Off-Center-Turned “Sammy” Spook

[Eric Roach]

Planning – Turning Points (Axes)

Now that the bottom, top and the sides of the lure were laid out, I had to figure out the head-on view, which was going to determine where the multiple turning axis (axes) needed to be. To do this I made a grid representing the end-stock of the wood blank. I placed a few turning points and drew arcs until I got the shape I wanted.

In the picture below, you can see the arcs created by each Vega template. The purple rectangle indicates the minimum dimensions of the wood blank (1.125” x 1.25”). I decided to use 1.5” x 1.5” x 9” stock (EWP).

[Eric Roach]

Preparing the Turning Stock

Accurately measuring and punching 4 turning points on end-stock can be dicey, so a centering template can be useful. You can make one out of 1.5” x 1.5” x .75” hard maple:

1. Carefully measure & awl the four points
2. Drill them through with a 1/16” bit on the drill press
3. Insert 1” nails through from the rear
4. Place the centering template on a simple square jig and tap the ends of the turning stock into it.

Remove the template and you are left with 4 turning points accurately punched into the ends of the turning stock.

[Eric Roach]

Pre-Seating the Turning Stock

The biggest risk with off-center turning is breaking the piece. There’s a few ways to reduce risk of breakage, and the first is to “pre-seat” the piece on all 4 turning points before you start turning.

To do this, seat the piece in the lathe along all 4 axes -- compress it deep enough for the teeth on the head stock to bite into the end-grain. Now that the teeth marks are in the wood, you won’t have to compress the piece as much when you change turning axes.

[Eric Roach]

Turning

Nothing special to say about the actual turning, except be sure to cut shallower and make slower passes than you normally would – and be especially careful to not touch the squared ends of the blank with the cutter – this is when most breakages occur.

Did I mention to take shallow, slow passes?

[Eric Roach]

The Sammy is made from EWP with two .286 oz weights placed 2” and 2.75” from the tail. I rig it with a 4/0 VMC siwash on the tail and a 3/0 VMC treble on the belly (located 4.25” from tail). It sits with the eyes at water level angling down about 25 degrees. It swims well, though not exceptionally so, and it does not cast very well due to its shape. It needs further tweaking if I’m going to consistently choose it over a traditional spook shape, but I enjoy the challenge and I really like the way it looks so I’ll keep tinkering.

Below is a picture of the pre-sealed one from this tutorial, and a finished one I made for the fall run. It caught fish – and sometimes out fished my favorite pencils.

You may notice that they are sized slightly differently, the reason is they were turned at different spindle depths -- trying to find out which dimensions swims the best.