[Texas Bass Pro]

Well, I just finished carving my last bait which is a popper style bait. Now I have to harden the wood baits and then paint them. I think I got the hard part out of the way. LOL

Here are some pictures of the Popper style bait.

 

[Jared]

looks great Bobby!

Heres a piece of info that will help you get your balsa carvings glass smooth before you apply your paint jobs.

go to your local hobby shop and get something called Clear Dope. Apply this to it. Give it a couple coats. Do NOT do it indoors without a window open. The fumes are potent. This stuff will seap into the poors and seal the wood allowing you to sand it smooth as glass.

If you bought a big enough jar you could even dip the bait in the jar, hold it over teh jar letting the excess run off. That will save ya some time.

by the way if you do go the painting route... get a good natural hair brush and be sure to get dope thinner. regular thinner will not work.

The dope is normally used on wood models. It originally was used on real airplanes when they were canvas covered years ago.

 

[KeithsCatch]

Looks good so far Bobby. I hope that you use longer screw in eyes this time They can be ordered online at http://www.upnorthoutdoors.com/stamina/plugs_hardware/screw_eyes.html

Bobby, this is the process I use when making my own balsa wood lures. http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5203 I am sure that what Jared suggested works. I know this will seal your bait. Note, this method is not intended to then be sanded as Jared noted. This is to seal the wood to prevent any water damage to the wood itself. Otherwise in time you will have a roted out wood bait.

 

[Texas Bass Pro]

Thanks for the tips Jared and Keith. I am thinking about using cotter pins and just attaching a ring with a treble hook on it. The pins are quite a bit longer and wider than screws. I will coat it down with some nail glue and then set it in after I drill the hole. The only problem with cotter pins is that they don't have grooves that will twist into the wood. The crankbait that I carved out first will have to have these since the holes are already drilled out. I will probably go with the screws on the rest of my baits.

I have never heard of Clear Dope. I will have to give it a try.

I am going to have to go back to all my post on my handmade baits and look back over all the helpfull hints and tips before I do anything else.

 

[KeithsCatch]

What is going to hold the cotter pin into the wood? That could be a problem.

I used a cotter pin on one of my lures as instructed to in one of the tutorials I posted earlier. However, what made that work was using a small egg sinker and the cotter pin was inserted into the egg sinker and then the ends where opened up and cliped off at the edge. This was expoxied into a pre drilled hole that would accomodate the egg sinker and the loop that sticks out the belly of the lure is the cotter pin loop. The weight sits flush in the bait and gives the bait the belly weight that it needs in order to float properly and a loop from which to hang a split ring from and ultimately a hook.

Just putting a cotter pin into wood will not hold. Just something to think about.

 

[Jared]

I have never heard of Clear Dope. I will have to give it a try.

Its actually called Dope and it comes in many colors. Clear is what you want tho. I forgot to add this before too but you want to thin it about 30 - 50% with dope thinner.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXAU61&P=ML is one brand of it.

 

[Texas Bass Pro]

What is going to hold the cotter pin into the wood? That could be a problem.

Wood nail glue. If you have never used this let me tell you something.......it is 30 times stroner than super glue or anything else out there.