Oops forgot these.

I had a lot of help over the years with that plug. There's a lot of PM and numbskull in it.
Lu you're making me want to build a duplicator. My plugs all look like they don't know each other.

Here is the pic of the fancy paint shaker i made.You have to love gorilla tape.This thing rocks turns paint that has been sitting their for over2 years into a milkshake in 30 seconds.

As The Swimmer Turns!
 

Frank came over yesterday for a day of plug turning! One of Frank's favorite plugs is the Guppy Canal Pencils made by the Hess Family, great plugs for sure and a favorite of many! Frank took a 32 pounder one day last season from the ditch......one of my season highlights was watching Frank play that fish! This season Frank will be fishing his Guppy knockoffs I am sure! Here are a few pics of Frank at the lathe!

Lou is that a jig saw [can't enlarge thumb?] ingenious !!

Jake I know the feeling sometimes my plugs are cousins sometimes strangers need more brother & sisters

Save yourself the trouble just send me the ones you want and i will copy them for you.:devil2:

Here is Frank in a few more of the finished body! A little more hand sanding and Frank will have them in sealer! Nice work Frank and a great day! Thanks for coming by.....and for the coffee!:uhuh:

Yes its an old jigsaw i had sitting around.

Lu, awesome!
In the works..

All youzz guys stuff looks great. I am pretty much done with turning, except for some small runs of some vintage stuff that several members of both sites have been nice enough to lend me this winter, still got a few coming. Some real nice Musso's and Pichney's. I really enjoy that part, the old stuff. I am sealing every day now and belly weighting now and soon it will be prime time. Still got a special tail wgt mold in the process for Slip and I and a plug fixture or 2 for myself. trying to clean up that deal I got on the Delta drill press and I have a few lip styles I need to make for those vintage plugs I will be doing so I have gov. jobs going at work too. I luv being too busy as I get bored fast and jump around a lot, must be my ADD.

Good morning, Paul
You have ADD, I have SUBTRACT, I lose stuff just by putting it down. Sometimes it's still in my hand. I was clearing yeaterday and lost my acid brush. Guess where I found it..:smash:In my hand. E-tex makes you high..

nice Fred. I like them.
Lawrence it looks like you got the heat going in your cave, No?

Nice job on those pencils Frank. I am now making 4 sizes of those things right down to a cute little one. It is my favorite canal plug and has been since Brad made them. In mine I weight the crap out of them and really just for the canal as they are really too heavy for non current applications. You got a good mentor.

What is it called it you have both?:wall:

BF and Frank, did you cut the front of the pencil on a bandsaw? The bottom looks like you maybe used a drum sander???

I would be really interested in seeing some jigs for cutting different plug blanks on a band saw.

No luck on selling the Shopsmith, so am going to use it for the lathe and boring. Maybe get a mini and duplicator next year....

Not getting the lathe turning yet, as we are in the process of packing up my mom's condo and moving her to a retirement community this week, and storing much stuff at my house...:smash: I hope to be turning within two weeks.

Fred you need some acid brushes? I will bring you some at plugfest as I got a lot of them and I am using something different now. You are welcome some of them. Then you can leave them everywhere. BTW I do that all the time, especially the pencil on my ear thing.

Mornin all. finish dip priming all the fleet this week. Started painting alittle. Might put together a booth. I have a ton to paint. I did swirl a atom jr and BM spin atom. Spary paint and a plastic glove plug rolled thru my hand. saran wrap also worked. Key was to have paint that doesn't set up instantly. I base spray gloss enamel ivory white, spray desired color then pull plug thru gloved hand. For the wrap method, spray paint , wrap and quickly remove plaaticwrap.

a losing battle

going to have to try some of those swirl finishes some day . I like the looks of those

nice plug Fred ,,, Cape Cod Ceadar ? Flap refferrance ..

Frank,, You'll enjoy catching on that plug .. nice job ..


Lu .. I think I got that same jig saw ..brillant .

I havn't really been hitting it as hard as you guys ,,. Been messing with old school hook hangers,,cotter pins ,, Flaptail quest got me interrested .. made some predators,, and 3 differant flaptails going now.. I expect it to be slow this winter ,, so thinking more time in the future .. Sux cutting that goofy beetlejuice face on plugs .. Just winging it ,, Made a 2 belly hook plug that ended up a single hook after back and forth on the beltsander trying to get face even ..

