Plug building...

[Rockfish9]

If this thread is a re-post of something done before,Moderators, please remove it, I dont start many threads and thought this one might liven up the forum.

What got you into it?

When did you start?

what aspect do you most enjoy?

What aspect do you least enjoy?


I made my first plug when I was about 9,being a farm boy with a pocket knife, whittling was part of my daily routine, I whittled it from a dried willow branch trying hard to copy an old popping plug in my dads tackle box... with instructutions from my father, on how to preserve it it was painted with some left over white paint from the trim on the house and barn, hooks and screw eyes were pirated from Dads tackle box and junk drawers in the barn...

I dont remember making any more until after I was married and goo-goo eyes became scarce, and the ones I could find too expensive for a young guy with four mouths to feed, in the beginning I made a drill driven lath, the end product was far better than the original , I used an assortment of devises to remove the excess wood, finaly settling on a roto zip some years and alot of misery latter , I used this set up until 3 years ago when the roto zip siezed up and I bought a "real" lathe for not much more than the roto zip would have cost, At first I used the parts from my destroyed plugs to make new ones, I also cut some from sheet metal... Now of coarse I can buy them, but I still make a few from titanium ( scrounged from work) for "special" plugs.. My early finishes were exterior house paint, rattle cans and varnish... I still like the finish from the varnishg, but I find it not durable enough for vmc hooks, and it does stink like hell, if a computer hadnt been forced upon me a few years back, I'd probaly STILL be using varnish and rattle cans!

My favorite part is R&D, I like trying new things, maybe tweaking an old design, or trying something totaly different... I've got a 30 gallon "kindling" barrel full of different.

I HATE painting.... more than once I've been tempted just to wire the damn plug and fish it until it water logs and/or splits...

I've included a picture of mt old lathe as it sat before "retirement" it built alot of plugs... and gave me alot of GRIEF!