Sonny.Barile

Dieter.....You failed at making a little glider, but you succeeded in making a great little twitch bait. That would be great for tossing between close structures in the shallows. The pvc foam you used, would it hold up to belt sander? or would it melt down? Regards Sonny

If you put the poly part under a can with a bottle cap that has some superglue in it will clear smokey surfaces if they arent too far gone. It is a chemical thing that happens from the fumes. The machine shop guys where I work taught me that one. They were turning a poly tube for me and it got smoked looking. They did that trick and it cleared right up.

Bassguy I have the yellow one from HF. I banged out 3 four inch gliders on it today. Between that sander and a dremel tool, it is no longer hard work.

The few I had made a while back only had small radii on the edges because that is what the plans called for. The edges would always chip and lose paint so I can see what you mean. I will try the next with full radii. maybe the action will get a little bit more lively. Regards Sonny

Yes to all of the above. I am aware of the ill effects of hardwood dust to the respiratory system. I do use a mini shopvac hooked up to the dust port and a cotton mask. It is because of the mask that my family jokes that I am out in the garage doing surgery.......Where I am lacking in safety is I never wear protective glasses. I fog them up all the time and I think not seeing is more dangerous to me. Thank you as these are important things to tell people. For some people, Lure building is the first time they work with woods and chemicals. Regards Sonny

If you dont clear coat over the sharpie colors on a plastic lure, and it fades, you could always touch it up. Clear coating will prevent you from doing so or atleast easily.... I always thought the odor from markers would repel the fish..........

Dieter Just one question about the Roach glider...... Is there a flat on the periphery of the lure (in your version) or is the rounding a full dome? I have often been tempted to do a full round but I am not sure what it will do to the swimming action......if anything at all. Regards Sonny

After messing with the one I have today it seems like it will work out for what Im doing. The table on the 5" disc tilts up to 45 degrees and the small belt can have it's back stop removed which will be great for sculpting out round sided baits. It isnt that powerful at 1/4 hp but I was able to shape out a 4 inch lure blank from poplar with out having to break out the jig saw. The tilting table will help me rough out my rounds and I can finish them by hand. Thanks for your advice. Sonny

Dieter I made the body of the 11 cm version a couple of years ago but never finished it. I drilled it very crooked and threw it on the pile of stuff that needed to be filled and redrilled. Now that I have seen yours, I may go out to the garage tomorrow and try again. I have some 1" x 2" poplar that may produce a very lively version. Regards Sonny

What belt/disc combo do you think is better for lure building? 1"x30" belt with 5" disc or bigger 4"x36" with 6" disc? I bought the 1x30 recently but am having second thoughts........ I originally picked that model because I thought it would be less likely to gouge the wood when doing small or finer sanding work, but I am now thinking that I have seriously limited the size of what I can work on. I would like to start building 3 to 5 inch gliders and darters in wood. If you could give me your opinion as to which and why, I would greatly appreciate it.... Some of you may already know me from this board as I have made a few lures in wood using a bandsaw (that I no longer have) and hand filing and sanding . I recently tried my hand at casting urethane, but that is really boring and left me feeling like I didnt really do anything. I think for me, I get much more of a sense of being connected with what I build when it is more of an artistic labor as opposed to mixing chemicals and popping out something. Sonny

try the lue sticks for a hot melt glue gun

Thanks. I usually paint on eyes but I want to increase my realism on the baits and my painting skills are rudimentary at best.

Does D2T stick to Alumilite White castings. I need to glue plastic eyes on a body and I dont want to ruin it. I got my first good casting and did a rush paint job just to test it. I painted bick black dots on it just to have some eyes on it but I would like to use purchased molded eyes on future castings. I will attempt to post a pic in the Album because it came out alright. Thanks in advance.. Sonny

Is that anything like a supercalafragilisticespealodocious.? In all seriousness, that sounds like 3 types of existing finish products blended together. Probably has all of the good points of the three.....and all of the bad. I heard some talk on another site that Alumilite is going to be releasing a urethane one part clear finish very soon. It is suposed to be super hard and uv protected. I wouldnt hold my breath tho...because we have all heard this kind of thing before.

If you paint an Alumilite casting within 10 or 15 minutes of demolding, acrylic and enamel paints will chemically bond to the surface. It gives extreme adhesion. All you need to do is give it a light base coat. After that, the subsequent layers of paint will not have any issues adhering to the base coat of paint. If you are maiking a lure or two this is easy to do. If you are trying to do production steps, by filling up a crate with bodies before you move on to the next step, this isnt for you....

If you are using thru wire in your mold, you can load egg weights on your wire. If you want the weight in the lower belly, just use a little more wire and bend it downward. This way you arent messing with your mold at all. You can get the weights to stay were you want them by kinking the wire on both sides of the weight. Regards Sonny

Pete To remedy the water/hot oil hazard: When you load the new blank lip in the fixture, dip it in a cup of unheated oil first. It immedialately sheds the water in the oil. I know this isnt a new tutorial, but I just found it today, so it is new to me. Great piece of work! You really do think out of the box. Sonny

Try a pulley/cable system. You can see how they work on some of the old classic boat sites. Very simple to build from cheap hardware store parts and a gokart steering wheel.

I tried this last year but as a popper. I turned a piece of aluminum tubing down to an extremely thin wall. I stuffed it with styrofoam. I made a tapered tail and a head from sculpey and glued it all up. It did not work well. It floated just under the surface and when tugged had virtually no action. I have not experimented further. Your rendition looks like it has much more merit. That lure you made looks like it is usable. I would definitely continue on with more iterations. You are apparently on the right track. I dont post much these days but I do read your posts. I really enjoy seeing your work. Sonny

I have the following for sale in New Jersey. It is just about everything you need to make turned plugs. Mini Lathe Harbor Freight, 3 months old Set of 8 Lathe tools Harbor Freight 3 jaw chuck for lathe Harbor Freight 9 inch Ban Saw Ryobi (blade is dull, needs new one) Airbrush w/8 bottles Badger 250 AirCompressor Badger Cyclone Located in Secaucus. Pick-up only. Whole kit-n-kaboodle for $150 firm. Sonny

A post on this site had a link to a lure building site that appeared to be the pages of an old book. It stated that Rapala uses balsa and had a proprietary laquer dipping process that saved them from having to sand the lures. The author was stressing that the laquer was vary thin and they dipped multiple times to build up a thick plastic like layer. Im not sure of the age of the article as I cant find it anymore. Does anyone have any experience with thinning laquer?

IF you make it indestructable...you will never get better at making it...... Your logic may be flawed. As you already know, that level of durability is taking quite an effort. Your weak link would be the line. If it breaks, you lose all of your work.