week 5 monster,,Christmas Week Surfchat!

Will start posting my "how-to" in a few hours, after guests come and go.

AWESOME NEEDS.... CANT WAIT TO SEE WHAT YOU COME UP W/..........

If you're anything like myself, you've
seen the countless pictures of custom plugs both homemade, and by so
called professionals, and thought to yourself, “it can't be that
hard.” Well, the truth is, building plugs is not as difficult as
the many images of gorgeous custom plugs let on.


The reason I titled this article as a
“guideline” is because I am showing you how I build plugs. As
with most anything else, there are more ways than one to build a
plug. With just about each and every step of the building process,
there are dozens of other ways to do it, and if you talk with other
builders, I'm sure their methods will differ from those in this
article. The key to building, is to find what works for you. Just
because one builder or myself use a particular topcoat or epoxy, that
doesn't mean that it is the best, it just simply means that it is
what works for us. So, by all means, experiment with the steps
associated with plug building, the ways of doing things are merely
what work for me, not necessarily what will work for you.





My Tools

The tools I use
when building my plugs are:

electric miter saw
(for cutting wood to length)

band saw (for
cutting lip slots and removing the ends of shaped blanks)

lathe (shaping my
blank)

drill press (for
drilling out holes in the plug blank)


belt sander (for
slope headed plugs and canal pencils)


sandpaper (used to
smooth down a plug at various stages of building)

airbrush &
compressor (painting your plug)




Before you begin
to build your plug, you must first choose what kind of wood you wish
to use. There are many options available to the modern day plug
builder, and most builders will tell you that the type of plug you
wish to build will determine what wood you use. For example, woods
such as pine, basswood and Alaskan yellow cedar are more buoyant
woods, and are typically used for plugs like pencils, poppers and
surface swimmers. While maple, being a denser wood is a common choice
when building darters. As for needles, depending on what you want the
plug to do, float or sink, birch or any of the other mentioned woods
will work well. When hand carving, alaskan yellow cedar and basswood
are typically the most common wood choice among builders because the
ease with which the wood can be cut, shaped and sanded. However, one
must be careful, as the properties of each wood differ, and this must
be accounted for at several key stages of the building process, so it
is recommended that when building, you allow yourself to try several
different ways of working with each wood, to discover the nuisances
of each species, and what works best for you when working with a
specific species of wood.

not being a builder this wakes me up to what it involves and what is needed ....thanks needs

stevel wrote:not being a builder this wakes me up to what it involves and what is needed ....thanks needs

Plenty more to come, and the pics after that. And, pending the amount of free time I get over the next few days, I may do a write up about pouring soft plastics.

very informative Needs

Building the Plug

When you start, you are typically going to want as square a block as possible. To cut the block to length, a miter, either electric or not, is typically used. I would recommend that for cutting a blank to length, that a bandsaw is not used, as bandsaws have a tendency to walk a bit, meaning that the cut you get will not necessarily be a square cut.
When cutting your blank to length, you are going to need to keep in mind the size of the plug you wish to build. Normally, I like to take my target length for the plug, and add an extra 3/4” to an extra inch, so that I allow myself plenty of space on the lathe to shape the blank.

Next, I like to do my through drilling, so that I don't shape a blank on the lathe, only to make a mistake on my through drilling. My first step when through drilling is always to mark the center of the wood block. To do this, I take a ruler, and line up the opposing corners of the block, connecting them with a line. After doing this with both sides, the point where the lines cross is the center of the block (assuming the lines are strait), through which I will drill. This is a relatively simple process, however, it can be made easier with a jig, that can either be made or purchased. These jigs usually contain some sort of slight blade or other means of marking the block from corner to corner, so that the center can be found.
After I have found the center of my wood block, it is off to the lathe. What you want to do with the lathe, is switch out the spur drive in the headstock of the lathe with a drill chuck and taper, so that you can drill right on the lathe. To do this, you simply need to take the center of the block, resting the center point against the center point on the block, and slowly feed the front end of the block to the drill bit at the front center of the block. When doing this, be sure to do it slowly and pull the black off the bit every inch or so, to remove the sawdust from the hole, and to prevent the bit from straying. When you get close to the end of the blank, flip it around, holding the end you just drilled to the tailstock, so that you can feed the other end to the drill bit, meeting the hole that you just drilled into the other end of the blank. Once you meet the two holes, clear out the sawdust from the middle, and remove the chuck from the lathe, and replace it with the spur drive, so that you can turn and shape the freshly drilled block.

Now that you have drilled the through hole of the plug, you can use these holes to line up the plug on the lathe, placing the tail stock and spur drive's center points into the holes and clamping them shut as tightly as you can. Now that you have clamped the block into the lathe as tightly as you can, it is time to start shaping the plug. When doing this, keep in mind the extra inch or so of wood you kept on the original block when cutting it to length. Use this extra length to shape the ends of the plugs to your liking, rounding the nose and tail if you desire to do so, however take caution as to not cut the wood too thin, causing it to cut through, and snap off the lathe.

