mark poulson

If Dick says he "heat sets" his spoons, try hitting your lure with a hair dryer after the solvent flashes off. I don't think it can hurt, if Dick uses heat, and it may speed the curing process. I know, for the water borne urethane I use, redipping time is normally two hours, but I can cut it to an hour by passing a hair dryer over the lure after a half hour, and then again fifteen minutes later. Using a hair dryer, and Createx-type paints, I can paint a lure and dip it three times the same day, and fish it the next day. I have a four piece swimbait that I made and primed yesterday hanging in the garage. Today I'm going to paint and top coat it, and tomorrow I'm going to fish it.

Very nice fish! And your lure is beautiful. Sealing the wood well is the most important step in making jointed lures from wood. Personally, I tried a lot of things, with varied, limited success, and then I switched to AZEK PVC decking, which is totally waterproof, and as buoyant as poplar, which I was making my lures from. I still use wood, sugar pine, for one piece lures like surface gliders, where the added buoyancy is critical. But I found that there are just too many places that water can get into a jointed lure made from wood. If you do a search here for sealing wood, you'll find a lot of discussion about what works best. I never tried propionate, plastic dissolved in either acetone or lacquer thinner, but some here use it with success. Once you solve the sealing/waterproof issue, then you can start worrying about the paint and topcoat. Seriously, waterproofing the lure will make your paint and top coat much less prone to failure. I hope you figure out something that works for you. That lure looks great. As for the cotter pin pulling out, when I use them for really small lures, I bend the legs back 180 degrees, and set them in oversized holes filled with epoxy. They hold fine. But the reason I moved to screw eyes for lures that are large enough to accomodate them is so I could adjust the size of the joint to get the action I wanted, after I'd made the lure. Good luck, and I look forward to more pictures of you lures hanging from big fish.

They're beautiful.

Bob, Have you tried to speed the curing process by hitting a lure with a hair dryer after the initial flash off of the solvents?

When I used to use epoxy as a top coat, I would disassemble the bait after painting, and coat the insides of the joint faces with D2T, lapping it out onto the flat faces of each section about 1/4". Then, after it set, I'd reassemble the lure, put it on my drying wheel, and coat the faces with Nu Luster 55, brushing it into the joints a little, but not enough to clog my screw eye/pin hinges. One coat of D2T on the insides of the joints was plenty, since it is so thick, and I was able to apply it without clogging the screw eyes. If some did get on them, it was easy to clean it off before I reassembled the lure. Then I'd add two coats of the Nu Lustre 55 to the reassembled lure on the drying wheel, a day apart. I use sst screw eyes and bicycle spokes for my hinges, because the screw eyes let me adjust the joints, and the bicycle spokes are stout, and sst, too.

Try disassembling the brush, and soaking the nozzle parts in acetone for half an hour. Your Iwata should have teflon seals, so the acetone won't hurt it. Then brush the individual parts, rinse in the acetone again, and reassemble. Then fill the cup with clean acetone, and backflush the brush several times. It is amazing how paint gets into every part of the brush eventually. Be sure to run some Createx airbrush cleaner through the brush after the acetone, before you try to paint with it. And look into adding some Createx retarder to you paints, as well as thinning them, if it's hot where you paint. I am constantly cleaning the nozzle area with an artist's brush and clean water, to cut down on the amount of paint that dries there and causes problems when I paint.

Man, he makes it look easy.

Drat!

They look great!

Until you've painted for a while, I would thin any paint I used to the consistency of milk, and spray multiple light coats. Use a hair dryer to heat set each coat before you recoat. Clean the brush between colors, and after each painting session. Having a tupperware full of clean water, and a spray bottle with water and a couple of drops of dish washing liquid, next to your paint station, along with some clean rags, makes cleaning a lot more convenient. I have an empty 5 gallon bucket I use for trash next to my bench, and I spray my cleaning water into it when I'm washing up. Acetone, if your brush has teflon seals, is the cleaning fluid of last resort, when you've let the paint setup in the brush, or the needle sticks, or the nozzle is clogged. You can soak you brush, disassembled, in a glass of acetone for ten minutes, and then reassemble it and shoot some acetone through it while you backflush, and your brush will be clean. Just be sure to run some clean water through it after the acetone, before you paint again. Once you get a routine, it only takes a minute to wash the brush. I seldom have to resort to acetone.

I use AZEK PVC decking for most of my lures. It is about as buoyant as poplar. Probably not as buoyant as cedar. It can be cut and machined with the same tools as wood, but it melts when cut with a dull blade, leaving whispy hair-like trailers on the blade, and will stick to a sanding belt if you try to force feed it too fast. I don't laminate it, because it is strong enough to hold screweyes, so I can't recommend a glue. Both crazy glue and epoxy bond to it really well. Just to play safe, and to kind of lock them in position, I run my screweyes in, and then back out, and coat the threads with brush-on crazy glue, and then run them back in again. I've never had a screweye pull out, in the 2+ years I've been using AZEK. It is a very hard material, so it stands up to rocks, and fish, really well. I have a friend who uses it for his saltwater jointed lures, and has had no problems, period. And it is totally waterproof, so you don't have to seal it before you prime and paint. I field test my lures unpainted, so I can change shapes or make adjustments without messing with paint, and then prime and paint them.

Forgive a "dumb" question, but would the oil from sardines or tuna packed in oil work? I always drain off the oil, and it would be great if it could be used for scent.

Does that mean that homemade scents need to be strictly oil based? Does heating them past boiling to drive off the water before you use them work?

Does the water in homemade scents present a problem? I was told not to let water near my plastics, because it would turn to steam when heated and cause real problems. I know it's true with lead. Is that true with plastics?

It's the same with me when I order from Del's. I always remember something else I want a second after I hit the submit button. If he weren't aces, I'd go broke on additional shipping charges. And hindsight can be great, depending on whose hind you're watching.

Frank, Your skirts were the bomb yesterday! Thank you again. Mark

I found an old coffee grinder in a cupboard, and I floured my salt for a batch of Ika bodies. The salt stayed in suspension throughout the entire pour without stirring. It did make the baits slightly more opaque, but I don't mind that. My bodies weigh the same as the original fat Ika bodies that I used for masters, so I'm pretty happy. Thanks again for all the help.

Thanks. I decided to order some coffee scent from Del's. I'll keep the old instant for the in-laws.

to add to plastics? I mean instant coffee. I can spell, but I just can't type or read. I used the search feature, but didn't find the answer I was looking for. I bought several jars over the years, per my wife's family needs, and now have them sitting in the pantry. I'd love to be able to flour them in a coffee grinder, and add them to some of my darker pours. I was wondering if it can be done, and if it would make the plastic hard or weak?

RiverMan, I've never fished for either pike or musky, or even seen them, except on TV. But I have fished the salt all my life, and barricuda remind me of the fish you catch. Nothing stands up to their teeth, period. I've thrown iron to them, and had it come back scratched. So I imagine pike and musky are the same. I wonder what kind of wood you have to use that will be hard enough to keep those teeth out? When I made wood plugs for the ocean, out of douglas fir, the only paint I used was oil based rattle can paint, and clear, and I just repainted them when they got thrashed.

This thread reminds me of what I tell all my friends and family who think I should start a website to sell my jointed swimbaits. I know what's involved, because I have had my own business for thirty+ years, and don't want to go through it again. Just the business licenses, tax ID and reports, and sales tax hastle would drive me out of business before I got started. Building a whole new network of contacts, suppliers, retail outlets, advertisers, the list is endless. I've got a couple of friends who went that route, and what used to be fun for them is work. They are successful, but they also have "real" jobs, and luremaking eats up all their spare time and then some. Be careful what you wish for....

Thanks. I was trying to figure out how much faster an aluminum mold was that one made from POP. I typically wait at least five minutes to demold, and maybe more like ten. It's amazing to me that you can do such a complicated pour, clean up, and be ready to pour again in a minute. Hat's off, bigtime. I can see how that hot plate is the ticket for keeping the plastic at the right temp. for pouring.

Really clean lures. A question from someone new to pouring. How long do you have to wait before you can demold you plastics?

Well, when the alarm went off at 3:45, I turned over, and slept 'till 4:00. I figured I could stay home and be uncomfortable, or go fishing, and be uncomfortable. So I went, and had more than a dozen fish on my homemade Ika in half a day. A buddy who also fishes the Ika came into a cove I was fishing, and, after I watched him miss three fish, and finally hook one, I gave him one of my Ikas. He pulled four bass from one bush, and only came across to me when he had finally lost the Ika, and wanted another. I gave him a few, and he proceeded to get whacked. As I suspected, the softer Ika actually helped with the hookup ratio. I only had one fish come off. Because the plastic is softer, I was able to use a 3/0 Mustad EWG hook, which has a really deep bite, and through hook it, so the hook point was texposed on the far side of the Ika. The deep bite meant there was a lot of space between the hook belly and the Ika, so the fish were able to push the hook point out when they bit, and I didn't have a single gut hooked fish. Most were stuck in the jaw, or the roof of the mouth. I only averaged two fish per Ika, before they were either thrown, or torn, but now that I'm making my own, it's not that big a deal. To everyone who helped me work out how to do it, a big thank you!