mark poulson

Can it take a urethane top coat?

RayburnGuy, I used to do a lot of woodworking. There are already made vacuum tables available. Try the Rockler.com website.

This is a great site, with a great bunch of people. Totally generous and sharing.

I'm going to try and make a set of stencils out of milk containers for my trout baits. I hate having to do the spots by hand, and my stencil doesn't follow the baits' contours well enough to make sharp spots. I'll let you know how it works out.

Out here in SoCal, the local lumber yards sell a Malaysian hardwood for decking that is a poor man's teak. It has a smooth, even grain like Mahogany, and it is hard, and heavy, and oily. Probably perfect for sub-surface gliders. I think one of the names it goes by is Epay, or something like that.

If you have a drill press, put on a temporary, sacrificial plywood deck, clamp the lexan to the deck, and you can use a hole saw without the pilot bit. Makes for a disc without the center hole.

Mart, Read the "pvc and screw eye" thread. Here's part of what I posted" "The "Cone of Silence" was officially lifted by the maker who gave me the tip about this stuff, so here's the entire deal. It's called SC 9000, from Target Coatings. We both use it. Super-Clear 9000 Polyurethane It's a waterborne urethane. It comes flat, semi gloss, and gloss. I use the gloss and the flat. It is listed as interior, but I've had no failures or problems with using it on lures, and now Dave's chimed in with his experiece in the salt, using the same stuff. I dip my lures once every two hours, to put three coats on them. That equals about one coat of Etex in overall thickness. Now, bear in mine that we both use PVC decking, which is very hard. I haven't tried it on a wood bait yet. It is not sensitive to air exposure, so I let the excess drip back into the wide mouth jar I use for dipping. I actually left the lid off overnight accidentally, and there was no skin the next morning. I just try not to make bubbles in the jar before I dip, or I have to blow on them right away to get rid of them. It cures out to full strength in 72 hours, but I fish lures I've made for myself after 24 hours. I dip after I've put my final paint coat on, and heat set it, and let it set for an hour. So I can paint and finish a lure in two days, counting the time it takes for the rattle can primer to dry. If I used a sealer like propionate, I could probably finish a lure in one day. My only limitation is the amount of space I have over my workbench for drip drying. It's almost fool proof, and I can't begin to tell you how much less stress I have from not worrying about turning, drips, and uncovered spots. It has cut two days off my lure building process, and, if it stands up to the salty critters Dave's customer's catch, it'll stand up to muskies, too. And it's perfect for refinishing plastic lures."

That's a really neat idea. Seems like it would be perfect for rounded lure bodies.

No, I haven't tried to spray it. Dipping it is so quick and easy, that's all I do. And I think I get a thicker coating when I dip. I watch the drips for a few minutes, and wipe off the excess when it accumulates, usually two or three times is enough. If a drip hardens, after a day, you can sand it off, or take it off with a file. On one piece lures that have a nose line tie and a rear hook hanger, the drips accumulate on whichever eye is down, and can be cleaned off after the urethane has set. I girdle the eye with an exacto knife to keep the urethane on the rest of the lure from being affected, and peel off the stuff on the eye. For finicky lures, I suppose you can take turns with one end up, and then the other, to try and get the film coverage uniform, but I don't think it's that important.

The "Cone of Silence" was officially lifted by the maker who gave me the tip about this stuff, so here's the entire deal. It's called SC 9000, from Target Coatings. We both use it. Super-Clear 9000 Polyurethane It's a waterborne urethane. It comes flat, semi gloss, and gloss. I use the gloss and the flat. It is listed as interior, but I've had no failures or problems with using it on lures, and now Dave's chimed in with his experiece in the salt, using the same stuff. I dip my lures once every two hours, to put three coats on them. That equals about one coat of Etex in overall thickness. Now, bear in mine that we both use PVC decking, which is very hard. I haven't tried it on a wood bait yet. It is not sensitive to air exposure, so I let the excess drip back into the wide mouth jar I use for dipping. I actually left the lid off overnight accidentally, and there was no skin the next morning. I just try not to make bubbles in the jar before I dip, or I have to blow on them right away to get rid of them. It cures out to full strength in 72 hours, but I fish lures I've made for myself after 24 hours. I dip after I've put my final paint coat on, and heat set it, and let it set for an hour. So I can paint and finish a lure in two days, counting the time it takes for the rattle can primer to dry. If I used a sealer like propionate, I could probably finish a lure in one day. My only limitation is the amount of space I have over my workbench for drip drying. It's almost fool proof, and I can't begin to tell you how much less stress I have from not worrying about turning, drips, and uncovered spots. It has cut two days off my lure building process, and, if it stands up to the salty critters Dave's customer's catch, it'll stand up to muskies, too. And it's perfect for refinishing plastic lures.

