darters...
 

I finished and tested a few darters last week, I've still got a bunch to epoxy... the butt end is a little fatter on these than I usualy do... out of 18, all but 3 acted like I wanted... the three "dogs" were clearly over weighted, which surprised me because I weigh each slug....

The bodies are birch and weigh 2.5 ounces @6.5" long

I've since drilled out the lead, filled the hole in the putty, dabbed on a little paint and covered the patch with 5 minute epoxy.. if the ice clears, i'll take them for a swim, they float well in the bucket now.... BTW... any one scouring the PI beach may find a pair of black 6.5" 2.5 ounce darters... the ice flows ate!

:drool::drool::drool: Nice looking darters :uhuh::uhuh::uhuh:

nice joe. i am still working on mine. I just finished the first fixture for the bottom part lip. I am doing it on the table saw after much consideration. Numby got me thinking and i used his idea. I used a few ideas from your fixture, as far as mounting it to the fixture, that you showed me and so far it is very solid and it works great. Next on to the fixture for the angle, slope. That i will do in the band saw much like your fixture. I just pray they swim.

Damn you eat a lot of eggs! nice plugs.

I suspect he got those from work as we use them for smaller machine part storage between operations. We got 1000's of them.

I turned 12 of those small Gibbs ones we worked on last night, 6 out of maple, 6 out of birch, the maple are .25 ounces or so heavier... I rigged half of each body and floated them in a bucket.. I like the balance,unfortunatly I have no where to swim them unless I take them to the beach.... and that is a hard way to check the action this time of year...I'm still considering moving the hook foreward... but the man that originaly made that plug forgot more than I will ever know...

yours will swim... the biggest thing with the angles is how much of each angle you want to over lap the prior one... 1/8" change higher or lower on the slope changes the depth they want to swim and the amount they dart.. as long as the balance is good you'll be fine..the rest is symantrics..

Bijngo... we have Bingo!

LOL have stacks of them here also.

Nice stuff Joe. I think solid black darters were my #1 plug last year.

ok darter fixture time. first part anyway. Here is what I came up with after George told me to try it on the table saw. I am standing it on its nose. Belly hole is positioning it on a pin and there is a pin going into the tail thru hole, thanks Joe for that idea. You can't move it a smidgen, rock solid and the clamp is almost unneeded. It has multi adjustments for different lengths and I will just make more blocks on rear end to accommodate different dia. darters if I ever need too.

Paul if you use a wide dado blade you get both cuts in one pass.:uhuh:Very similar to one i made.

fixture slides along against the fence to a final setting and they repeat great. Slap it in and run it thru, done. You can adjust the angle if need be if you are inclined to experiment. I am challenged enough so far with this one. I am using a dado blade as my regular blade is just too thin to give me the best width, plus the blade I first tried was so friggin dull. I have not used my table saw in probably 7 years so I can't remember what the hell I was sawing but it ruined the blade. The dado cuts the birch like butter.

Here is the darter I am trying . A nice Musso that George lent me. The one problem I did have was the aluminum plate kept galling a little bit on the cast iron table as you slid it along into the blade. I stoned the table like 3 times and broke every sharp edge, still was hard to push. I took it back to work and fly cut the fixture, still not smooth enough so i took a thin piece of polypropylene and took some 2 sided tape and adhered it to the bottom . Works like a charm, smooth as silk. Got the idea from my duplicator as I had to do that to the cutter sled. That all she wrote . Next week i work on the band saw fixture for the slope, angle.

I am using a dado in one pass. It is adjusted to the thinnest setting which is about 1/4".

holy crap Paul, you need to learn to make those jigs with wood :hs: unreal
I have plenty of scraps
unless those are scraps also


Lu is right about using a dado, but in your case your jig is vertical not at a 45 so I think you'd need a different throatplate.
that's how I plan to do mine when I get to it.


Joe, nice looking darters :btu:

scraps B., easier for me to do out of alum than wood. I am posting so others can get the idea and use wood instead of what I used. The same thing can be made of wood and work just as good, it is just not my preferred material. I am using a dado. am I missing something?

do yourself a big favor and attach a 3/4" x 3/8" piece to go in the miter slot so you don't have any issues holding it against the fence. I know it's alluminum but it also is very close to that blade. make that thing into a sled like I did with that allum. I got from you for my big sleds.

ya, a wider dado set will cut the complete nose cut, get it? put 2-3 blades together

I've been developing a method using heat to adjust the weight of my val oil/MS sealed bodies. Still need to get some bugs out. :grins:

Got 1/2 an oz off, but I find my equipment needs some work.

you talking the slope? the bottom lip part is complete. the excess will come off in the band saw when the slope is put on, No?

WHat you don't like that .010 clearance I got on the fixture to the blade :rotf2:. I got to relieve a little more of the fixture. I guess i could use the miter slot but that would take away my adjustment for other's that I might do. No?

LOL George I think you over cooked them. Did you fall asleep at the switch? Smoore's

Paul you build some AMAZING jigs

You should see my Irish jig.

Nah it just looks fancy because it is shinny and over engineered. You can get same results with precision cut wood. I just got the ways and means so i use shinny stuff. thanks

are those Cubans George?


Paul, I see, we'll talk about this later on

When I grow up I want to be a machinist or cabinet maker..
George, those flames are phenomenal, they look almost real....

Nice as always Joe.

Nice darters Joe.
Paul that jig is sweet, I want one.
George best flame paintjob I've ever seen. :rotf2:

Professor M, your name suits you. Beautiful jig.

The wooden tenoning jig I made has slots for adjusting the alignment of the jig to the blade. Slots in the jig, studs stick up from the runner that fits in the miter slot, thumbscrews for adjustment