Props for PVC

[KelpKritter]

Just thought I'd throw up a quick note on my recent experiences with PVC. I have only been building baits for a little over 8 months so I do not have a lot of experience so take this as my two cents. I started with poplar and now work only with PVC. Specifically AZEK decking material.

I have finished a few swimbaits that work great and started shaping my first crankbait in the PVC last night. I have cut both of these baits out of wood as well.

The one thing that stands out to me more than anything is the consistency of the PVC material. There is no grain so blades do not wander and all the cuts are dead on the money, assuming I feed the wood properly! Plus the material is waterproof, which of course is a plus, as it eliminates potential problems and building steps.

If you have not looked into using this material yet give it a try.

Any other PVC users want to add their impressions? I know there are a few of you out there.

DaveB.

KelpKritter

[mark poulson]

Amen!!!!!!

Thank you JR Hopkins for getting us all started with PVC.

[rampantmonkey]

yea, that stuff is great. carves pretty good. i got his dvd on making baits with the pvc and they swim good. saved me a bunch of time. i did some sinking ones that turned out cool.

[CA Delta]

John Hopkins with a bait making video. I just heard about this, so I went on his site to see if it was the one & only JR & it's him alright. If I would have known this, I could have saved so many hours of trial & error.

I would also like to give PVC trim board some props. This stuff is all that you have heard, but I'm slowly learning that making a mold & pouring some fetherlite is the next level for me. Maybe some day.

Tim

[mark poulson]

Tim,

When you figure out the Featherlite deal, let me know.

My sinuses are telling me my sanding days, even with a dust mask and collector system, are numbered.

[Tony P]

yea, that stuff is great. carves pretty good. i got his dvd on making baits with the pvc and they swim good. saved me a bunch of time. i did some sinking ones that turned out cool.

Where can I get the DVD?

Tony P

[rampantmonkey]

Where can I get the DVD?

Tony P

look in his website: www.johnscrankbait.com

it's in the top of the bait gallery

[Tony P]

look in his website: www.johnscrankbait.com

it's in the top of the bait gallery

Thanks!

Tony P

[jrav]

Picked up some PVC trim at Home Depot a while ago and finally managed to get a few baits done and test fished them...I"ll echo your enthusiasm! The stuff I found was a "trim piece", I assume for outdoor use and was 5/8"X5/8" (8' long) for a pittance. Stuff was mean to halve in the store for carrying purposes, but cuts true and easy with a razor knife. Funny, it hates hacksaws and razors well.

Versus wood? Well, like you said it's already waterproof and mighty bouyant. Paint jobs I did were with Scribbles and Tulip Slick fabric paints and they adhere nicely, especially if the body is a bit rough from sanding. I do advise that, the slick factory surface doesn't grab some paints well, but I use strange painting techniques. The 100% PVC I have works nicely with D2T and imagine it would work well with CA or other glues.

Dremels great for weight/balance insertions, but be careful of heat generated on long drills/grinds as it IS PVC. Dust production is FAR better than wood with regard to sanding and shaping, my sinuses like this material on account of that and hands are not as dry by the sanding job. Very cool. Used adhesive backed sanding disks on a wood or foam block for final shaping (60, then 220 grit). You may get more dust with more anal sanding for different paints, fabrics are thick "acrylic emulsion" colors and fill in nicely.

For screw eyes, I simply made a small pilot divot to start and screwed the eyes in without drilling a pilot hole. For finishing, a drop of D2T in the hole to hold it in and I think it'll be fine for most bass fishing purposes. Can't say for sure until the 100 fish mark is attained, it'll be awhile.

Bear in mind, I'm a hobbiest and fisherman, not a lure making business so what I see in this PVC thing may not be as wonderful to others. Don't know if you could get crazy with a sanding wheel or drum (heat) and not sure on structural integrity for large wire-through, sandwich glued musky plugs. Might need special glues, might be expensive and noxious as PVC glues usually are in liquid form, at least the plumbing stuff is.

