mark poulson

You could always put a small kink in the wire at the head location.

Dave, The key, for me, in machining Lexan is slow feed speed. Keep it moving, but don't force it. Fine tooth wood blades cut it just fine. I've never looked into a special plastics only blade. Circular saws have a triple chip blade that's made specifically for plastics, but I don't know about plastics only bandsaw blades. I cut plastic so seldom that, when I do, I just use whatever wood blade is on the bandsaw, and know I'm going to have to sand it to final shape anyway. Too fast a feed speed will melt the plastic instead of cutting it. But each type of plastic is a little different, so you will probably have to play around until you get the feel of whatever you're cutting. I can tell by how much resistance I feel whether I'm starting to force it too fast.

The bigger the wheels, the longer the blade, the longer it will stay sharp. Like Dave and Ben said, the blade you choose determines what you can cut. Aluminum is non-ferrous, but be careful, anyway. When you cut metal, the chips are hot, and can ignite the sawdust from when you cut wood. And it can happen a while after you do the cutting, so be sure you don't have any sawdust buildups before you cut the aluminum, and check it by taking the guard off the lower wheel when you're done. And don't assume that a dust collector will prevent that problem. It may just transfer it farther away from the machine. If you use a dust collector, which is a good idea when you cut wood, make sure it's disconnected from the machine when you're cutting your aluminum, and you will avoid any potential disasters. Burning the garage or shop down is hard to explain to the wife, let alone the insurance co.

Thanks. I add that note to the printout of your recipe.

rugyfisherman, Thanks. I just printed it out, and will give it a try.

Aaron Martens, who is color blind, says he picks his plastics with contrast in mind. He thinks the fish pick up on the contrasting colors, not so much on the specific colors, a lot of the time. So whether a lure is laminated top to bottom, or side to side, might not be that important, as long as it has contrasting colors to attract the fish.

That's a good idea. If you want legs, you can thread some black skirt rubber through the body.

Does anyone here have a good formula for Robo's Oxblood color? I don't do laminates, so I can't get the exact color pattern, but I'd love to get the brownish red down pat. I did a site search, and came up empty.

I use denatured alcohol, a 1 to 1 mix. Just be sure to mix the D2T really well before you add the alcohol. Thin is best. Thicker will make you lose some of your mold detail.

Mazel Tov!!!! You're in for the ride of a lifetime, if you work hard at it.

I use Del's Durosoft plastic. Is there a salt to softner ratio that will keep the same softness as the original plastic?

Ben, Thanks for the tip. I've been using the white, and it is stiff, until I've used it once or twice. I'll look for the blue, and give it a try.

Bob, I just mentioned it because I'm really impatient when I build a new lure, and want to fish it the next day! Now, bear in mind that I use SC 9000, and not DN. I've actually found that, when I dip the lure, hitting it with a hair dryer on low after the finish appears dry, usually half an hour, and then again 15 minutes later, lets me redip after an hour with no wrinkling, instead of waiting a full two hours between dips. I typically dip three times. And, if I hit it a couple more times after the last dip, the finish is really hard and I can fish it the next day. Of course, waiting two days makes it bullet proof. I think the heat accelerates the curing.

Thanks for the link John. I'll check it out. I fished a night tournament last full moon, and my partner caught a 10.26 on a spinnerbait! Wow, what a rush! I'll bet a glow in the dark swim bait would get killed!!!

Dave, I just took apart one of those scrubber thingies. Holy crow, that's a lot of mesh! There are a bunch of long tubes. And it's flexible so it should form to lure bodies better than the tulle I'm using right now. Thanks for the tip.

