Is this the Place?

[Backbeach Jake]

The base of my lathe is two parallel tubes. I laid a spun blank on in and it rolled, stopped rolled back a little and stopped.
I had to have done that a thousand times in the past but never took notice. The wood and the tubes only touch at a point, barely at all, and the wood rolls very easily. When it stops mark the top.
If the lathe base isn't built like that I'm sure that mocking one up and leveling it would be a snap.

[pbadad]

Good morning. I see we're all having fun. Been busy sealing the remainder of the plug battallion. I started to dip primer; zinseer gold label , cut 2-1. so far so good. 2 coats. No smell , overspray and spray gun cleaning. Does anybody dip primer? Here's my low buck dripping system.

[BigFish]

Morning fellow addicts and Happy New Year! George what type of sealer do you use? Why soak for so long?

[numbskull]

I use Valoil/MS, Larry. Do you build with soft maple? AYC, pine barely absorb any sealer, and I only seal for an hour or two. Soft maple (and birch) are different, they suck the stuff up. They suck water up, too. And they split. The more sealer you get in them, the less room for water, the less water, the less expansion and contraction, the less movement, the less splitting (and less waterlogging).

I think sealing a plug is not about a thin coating on the outside (very little water gets absorbed perpendicular to the wood fibers). It is about building a barrier in the exposed end grain. Since maple transports water (or sealer) very quickly, my theory is that a quick dunk gets drawn in and doesn't seal much.

[BigFish]

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?

[numbskull]

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?

[numbskull]

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.

[BigFish]

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!

[numbskull]

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

[Diggin Jiggin]

Originally Posted by numbskull

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.

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.

[Diggin Jiggin]

Originally Posted by numbskull

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?

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

[numbskull]

Originally Posted by Diggin Jiggin

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

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.

[Tagger]

Originally Posted by pbadad

Does anybody dip primer? Here's my low buck dripping system.

I brush /hypodermic cpes thru oven heated plugs (20 min 200 degree's) .. sucs in like a basatagde .. Stuff is so expensive I don't want to mix dipping batches . I'm looking for something to dip .. I thought zinnser aerosol was to chalky .. yours look better .. Every year ya try something new it takes a whole fishing season to see how it holds up .. very slow process unless someone succesful is willing to share information ,., not

[BigFish]

I spray Zinseer Gold Cover Stain from a rattle can......it needs a good amount of sanding but it works great! I would be afraid to dip it....to heavy!

[Backbeach Jake]

Originally Posted by BigFish

I spray Zinseer Gold Cover Stain from a rattle can......it needs a good amount of sanding but it works great! I would be afraid to dip it....to heavy!

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

[Grapenuts]

Originally Posted by pbadad

Good morning. I see we're all having fun. Been busy sealing the remainder of the plug battallion. I started to dip primer; zinseer gold label , cut 2-1. so far so good. 2 coats. No smell , overspray and spray gun cleaning. Does anybody dip primer? Here's my low buck dripping system.

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.