Category: How To

April 2, 2008

Painting a Wooden Plug or Crankbait

As promised, I will go over a basic shad color paint job that will work to paint or repaint any topwater plug or crank bait. I will be painting a plug I made in an article from a few weeks ago.

Priming:
The first thing I want to talk a little about is wood preparation. A lot of primers will not hold up to the constant soaking of water. There are a couple of ways to address this. One is to pre-seal the bait with either a resin or epoxy. This is probably the most readily available method, and what this does is soak into the wood to create a water barrier which prevents lifting. The other thing your can do use a product called Propionate. This is a soaking process that works into the wood and hardens and seals it before final sanding and priming.
There are many places to purchase primers and paint. Here are a couple links.
JannsNetcraft
LureCraft

Painting:
I strongly suggest getting an airbrush for the use of specialty paints rather than just using spray paint. A decent one can be purchased for around $50.00, or so you don’t necessarily need a high dollar airbrush for painting baits.

Once your bait is sealed and you have a coat of primer you will want to finish sand your bait with some 500 or 600 grit sand paper before you paint. You are now ready for your first coat of paint. I will be starting with a white base. Next, wrap your bait in a small piece of tulle – this is a mesh fabric that can be purchased at any fabric store, and it makes a great scale pattern. Lightly coat using a silver metallic or pearl. Be careful not to put on to heavy of a coat, this will cause smearing.

After applying the scale pattern, use the same silver to blend it out slightly on the back nose and tail of your bait.

Finishing steps:
Apply a small amount of black along the back and nose of the bait. I like to add a spot behind the gill as well as area as well as a small gill detail.

You’re getting close. I like to add my eyes at this point. This will insure a good seal if you apply clear over them. Finally, it is time to clear coat your bait. It can be painted or brushed with a super strong epoxy. Epoxies can be purchased at any hardware store or hobby shop.

There are a million different ways you can paint your baits and the more you do it the better you will get.

March 21, 2008

Crank Bait And Swimbait Paint Chip

This is a problem most of us have faced, and not all of us even have the time or expertise to remade it by repainting our baits and even if we did would it happen again?
Well here is a link that talks about Propionate or propionic acid a product which will effectively seal wooden lures and keep them it good shape for at least a longer time period. A lot of lures are being made overseas now and the time and care is not being put into one of the most important aspects of bait manufacturing, the finish!
Link

March 13, 2008

How to Make Your Own Big Topwater Plug Bass Lure

As promised: here is a ‘how-to’ on wooden plug making. The process is pretty easy, and it can be rewarding catching fish on a bait you have made yourself.

I’ll start by talking about materials, wood types, and tools needed. I prefer to use a few types of wood for my baits: cedar, poplar, basswood, pine, and balsa. These are all soft, highly buoyant woods that are great for top water plugs. E-bay is a great source for pieces of wood without ever leaving home.

First and foremost you will need a lathe to start off your lure, or a round piece of wood such as a pine dowel. These can be purchased at just about any hardware store. Here is a link to Harbor Freight. They sell a lathe-6” sander combo for only $100. The quality won’t be the best in the world, but if you consider that most plugs sell from $20-$50, it will pay for itself pretty quickly.
Harbor Freight Lathe/Sander
You can also buy premade plugs such as these:
Plugs

Shaping above and beyond this is totally up to the lure maker-the possibilities are endless. This is the point at which you will want decide what you will be using for a tail. Just open up any one of your worm boxes and the ideas will start flowing. I am using a large fluke-style tail on mine. This will determine the closing tail size and shape of your bait.

Some tools to help shape your lure further are a 6” electric sander, various files, 80 grit sandpaper (you will be surprised how fast these materials work down), and maybe an Exacto blade or wood carving set for detail. I usually finish sand with about 150 grit and then work down to 400.

As far as hardware supplies for your lures, here are few choices:

Jann’s NetCraft

LureCraft

Stamina, Inc

You will need hooks, hook eyes, paint, clear-coat or epoxy coat, eyes, some sort of a tail (worm or small swimbait).

I have made a jointed bait here, but you can also make single-piece topwater plugs. If you choose to make a jointed bait here is a simple method. Choose your joint area and mark a 30 to 45 degree V to be cut. This can be done on a band saw or by hand using a small miter box. I used a marker here so you could see it well in the photo; however you will not want to do this as it will bleed through the final paint. Once you have cut the V you will need to cut a receiving slot for your eye hook. Make this with the band saw or by hand again. Drill a small hole and insert a pin. The pin should be made out of a stainless piece of rod so it will not rust. Remember to drill the hole just a tad smaller than the rod so it can be hammered in tight. You can also use a galvanized nail for this pin.

Next, decide if you want to add a lip or not. Adding one will give the bait more wobble. If you choose not to it will make for more of darting bait. Lips can be purchased at some of the above mentioned sites or cut out of a small piece of plastic from the hardware store or hobby shop. Cut a slot for it and epoxy or super glue it in place.

