Cutting Darter Slope?
 

How do you do it? I saw Rockfish's jig at Plugfest, and I still didn't "get it".... I have a couple bodies turned with square ends still on. Need a visual of your jigs or process. I have a few good darters I am using as templates, but am stuck at this particular stage and want to keep my fingers away from the bandsaw blade. Thanks for your input and pics.

Lots of ways to do it Ross.. my jig makes them consistant... as long as my belly holes are placed exact ...

here are a few more pictures..

first picture is of the jig... the dowel on the belly holes fits snug.. 0 play... the tail stock pin holds it secure....

now line up the bottom of the plug.. ( leaving approx. 1/32" of bottom lip for strength)..

I have pre marked the plug for the depth of my lower lip cut.. in this casw.. it @ 1/4"... I slide the jig along the fence until the cut mets the mark...

continued:

Now adjust the plug for the plane cut.. in this case .. I'm using a 15 degree cut for my initial cut.... the fence is now adjusted so the saw blade slits the centet of the through hole...

once the forst cut is made.. i then move on to the second cu .. no fence adjustment is needed...
continued:

Now move the jig to the opposite edge @ 45 degree for you top lip cut.. you will have to adjust the fence... I align the left side of the saw blade so the top of the lip will now meet at a perfect angle to the bottom lip..

If done correctly your rough plug should look like this..

continued:

Now... remove the fixture from the jig.. leaving the plug in place... using a belt sander GENTLY remove the saw kerfs and blend the taper... you are not shaping the plug at this point.. you are just removing the saw kerfs and blending the taper....
if all is dont correctly.. your darter should look like the last picture and is ready for wiring..

I cut off about 12-13' of 304 SS wire off a roll and form it around a pin.. be sure to over lap the long wire..

Now holding the wire to the pin... I bend back the tag end... this particular one isn't pretty... as I did not center the pliars when I bent the tag end... it's still funtional and turned out fine...

Thank you, Joe! I have some engineering ahead of me, but you have cut the learning curve by 99%! I hope to have some shop time late this afternoon.

Awesome post! Thanks Joe.
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Joe, what do you call those pins you are using to position the jig angle and hold the plug tail in place? Thanks.

I just posted this morning how I do it in the darter thread below this starting at post # 140. Different from Joe's though, but more than one way to skin a darter.:). I am sure there are even more ways out there.

http://www.striped-bass.com/Stripert...darters-5.html

I saw that this morning, Paul. Thanks.

I have had a crude beginning of a jig like Joe's for many months and need to move it to becoming a useful jig. I have some roll pins in my gunsmithing arsenal, but those tools are dedicated to what they were designed for.

Might try looking at longer finish nails of a larger diameter Ross and just make the fixture hole the diameter of the nail and then grind or file down the tip area to .156 to go into your thru hole in the tail end of the plug. I say .156 as that is size I use for thru drilling, oh yeah that equals 5/32 dia.:) Turn the plug for the belly hole out of hard wood or plastic in your lathe or buy a couple dowel pins from MSC.

I've been to Joe's and have seen his fixture in action. It is very versatile and does a very good job. Joe made those pins at work or had some guy make them for him I believe. I went my route becasue I have a table saw at home and my band saw is at work so I wanted to be able to do it at home.

Those pins are made from aluminum... I used a carbide bit to turn them down to fit the differant sized holes i through drilll... I also made one fixture that alows the plugs to be screwed on in case i use screw eyes...

I was thinking of doing the slope using a pattern bit on the router table. Make a sled with the master attached, cut the pattern with a top bearing pattern bit, switch to bottom bearing bit to cut slope. I thought I saw someone post something like this years ago.

Use the back end of drill bits as locator pins if necessary.

Thanks, Bill. That definitely would work. I was fortunate to find a handled pusher used for braiding Sampson braid rope. It is used to push the line through a fid, and it is the exact diameter I need.

I have been look around to find all the great Darter Jigs out there, but this was the only one i could find. The link from ProfessorM doesnt work can someone please help with finding the other posts, i know one jig was on a table saw.

here is one

http://www.striped-bass.com/Stripert...+darter+slopes

another

http://www.striped-bass.com/Stripert...t=jigs+darters

Thanks PM those were the 2 i was looking for.
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Whoa... this thread was dug out of the archives.

Skippy, you may have been thinking of Mike's thread on cutting his canal specials on the tablesaw?

I did build a successful copy of Joe's jig. Need to get back to building this winter as I did not finish any last winter.

I like joes jig but i dont think my table top bandsaw can handle it
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