I made some Tiger maple needles that I may temporarily use as Xmas ornaments and then turn into plugs after Xmas... yes please post or PM me your ornament pics... sampled some Dogfish Head IPA (60 min) and some Left hand Stout yesterday while turning... nice way to spend the afternoon with PRBuzz and OD mike

I think I will try some gliders this winter, but I hold off on starting in the shop till after the new year. I think I understand the basic concept wonder about the length to thickness ratio. I worry that they might cast like potato chips.

I like a beer now and again BT but I have a rule...never while I am fishing or working with power tools! Afterwards they taste best! :buds:

Suffering from the same problem! Sometimes I stand at the lathe and forget was I was planning to turn:confused:
Thanks to Prof M's drawings of the BM danny I turned two this week and will try w/ two diff. lip locations. Painted some Nike Jr's that were laying around and did a few small needles for friends.

I hhope that I'm permitted to do this"
 

"Over There" in their plug forum, check out the thread "HandCarve Curiousity". OMG!

Good morning everyone, been turning some poppers, not my own design, but anyway, trying to get enough made for myself next year and to trade at plugfest. It is interesting turning without a dulplicator and working so hard trying to get them all the same.

Hey Larry, I would be interested.

I remember a thread a few years back, I believe it involved going to a few different plugbuilders caves to talk & turn plugs, never materialized because of date conflicts.

This sounds like a good time, I would also offer up my shop for a day if people are interested.

Hey I'll be there. Where do you live anyways, heh heh heh

Time to dig out rest of the compost and put it in the garden. See ya.

I started a bunch of different stuff this week and haven't gotten to finish anything yet. Thanks Paul for the help with those bm dannys, got the stuff yesterday. Still have to paint some pikies, some polaris style poppers, older bm dannys, some needles, and a foiled spook.
I got as far as foiling the spook with onion bag underneath for a scale effect, I'm afraid that when I etex it, it will get under the foil seams and push up the seams as it drys. Is there a way to prevent this? I was thinking of possibly clear coating, painting, then etex?

I'm battling a f'd up elbow right now so turning is painful and I have to do that for a living so I have to be careful. Most importantly that is my spook fishing elbow so I need to be cautious. I'd be devastated if I could not do that this spring. That being said I did get 10 small darters started yesterday when I had a few minutes to do something for myself. I'd luv to stop by the Lawrence plug works again some day. Can't stress how important it is to document your ideas and your work as it is so easy to forget what the hell you are doing, at least for me anyway.:smash:
Heres where I stand . Birch, maple and a few AYC. I am really starting to enjoy making darters. Fast becoming my favorite plug to make. You have to be pretty precision on your fixtures and your machining and I luv that kind of stuff. I will say this though I have a lot to learn as far as getting them all to be good performers and lots to learn about fishing them but I always have George to bug as far as that goes.

GooGoo pattern?
 

Here's what I worked on this week. Need to epoxy some of them tonight.
Anyone have a GooGoo pattern, would like to have one in the bag!

great looking plugs. I got both small and large goo goo info. I will put up later today. Luv to make goo goo's.

Here is my next project which will take some time but worth it for sure.. I just took home,from work, a Delta drill press I bought on Craig's list that I just reconditioned. Only took me a year but came out great.

Nice darters Paul, One plug I haven't tried to hand carve yet.

Goo goo stuff large
I don't have many goo goo's left , gave most of them away. Here is a pic of the last few I have, and the specs.

Here are the specs on the med. ones. In the pic you can see I used a flat lip on the med. ones compared to the traditional lip used. I had one with the flat lip so I made a few. It makes it more of a surface plug compared to the deeper diver the traditional lip gives it. I have seen the flat lip used on the large ones and med. plugs. You can use the traditional lip on the med. plug which is how most came. These are only 2 of the sizes I use there are a few more sizes but I would use these so that is all I made. You can also put eelskin grooves in them too.

Also you will notice I have some specs on there for belly wgts. and tail wgts. for both plugs. The original came without either but I have experimented with the weights and it does tone down the action which can get a little too wild sometimes IMO so that is why i tried it. I like the action it gives them too. But the originals I have in my collection and what I have see in others were weightless.

Thanks Prof!!
 

Thanks for posting the photo's and drawings...Would love to get a hold of that book!! Good luck with the lathe restoration, I wouldn't mind having something like that for a winter project.:)

My pleasure. Noticed I wrote wrong dim. on large goo goo for rear hook . The length from the front of plug to rear hook is 4.875 not 1.875.

If you mean gliders as in musky type gliders, they'll cast fine. Should have a decent amount of lead in them. One slug towards the front, the other towards the tail.

Jigman

Paul, Have a question for ya on that lathe. Sent pm

after :smash: u three times in the head already I guess the fourth won't knock out that blockage u got stuck in ya upstairs....u need a floor cleaner upper down at the shop at nite? will work fa parts:hee:

I don't do any work so nutin to clean

I always look forward to this thread. This year in addition to all the standard plugs I make I am looking to make a Frech Darter and Frech Banana plug. I have no idea on the plugs as I have never held one in my hands. I want to make these two plugs because I remember when I was a little boy reading the frech plug building articles in the fisherman magazine and then building them with my father. I remember the article on the darter and bannana my father reading it and saying, Riker's can't do these types of things.

I am going to give it a go, if anyone has dimensions that would be much appreciated. Other than that its the standard plugs that I make.

I have been working on a little technique I picked up in a duck call making class i took called friction burning. Its a very simple technique if anyone is interested let me know the results are very cool with a nice old school feel.

George has the info for the banana plug I'm pretty sure. If you get the info on the darter i'd luv that. Neat plugs too.

Bananas are us :)

That is theee lure

Been rearranging the shop lately getting ready for the offseason. This winter I will be descending deeper into the circles of bottle darter hell. Should be quite the journey...

That would be AWESOME Larry!

I got no Chiquita plug

When is this thread going to hit "winter fever pitch"? I have my coffee and will finish my cup, have another and then I am heading out to the shop for the day to work on several projects! So what are you guys working on??:gu: