Guys I'm working on some BM little guys, I have an original so I know the diameter of the belly weight but I don't know how deep it goes. I've tried float testing both my copy and the original with no hooks, basically just the lip, through wire, grommets and swivel. Then I added belly weight to mine until I got it to sit the same level in the water,. Short of cutting the plug in half or having it xrayed is there a better method for figuring out how much weight to use? When I test swam my copy it rolled out at a moderate retrieve, had about 5.5 grams of belly weight. Bending the line tie up a little solved this but also caused the plug to go subsurface at a moderate retrieve.
I can't seem to find any rigging information for this plug online, So I just through a cut 6x 2/0 on the belly and 5/0 dressed siwash on the tail.
Any thoughts? Thanks in advance

disregard I got them dialed in now

RYAN IS IT A BM SPIN ATOM? I HAVE SPECS.

It's the small single belly hook danny, think they called it the "lil guy". I got them pretty close to the weight of the original and float tested next to the original. They should be close enough, figure I can probably tune them after I paint,epoxy,rig with hooks.

Your variance could be in the wood density.....keep playing with the amount of weight and placement! Thats where the devil...is in the details!:devil2:

RYAN I MADE THE SMALL PITCHNEY DANNY AND WAS VERY SURPRISED OF THE VARIANCE OF WOOD ON THE EFFECTS OF THE ACTION. ALSO I USED A .40 THRU WIRE TO HELP THE ACTION I WAS LOOKING FOR. LIKE BF SAYS EXPERIMENTING WITH THE LOCATION AND AMOUNT OF WEIGHT IS IMPORTANT ESPECIALLY WITH SMALLISH PLUGS. ONCE I FOUND WHAT LIKED I WENT THRU THE WOOD B LOCK AND WEIGHED THEM TO GATHER A BUNCH OF SIMILAR WEIGHTS. GOOD LUCK WITH THE PLUG.

Split the thing in half or pull an eddy on it [bandsaw]...your going to be making more so one to the plug gods will keep you safe.

Just remember. No 2 peices of wood will ever weigh the same or act the same in the water. You may get close but the problem is that you don't see what is inside that peice of wood you just turned. Rot pockets,bug nest,buck shot,cracks,scars,and many are more dence on one side compared to the other.So don't try to be too exact in what your trying to duplicate.Not all bait fish swim or look the same.The oddball is the one that gets eaten first. He sticks out from the school. Easier target.

Thanks for the advice fellas. I figured there would be some variance in the wood. But I was thinking if they all float the same way as the original I could tune with hooks,bending the line tie,lip,etc.? I'll play around with them some more before I prime this weekend.
I can't bring myself to cut the original in half yet, that plug has some mojo.

Try to get your dentist to exray it. he may swap it for some plugs.

Would float testing your turned plug prior to choosing belly hook hole placements remove the variable of the wood
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Hard question what with all the different schools of thought.With darters a lot of home builders do it but ask yourself this.Did all the old time builders like Bob Pond,Stan Gibbs,Pichney,Musso and many others water test all those fish catching plugs they made in the 40's an later? It will make a plug track straighter but is that really what you want out of a plug. We all work very hard to impart action of some sort into our plugs we build but does it really make enough difference.Also does it kill fish attracting action we want in our plugs.From a straight stick-needle fish- to something that wiggles like a belly dancer-Darters an metal lip swimmers- they all have a rep for catching fish-large n small. Look at many of the big hogs some of us have landed over the years. My 54 down to Rhody a couple yrs back was on a big pencil retrived in nasty surf like a needle fish /pencil. The big girls loved it till a good one took me over a sharp rock an I lost it. Those fishing on both sides of me never hooked a bass just blues using everything in their plug bag. Why mine an not theirs? Try doin it an not doin it with the same style an see if one out fishes the other.You may end up with a secret weapon. Ron

Split the thing in half or pull an eddy on it [bandsaw]...your going to be making more so one to the plug gods will keep you safe.

hahaha .. I have no xray machine ..