were easily damaged by water intrusion. For balsa lures, since I don't make a lot of them, I use crazy glue, two coats in succession. It penetrates some, and makes the wood's surface much harder. Plus it's quick, and I'm impatient. If I had to do a bunch of balsa lures, I'd use either the thinned epoxy (D2T) or propionate, which are both much more economical methods. Just my 5 in the morning, too windy to go fishing ramblings.

You can make sure the poly is set by using a hair dryer to heat set it like you do Createx, and then let it sit overnight.

If you use the site search feature, and type in Diemai, you'll find a few posts with pictures of cork lures that Dieter has made. I think he used the plastic tops from water bottles for bills, if my memory serves me correctly (of course, I'm always taking a big chance when I rely on my memory).

That explains it! They got the name bassakwards!

Rofish, You're probably right, and it wouldn't have been the first time Bob helped me. Dieter, I doubt, in today's economy, anyone would turn down business.

If you are trying to wet sand you primer, use 400 grit wet or dry sandpaper, and wet sand the primer per the instructions. The purpose of sanding is to get a more even surface for your finished paint job. If your lure is already smooth after you've primed it, there is no need to sand before you paint further. The primer is designed to promote a good bond with your paint without sanding.

Lurecraft's new supersoft green plastic, with no Phthalates, is really flexible. And it doesn't seem to scorch as quickly as the old plastics. Phthalates....who in the heck thought up that name???

I haven't tried that, but a good rule of thumb Vodkaman Dave gave out is, " Hard bait, soft mold, and vice versa". I think what he was saying is hard baits and hard molds don't do too well together as a rule. It makes sense, since any undercut or detail that isn't oriented exactly right would get stuck in the mold. Here's a video of how to make a mold for a hard bait using a soft mold material: http://makelure.com/

CLM, I tried D2T on the faces of my jointed swimbait lures, but it was too brittle, and cracked off in big sheets. That's why I switched to a decoupage epoxy, which is more flexible, for the big flat surfaces on the lures. I did use the D2T to coat the interior of the joints, because it would set up quickly and only needed one coat to cover really well, and I lapped it out 1/4" onto the faces of the lures to insure a good lap joint. That system worked really well. Remember, D2T is, first and foremost, a glue, which means it needs to set up really hard and rigid. It's not designed to be spread over big, flat surfaces, like the other type of epoxy, decoupage, is meant to do. And decoupage epoxy, like Etex, NuLustre, and even Flexcoat, is designed to expand and contract with the large wooden surfaces it covers, like table tops and counter tops, or to flex with the bending rods it covers. I have used D2T for one piece lures, specifically cranks, and it holds up fine, as long as I don't smash them into rocks. Rock allergy is common among all lure topcoats. I actually switched to PVC decking for lure building because it is totally waterproof, and so hard that it barely dents when it hits the rocks. Because it is waterproof, my finishes last a lot longer, even when I do rock "tests" with them.

Most of the European people I've met speak multiple languages. I guess it's because Europe is so interconnected. But they do have their individual quirks. I worked with a Finnish carpenter years ago, Innar, and he told me, " Half the world is Finnish, and the other half wish they was!". He also told me that it was the Finnish who caught all the sardines, and sold them to Norway, who then resold them to the US. He spoke Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, and English. At least those were the languages he told us about. There may have been more. He and another carpenter on that job, a Swede named Sven, used to argue all the time about which country had the better fishermen. They'd go back and forth some days in both English and Swedish, arguing like bitter enemies, and then they'd share their lunches. We would all just shake our heads and laugh. I get my foil from here: http://www.sunshineglass.com/rcol/i-proj/mosaic-access-vent.htm It's called BriteBak tape, and I was turned on to it by someone here on TU. Unfortunatley, I can't remember who, but thanks to them, anyway. It is much thinner and easier to work with than AC foil tape. If you need me to get some for you, send me a PM.

+1 Congratulations!!!!!

If you hadn't put the sponge back afterward, you would have probably gotten a better price when you sold that old truck. Funny how times change. With the cost of insurance nowadays, I sell or give away my old trucks instead of keeping them as "beater trucks", which I used to do.

The mesh bath scrubbing pads, I think they're call scrubbies, seem to have the most flexible mesh I've been able to find. One scrubby holds a lot of mesh. You can find them at the dollar store. The tulle that fabric stores sell for vails also works, but it is stiffer, until it has a coat of Createx applied to it. The paint, and the heat setting process, makes the fabric more flexible.

Since the gold fish color seems to be a natural variation of carp color, and bass eat small carp, it should be a good color scheme after the carp spawn in early spring. Out here in SoCal, in lakes with big carp populations, the water's surface is reddish orange in the spring with carp eggs. Those buggers sure do multiply! Once they grow past 6", most bass can't eat them anymore, and they quickly grow into 10lb+ monsters. At one of our lakes, Cachuma, you can see wave after wave of carp cruising the lake near the shore in the spring. I'm guessing it's a bunch of males following a female, waiting for her to release her eggs so they can fertilize them.

+1 Dick, I'm rooting for you to come up with "the one", too. Bob, whatever happens, it's all your fault!

Ben, I typically use either sst ball bearings or BBs for my rattles. Or glass worm rattles. I want the louder rattle that the harder metal makes.

However they did it, it's a pretty neat trick. I'm not sure why they went to the trouble of making it hollow. I would be tempted to pour it solid, and thread the assembly up through it from the bottom. Fishing glue would hold it in place. With soft plastic, it could still be somewhat buoyant if that's the purpose of it being hollow, and that way I could just thread a new body on when the old one gets thrashed, like any other soft plastic. I see it as a great alternative to a solid jigging spoon, but it would have to be weighted to work.

Now that IS funny! How did you know? You must have been the guy sitting next to me in English!