Ichthus

hey guys! so i should be finishing one of my first wood lures and i'm going to be sealing it (ive made wood lures before but i had never sealed the wood because i just didnt get the concept at first) with all the minwax I use for topcoating purposes, I figure I might try to seal the wood with minwax because of its ease of use. if anybody has experience with this process, please post here. I will be posting my results here as well.

its super cheap to make a drying wheel with a rotisserie motor. I have to rebuild mine into a sturdier form but that is my fault. It is really nice to be able to just put a bait on the drying wheel and be able to leave it and really not have to worry about blemishes showing up.

I've been using the silhouette cameo for a while and really like the results. I'm too cheap to use stencil material to cut so I just use construction paper and kinda flex it alongside the bait. If you look at my gallery, you can tell which ones I used stencils on. All of my stenciled baits were painted using a silhouette cut stencil. Hope this helped!

If you choose to dip your baits to seal the wood, you might want to do a few coats. in my experience of dipping baits (pretty much all I do to seal and top coat), the dipping adds a thin layer on. sometimes I will dip one layer, and then use a cheap paint brush and brush on a second layer after the first has become hard. this should give you a smooth surface if thats what you're looking to paint on. I use minwax to seal and topcoat my baits. you can refer to an older forum that is all about the stuff. just use the search bar if you're interested

Lots of nice weather here in CA! And yes Vodkaman, I've been contemplating whether to put running water in or not.

I may just end up getting plans for a 14x18 shed and then adding to them a bit while still regulating code.

I'm only going for a rectangular plan because, being only 16, I have to please my parents and my mom wants the shed to look like a cottage and have a porch. I'm thinking a 14 by 18 shed with an internal measure of 12x18. That way the porch has 2 or 3 feet to come out, (May add another foot to porch depending) And I will most likely have a loft to nestle some things that may not be in use at the moment.

Thanks for the tips guys! I didn't consider things like dust as much as I should've and I think the vac setup is a great idea. My dad is an electrician and I'm sure he would be willing to show me the basics and help me wire the shed and light it up. I'm thinking a 12x18 or 12x16 but I will re measure and consider a 14x16 or 14x18 if enough room is available.

I was wondering if anybody on here has a backyard storage shed that they've turned into a work shop. I'm looking to build one for myself but I've no idea where to start. What size should I build? I know it needs some windows for ventilation and electricity. I'll also probably end up storing my rods in there and making a loft or building a hoist to stow my metal framed kick boat. So what size should I get and what should I keep in mind if anybody has experience with this?

Update: I made my first two baits. I went with an s-waver mold. I kept the whole entire bait in tact and made the mold. It works surprisingly well although I wish I had poured it vertically to make installing hangers easier, but I guess I'll do that later when I decide to re-do the mold. The mold works well. All I do is pull the two pieces apart after pouring, then put the joint hardware on and cut slots for the cotter pins to slip into. I ran into problems trying to pour with the joint hardware already in. As it is a one piece mold so the plastic was overlapping and screwing up the joint action and placement. I did the joints two different ways to experiment, one with interlinked screw eyes and the other with a "pin and slot" joint. The bait with the interlinked swims well at very, very slow retrieves and when twitched it walks like a spook and still has the joint action. It is a floating model. The "pin and slot" one swims like an s-waver except more head action but works only at slow speeds or when twitched as well. It is a suspending with weight in the head. This one doesn't have a tail. Instead, I plan I adding feathers or fur to make up the tail. Hoping it adds more action. I would add pictures to show what I mean but I'm away for a few days and forgot to take pictures before I left home. My question is: why would it only work at slow speeds and how do I fix this? When I retrieve fast, it straightens out and doesn't wiggle at all.

Thank you very much! Your guys's expertise was much needed! I'll post some results of the finished prototypes when they're finished on the next few weeks!