Now you tell me! I find it's helpful for me to remember that there are two basic types of epoxies, glue and decoupage. I have used both as top coats for my wood lures, and here's what I've learned. Glue type epoxies are hard, strong, and brittle when spread thin, like as a top coat over a large area. They have no give, which would be a disaster for a glue, so they can't expand and contract with a wood lure when it get hot or cold. But they go on thicker, set up faster, and are hard. Decoupage epoxies, like Etex, NuLustre 55, and even Flexcoat, are softer, and more flexible, since they're designed to cover large wood surfaces, like table tops and and bar tops. In the case of Flexcoat, it needs to bend with the rod without cracking. They can move with the wood, but, because they are designed to flow out and self level over large surfaces, they have more solvent, and they are thinner than glue epoxies. They take much longer to set up, typically 12 to 18 hours, so the lures have to be constantly rotated to avoid sagging and drips. For wood lures, they require multiple coats, three in my experience, to reach the same level of tooth protection as one coat of a glue epoxy. Most builders I know and have spoken with wind up building dedicated lure turners so they can use epoxy as a top coat. Of course, if I had know about Husky's 5 to 1 ratio mixing tip, I might have had better luck with my epoxy top coats. D2T is a glue. I've used it over wood lures, and had it crack and flake off when I um, er, ah, encounter a hard surface, like rocks. I still use D2T to attach hardware. When I used D2T for a top coat, I found I still had to rotate it as well, but only for 20-30 minutes, because it is thicker, and sets up fast. For fish with teeth, like pike and muskie, I would probably use it when coating a wood lure. Of course, I've never fished for, or even seen, a pike or muskie in real life. But I've fished for barracuda in the salt, and they have teeth. Some guys use really hard woods, like teak, for toothy critter lures. But heavier woods have their own challenges, like lack of buoyancy. So that's how I make my decision which epoxy to use. Just remember, no lure finish is totally tooth proof. I've had barracudas scratch metal spoons, so I imagine pike and muskie can do the same.

Pizz, I try to stay away from solvent based paints because I'm older, and have had too much exposure to solvents without respirators over the years. So I try to stick with water based or water bourne paints and finishes. But I do know that solvent based paints offer a much wider choice of really neat colors. I just can't use them myself.

If there is one thing I can suggest to you that will make your learning curve a lot easier, it is to start with PVC decking as a building material. It is already buoyant, and waterproof, so those are two major obstacles you won't have to deal with, starting out. I started out with wood, and went through tons of time and money trying to overcome the problems wood as as far as waterproofing, and ballasting, until I tried AKEK decking. Plus PVC is strong, so you don't have to worry about through wiring, or other exotic hardward hangers. Screw eyes hold just fine in it, which makes building simpler. It machines and carves like wood. And it paints well, so that's another bonus. I enjoy a challenge, but, for me, the challenge is in designing and building a lure that catches fish, and then in fishing those lures. Not in trying to force a square peg into a round hole, just so I can say I did it. Once you've learned how with PVC, you can tackle balsa, the ultimate crank bait wood, whose lively action due to it's extreme buoyancy can't be duplicated by any other matterial. But balsa isn't needed for lots of crank baits and hard lures, and isn't even the best material for most of them, so start with PVC, and learn with the easiest material available. No, I'm not sponsored by a PVC decking manuf. I just found something that really works for me (thank you JR Hopkins) and think it would be chickensh!t not to share.

I pour outside, in front of my open garage on my driveway. Even with it being open, I'm careful not to breath the fumes. I have a box fan hung at the back of my garage that I put on when I'm pouring, because the microwave is on top of my table saw inside the garage itself, and there are fumes when I'm heating and stirring the plastic. If it's too cold or wet to pour outside, I don't pour.

BobP, Have you tried using a hair dryer to speed up the curing process, both between coats, and for the final coat? It works for water bourne urethanes, but I've never used DN, so I don't know if it works for that coating, too.

That scale pattern looks like the orange plastic netting used for "Cuties" tangerines. Check you local market.

That looks great, and swims really well. What kind of paint did you wind up using?

Sorry, double post.

Water based air brush paints that are used for T shirt painting are meant to be "heat set" before they are exposed to water when the T shirt is washed. Something in the paint's molecular structure changes when it is heat set past a certain temperature, and it becomes waterproof. Many T shirt painters use a regular clothes iron, with the T shirt turned inside out or covered with an ironing cloth, to heat set the paint. I don't know the exact temp., but you can go online and contact a paint distributer or manuf., like Createx, and they'll tell you, I'm sure. I know the exact temp. was posted here a while back, but I don't remember it. I use a cheap hair dryer with two heat settings to dry my lures. The first, with a low fan speed, dries the paint without moving it around on the lure. Once it's "dry", dull looking, I switch to the high setting, and make sure it's really set. One tip I would share with you is to do thin coats, and dry each one, rather than trying to do one thick coat. Thin coats will dry faster, and harder, than one thick coat, which can have water trapped even if it's "dry", and may remain soft under the top coat, making the whole paint scheme vulnerable to damage because the top coat is floating on top of the paint, instead of being bonded to it. Good luck, and don't forget to post pictures of you lures.