I received a Jet lathe from a good friend in June and I would like to start turning lures as winter approaches. That being said, I do not know where to start. This is more intimidating than tying flies for the first time, and I'm sure these questions have been asked before but I'm certain new ideas abound. I've been tying flies for the last 6 years now. I assume the thru wire, hardware, and hook components are for the most part do it right or lose a fish. I would like to fumble with weight placement etc, however I would prefer to begin with the "right" base materials.

1) Tool Recs.

2) Wood stock Recs, best 3 or your recommended #1 for type plug.

3) Sealers & Paint

Thank you in advance for your time and input. -Matt

No end of info if you search.

Tools start with a roughing gouge, a skew, a parting tool, some calipers, and a book or video of how to use them. Face mask and respirator.

Wood go with pine, soft maple, and AYC

Paint, seal with varnish/mineral spirit mix 60/40, prime with whatever, spray with createx if you have an air brush, paint cans if not, clearcoat with epoxy. If you go the paint can route use their primer first.

Safety! If you've never used a lathe be careful they can be very unforgiving.

If you do a search at the top of the page you'll find some great info. here. Also keep an eye open for the plugfest this site puts on in the early spring lots of builders there willing to share very helpful info.

Good luck it's alot of fun and very addicting.

If you get into it I recommend getting a Lee lead pot (melter) gives you more flexibility that using bought lead sizes and saves money in the long run...

It is a great hobby but warning... the costs do add up

My one saving grace in this "project" is that the same friend who gave me the lathe owns a furniture business and his scrap material gets loaded to pallets and shipped to me! AYC? amer. yellow cedar...

Alaskan yellow cedar.

Welcome, Linesider.

You're in the right place -- lots of experienced and friendly builders here that provide great support and advice.

I've only been building for a couple of years, but here's what I have to offer:

Consider safety equipment as your number one initial concern. For yourself you'll need a face shield and particulate respirator. To further protect yourself and to protect your family and pets, you will need to control wood dust. A dust collector and air filtration system are important safety items. Wood choice is also a factor here, as people are more allergenic to some wood types than others. For example, I do OK with AYC dust, but my buddy and cat have serious respiratory reactions to it. When you settle in on initial wood types for the types of lures you want to build, make sure you research common reactions to their dust.

Consider what matters to you most in a plug. If you just want solid, no-nonsense fish-catchers then it might not make sense to invest in air-brushing equipment, fancy epoxy-turners, etc for your finish work. There are a lot of guys out there with great -- even excellent creations painted solely by rattle cans and protected by commonly-obtained epoxy.

For sealing, I like to use epoxy for all wood types -- but you will find a lot of opinions on this.

You also might want to consider focusing on just one or two types of plugs in the beginning -- that approach might narrow your initial tool and stock expenses.

Good luck, keep asking questions, and welcome to a great hobby.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the safety concerns always #1.
Anyone have pics of their shop/bench setup with a general width/depth dimension, I was scoping out areas of my basement and want to mark-out how much space is required. Maybe comment if you like your work-area setup, wish it were larger, organized differently, does it double as your home's work bench etc. Thank you.

Linesider if your interested in have a bunch of plug building articles from here, otw and the fisherman magazine i can photocopy and send you.

lots of good info, how tos, starting points, etc.

...Anyone have pics of their shop/bench setup with a general width/depth dimension...

My shop is only about 13' x 11' and it's pretty much dedicated to plug building (I seal & paint in another room in the cellar to get away from the wood dust). I'm not sure my shop pics' would be of help (I went overboard), but I bet some guys have pics' that show really good use of space.

My shop, cellar, is a cluttered mess most of the time but works just fine for the hobby. If your space is small you make do. If large you are lucky.

No matter how big or small the space.. you'll end up with more than you need.. a bigger space just makes room for more stuff.. don't ask me how I know.

Matt nice lathe. You will find all the info on getting started and as you progress right here on S-B. Call me and take a ride over to my house. I'll show you around the shop.