Definitely be looking at other brands/types of PVC at the local stores, looks to have some good potential for my plug making.

***BONUS***

If the spook don't work on account bad weight positioning, PVC allows one to simply and easily decapitate the offending experiment with a slice or two and turn it into a shorter popper or dodgediver! Had problems doing that with wood and feared compression and/or leakage, not to mention epoxy crackling. Not with PVC, it cuts clean and truer than basswood. Good newb (me) material:whistle:

[Lili Man]

Mark,

Stay away from Feather lite........Found out that it's one of those learning curves you wish you had learned about earlier. It Gasses, and is not the best for accepting paints in my opinion. I'm using something new, and if it works out well I will let you know more about it! Feather lite has it's advantages in prototyping, but for production....I say no!

Just my two cents!

[CA Delta]

jrav, glad to see the pvc is working for you & great analysis.

Lili Man, thanks for sharing your info, let us know how the new stuff works out for you. Keep up the hard work.

Tim

[GOONSDAD]

Sorry For The Ignorance Here But Does This Stuff Cut Well On A Lathe?

[mark poulson]

Lili Man,

Thanks for the tip.

Goonsdad,

I haven't tried to turn it on a lathe, but, judging from how it cuts and tools, you'll need very sharp tools, and have to watch out for grabbing. Small cuts, med. speeds.

The PVC part of the material is kind of grabby, and, on a drill press, the cuttings tend to twist around the bit, so you have to stop the drill and clean it off frequently.

I would try it if I had a lure in mind that needed turning. Just take it slow.

[fatfingers]

Not to be a nit-picker, but Husky was one of the first to introduce PVC board to the forum a long, long time ago.

It is great stuff and if you like the PVC board, you may like the sintra signboard a lot more. It is less brittle but otherwise has many of the same great characteristics of PVC board.

[jrav]

Your not a nit-picker, fatfingers, just a bit too darn slow on the response to be of use to my thread search:lol: I kid here, but it did take me forever to find the (latest) PVC thread 'cause I couldn't remember the poster name to search under. Could've tried the search box, maybe they like 3 letter words nowadays, at one time e-searches didn't work well with them.

But thanks! I have an unlabled pic on my iPod that served as my shopping list, it was probably from the earlier discussions you allude to. Never did find the nice "trim board" in the pic, but the long white 5/8" stuff was a good find. Despite the growing popularity of PVC, it seems that everyone carries a different variety/style under various names. I recall earlier links and discussion and it gets pretty hard to tell exactly who made what Home Depot sells and who calls it what.

I'll keep an eye out for the Sintra board, maybe it does exist in Lafayette, Indiana! I rarely bother to ask the store folks, they usually don't know what exists in the huge stores when it comes to odd things like this. Hence the pics on my iPod.

Might be nice to see how the composites (PVC/wood) plays out for luremaking. Buddy brought me a piece of decking to play with, but it was kinda weathered and crappy looking from being outside for over a year so I politely declined. Did seem harder and heavier than the pure PVC, his board was from Menard's and was rather brownish. Subsurface? Maybe, it takes quite a bit of weight to sink the pure PVC and perhaps composites may be easier there. Might mill easier than the pure form as well, at least be less likely to pigtail and hang around.

Looks like alot of ambiguous variety with this material in general, should be fun and interesting.

[mark poulson]

fatfingers,

My appologies to Husky. He must have posted it before my obsession began and I came on board.

jrav,

Look for AZEK decking. It's PVC mixed with fibers, easy to work, and buoyant.

You can google AZEK and their website has a dealer locater.

Most lumber yards can special order it.

[fatfingers]

Thanks for the response, Mark. Husky is a guy who is usually lurking on these boards. He doesn't say much, but when he does it pays to listen. He is also the guy who pioneered the idea of placing the netting beneath the foil. Further, he was the guy who came up with the idea of printing fish pictures on tissue paper and then gluing them to the foil with the foil serving as a sort of back light for the tissue photo.

