Bungel_ wrote: I have stuck it out with the 1.6mm  316 Stainless Steel marine grade welding rods and have been able to sort out nice round eyes with 3 twists to neatly lock them. Have tested them to 40kg breaking strain on some digi scales. They didnt budge on 40kg so expect they will handle much much more. Bought a few decent poppers the other day .. 100, 125 and 150gram designed for GT fishing and built to a very high standard. $100 + worth of lures, they are great to look at and see how the pros have done it. I also got some .9mm 306 SS wire off an old coil for welding. Will give that a test out this weekend, but looks to be a little thin for what i want, even though it might do for strength, just looks thin. Also not being Marine grade 316 i will probebly not use it. Will put some pics up this weekend as i will be adding some colour on sunday, hopefully. just need to give a few more coats of white Purchased a marine grade varnish for the final product, Hope it works out. Would rather be using an ultra clear epoxy but its more than double the cost. and not even half the amount. Will use it for securing in the eyes and filling in around the eyelets once i have finished the through wire.

Here is where i am at so far.



The set up with a bit of oak to test with.



Soon realized i would need a bigger tool test for the larger lures and that a Self Centering Chuck would very advantageous for doing the cupped faces. more $$'s!!





I did some tests on the trial wood i had bought for floatation - Oak and pine, just stuff i picked up from bunnings. The pine was really light and the oak way too heavy and sank. Checked out some other wood and found White Oak, heavy but had good bouyancy.

This is the first decent piece i started to work on with the White Oak.





After a little sanding.



After putting a bit of cup on the face of the popper - the main advantage of using a Self Centering Chuck. Have found them very hard to perfect and make deep, had a few pieces split on me and take chunks out when the tools caught.. might just need to speed up the lathe and sharpen the tools some more.



After a further sanding i took it off the lathe to start the drilling process - through wire, belly hole, tail hole for casting weight and one for the face to fit a grommet in.



Had a little trouble getting the two holes to meet up, but worked out. the wire threads through nice and tight. Was testing it out with 300lb mono thinking i might be able to use that if i couldnt get the holes to meet up properly.



Drilled a 10 mm hole for the casting weight to fit into.



Took the idea that someone had posted on here for making the tail weights from ball sinkers. They work out perfectly. Very solid and tidy when fitted in.



Now comes the painting part - and am still in the process of finishing off the lures but will show where im up to. Decided to go with some White Knight paints , called Splashes. All the standard colours in both oil and water based along with fluros. They are Acrylic Enamals, i went with water based. I also gave the lures a a few coats of 100% Acrylic wood sealer firstly followed by a light sanding.



I made up a little jig to make it easier to paint the lures and turn them. Much better than trying to hold them with a bit of wire.



After 3 coats of White.



Decided to give it a weigh at this stage with all the metal added in and only the final painting to be done. Came out at 120grams (White Oak), and the other one being 100grams (Pine). Very happy with that as those were the weights i was aiming for.



The masking process before colour is added and stickers.



Its been great thus far to get these lures made.

Will post up the final products when they are done, hopefully in the next few weekends.

Hey RAL, can you please tell me what brand and type of epoxy you're using for your final gloss coat on your lures, or even just what type of epoxy i need to look for. Seems there lots of varieties of epoxy and its got me a bit confused.

Thanks Don, I've been water proofing my lures by submerging them in pigmented sealer and it seems to do a fine job of sealing/undercoating them, also fill all the holes. I'm more interested in what to do after I've finished painting all the colours and want to gloss it up with something nice and hard and durable. Was of the understanding that this was done with some form of epoxy? Paint person at hardware shop told me that a polyurethane wouldnt stick to paint as it needed to penetrate the timber a bit. But never really know if they can be believed

Stupid question but is boiled linseed something you can buy or do you need to get the oil and boil it yourself??

Thanks for that info RealAppeal. Yes makes sense now. Your advise and knowledge make you the guru. Better get out in the workshop and begin finishing these beasts.

This thread is enough inspiration for me! I'm gonna have a go! I'm a Cabinet Maker by trade and have done a lot of wood-turning since my grandfather taught me when I was about 10, Am now doing my building apprentiship so have access to all the products needed, Will post some pics once i'm underway!! I think i'm going to go buy some more poppers to try get my head around the whole weight placement and amount. Trial and error will be the way I guess. Any tips for weight placement etc?

The real buzz will be when i see some mates land a few fish on the lures i have made them. Cant wait!!!

here fishee fishee wrote: Hi RAL, Have done my latest stick bait with envirotex epoxy like you suggested. Sure makes it look the part but have you noticed that it doesnt dry rock hard? can still dent it with my finger nail although the mark does disappear after a few mins. Think this may be a property of the product but just wanting to check that its not just me? Also how do you apply it? being so expensive I made up the least amount possible and resorted to trying to pour it on then spread it around to try make it even, its pretty self leveling so wasnt too bad, imagine a full dunk would be best but I'm too stingy to make that much up at once. Will put up a photo when I can be bothered plugging in my camera

Heres a photo of my most recent stick bait, colours look a bit munted in the photos.