Dave Ross pm'd you ... cool darters

pbadad, those look great! Thanks for the tip, too! gonna try that.

2nd that ... love that cloudy blue color ..

[QUOTE=Tagger;737977]nice plug Fred ,,, Cape Cod Ceadar ? Flap refferrance ..

Hi Eddie!
From an Eastern Cedar in my front yard. From the top of it you can see P-town and beyond to Wood End and Race Point. Look the other way and you can see Head of the Meadow and Coast Guard. Look South and you can see Pamet and beyond. Not that I was ever in the top of that tree...

Eddy which face got a pic i may be able to help you as i am working on some flaptails myself.



3rd that and yes that cloudy blue color jumps out at you.

I, as well as many other people are lucky to call Bigfish a friend. Larry did most of the first one, then we split the second one, and he said he didn't look as I did the third one all myself, but I think Bigfish looked over my shoulder a little.

In that picture of me holding the two plugs I look strange. I think I was OD'ing on sawdust. Or the meds for the pulled back muscles were wearing off. Any way I had a wonderful day in the cave with Bigfish. Now I just have to keep from screwing up the paint job.
Peace everyone.

Hey Lu ... took a while to do that .. hope your still there .. any help appreciated .. I have no control just winging it on the belt sander .. Shorter plug was much longer ,,but I planned to make some single hook ,, still need a method ... This can't be the way Heddon di it .. Atom like plug I'm not sure on the face yet .. but I plan to do cotter pin hangers on there .. Made flaptail brackets myself .. Bought picture hanging kit and threw everything away ,, just wanted brass nails .. sure there's a better way there too .. Beetle Juice !!!!!

Glad you guys like. I feel the key is the slow drying paint. Testers spray enamel and the Krlon Short cuts set up to touch in 30 min. The 12 min spray colors tack quickly when you remove the wrap or slide thru your latex gloved hand. Gotta go. Will ck. in later. Have a sparkling week.

Eddy i am making the same type of lure (Heddon Vamp) i will be making a jig to make the faces today i will send all info and take pics for you as i figured an easy way to do it.

:jump1: :happy:

Eddy i wa going to make my own flaptail holders were did you get those?

Ross, here is what I use for pencil faces. Just rough out the angle with a saw and make the face with this angled v block (glued up 2 4x4's).

I made them myself ... hook holders are large from Moores... I think netcraft sells them too .. I know swivels are better than brass nails and thru wired over hangers ,,. trying to make something old looking .. something Flap would like .. I also plan on fishing them ..

Eddie had pm'd me to ask if I hyrdro oriented the darters and it was an interesting question so I am posting the answer here.

I did not hydro orient them this year (at least not yet). The end grain of maple soaks up a lot of sealer, in fact I oversealed a batch last year and they were too heavy to float once they were wired.

last year I hydro oriented them before cutting the slope, and after they were sealed, some of them floated differently. I think the weight of the sealer absorbed thru the end grain on the darter slope made them float differently.

There was a discussion a few years back about hydro orienting I think on SOL, and someone had said that if a primed blank of theirs floated wrong, they'd found if they just sprayed another coat of primer on one side that the weight of the paint was enough to even it out. So I was going to try that this year.

probably why Musso went to plastic, too many variables. maybe only worth sealing for a short time line and take your chances with water intrusion.

Eddy here is the jig i made today for doing the faces on the Vamps.

That could be done with a drum sander in a drill press, too! Woohoo! Thanks Lu!

I wish you hadn't shown that. I've resisted making a router table for 20 years, now I feel like I need one :crying:

Can never have enough tools George.:uhuh:

nice Lu ... you screw the blanks on jig up thru the bottom ?

Lu thats a great jig. You guys have some ingenious ideas about how to do things...

No Eddy i have two wooden dowels sticking out and mount the lure on them(belly holes).I will take more pics when i get home later.Takes about 20 seconds to do both sides.When i made the pattern i double sided taped two pieces of oak and then marked the wood for the cut then separated the pieces giving me exact copies flip one and you get a mirror image of the other.The hard part was the spacing before i would commit to screwing it together i used crazy glue to hold the pattern for the first side as i tested it to get the desired depth once i got it i predrilled and screwed it tight then did the same for the other side.