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For the balsa wood builder, I like to give you some really good things that are working good for me. I have been building muskie twitch baits for a while now and there were couple of things that really did not have a good way to do it. One was cutting the belie slot to fit the wire for the hook hangars and the line tow, and the wire forms a loop, the slot is about 10 mm deep, I used all kinds of tools dremel with diamond cutter , box cutter xacto knife, nothing really worked great, by accident one day I was looking for something else to cut the slot, I had a package of Milwaukee 4 inch metal blades, with fine teeth 18 tpi, it works like a dream and it makes the slot perfect, I made a wood handle for the blade to get better leverage, but it works fine with out the handle Second When I installed the wire I used 2 ton epoxy to secure the wire and it is really strong, but it takes time and a lot more expensive when building hundreds of baits, couple of month ago I was at my local hardwood supplier and I asked one the guys there for something that i could use to glue the wire, I happened to get lucky the guy is a bass bait builder and here is what he used and I use now the glue is TITLEBOND III Waterproof and is sand able, he said that you can also use it as a filler by mixing fine sawdust, but I use it plain just to glue the wire, by using it plain the glue flows all the way around the wire, I tested it you will rip the wire with the wood attached to it, it's very strong. For filling the remainder of the slot I use FAMWOOD wood filler and that works way better than any other plastic wood filler that I have used I hope this help to solve some of your problem, this site made me in to really good builder and I like to share my success in building baits. For the beginners it takes time to become a good builder do not give up I have been doing for six years now and I learn new things every day, practice makes perfect Thank You to all the builders on this site for helping out and sharing their success Thank You Gino