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  • welcome to lure making 101 a simple tutorial series for beginners to lure making

  • with minimal tools, material and experience.

  • In today's tutorial we'll make "Poppin Doc", a 60mm balsa popper lure

  • you may have seen this lure before in fishing monthly magazines if not check them out

  • www.fishingmonthly.com.au

  • and for tips and templates visit my web site

  • MakeWoodenLures.com/fishing-monthly/

  • now as we've done for all the lures in this series we start by outlining the side profile of our popper

  • onto a piece of balsa. This is 12 millimeter or half-inch thick balsa

  • I'm just marking it out with the side profile so I can cut the lure bodies out from the plank

  • Next I'll slice the poppers apart using a sharp utility knife

  • and then I'll trim away most the waste being careful not to go right down to the line.

  • We're going to clean up the blank shortly.

  • Obviously this is a popper, so the front of the lure is going to be kept nice and square

  • I'll do that in several cuts to make it nice and clean

  • Now I'm going to use a square sanding block and flat surface to square up all

  • the edges and make sure that the lure is the square in cross-section

  • once I'm done with the convex surfaces I'll start on the concave surface around the

  • belly of the lure with a curved sanding block

  • I'm gonna mark a center line down the long sides of the lure just by eye

  • You can make this out with a marking gauge or some other jig for more accuracy

  • I find I can get it accurate enough by eye

  • then I'll lay the template back on the lure blank and mark the location of

  • the hook hangers and tow point and the weight.

  • Now it's time to go to work with the battery drill and a three millimeter drill bit.

  • Drill the holes for the hook hangers and tow point,

  • which we're going to make in just a moment. Get these nicely centered so everything's

  • aligned properly to give your popper lure the best action

  • now to keep our lure properly oriented on the water

  • I'm gonna add some weight to the belly.

  • So I'm drilling a hole with a five millimeter Brad point bit

  • Now we're ready to shape the top profile so we'll put the template back on the

  • lure and mark out the shape. One of the great things about handmade poppers

  • is that you can make unusual and complex shapes you can't get

  • when you turn a popper on a lathe

  • Trim away the waste in light cuts, get everything reasonably square and we'll

  • clean things up after this step.

  • Next I'll mark carving guidelines so I'll start

  • by putting a centerline along each of the long edges of the lure

  • and another line halfway between centerline and the edge of the wood

  • this popper is going to be fairly round in cross-section so you should find all the

  • lines are fairly symmetrical. Number the sharp utility knife I'll just trim away

  • the waste between those carving lines

  • it's better to take off too little wood rather be too much. you can

  • always take off more a little bit later or refine the shape with sandpaper

  • Remember to work with the grain and work away from your hands to prevent cutting yourself

  • Now I'm going to finish the shaping with a little piece of sandpaper

  • As you sand, check the shape of the lure regularly because it is easy

  • to remove too much timber and spoil the popper body.

  • Don't press too hard and use a nice fresh piece of sandpaper to get the best results

  • I'll use a sanding block to square the front face before I make the popper mouth

  • To shape the mouth of the popper I'm going to use a bull nose rotary burr

  • You'll find these at hardware shops and you can get them online if you can't find them locally

  • Start with a bit angled at 45 degrees unless you get the mouth shaped

  • Rotate the drill so the burr is moving perpendicular to the lure

  • This will give you a nice clean, even, smooth face

  • when it comes to assembly we have three options for our to tow point and hook hangers

  • Screw eyes, twist eyes or a through wire. Throughout this series we've used twist eyes

  • And I'm going to continue to use these eyes for this particular lure.

  • The reason being is the twist eyes are quick and easy to make, they don't require any

  • special materials you'll find hard to get, and they're strong enough for our purposes.

  • But if you are planning on fishing this lure on line classes of six kilos (12lb)

  • or higher I suggest switching to a through wire

  • here's how to make twist eyes using a three millimeter drill bit to make the initial loop

  • and a couple pairs of pliers to twist it up make it nice and strong and give the

  • glue plenty to hold on to

  • and there it is.

  • So I'm going to go ahead and glue the twist eyes into the

  • tail and the belly of the lure. I'm not going to add the tow point just yet because it

  • makes it difficult to clean out that concave mouth later on if you need to

  • After you harden the wood you'll probably find there's some resin in there that needs

  • to be cleaned out with the rotary burr and you can't do that if there's a tow point installed

  • Whilst I'm assembling the lure I'll also add the ball sinker

  • Put a little bit of glue over the top of that to fill the hole.

  • I'll smooth that off later ready for painting

  • Remember to use 24-hour epoxy for this. it'll give you a much longer lasting result

  • Next I'm going to harden the balsa. You'll find instructions for doing this on my website.

  • Basically I've warmed the wood, thinned down some epoxy and I'm

  • brushing it on so that it soaks into the timber, fills up the grain and goes hard

  • to make the wood waterproof and tough

  • All right, time to paint our popper. Now of course, you can go to the

  • automotive shop pick up some auto touch-up paint or you can go to the art

  • shop and pick up some acrylic artist paints. They'll be just fine for lure

  • painting but if you want to do a really professional job the best thing is to

  • get yourself an airbrush I'm going to use an airbrush to finish this lure off

  • We're going to paint a very simple pattern on this popper, so I'll start

  • firstly by giving it a coat of Autoborne white sealer

  • This is going to be good adhesive base for the subsequent color coats

  • Next I'll paint some white and then I'll paint the sides and back of the lure in a yellow

  • Once I'm happy with the yellow I'll go over the top of the back using AutoAir

  • pearl lime green to give lots of sheen and color

  • then I'll paint some white spots around the popper lure body to accentuate

  • the Frog like pattern I'm gonna paint next

  • Once I'm happy with the white spots I'll put a black spot in the center of each one

  • This will give me a simple frog pattern that's attractive and the fish love it

  • I hope you enjoyed this tutorial

  • Remember, for the templates and tips go to my website

  • MakeWoodenLures.com/fishing-monthly/

  • I'll see you there, bye for now!

welcome to lure making 101 a simple tutorial series for beginners to lure making

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