mark poulson

I've just started pouring, but I've found salt will make a bait more opaque, and floured salt will really make it opaque.

Man, I am slow on the uptake. I've been using silicone for over forty years, and I never dreamed it could be modified. Doh!!!!!

Great report. Thanks for sharing. I can't wait to get an update.

If you brush some POP on your masters before you embed them, you don't get air bubbles.

Happy Fourth right back at you! I get up early to talk to you. I tried you finger method. I'm still trying to get my finger out of my nose! On a serious note, I did try adding water to Dap clear 100% silicone, and it set in two minutes! I was using a tube to attach some aluminum grating to a sst framework, and mixed up some of it in a solo cup. Amazing! Then I sprinkled some water on the beads of silicone I'd put on the metal, and it set up more quickly, too. Talk about a revelation. I've been using silicone caulking ever since it first came on the market, in the '60s, and never dreamed of using water as a curing agent. Once again, the genius of Husky shines!!!!!!

The 5 minute is not waterproof, only water resistant.

I would just add that keeping the ballast as far forward as you can helps keep the tail sections buoyant and swimming more easily, and keeps the head more stable when it swims. Keeping the ballast as low in the bait as possible helps cut down wobble. Also, flatter sides lead to less wobble, rounder sides more wobble, just like in a crank bait.

WORD!!! (I've waited forever to be able to say that!)

Rounding both the leading and the trailing edges of your bait sections slightly, and brushing the D2T into the joint faces first should take care of the retracting. If you coat the faces on the same day, the epoxy bonds to itself fine. If you wait longer than a day, sand the lap area with 400 grit, and wipe them down with DN alcohol. A rattle can primer, several coats, should take care of the micro holes. The PVC decking I use is a coarser material once the smooth facing has been removed. I put on two coats of rattle can primer, wet sand it, and then add one more coat. The primer I use, Rustoleum, says to recoat anytime within the first hour, or after 24 hours. It also says you can wet sand after half an hour, and that's what I do. Even if it's not perfectly smooth, the Createx fills in what's left nicely. If I have a void too big for the paint to fill, I use bondo, or Zap a Gap glue, with their accelerator, and then just sand that down smooth before priming.

Great avatar! One of the few movies I bought on DVD.

I use a med. heavy telescoping BPS Woo Daves rod that I have had for years. My first criteria in picking a rod is will it cast the lure easily and accurately. My second is will it have enough back bone to embed whatever hook I'm using. I fish small plastic swimbaits, and hard swimbaits up to 7"/2 1/2oz, with that rig, and it's fine.

When I used epoxy as a top coat, with the lure disassembeled, I would coat the insides of the joints first with D2T, and lap in onto the face 1/4", for good overlap with the face coating. Then, after the D2T had hardened, I'd reassemble the lure, put it on the drying wheel, and coat it with Nu Lustre 55, making sure the epoxy lapped into the joints a little, but not enough to gum up the hinges. I coated the faces of the lure twice, but the insides of the joints only once, because D2T goes on much thicker than Nu Lustre, or Etex, or any other decoupage-type epoxy. I wore throw away latex gloves whenever I handled the lure, because epoxy doesn't like finger print oils.

Both Bob and Ben, thanks.

Are your hinges openable, so you can disassemble the lure when you're coating it?

Does the retarder affect how fast you can heat set the paint?

Mabye you've earned the coveted "00" status. Licensed to kill.

Congratulations! There's nothing like catching a nice fish on a lure you made. Nice bait, too.

Mike, I'm not familiar with that Spar Varnish. I have used water based Kilz, but never on lures. I used to use either Minwax Polyvinyl or Minwax Wood Hardener, and then oil based rattle can primer, two coats, wet sanded. Then the Createx, heat set after each coat. And then topcoat. With the Wood Hardener, I soaked it for five minutes, then let it dry/off gas for a couple of days, hitting it with a hair dryer occasionally to drive out any trapped solvent. The Polyvinyl was water based, and dried overnight. I found I needed to drill all holes for my hardware before I sealed the wood, to let the sealer into the wood as deeply as possible, without soaking so long it got saturated and lost buoyancy. And I would run my screw eyes in, to tap the threads, and then run them back out, coat the screw with crazy glue, and run it back in again, to reseal the threads and lock it in place. I'm not familiar with Veranda, but Trex is too heavy for lures, unless you're making sinkers, as in lead. AZEK is buoyant, and there is sign making PVC called Sintra, I think, that's also buoyant. Buoyancy is important, even in sinking lures, because it lets you position your ballast low in the bait and toward the front, to keep the lure upright even underwater. I never put ballast in my tail sections, because it kills the swimming action. Hope this helps.

Nice bait. I wish I could help you, but the only time I've had epoxy problems like that was when I got the mix proportions wrong, and it stayed tacky. I put another coat of properly mixed epoxy over it, and it was fine. You didn't use isopropal alcohol instead of denatured, by any chance? I know that can screw up epoxy. I've used D2T over lots of lures I primed with rattle can primer, and painted with Createx, and never encountered the kind of paint bubbling you're describing.