George looking at your drill press i am surprised you have not made a table top for it.

And looking at your extension cord set up I wonder why you're still alive. Stay away from toaster ovens is all I can say.

:biglaugh::biglaugh::rotf2::rotf2: Just surge protecting everything .

trying to make this ,,, Heddon (swimmer-flaptail) in upper right hand corner .. PIA .. very labor intensive .. I can see I already messed up line tie ,, mines horizontal .. I never saw a flaptail swimmer .. can't see it swimming very well ,, Thanks Lu .... nice inferno Numby ..

Saltwater Lures

I'm going to have so much solder on top of this plug I gotta belly weight so it don't flip ..

:rotf2::rotf2:I had the cord catch in my drill press and it ripped the 4' flourescent light off the ceiling on top of me .. I had to change my shorts ..

I never seen that lure Eddy and your solder work looks great nice job on all the hardware :uhuh:.I can't wait to see the finished product:drool::drool:.I know we are not the only two making flaptails i wonder what the other mad scientists are working on?

Morning guys. started painting the army of plugs. An endless task, especially when you have airbrush hell. finally search threads on brush remedies. Cutting paint w/50/50 windex and water worked much better than straight water. Plus I was using to thick of consisitency. The single stage gun was used for base coats and top/bottom colors. Dual stage for fogging and lateral lines. I use the Bernzy formula for cleaning. Lucky for myself I have a utility sink w/in reach of my airbrush to clean out w/air and hot water. Had the heat gun set up to set the paint. Don't know if necessary but I like the way the paint dries to faciitate a second coat or color overlay. Haven't spun anything inweeks. Prepping the plugs to get ready for paint took all spare time. I have a template made for a GTS-2 & GTS-3. Hope everyone had a good week.

Good mornin' all. I got so much in the works I'm getting dizzy. Only a month to finish it........gonna be ugly. Nothing is past the primer stage and most haven't even seen sealer yet.

Winter ain't long enough these days.

i hear you george. I have not primed anything yet. I think this year I am not going to kill myself this last month and bring what I have finished and that's it. Will give me more time to visit others and enjoy myself more. Last year was very hectic the last few weeks and it got to be not fun.I am looking at a few hundred sealed plugs right now and I know there is no way in hell they are all getting finished and I don't really care.

Hi guys, I have a few plugs to epoxy from last year and many scattered bodies but I'd like to turn a few before the fest. I was thinking of trying that bluefish bomb plug.

BTW I spent the day in God's country at Steve's, Capesams, yesterday. Quite the shop. He has more stuff unfinished and stored than I have ever made. His showroom was a drool fest. His reproductions of plugs of days gone by were impressive. A true artist and very meticulous. Got several ideas for my own building and got to see several ways he goes about building which will is always good for stimulating new ideas on my end. It sure was fun and makes me feel like I'm not the only one with a problem.

Morning guys! PB......the cleaning mix is a mix of simple green, windex and water......25/25/and 50. I do not heat set my paint......never felt the need so save yourself the step. I try to lay the body of my paint on in stages while still damp with the exception of detail like dots/spots and eye shading. Be careful when building layers because if you get too heavy the air pressure will "blow out" your paint and ruin it. Just offering a little help. When we gonna see some pics???:drool:

Hey Bruce I need to talk to you after I get home from church to find out what size dia. you want me to make that lead thing at the tail, exposed part.. I forgot what we decided on. I'll call you later.

Bruce you should have plenty of turning time now with the Pats out of the picture??!:uhuh:

I heat set all my paints, different strokes for different folks.

Lawrence I even remembered to give Steve that plug

Alot of people do Paul. I have just never felt the need. My bonding is great even after hook rash sets in and they get beat there is no paint failure/lifting. Just trying to let folks know it may be a wasted step. Different strokes for different folks.

Thanks for the delivery Paul! Hope CS is well? Hey...can you say a prayer for all of us sicko's??:jump1:

Paul, did you see the picture recently posted someplace with 2 of Stan's weights and a popper, that showed it pretty well. Looked like 45 degrees, and the shoulder was more than a 1/16". I figured you say that, guess I should have saved it. Doesn't Peter have some?
I should be home till noon, so call my cell

ya no Pats, I know:wall::smash::devil2:

I have some auto-air black paint I have to heatset that.