Getting a little closer:
-My fishing buddy Evan did a demo job and scored a working Ryobi table saw for me, missing the fence but that's easy... oddly the owner's manual was sitting on top of the saw.
-Craftsman 10" bandsaw & 5" bench vise were sitting on my doorstep tonight! I tried getting my father to sell me his Delta bandsaw that he used a couple times 15 years ago, but he swears he uses it "all the time". I should have bribed him with pie...
-Craftsman 10" drillpress is somewhere in delivery land.
-My buddy Jack sent a box of (30+/-) 8-12" 1.5" to 2" square blanks of soft maple (furnature discards), a skew, & a ton of different sand paper grades.

Shop setup is next, along with safety items & ventilation. Good thing it's only money... I should have opted for a vise and a small electric chainsaw :uhuh:

Matt the obsession begins. Bring over a couple soft maple pieces and I'll turn you a couple Conrad jr bodies. Those "run silent, run deep"!!

Be sure to post pictures as you get started ... we love to see new builders quickly go up the learning curve... its a fun addiction!

Put together a work bench last night, assembled my drill press, then I was going to mount the lathe to the bench but then got distracted by the centers. It is a jet mini lathe, it has a cupped live center but the drive doesn't have a center pin (appears to be missing) which is possible as it wasn't mine.

So my question is.... what are you guys using? a 4 prong with the center point, are you using a cupped live center on the dumb end and if yes what is the distance between the point and the cup? Maybe there is something cool out there that I don't know about...

these work great

Packard Woodworks: The Woodturner's Source: Sorby Steb Drive Centers (http://www.packardwoodworks.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=packard&Category_Code=lathes-acc-cent-steb)


they also make a live center one

don't have to shut the lathe off between blanks

Penn State Industries sells Steb Centers for $20. I paid 3 times that amount for my Sorbey's. The PSI stebs are fine.

Bill is right, I got my live steb center there
penn state is cheaper

Are you using the 1/2", 5/8" or 1" steb center? seems like 1" might be hair to wide... thanks for the help

Alaskan yellow cedar.

Ditto. I'm sorry but it's all I have used for 15 years. Turns easy and true. You don't have to seal the plugs and I can predict how they will swim just by the way i turn them and their weight.

1/2" but i do lots of needles

Matt I use a 1" steb center primarily. Remember when you use the squares the 1" is fine. I have a 1/2" for dowels (needles). A cupped live center helps prevent wood splitting and have a secure holding pressure on wood. Live center in a steb center are available also @ Penn state. Thats where I buy all my accessories for the Jet, Drill chuck, drive centers, steb centers etc. Occasssionally I use the 4 prong for a better bite on a larger and harder peice of wood. How I prepare the spur is to mark your center, prick punch center hole w/awl then drive the 4 prong spur w/ a hammer to get a good insertion into the wood. Remove 4 prong drive , reset in lathe mount piece into the grooves. This is how all my baseball bat billets are mounted on the big Jet. Never had a fly off or spin out. You surely don't want a fly off with a 5lb 37"X 2 3/4" billet.

Billy I would like to buy just one rather than set up using a chuck, unless the collective thought is that for example a 1.50" piece of square stock would spin out while using the 1/2". Then I might consider utilizing a chuck to swap out between making larger plugs and smaller dia plugs like needles. I picked up a automatic awl that can adjust the punch pressure, so far worked real nice on the dozen or so blanks I marked.

i RARELY USE THE 1/2" (DOWELS) BUY THE 1" FOR YOUR SPUR DRIVE. STEB DRIVE IS SPRING LOADED CENTER POINT and multi spur points,GRIPS OK. 4 PRONG SPUR CENTER IS BETTER FOR HARDER/ LARGER WOOD WHICH USE PROBABLY WON'T USE ON A 10" JET.

Just so you know, after this "ahem" hobby becomes an addiction, thier are 12 step meetings:rotf2: all over. Generally every night of the week. Mostly behind the dumpsters at one of the dunkin donuts in a town near you.:fishin:

So despite not having a center on the lathe drive I couldn't wait any longer for the part delivery.. tapped a stock on with a hammer and turned a couple blanks into needle-ish shapes LOL.

55181

I used just a regular dust mask & face shield, but would like to get a cartridge style mask. Do you guys use two, one for sawdust, one for sealers?

looking good Matt. i use one mask w/'double cartridges. u can use a sawdust mask then one for chemicals/lead. did u use the standard 4 prong drive? if so u will find those hang on to the wood much better but not necessary turning most plug size blanks. for super hard exotic woods the 4 prong drive will eliminate the tool from causing the piece to momentarily stop if too much material is being cut.