The eye hooks can be put in now or after paint. I usually prime my baits with an automotive primer. You can get this in a small can at a local automotive store, or DupliColor makes some good spray can products. The above lure suppliers will also sell various paints. The baits can be spray painted, hand painted, or airbrushed – whatever you have available to you. The possibilities are endless here. Once you are done, add some clear paint or epoxy to seal the deal and you’re ready for hooks and some topwater action. I will do a post on the steps of painting a bait next week.

Things you will need:

lathe and wood stock, dowel, or blank

sander

files

sandpaper

paint

hook eyes

stainless rod or nail

eyes

plastic for lip

tail

March 4, 2008

Basic Boat Repair – Part two: Fixing Minor Dings and chips

Now that your flake coat is in and set up, it is time to do the finish coat. For this step you will need an ultra-clear finish resin – surfboard resin will work great.

Step 3:
Start by taping off around the area to create a finish border. At this stage the resin will do one of two things depending on where the chip is located. More often than not it will be on the side or bottom of your boat, you may need so several coats with set time in between to achieve the right thickness without ending up with a drippy mess. Be sure to let a this set over night.

Depending on the overall shape of your boat you can choose to stop here, or keep going to achieve a perfect finish. . . since the boat I dinged is my new 2008 Champion I will continue.

Step 4 – Wet sanding:
At least 2 different grits of sand paper are needed here. I would recommend going a step further and using 3. Start with 600 grit black Emery cloth, moving to 1200 or 1500, and then finally 2000 or higher. The higher # the paper you use for the final steps the less work the polishing will be.

Small sanding block: What is a block? Most of you have seen the rubber sandpaper block at the hard ware store. This is what I am referring to, but it is also a term for leveling a surface in the automotive trade. Blocking is what is done when sanding paint or Bondo during body and paint work.

If you don’t have a small store-bought block, you can use a small, perfectly flat piece of wood, an eraser, or what I do is cannibalize one of my automotive blocks into a smaller version(see picture).

As you get started you will see the purpose of using the block is that it focuses on taking down the high spots with out making serious contact with the low spots. By the time you reach the low spots you should shift over to the finer sandpapers and level the whole area out smooth. This is called feathering. Once the area is feathered out and you have achieved a nice smooth finish across the area you are ready for buffing (If you still have low spots you go back to the drawing board with the resin build up – more often than not I do this at least once – what’s the point in doing something if you can’t do it again right?).

Onward:

Step 5 – Polishing/buffing:
This can be done by hand or with the help of a buffing wheel. These can be picked up relatively cheap at the hardware store. I recommend a light sheep’s wool or a foam type wheel. Choose a finish-grade buffing compound that can be found at any automotive or marine shop. Every buffing compound will have slight variances in the usage, so read the bottle before using.

For small projects, you can also use a pneumatic 90 degree grinder as well (see picture).

Make sure you cover your boat carpet before doing this, as buffing compound gets everywhere and it will save you time with the vacuum cleaner.

There you have it, I know this isn’t for everyone, but at the very least it will give an understanding of how it’s done.

February 25, 2008

Basic Boat Repair – Part One: Fixing Minor Dings and Chips

If you have ever had any chip repair done on your boat , you know it can be very expensive. More than just the repair, if you factor in travel time to and from the shop (usually during the week), then add on time missed from work and you will wish you never ran in to that damn dock.

So unless you have major damage this DIY advice is for you.

Most chips are just minor cosmetics, and for less than the cost of one professional repair you can be on the road to fixing most all your small dings yourself.

What you will need:

A trip to Tap Plastics or a marine supplier (such as West Marine) will get you well on your way

Glitter flake or gel coat to match your boat*
Laminating resin (super clear)
Finish resin (surfboard sandable finish resin)
MEKP type hardener
Acetone
A package of cheap small brushes
Mixing cups and sticks
Masking tape

*Note: if you have a new boat you may be able to get your glitter or color gel for free or close to nothing from the boat company. (I have been working in the paint industry for years and you would not believe what glitter flake sell for – It sells by the ounce like crack)

Step 1

Clean the area to be fixed with a small amount of acetone on a rag.
Tape off area to avoid unnecessary clean up.

Step 2

Mix a small amount of resin. Usually less than a half ounce will do for a small chip.
Add an equal amount of flake or if using a color gel add to match.
Add a few drops of hardener and you’re in business.
You want to keep this mixture pretty thick as a filler, so don’t be stingy with the flake after all it’s a freakin’ bass boat.
The flake will also serve as a good filler, so sometimes only one coat is necessary. If you are using a gel color a few coats may be necessary depending on the depth of the ding. This may require set up of the resin between coats. Avoid drips at all cost as this can show after you are done.
You will also want to stay below the final finish surface, the reason being that if on the final sanding of the clear finish coat the sandpaper goes into the flake, it will cause dull spots. This is for flake – if it is a solid color repair it can be wet sanded down and finish coated without worry of dullness.
Time between coats can vary between coats depending on weather conditions and types of resin also the amount of hardener used.

I will cover the next steps in the next segment in a few days