Jrav, the sintra signboard is only available from sign painting shops in my area. Not sure where they order it, but I doubt if it will be available in any of the box stores. If you do go to the trouble to find it, you wil love it. I went to the trouble, tried it, and liked it so much that I ordered a lot of it. Still have a nice supply of it in the basement and still reach for it on occasion, although lately I've been experimenting with some very special, highly-seasoned, western red cedar I was able to acquire.

[mark poulson]

fatfingers,

I know Husky lurks, and he's helped me in the past with several things.

Fertile mind, and I don't mean it's full of fertilizer. Thinks outside the box, to quote Pete. Not afraide to try new things, and we all benefit from it.

[.dsaavedra.]

i bought an 8ft PVC trim board for 13 bucks at lowes after hearing all the hype, and honestly, it's been kinda disappointing. but i haven't used it enough to give a thorough judgement.

but so far:

my complaints:

-too bouyant: takes way too much weight to make a sinking PVC bait (i like almost all of my baits to be slow sink)

-doesn't shape nicely: it seems no matter how much sanding i do, it never gets smooth. its always kind of "fuzzy" and soft to the touch.

-stinks like a mo-fo when i'm shaping it

-the "saw dust" from it irritates my skin. i don't know if this is a chemical thing or if its just the general abrasive texture of the saw dust.

-the hard "shell" makes shaping difficult, as i don't have a table saw to skim this shell off...i suppose i could take my PVC stock to a friends house and use his table saw though...

my compliments:

-waterproof: no need to seal it, easy to make on the water adjustments to weighting etc.

-i guess if you wanted to make a surface bait the bouyancy would be a good thing.

Edited May 7, 2009 by DSV

[hazmail]

DSV - Keep looking, you have the same stuff I have, there is some PVC much finer, easier to sand, and as good as wood - How do I know, Coley sent me some which is as good as the best wood you can get, more dense than what you have, and has no grain, love it, just wish I could find it here - The closest I can get is buy the thinner sheets, it's more dense. pete

[GOONSDAD]

I found a producer of PVC material...

Rod, Bar & Machining Stock

I called them and they gave me a number for a local distributor whom I called and order some PVC rounds... Looking fwd to "playing" As you can see they have different shapes and sizes of rectangular as well. Pretty reasonable prices.. 1" rounds x 5ft were $3.98 ea. plus s&h. just my

[Husky]

Just lurking here! Coley was the man who turned me on to "Sign Board" aka Sintra. He was generous enough to send me a piece to play with. It is much tougher than the stuff at the big box stores, as it is meant to be subject to the elements 24/7, for years on end. It is sold in various colors and in various thicknesses.

A search of local sign shops may get you some scraps, free. Usually a container or coffee and the offer of a free lure will secure the "purchase.":twocents:

[jrav]

Dunno, Goons...that might be worth more than Clicked the link to have a look, saw round...hex...gray...CLEAR?? Perhaps there is some real potential in this place, it'll be interesting to see what the actual PVC is like compared to some of what we are using. Seems it might be a little like closed cell foams (EVA popper heads) where everyones recipe and product is a bit different.

I don't understand the techie jargon used to describe these things or how it relates to product characteristics. Feel free to describe here for folks like me when the goods arrive.

Just finished epoxy coats on some glider/jerks made of PVC, these I decided to "etch" a scale pattern in the body with some old brass popper coring tubes. Washed with acrylics and wiped, it outlines the etching very nicely and has a 3D effect under the epoxy. A few deep ones, but nothing major against smoothness. Shoulda done gill plates with a bigger tube, definately next time, perhaps an inset eye and epoxy drop over it to see if it has a disappear effect on angled viewing. Or spots like that, the extreme bouyancy does open some doors to stupid experiments with less fear of killing the action or water absorbtion.

Good material and easy to mod.

[mark poulson]

I did a quick check on the site, and the PVC they sell seems to be pure, with specific gravity of between 1.35 and 1.6.

I think that means they are heavier than the water they displace, and will sink, but I'm not sure.

Vodkaman, help!!

[Vodkaman]

Like a stone.

Dave