Sealer average weight - Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating

Linesider82 · 01-05-2014, 09:57 AM

how much weight does sealing a plug add? Is it negligible or relatively significant? for discussion sake compare a needle fish versus an A40. I'm trying to anticipate the added weight to build a needle that I have no idea how it's weighted. this one is8.25" long and13/16" at its widest point.

ProfessorM · 01-05-2014, 10:11 AM

A lot depends on the wood species and what you are going to use as a sealer and each piece of wood within a species varies also. I would seal one for a specific amount of time and weigh it and go from there and if you seal them all and a few come out heavier than you want make those ones sinkers for other applications.

Swimmer · 01-05-2014, 10:12 AM

Two coats of etex I bet adds between one and two oz.'s

stripermaineiac · 01-05-2014, 11:10 AM

LOL. I've done experiment after experiment with AYC,maple,several pines,mahogany,bass wood,red cedar,birch well you get the pic. There can be as much as 1/2 oz from one end of a 8' board to another weight change in a plug blank due to density changes caused by mother nature and the position of cut ie center cut ,bottom of the tree or top of a tree.No 2 peices of wood are really the same. Take several of the same plugs you have and you'll see what I mean.The weights we buy can be all over the place.Even from the best sources. One thing I learned about soaking is that the weight change on a plug body will be uniform from end to end so the balance you've worked out will still work.The difference will show most in swimmers as far as how deep they sit in the water and how deep they'll swim.Your denser woods normally vary a little . The less dense can be all over the place.This is not gosphel just what I've found. weather and humidity also make a differenc. Hope this helps. Might not.

Linesider82 · 01-05-2014, 11:32 AM

I'm using maple, I did 6 needles, thru drilled, hook hole and tail wt. drilled out and one is 1.0oz, 4 are 0.9oz, and one is 0.8oz. I was just curious if it would add 0.1oz, 0.2oz, more.... I typically soak til I stop seeing bubbles which is about a minute or two. This is my 2nd build year and last year I just did a variety of plug types and didn't write much down. This year I figured out which ones I would like to make and plan to do small sets of 6 to 10 plugs (no duplicator) so variance in weight is a guarantee. I'm just looking for an approx idea on how much weight the sealing adds, last year I used spar urethane cut w/ min. spirits.

stripermaineiac · 01-05-2014, 12:16 PM

Sounds to me like your on your way to your ist experiment. Mark each plug body 1 thru 6. Check weight an write it down. Do your soak let dry a few days so the thru hole dries also.Weigh again mark them down and compare. Use a pencil to mark them as some inks come off in the soak. Mark down the size of the tuning blnks alo . That way your next experiment will have a full set of data for comparison. This is one of the fun parts of plug building.

ProfessorM · 01-05-2014, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swimmer

Two coats of etex I bet adds between one and two oz.'s

A lot less than that I have found. I epoxy seal my med. size darters, for several reasons, cause I make them out of AYC and I have found nary any weight gain at all. I usually do 2 coats of clear coat epoxy on all my plugs for a top coat nowadays, cause I can as I do pretty small batches, and I have never found any problem with the way they perform with the added coats. I do thin coats though as clear coat runs thinner than e tex. If you gobbed the stuff on you would probably have some weight gain. Just my findings others may disagree.

rayndogg · 01-05-2014, 01:20 PM

Does it make a difference? I see guys dip and hang, soak for an hour, soak for several hours. I soak in a pickle jar 50 /50 spar/ms for 24 hours. I have tested from 1 hour to 1week red Cedar and pine never noticed a dramatic increase in the weight. I was told that all types of wood act differently. Maple, birch and bass wood soak up like a sponge so it's crucial to keep track of how much time you soak. Cedars red, yellow , white have natural oils that block out unwanted intrusion and only absorbs what it wants. Pine has the properties to do both. This was from a friend of a friend who has been staining and vanishing furniture for over 30 years. Is any of it true Idk, but it makes sense from what I had seen. And the geln of the sealer is from the oils and saps from which ever wood species your using. If what he say is true hope it helps.
Rene
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Swimmer · 01-05-2014, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProfessorM

A lot less than that I have found. I epoxy seal my med. size darters, for several reasons, cause I make them out of AYC and I have found nary any weight gain at all. I usually do 2 coats of clear coat epoxy on all my plugs for a top coat nowadays, cause I can as I do pretty small batches, and I have never found any problem with the way they perform with the added coats. I do thin coats though as clear coat runs thinner than e tex. If you gobbed the stuff on you would probably have some weight gain. Just my findings others may disagree.

I agree with your opinon Paul. I DONT GOOP IT ON LIKE I used too.
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rayndogg · 01-05-2014, 05:02 PM

Just noticed that I didn't finish the first part of my comment oops... What i was asking in the beginning was does it make a difference in how long you soak them for curious to know if what I'm doing is overkill. I to top coat with two thin coats of etex. Only time I had a problem was last season I got a bad batch and it like every plug peeled. Tossed that batch out got new one all is good.
Rene
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ProfessorM · 01-05-2014, 06:11 PM

lots of different ideas on this. Some for minutes, seconds, some for days. For me I soak all my ayc and pine for 2 to 3 hours, not real fussy on duration after 2 hours.. My birch and maple darters, maybe a couple hours but weigh them after an hour to make sure they are not soaking up too much as these have no weights in them and those 2 species can soak up a lot. That is about all the wood I am using on a regular basis. Pine mostly then AYC then Birch and Maple lastly. I do also epoxy seal some stuff too for durability but only 1 or 2 different plugs, everything else gets the spar cocktail.

pbadad · 01-05-2014, 07:26 PM

All the above Matt. Usually by time the sealer drys, most of the additional weight is negligible. My birch needles I soak 1 hr. Small danny/swimmers (Pine)I don't soak too long. AYC 1 minute dip. Mainly concern with the drill holes sealing.

Raven · 01-05-2014, 08:32 PM

1-2 ounces sounds like allot Swimmer
so then your shooting for 1 1/2 oz's to
begin with dry so you end up at 3-4 ounces
finished weight? is that correct?

Linesider82 · 01-06-2014, 12:35 AM

hmmm, I didn't have any plugs split this season, so that's good. I dipped them, wiped excess off and hung to drip dry in my furnace room, using a small fan to circulate air for drying. didn't experience yellowing either so I will stick to my process for sealing. I would like to incorporate pine into the mix. thanks for input everyone.
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