I bought a gallon and dipped. Then sanded myself silly. Maybe I should have reduced it some.

Larry I take the primer amount and cut it w/ paint thinner. i.e. 1 pt primer, 1/2 pt thinner. Dry overnight dip again. Lightly sand or gray scotchpad.

how do keep the runny paint from running out of eye an hook holes, leaving no rivers down the side of the plug...never had any luck dipping,but love the primer inside all the holes.

Thanks for the ratio.

I knew you were using maple George. Yeah I use AYC exclusively for the plugs I build......you are correct it does not absorb the BLO/Mins I use very much! I did some testing once (if anyone is interested?) I sealed a series of bodies (AYC) for different periods of time from 1 minute to 1 hour and found no more penetration from 1 minute to one hour? I only soak mine for a minute or so......wipe dry and I let them stand to dry for about 5 days minimum before I prime. I have never had any water problems, splitting or adhesion problems. George is the rate of drying weight similar from one plug to the next after sealing? That is to say if you soak 2 plugs for the same amount of time, after drying will they both weigh the same?

yep! think railroad tracks....thin,very thin tracks an roll away.

Cool stuff, Dave. You might try relieving the edges on the jointed like Musso did on his jointed darters. Jointed plugs that bend to 90 degrees and stop cast better than those that stop short of 90 degrees.

Also, why the 4 lines on the darter? One for the hook, one for the slope starting, what are the other two? Are you weighting them?

Don't scew them up ... take some time and make a sled ... Take one of those blanks and rip it in half . Lay it on a block of wood like a darter blank and trace ,(bandsaw),leave some stock in the back (arse of plug).. mark where you want your belly hole .. On sled drill out belly hole and glue in a 3/8 dowel there or whatever you, you use for a belly hole .. In back of sled drill hole where the arse hole of plug is .. Now pre drill belly/arse of blanks ,, slip belly hole of blank over the dowel and screw the arse with and 1.5 drywall screw .. Blank should be held firmly in the sled so you can make square cuts at 90 degrees ..(bandsaw),, Make a pattern ,, trace darter profile,, leave a little line .. touch up beltsander to line ..

Trouble with maple and darters, Larry, is that the wood from each plank can be quite a bit different. Unfinished bodies vary as much as 1/2 an oz, even with wood that is dried to the same degree. They tend to approach each other when left in sealer a long time, but I don't feel I have any great grasp of how to time how long I should seal them.

Thinking I might go back to hard maple (or beech) instead. Though repeatedly sharpening tools becomes a pain when making quantities.

Gotta go. Talk throughout the week

I was curious about the consistency of the density of the wood one from the other before sealer? I have not used maple much less try building a darter.....never really fished them much? I know they rock but just have not been on my favorites list? Thanks for the info George......you have great insight!:uhuh:

Time for you to make some Gibbs darters, Eddy. That black one you showed me swam better than anything I've built.

I'll say you gotta go. You've got more A-jrs to finish than Paul has fleas.

Most woods are porous, a few are not. White oak is not and that is why it is used for casks. I have not seen a table quantifying the porosity.
I have had the most sucess using a oil based polyurethane sanding sealer to seal and rattle can primer. I dip and drip my sealer.
Where were the Musso articles?

Vintage lure forum has a link.

I've made some Gibbs .. The 3 hook one .. I made one of those single belly I like (have fished enough to get fish approval).. reading your other post about going back to hard maple .. I'm done there .. Why not consider birch darters (gibbs).. Hard maple is to damm hard .. I swear some plugs split on impact of the water.. Weight is all over the place.. sux to work with,, thru drilling sux ,, tools hate it ... Only thing it has going for it ,, it swims well /no weight.. Birch dowel darter size are expensive $$ .. thinking about buying a board and ripping it up .. I bet you've done this ..

Ya, I like that look better but these were already done so I had no square ends so while I could cut them in half I couldn't make that nice V shape with the band saw as they'd roll if I tried to cut them lengthwise with no square ends. I turned 2 more last night to cut that way.

One of the the pencil marks is the belly hook, the others are just drawn every 1/4" as a guide to help me when I get to the belt sander so I know when to stop. I did well with the ones I made last year but I'm still experimenting with the length of that slope. The black one in that picture is the shortest slope I did last year but I had some that went back an inch or so further.

The top 2 or 3 have wider tails as I was going to try adding a tail weight. I tried that last year on some with the thin tails but then I needed to add a chin weight to get it to dig. I was hoping with a thicker tail maybe I wouldn't need the chin weight. I'm greedy and always want to cast further than the other guy :)

Yeah, I ripped a lot of birch for the Hab needle copies I did a couple of years ago. If you want to get a 6/4 plank and bring it down here I'll slice it up for you......might cost you a darter though ;).

Funny enough the band saw is not my issue.
The two problems I have is getting the table saw cut just the right height in relation to the thru hole and then sanding the bevel after the bandsaw cut. Sometimes I swear if I look with the left eye they tilt one way, try the right eye and its tilted the other. Back and forth we go...

I'll be curious as to what you learn with the tail weight. Supposedly tail weights are death to a darter, but I'm skeptical since bottles carry them and float about the same. I've not tried weighting any darters, I'm even afraid to mess with hook weight, but I'd love to lose the tail hook and will probably try a few of this run with a small tail weight instead.

forgot ... also make a "bed" too .. Same thing as sled minus belly dowell and arse screw part .. Use this on your drill press table to drill belly holes in blanks .. So blanks aren't all rolly poly and belly holes drill square .. if that makes any sense

After my oversealing incident last year I cut the soak time on the soft maple to 1-2 hours.. I was using slightly thinned spar urethane and I did not have any splits.

all on the bandsaw Dave ,, no table saw ..try it .. hold your sled flat on the table ,,cut beak,slope,, everything .. key is your blank firmly in sled,,then its just along for the ride

EXACTLY TRUE!!!!!!!!!. I resanded a whole batch of darters last year then figured out my glasses make them twist depending on which eye I sight them with. :wall:

Eddy's jig is the way to go, but you need a vertical beltsander since the jig will be on its side.

Good morning and Happy New Year to everyone!! Just got up, kinda lazy today. Was away for the past week and will probably work on the large Nike again ( trying to get some 8/4 cedar or pine) Small one is done and is ready for paint. Next project is to finish up large surfster and work on some pikies. Going to use original C.C. paint schemes on them.
Got some Tiger maple when I was out in Pa. last week and will be concentrating on finishing a Huntboard I started months ago, and finishing two Shaker sewing tables I also have sitting around, so the plugbuilding will be on hold a few weeks.

You could use a drum on the drill press with a block the same size as the drum screwed to the table. Similar to an overhead or pin router.

I just have a hand held BS cleated on the side of the bench .. If your bandsaw blade is decent you barely have to touch them ..

Happy New year Sgt. ... sorry ,,. unless your a truck driver and your near stoughton ma. (downes and reader) ,, Don't know resources in NJ ..

I've got BS all over the place, but it doesn't help. Does that mean I need a new bandsaw?

I know where I can get some but to lazy to take the ride, plus the prices on wood is starting to get out of control. The guy I get my AYC from has not ordered any in two months because of the price. The tiger maple I just got cost me $9.00 bf :af:, paid $7.00 bf about six months ago!