Needfish...Great intro, very informative. Can't wait for the rest of the build!!!



Bluesfish

A lot more info to come soon. Also gona get the images up as well.

Now that you have
shaped the plug, remove it from the lathe. The next common impulse is
to cut off the square ends of the plug, and while if this works for
you, all the power to you. However, I would suggest you leave these
block ends on to drill your belly weight and swivel holes, tail
weight holes, or cut your lip slot, simply because these block ends
allow you to ensure the plug is lying flat when being drilled, and
the holes are going strait in. If the plug requires a lip slot to be
cut, this can be done by hand with a small, thin bladed hand coping
saw, a jig saw, if you have a steady hand, or a band saw. As for
belly holes, this can be done with either a hand drill, or a drill
press. If you are using a drill press, some have the capability to
restrict how far down your bit will travel. If you so desire, this
feature can be used to ensure that your belly weight hole is cut as
close to the length of the tail or belly weight as possible.





After I drill the
blank of my plug blank, I proceed to cut off the block ends of the
blank. Like with cutting a lip slot, it is possible to do this with a
band saw, or a small hand coping saw, but I would strongly suggest
you not try this with a jigsaw, as the jigsaw can be very powerful,
and possibly too powerful when making the small cuts required to cut
off the block ends. After these ends have been removed, and just the
blank remains, the woodworking parts of the building process have
been completed.





Sealing the blank
is quite possibly the step at which you have the most freedom. There
are many, many ways to seal a plug blank, and each one works best for
different builders. Personally, I have found Helmsman Spar Urethane
cut with Mineral Spirits to be what works best for me. I generally
keep the the sealant mixture in a length of PVC pipe cut to desired
length, and sealed off with end caps, fitting the particular diameter
PVC pipe you are using. With the Helmsman, I like to put the plug
into sealant for 15-20 minutes. After removing, I allow the plug to
sit for about 10 minutes, before taking a paper towel, and whipping
off the excess sealant. I then repeat this after allowing the plug to
sit and cure for a day, placing the plug in the sealant for another
15-20 minutes, allowing it to sit for 10 minutes after, before
whipping it down again. After this, I allow the plug to sit and cure
for about a week.





Now that the plug
has been allowed to cure, I then proceed to prime the blank for
paint. Like with every other stage of the process, there are several
ways to do this. For example, you can prime by hand, and then sand it
smooth, you can use a rattle can primer, or spray it with a heavy
duty paint gun. Personally, I use the second method, priming my plugs
with rattle can primers. When priming, a heavy thick coat is not
necessary, and when priming, all that is needed is a thin light coat,
just enough primer to allow the paint to be applied to the plug, so
that it shows its true pigment.





Similar to
painting, the main options available are painting with an airbrush,
or painting with a rattle can spray paint. It is also possible to
paint by hand, but unless you are looking for a specific look, I
would suggest you stay away from this technique, as it often times
gives you rough looking results. Not much can be said about the
painting stage of the building, as learning to paint a plug is
largely a trial and error process that needs to be done many times to
learn how to properly blend colors and learn techniques like scaling
and marbling.





Now that you
have painted your plug, there is a critical decision to be made. This
decision is if you want to wire your plug before topcoat or after
topcoat. Personally, I prefer the former option, as I like the
usefulness of the nose and tail loops for hanging plugs while the
topcoat curse. Before wiring the plug, apply all the necessary
hardware to your plug, inserting the nose grommet into the nose hole,
the tail grommet into the tail hole, and a belly grommet if desired
in the belly hole. Either way, wiring a plug is one of the most
aggravating parts of the process, second to applying your topcoat. To
wire a plug, pull the wire tight against the lip of the plug, or the
nose grommet. Then take the excess wire and wrap it around a round
object, such as a nail which is securely held in a bench vice. Wrap
the wire around the nail, and then wrap the wire around the base of
the looped wrap. Then, trim the excess wire to prevent it from
hanging off the plug.





Applying the
topcoat is usually the part of building the plug that drives most
builders insane. So many things can go wrong when applying the
topcoat, and for so many reasons, most of which you will learn about
through trial and error. When I apply my topcoat, I like to first
spray the plug in a light coat of rattle can clear coat. After this,
I coat my plug in Envirotex epoxy. Due to the conditions required to
seal the plug, I then hang it up in a heated box, flipping the plug
every few minutes for the first half hour. It should however be noted
that the amount of time needed to flip the plug depends on the
temperature in which you are applying the epoxy, and what epoxy you
are using. After the plug has flashed, you can re-coat the plug if a
thicker topcoat is desired.

WOW NEEDS GREAT EXPLINATION ON HOW TO LUV IT BRO

Wow.... nicely explained, broken down so even I could understand it.


Bluesfish

ok. so it got a lil crazy in the chat room last night..... needs can you post up the winners for all..... thanx Rocco

The winners:
BillC Needle: LBIFisherman
BillC surfster: Surfchick
My plastics: Eurojett
Jersey Killer: BillC
My plug: Smitty

Plugs went out in todays mail.