Bruce I have some of those auto air paints?? You like them?? Use them much?

I also got my darter machining done so i got a few done. Now to seal and throw in the ocean to see if they come in right side up. Shape wise they are exact and I am very happy with the results but still nervous they will not swim right but won't know till they get wet. so far so good. I also have a few Pichneys coming on loan so I can copy a few of those too.
I have no less than 6, new to me, vintage Pichney and Musso plugs i am copying this year. A few gentleman have been very generous in lending me the plugs. This is why i am behind this year as i have been spending more time on these, and to me that is the fun part. I will eventually get them all done but it will be a little later this year.

no, I try to use the regular

Paul, I bumped up the prototype thread, there is a pic of the weight there
not sure if it needs to be quite that big of a shoulder but you get the idea

I have your counter here

Here is the Floyd Roman Nike Jr. I have been working on! As you know Paul gave me one of his blanks (pictured in primer) which he copied from an original so I hand turned mine and it came out perfect I think! The curves on these plugs are super sexy!:drool: Paul likes the "old school" look of his belly grommets tight to the body (which I love too) but I could not resist setting my grommets into the body for a sleek look! I will seal this plug, prime and I am debating color choice but am leaning towards my bunker pattern! I think this pattern lends itself well to the swooping shape of the body! Of course I am going to have to turn some more! Also will be turning some smaller versions of the Nike shortly!:uhuh: Thanks again Paul!

Last year I made a lot of pencils and gave a lot a way, it really does turn it into work. I've been scaling everything back a lot this year, justy doing 1/2 a dozen of a type at a time..

George sent me the dimensions for the big 7.5" donny swimmer last week so that was this weeks project for me. I took one for a swim this morning and I liked it a lot. I have some bass wood an dwhite cedar so I may try a floating one from those woods and see what they do.

Does anyone know what lip the 6" maple version uses?

I'm still messing with a larger darter. I tested these 2 yesterday and ended up extending the slopes a little further when I got home and resealing them, so I need to test these 2 again..

I was going to post a picture but forgot to attach it. Here's the big donny's I was working on. BF those look great! I havent started messing with those yet although they are still on the list for this year..

DJ...those look pissa! Darters scare the bejesus out of me!:err:

I like darters but didn't like trying to make them all the same.
I did some years ago with a single belly hook.
some were a flop, but others were great.
I think fishweewee had a great night on Block until he lost this to a fish.

Love the face Bruce! Different! Bet it dug great too!

Diggin I have one of each of the Mussos Jr.'s and I am copying them this winter. The lips are the same but the lip slots are the deciding factor, along with the wood. The maple is obviously maple and uses the high slot lefty lip and a smaller belly wgt.the pine uses the high slot lip too, but a heavier belly wgt. up past the thru wire. The surface swimmer uses the low slot lefty lip with similar wgt. length. Hope this helps. The Sr.'s use similar configurations. I handled a few Sr.'s yesterday and got a few naked ones to copy.

Larry I want you to paint one for me too. If you need another i will send it to you.

Send along as many as you want Paul....glad to do them! What colors are you thinking? I can have them done for PlugFest if you get them here quick!:uhuh:

Bruce i just don't want to make the exposed part too big in diameter for the plug you are going to put it in so you have to do too much filing to reduce it's size but that maybe better as you can then use it for other applications.

your choice, although I like that goldfish orangie paint scheme thing you do, so one of those would be nice. I will send you 2 or 3 more when the sealer has dried, early next week probably. thank you.

Thats a real special one......but for you Paul consider it done! That will look awesome!:uhuh: Is that the one with the scales?

yes I luv that pattern. I saw a few Capesams did on some of his plugs and the ones you have done and it is very pleasing to my eye.

I will do it then! As I said send a few and I can do them however you want!

As Ladka would say "tank ou very mutz"

Paul are they using lefty 1 or 2 's? I tried a 2 and had a lot more roll than I liked. Maybe thats why all of the ones I see pictures of are blind so the eyes don't make the roll so obvious ?

The big maple one with the pikie 3 lip rolled much less.

Good Morning
 

Spent 6hrs painting yesturday, it's amazing how little I got done.:wall:

Everything came out OK but very time consuming this air brush.


Looking at some pics you guys have put up here, I am envious of the quality of wood your using. Can't get AYC down here. Are you guys using mainly AYC?