Hey fellas,

I started making some smaller walleye/bass sized swimming plugs at my buddies request. I'm looking for a wood filler that won't add as much weight as epoxy putty, and that is a lot easier to sand, doesn't shrink much and can be sealed to be water proof. Is there such a product? I know some people use bondo?
The plugs get little dings and I'd like to fill around the lip slot and clean the eye holes up a little. I use epoxy putty on all my musky stuf and it can be a real pain to sand down without messing up the clean wood.

Thanks in advance fellas,

MS

I like MH Ready Patch

elmers 2 part epoxy wood repair putty.. it floats and will add 0 weight to your small baits..

I use Famowood putty because I have it in the cabinet shop. It is solvent based and dries fast. I don't know if sealer makes it waterproof but it does the job. I also use plumbers epoxy but you say it adds weight.

I use Famowood putty because I have it in the cabinet shop. It is solvent based and dries fast. I don't know if sealer makes it waterproof but it does the job. I also use plumbers epoxy but you say it adds weight.

I use the plumers putty on prototypes... it only adds 1 gram of weight for a 5/16 hole or Buckshot size piece.. most times it's less than that because it is just covering.. so unless the plug is extremly finnicky it's not a big deal... and the plumers putty will seal wet surfaces and dries in 5 minutes.. the stuff I use needs 8 hours to harden..

Zinseer ready patch. water base, sand easy. on deep hole you need to do another coat because of shrinkage. Normal fill ins is OK. Personally thats the most PITA in doing plugs. Filling, waiting then sanding smooth also w/o trying to sand into softwood. At one time I tried to drill my weight holes b/4 turning and pouring lead into hole. Turn to dimention and it a done deal. Problem was the lead slugs would fly out occassionally and your wood had to be planed to perfection to get the same depth of hole in order to have the consistent weight throughout the plug batch. On the lead fying out I also drilled and sent a thread tap in hole to groove threads for the lead to grab. It worked but I think the effort wasn't worth savings.

Zinseer ready patch. water base, sand easy. on deep hole you need to do another coat because of shrinkage. Normal fill ins is OK. Personally thats the most PITA in doing plugs. Filling, waiting then sanding smooth also w/o trying to sand into softwood. At one time I tried to drill my weight holes b/4 turning and pouring lead into hole. Turn to dimention and it a done deal. Problem was the lead slugs would fly out occassionally and your wood had to be planed to perfection to get the same depth of hole in order to have the consistent weight throughout the plug batch. On the lead fying out I also drilled and sent a thread tap in hole to groove threads for the lead to grab. It worked but I think the effort wasn't worth savings.

What a great idea.