Dave, That's fantastic! Congrats on building a great lure.

The best fine netting I've found is the flexible plastic netting that holds garlic at the market. You can also overlap two layers of your regular scale fabric, offsetting the two patterns, and achieve an interesting, smaller pattern.

George, I use the .092, 1 1/8" sst screw eyes for both hinges, line ties and hook hangers in my PVC lures, and they work fine. I drill a small pilot hole and run the screw eye in, to cut the threads. Then I run it back almost all the way out, coat the threads with brush on crazy glue, and run it back in to it's final position. I do the same thing for all the screw eyes I use, and have never had a failure. I haven't done a test by hanging a weight from the eyes, but they've held through a lot of fishing, and fish. PVC is very strong and tough, so, once you've cut the threads with the screw eye, the glue coats them and makes them even stronger, and keeps the eyes from rotating. I run the eyes for the line tie and hook hangers all the way in until the actual round eye begins to seat in the PVC, so both the glue and the top coat help hold them from rotating.

If you are painting a flat board, and want a truly flat, smooth finish, use a rigid sanding block, like a piece of plywood, with the sand paper wrapped around it, instead of an electric sander, which has a soft, felt pad and will follow the contours of the wood, sculpting out the softer wood between the harder grain. Use as many coats of a good sanding sealer as you need to get it smooth, sanding between each coat. Then use a good primer, wet sand with 400 grit, and reprime, and then paint.

The cheek stripes look free hand to me. If you want to make a stencil, it probably won't look as "erratic", since it's hard to duplicate tiny details with stencils.

I bought two right hand reels. I like the Summits, but the Premiers were so much lighter (6.35oz) I dicided to try them. I hope I grow to love them, but only time will tell. If I don't, I'll let you know. I really like the Summits. They are lighter (7.8oz) than the Quantums (8.6oz) I had been using. They have a light enough spool to make casting lighter stuff easier. Before I bought the four MG 50 reels (5.9), I used them for all my finese baitcasting, like drop shot, small jerkbaits, and both T rig and split shot. I still use the Summits, but now I use them on a jig rod, an Ika rod, and a crank rod. I have one I keep as a spare in the boat, in case of an "unpickable" backlash. I'll just swap out the reels, and pick it out later. I'm in the process of sending the Summits to an authorized shop for routine service. I can rebuild the Quantums myself, but I haven't gotten that far into either the Summits or the MG50s. I'd rather let a pro do it.

Here's my Premier report. First, I caught some good fish on the 8lb setup. It was a T rigged 4" lizard with a 3/16 tungsten slip sinker. I found that on both the lizard setup and on the jig setup, I had to turn the magnetic brake all the way up, and then play with the spool tension to be able to cast without a backlash. Once I finally got it dialed in, both setups cast fine, but I find I prefer the centrifugal brakes. And there was no problem winching in two 3lbers on the lizard, as well as several smaller fish. The drag was smooth, even though I button it down pretty good so I can get a good hookset when I swing. No bites on the jig. I had been throwing the lizard with a Shimano MG50, so the Revo was a little bigger and slightly heavier, but, once I got it adjusted, it was fine. But it doesn't cast like the MG. I hate Shimano for "upgrading" the MG to the Core, for an additional $100! I had been throwing the jig with a Pflueger Summit, which has centrifugal brakes and a magnetic brake, and which is much easier to adjust. All in all, I'll keep the Revos on the rods I have them on now, for the next couple of weeks, to see how they hold up, and to see if I grow comfortable with them.

That's perfect! Now I'm ready for the Rupture.