Looks to me like you got the right drive enter on there. All I use and I have turned 1000's. As far as masks go if no ventilation I would use a cartridge type for dust type applications. I don't use a mask for sealers as I use spar and let them drip semi dry outside and wipe off outside. Then let them dry indoors for a week. If you are going with a more hazardous sealer then use a mask for more toxic stuff. If you get a mask you can usually pop the cartridges in and out for each applications.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Here is something I did this weekend that I probably will not try again, I used a 14" piece of stock to turn (2) 5" stubby needles on the same piece leaving 2" between them and an inch on the ends. Cutting the stock down to the nose of 1st needle and the butt of the 2nd went fine, but due to the stress in the middle it would have been same amount of time if I had just cut the stock in half. Def. risked snapping the stock and ruining 2 lures.

Side note my friends have already started the hoe-train and I haven't completed a thing.

matt thats the problem when stocks get long. the deflection of the material. with baseball bats, i used 2 heavy duty steady rest to support the piece. on your two in one turning, keep the larger diameters in the middlei.e. butt to butt noses on the end. isn't it FUN?

a lot of fun! tied a couple trout flies then went to the dungeon and donned the shields of plug building
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Update:

Got to the point of sealing, used Spar Urethane cut with Min. Spirits I bought a 2' piece of 2" dia. pvc & 2 end caps glued on let dry for a day then cut it so I have one piece for small plugs and one for longer plugs, I figured if I made a batch of all 9" plus needles then I can use the longer side, and if they were all 5" or less plugs use the shorter PVC to save on urethane material. This Tuesday night the plugs will have been drying for a week so hopefully I can get around to weighting/priming later in the week. Here are some pictures. Check out the old furnace, came with the house for free! :smash:

I'd like to add a sincere thank you to everyone on here for helping me get to this point. All of the feedback has helped for sure, articles/ schematics received in the mail, shop time at other's places, sealing/wiping plugs outside, safety tips & materials, and tool advice... good stuff!

looks official Matt.

Nice work matt. Learning fast. One tip I would like to add when i seal I don't let the plug stay in sealer longer than the time to release bubbles from the trhu wire hole. Use to do longer(1 hr) but i cut apart a sample and saw no difference. I thoroughly wipe down the plug once out of sealer than hang to finish dripping. With spar/turps combo, you should be ready to prime in a day or two pending air temp. One way is to take some 220 grit paper and sand plug. If the sanding grit leaves white dust , your dry.

I painted this needle and had several paint bristles in it, then I accidentally bumped the tacky paint, then tried wiping it off which made an even bigger mess! So I let it dry, sanded the mistakes out and repainted. The green flecks on the bottom of the plug are from the original green base paint. Left-over one part top side boat paint thinned down 10%.

Nice. I bet is works as it kinda an eel color

Nice. I bet is works as it kinda an eel color

Thanks Paul.


If anyone over the course of the year orders stock materials, AYC, soft Maple, etc (i'm not looking for a ton)... keep me in mind/ PM me. willing to pay shipping, pickup, or meet for fishing outting. Thanks

Does anyone have bottle darter/swimmer specs they are willing to share, I turned the one on the top free hand... literally wung it.

Digs in fine but doesn't have the wiggle I'm looking for.

Caught 1st 2 fish on silver stubby in pic above! Great feeling, better than 1st on own fly.

Nice going Matt. Did you make the other stubby? Looks familiar.

Nice going Matt. Did you make the other stubby? Looks familiar.

Yes, it's same dimensions as SS, but only runs 1' down on slow retrieve, i'll have to play with weighting this winter... going to make some casting eggs and more importantly try to keep my boots wet.

I have a weight scheme for those stubbys and also a niche version.

Anyone have pics of their shop/bench setup with a general width/depth dimension, I was scoping out areas of my basement and want to mark-out how much space is required. Maybe comment if you like your work-area setup, wish it were larger, organized differently, does it double as your home's work bench etc. Thank you.

gee..... :think: if Only we had a man cave forum :devil2: