mark poulson

A truly original design, and the best part is they work!

You can also try soaking in Minwax Wood Hardener before you prime. If you leave the lure soaking in it long enough, it will eventually go all the way to the middle, but that's overkill. Soaking for an hour, and then letting it dry for a few days, will make it waterproof.

I see how shiny your lures turned out. I guess it must be the spray glue you use. I use 3M 77 and 90 spray glue on the job, but I don't think they would turn out as clear as yours.

One way to reinforce the wood so it will hold a screw eye is to predrill, run the screw eye in and then back out, put a drop of runny crazy glue into the hole, and run the screw eye back in. I do that even with my PVC lures, but I use brush on crazy glue on the screw eye threads before I run them back in. I my case, it's more to lock the screw eyes into position, but it also insures that the threads cut into the lure are strong.

The decking I use is AZEK. I buy the 1"X 5 1/2" decking, because I carve solid lures, not thru wire laminates. It's a nationally distributed product, I think. If you google AZEK, you'll find their site, and who carries it. Most regular lumberyards, not Lowe's or HomeDepot, can order it. But there are other brands of PVC simulated wood products that work, too. The main things you want to look for is waterproof and buoyant.

Forgive a "stupid" question, but doesn't the spray glue deaden the shine of the foil?

+1 I had the same thing happen to me. We used to think a lacquer high was fun on the job. But the damage lasts forever.

When I paint or repaint plastic lures, I dip or brush them in acetone to insure a clean surface. I get good bonding of paint, in my case Createx or AutoAire, and never have any paint failure. I started doing this because I wanted to repaint some jerkbaits in a ghost finish, and needed to get back to clear plastic before I started. The acetone is a solvent for the plastic, so I am repainting onto a "virgin" plastic surface. I don't soak the lures, just dip, or brush, and let drip dry, which is really quick, so the lure integrity is never threatened. It's a quick, cheap technique that is probably worth a try before you get too deep into different bonders and primers.

I don't fish for pike or musky, but I have fished the salt for barricuda, which look to have the same arsenal of teeth. No wooden lure finish can hold up to the jaws of toothy fish. Not even teak. If you use an epoxy that's hard, like D2T, it will crack from the daily expansion and contraction of the wood as it changes temperature, and those micro cracks will be it's achilles heal. If you use a more flexible decoupage epoxy, like Etex, the teeth will pass through it into the wood, and water will follow, dooming the bond of the epoxy to the paint/lure as the water expands the wood. I've found the best answer is to use a material for your lures that's totally waterproof, like resin or PVC, and just know you'll have tooth rash on your finish, which will require touchup or acceptance of an "experienced" lure. So a top coat that's repairable, like a urethane, is more practical. Probably the best finish for a musky lure is a total solvent based rattle can system, from start to finish, so all the paint and topcoat bond, and are totally waterproof. I used that system on my first large walking baits, and had one survive a week on a buoy line, until I could get in a boat and retrieve it, after an errant shore cast, with no damage or failure. And that was a wooden lure, but one piece. So I know that system withstands water well. I'm sure that if it were used on a PVC or resin lure, it would be the perfect finish system as far as durability.

I prefer the SST screw eye/hinge pin system. The screw eye lets me adjust the width of the joint, and the pin lets me take the lure apart for finishing, or adjusting, and then reassemble easily. An added benefit is that, with the bicycle spokes I use for the pins, I get a nice squeak from the hinges as the lure moves. I use PVC decking for my lures, so waterproofing at the hinge pin holes isn't an issue. I did the same joint system when I used wood, but had too many paint/topcoat failures due to water intrusion.

I've played around with some Staycee knockoffs. I found that removing any material from the bill's sides or shortening the bill does make them run shallower, but I wasn't after that. I wanted to run the same depth, but with less side to side, and I couldn't get it to do that. First, I sanded off the sides of the bill, so it was thin, but still full length. The lure didn't dive as deep, and didn't have as much action, side to side. Then I shortened the bill on another, and it again didn't dive as deep, but had more side to side on the jerks.

I have run into that problem, and here's what I found caused it. Actually, there were two different times, with two different causes. I prime with rattle can primer, paint with Createx or other water based/bourne air brush paints, and dip with a water borne urethane. I heat set all my paint after each coat. I'm assuming you're doing the same. Remember, if you're using Createx, you need to get the paint up to 350 degrees (I think) to get the paint molecules to cross link, and become waterproof. That's the reason you can wash T shirts with Createx paint schemes on them. The paint is heat set by ironing it from the backside. The first time I had wrinkling, it was between coats of urethane, and didn't affect the paint scheme. I didn't wait the full two hours between dips, and the second coat wrinkled big time. So I learned to "heat set" my urethane between coats, using a hair dryer on low, once the urethane has stopped dripping, and I can redip after only an hour with no problems. That insures that it's truly dry. You might try waiting longer between dips. Depending on which finish you use, it should have a recoat time on the label. At that time, I was using the Target Coatins SC9000, which is an interior urethane, but which holds up fine for lures unless you let them soak, or lie on wet carpet overnight. That makes them fog up, but hanging them to dry restores them. The second time I got wrinkling, actually a very fine crackle finish, was when I switched to their exterior urethane, the EM9300. Since I had never had a problem with the interior urethane, I figure that the exterior has a much hotter solvent for it's stronger film strength, and so it ate into the paint a little, kind of reactivating it a little, and then pulled the paint apart a little as it set. I was seeing the white primer in the mini cracks of the crackle finish. So, since the interior hadn't done that, I tried dipping first in the interior, and then twice more in the exterior, and it cured the crackling. Crackle finish is usually achieved by putting a strong film over a weak one, before the weak one is fully cured. I get that effect with rattle can paints by spraying a gloss black over the shoulders and back of a white semi gloss main body paint coat. With rattle cans, you can recoat after a minute or so, and, if I hit the white semi with a gloss black, it crackles. I actually like the way it looks. Hope this helps.

The PVC decking I use, made by AZEK, is about as buoyant as poplar. I add weight as needed to achieve either floaters, slow, or fast sinkers. I float test the lures unpainted, with their hardware and hooks attached, and add weight, in the form of egg sinkers and split shot, to the tines of the trebles, until I get the lure weighted like I want. Then I remove the hooks, drill 1/4" holes in the belly of the lure, and add the same amount of 1/4" lead wire weight as I needed in my float test. If I want a suspending lure, I try to get it to just barely float in the test. The paint and topcoat will add a little weight, too, so I don't want it to suspend in the test. A super slow sinker is really what I shoot for. I push the weights into the holes, usually a tight fit, just past flush, add a drop of runny crazy glue, and bondo over the holes. Then I sand the bondo smooth and flush, and float test again, just to be sure. It's easier to adjust a lure before it's painted, and it looks better. Then I put on two or three coats of primer, as much to fill any voids as to insure a paint bond, and paint away. If I do add rattles, it's usually one right between the eyes, and that's in place before my float test. I want the lure as close to finished as possible when I weight test it, so all I have to allow for is the paint and topcoat. In the past, when I used epoxy as a topcoat, I usually allowed 3 grams for my paint scheme and two coats of epoxy topcoat. I figure about 2 grams now, since I'm using three dip coats of urethane for my topcoat. I can always add a little weight to the finished lure by wrapping lead wire around the shank of the front hook, and securing it with a drop of crazy glue, but I try to get it as close as possible with the lead wire weighting, so fine tuning is minimal. Hope this helps.

That's cool. Nice to see your lures getting so much attention.

That's what I do. I assemble them to paint them, so the scheme is more or less continuous, and then disassemble them to clear coat them. I use a screw eye and hinge pin setup, so all I have to do is remove the pins for clearing, and then clean out the pin holes afterwards for reassembly.

Amen!

You might try "heat setting" the primer, like you would a water based/bourne T shirt paint like Createx, to simulate oven baking, and drive out all the solvents. Most rattle can primers say dry to the touch in an hour+-. After that, heat setting shouldn't hurt the strength of the paint film.

Try using the hexagon mesh, with the mesh from avacado bags overlayed on it. It gives an interesting scale pattern. You can also overlay with the larger diamond shaped mesh from orange bags. Fruit is obviously good for you. Someone here did a great snake scale pattern by changing the angle they shot their paint onto the mesh pattern, achieving a dark to light shading in each scale, but they used a diamond scale pattern, not octagon.

+1 I have had exactly the same experience, and keep as much weight as I can in the first section. Never weight the tail section. I weight my floaters so the lure sits with it's back slightly out of the water, and the tail wags in the breeze, like a tailing bonefish.

Sounds to me like your primer wasn't completely set. Try hitting it with a hair dryer, to be sure the solvent is completely gone. Then let it sit overnight. The same goes for your paint scheme. Are you truly heat setting each coat of your paint with the hair dryer set on high, or just after you're done painting? Water based/bourne paints have a lot of water in them, and the paint needs to be heated enough to cause the molecules to crosslink, which makes them waterproof. I don't know the actual temps. needed, but Snax posted it here a year or two ago. If you do a search for Snax's posts, I'm sure you can find it. I've had that orange peel effect when using the EM9300, which is their exterior urethane. I stopped it by dipping first in the SC9000, to give the paint a stronger surface, and then with the EM9300. Evidently, the film strength of the exterior urethane is so strong it pulls the softer paint and makes it orange peel. I've never had that happen with the SC9000.

The stuff I use is AZEK decking. I buy it in 20' lengths, and it costs $80+-. I can make a ton of lures from one length. I don't know what Home Depot sells, but, if it's buoyant, it should work. Stay away from Trex. It sinks like a rock.

I've had the best luck with rattle can metalics. They seem to be shinier than water based air brush metalics. But be sure you dry them completely before you scale over them. Trapped solvent can make them soft, and the scale material will stick to them, and peel the metalic paint off when you take the scale material off. I let them dry overnight, and then hit them with a hair dryer before I add the scales.

Clamboni, I don't think the dividers are made from the same stuff as the boxes. The divider material seems softer and more flexible. Probably a cheaper plastic.