FrogAddict

I may have to try this stuff. I've been avoiding salt and have used the stuff from Do-It. It works great but makes every bait opaque.

Thanks guys! Does GBM have the same health concerns as the micro balloons?

What's GBM?

Just last weekend I was making a PoP mold. I had clamped up my walls (I was using scrap wood) and put clay on the bottom of the walls and pressed it nicely to the wood base and then poured my PoP as usual. I then grabbed the walls of the mold to pick it up to drop it down again (instead of the base) to get the bubbles out and the walls broke free of the base. Well, PoP went absolutely everywhere. I now have a nice PoP "stain" in my carpet that my wife isn't very happy about.

I prefer PVC for carving crank baits myself but tend to use balsa for masters. It's easy to carve and, as stated previously, I end up sealing anyway. The true advantage to using PVC, the ability to tank test early and often without the need to seal, is lost when we are talking about a master that is never meant to touch water. Having said all that, each to their own!

Tree sap??

Here's where I get mine. Mark P. sent me here a couple years ago. I buy trim pieces, usually a 4 foot long board at 1.25 by 3.5 inches keeps me busy all winter. http://www.vintagewoodworks.com/pvcboards.html

I must have let the epoxy pool too much because when I poured some plastic last night, I lost some of the ribs in the senko. Oh well, back to the drawing board. Thank goodness PoP is cheap.

I went to look for my respirator last night as my plastic was heating up and I couldn't understand how I could have lost it, I just bought the damn thing..... yep, I was wearing it.

I know this is an old post but I have to add that I went to click on something on the computer a couple weeks ago and couldn't understand why it wasn't responding.....until I realized I was attempting to use my cell phone as a mouse.

It's been a while since I thinned out epoxy, what do you use to thin, denatured alcohol and are you using the 30 min. variety of epoxy?

Travis, It was a lack of patience that made the oven idea intriguing. I can see the mod podge transferring brush strokes but in my experience, if do with very light coats, it does a pretty good job. I'm a bit worried about using epoxy because ti can fill in the details I want to keep. I'm talking very small ridges in a Senko like mold. I may try the diluted elmers glue trick on my next mold. Ben, Yep, I've been making hard lures for some time and I have a whole bunch of Homer mistakes in a box somewhere!

Well, I just made a two part POP mold following Mark's basic process and I used Legos for the first part of the mold and then brain farted and put the whole thing in the oven at low heat and warped some legos! The mold did work out well though. I'm in the market for more legos though.

It's a decoupage sealer that works pretty well for sealing POP molds in my limited experience.

I'm curious if you could use Mod Podge instead of diluted Epoxy in Mark's process above?

I have tried several different turner solutions and I settled on a rotisserie motor and spit. I just tape the hemos to it. That way I never have to take the lure off the hemos and risk dropping it (been there done that).

I hear you Travis. I was turning some PVC and the whole thing flew off and luckily went away from me. I also use a full face shield.

I use the Azek trim board and I've never had a problem. I did buy another brand at a box store and it was horrible.

I use a cheaper lathe I bought online and I also use cheaper tools but I invested in a nice sharpener since my tools need frequent sharpening. I buy cedar deck spindles from the local box store and turn them. I've made spook type walking baits, crank baits and some old school lures (inspired by Diemai) and it's a ton of fun! I recently turned a bluegill shaped lure on the lathe and then "flattened" the sides a bit using a belt sander. It worked out quite well until I drilled the ballast hole off center because I was in a hurry..... Oh well.

I can't remember the website since it's been so long since I bought. Mark Poulson is your man on this one.

I was thinking a white head and underbelly blue body with red vertical stripes. Call it the red white and blue gill!

Mark, First off great job! I know you have some time into that lure! My experience when I fished the original whopper plopper last year was that all the fish I caught with it had the front treble in their mouth. I wonder why that is?

Way to many variables to answer your question. I will say that I start all my paint schemes with a white base coat. I'm not a great painter so I keep things simple. Maybe a darker color on the top and some chartreuse on the shoulders. Add a kill dot and some red or orange on the underside or throat and call it good. I may go over the top with some netting and hit it with a gray then silver but I do like to keep it simple. I have been using a pearl white after the white base coat lately and I like the effect. If I were you, I'd practice on a piece of paper and see what the different paints do when layered.

I think if someone has to ask why we do what we do, they just don't get it and they may never get it....which is fine. Each to his or her own. If everyone built lures it would be harder to find the supplies!