2022 - Sunday Plug Talk
 

What’s cooking? Some 9” Habs needles that is!
From crochet mallet, to needlefish :kewl:
In the picture there is Birch, 2 Cherry, and Crochet bat (silver maple?)

Its funny how we wood turners look at objects and vision lures.!
Nice bodies.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Enjoying turning out this style early Habs Stubby Needle!

No square ends. Using a jig to drill holes?
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Tommy, do you get much of a weight difference between the birch and cherry?

Juvenile BUNKER
 

5" shallow diver . will have 2/0 belly and rear tail flag.
Going to try a black scale base with my own made copper over spray on a few. Have to do something different!!

juvuy swimmers
 

Ready for paint

I can check and let you know later today, going out to fish now.

Looking good Billy!

Don't you have homework to do!!!

:wid:

Didn’t get the chance today. Fishing was good haha

A 12in long by 1.5x1.5 baluster of AYC for me on average is 8oz.
A 12in long by 1.5x1.5 block of cherry is 9oz.

As for birch, according to an app I have it has a specific gravity of 0.55, cherry a specific gravity of 0.50. They are nearly identical in weight; especially if you account for the variances you are sure to get between pieces.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

o.k. if you are not doing homework, figure this out for me. last May i painted some trophy tackle needles.they have been sitting in the house since i finished them.Birch dowels, 4hr+ soak in spar/mspirits, 2 to 3 weeks drying in living room near wood stove,rustoleum primer, 8 or 9 day dry, rustoleum 2x paint, 10 day dry, i think i put a clear mat spray on the black ones, one coat system 3 it was warm in the house.Now these needles have been sitting on my desk since may. the epoxy just lifted in a few places in the last 2 weeks. i have made others that i fished last year and had no problems.yes wore gloves after painting.Remember cant use right arm yet so my typing is worse then normal.

Derek you may have sealer bleed. 4hrs is way too long to soak. The excess sealer internally may not of fully cured even though its been awhile. I say this because I tried hot soak birch a couple years ago. Yes it absorbed the sealer quick but too much. I was increasing the needle weight by 6-9 grams. The wood weighed unsealed 28 grams. Thats approx 25%. Within a couple weeks of finishing the process of prime- epoxy., I noticed clear coat lifting on half of the needles. The clear cost lifted everything from the bare wood.
Mind you Ive been doing this same needle for 10yrs or so and the only difference done was this excessive soak. Immediately I went back to my proven.method of 30minute cold soak in 60/40 spar varnish and mineral spirits.
BTW I ended up scraping off all the needles to bare wood and let them dry for a month. I weighed them first then after. Found a drop of half the added weight from the sealer. Fellow builders have done experiments in sealing soak times and found no benefit from soaks longer than 10 minutes.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Thanks for the reply Bill, that was my thought, i believe i might have heated these to. i had the problem once before after i fished a couple plugs. first time i had it happen to plugs that have been sitting on my desk for almost a year. Black spray paint fixes everything. i Really dont care for the epoxy top coat anyways. I am fine with having bad hook rash after a night of fishing .

Derek in the long run , the fish dont care. Fish em hard and catch a big one!
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Took some ayc and milled rectangle 1×3/4×10". Did a prototype of a slender nose broader rear section needle. Tweeked the pattern to finish the design to my liking.
Spun a couple dozen blanks . Trick here is finding dead center and marking with an awl the perfect dead center. This is needed to establish symmetrical flat sides.
Soon Ill take a couple to drill hook hole and start adjusting weight locations. Ultimately I'll be trying to achieve a level slow sink that will obtain a neutral buoyancy when retreive is stopped and a spook like reaction when rod tip is twitched.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Yes

After testing, the slider needles responded as planned. Slow drop rate and very slowly sink giving it an effect right after stopping a pause. During retrieve, you can elect to incorporate a spook style pause with slack to create a zig zag retrieve. The AYC needles were sealed in 60/40 helmsman/ turps for 10-15 min.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Just curious as to why you are sealing AYC. Cedar doesn't absorb water and in 30 years of making plugs I never sealed AYC and never had and issue.

Bill, may i ask what kind of turps you are using, i had used some very old turps that had a nice pine smell to it. then all i could find around here was sunnyside (i think) brand. had a real harsh chemical smell to it. i dry everything in the house.

Paul yes cedar wood in water resilient. Honestly I ask myself this question everytime I build with ayc. I do notice while I'm testing an untreated ayc blank it seems to swell a bit. I mike up all my turnings and I recheck after testing. Normally they are sealed before testing but most cases its wired and temporary weighted as is. I really dont favor that process in plug building. Its just something I do. At cut down the soak time to about 10 minutes or so.
I use now regular turps( sunnyside). The pine smell you refer to is pure gum turpentine. If available that worked well. Sealer stinks no matter what. Actually like I mentioned earlier sealing plugs is my least favorite step in building.
BTW I still use on occassion Val oil. With less than a quart left , I'll use it when I need a quick turn.around. < a week of drying. My varnish/ turps is a 2 week dry time. Use to be 1 week but had some bleed issues so Ill do.longer. Hardwoods ...birch 30 minutes. Maple which i try not to use because if its not sealed well use get cracking between the hook holes and weight holes, Ill either double soak ( repeat next day) or epoxy seal ( messy).
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Thank you. I was just curious.

Spooks

Looking good Tommy
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Those are " spookie". Sharp eyes and great looking colors.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Thanks Billy
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Great work Tommy.

Carlezon needlefish duplicates.

Looks like a level.sink. 8" long?
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device