going beyond eyeballing
 

What do you guys do to layout your plugs when cutting or drilling holes? What i do is draw a line while it's still on the lathe for the length on eyes, etc.
For weight & belly holes i use a dial indicator to find and mark the 'high spot' on the plug but still don't always get it right.
What i really have trouble with is cutting (sanding in my case) the popper heads, darter & the diving danny cuts parallel with the bottom of the plug. i often veer to one side or another

Some guys hav eposted pictures of their jigs on th enet.

I made a lig once for a batch of daters I made. I drilled a hole the same daimeter as my blank in a square block, I cut the face shape in the block, put a screw hole where I wanted the belly hook I slid the blanks in the hole and fastened it with a screw after I cut the face, I drilled the belly hole where the screw was.

Good luck.

storyboards.....

LOTSA jigs....

multiple drillpresses.....

"storyboards" u get alot of that on fish sites:hihi:

lol I should have expounded.....storyboards..... as in marked boards to line all the holes up :wave:

salty
just how many jigs do you use and could you describe how they are set up?

ys I have jigs for every plug I make, some have 2 or 3 or more....some share jigs etc... it's a different world going from onesey twoseys to 500 or 1k pieces... I have multiple drill presses that are setup for different jobs, and bandsaw has all special made jigs to do cutting also.

Jigs can be pretty simple, or they can be more elaborate. Depends on what you want them to do. A couple of examples for poppers. I do the angle cut on the band saw. To insure the angle is always the same, I took a scrap piece of lumber and cut one end at the angle I wanted the popper face. Set up the fence on the saw, popper blank lays against the jig (still has the square ends on), and I make the front cut. Set the jig aside and cut the square end off the back., I do the popper mouths on the drill press. To keep the plug lined up verticle, I have a jig set up on the drill press. Basically, a section of 2x4 for the base, and two scrap pieces of lumber that form a side. Clamp the popper blank into corner formed by the side of the jig, and I know the blank it held verticle as I scoop out the face. Same jig can be used for center drilling on the drill press too. Lip slots, do them while the blank still has the square ends attached. Same for darters. Often best to do any additional angle cuts and mark weight/belly holes while the square ends are still on the plug. Probably each builder has a slightly different way of doing things. Try to think of things that will help you keep things lined up. You'll come up with some of your own.

Jigman