Dewald Posthumus
New member
Hi All,
I have committed to a once in a lifetime trip in September to St. Lazarus banks in Mozambique. Unfortunately, these trips do not come cheap and I have to save money where I can. Being a DIY type of guy, I decided to put together some of my own GT lures for the trip, costing roughly 30% of the price of some of the more commercial lures out there.
I had a lathe from a previous DIY project, ordered Jelutong wood pieces cut 50x50x225mm, and started turning the poppers on the lathe - I opted for two different types, first is the normal blooper style lure, big popper cup face and smaller body, for some serious popping action and the second a more sedate streamlined version for calmer waters and hopefully to target some of the yellowfin tuna and perhaps sailfish in the area.
Turning these lures on the lathe is quite a simple job, with the exception of the cup face, you need a smaller chisel and careful aim in order to get a nice cup. Alternatively, you can use a flap disc (30mm) and a Dremel type tool. Once the lures are turned on the lathe I gave them a good sanding with 220 grit paper and then final sanding with 600 grit. After the sanding is complete, they have to be sealed. I used a ziplock bag with Rystix Timbaseal exterior sealer and dunked the lures into the bag, ensuring the sealant covers the entire lure, inside and out. After hanging them to dry for two days they were given a quick sanding again with 220 grit, just to remove the gloss in order to apply primer.
I used Rust-O-Leum primer in white and after two coats of primer, applied Rust-o-leum 2x cover, in gloss white. Did a paint job with various spray can manufacturers and colours. once the final colours were applied, I made the eyes from those little round labels and some prism tape. Final finishing step is an epoxy product called Tarbender by Smooth-on, it takes around 12 hours to cure to touch and 48 to fully cure - this presented another DIY challenge - I had to build a lure turner - off to the Appliance spares shop and got myself a Microwave turntable motor for R50, some googling and I ended up with a nice turner, turning 4 lures at a time.
The final step was to finish the lures, through wire, belly swivel and tail weight. I used 1.6 mm 316 (marine grade) stainless steel TIG welding filler rods, 510lb 1/0 belly swivels and carp feeder weights for the tail weights.
Here are the results of lots of googling, engineering, and just asking other fishermen for their opinion. I must thank another lure builder for guidance on lure weighting and how the lure is supposed to sit in the water - Carl Herbst from Moco Lures in Dubai - he is South African working in Dubai and part time lure builder - resin cast lures, wrapped in carbon fibre! Virtually indesctructable! www.mocolures.com
I have committed to a once in a lifetime trip in September to St. Lazarus banks in Mozambique. Unfortunately, these trips do not come cheap and I have to save money where I can. Being a DIY type of guy, I decided to put together some of my own GT lures for the trip, costing roughly 30% of the price of some of the more commercial lures out there.
I had a lathe from a previous DIY project, ordered Jelutong wood pieces cut 50x50x225mm, and started turning the poppers on the lathe - I opted for two different types, first is the normal blooper style lure, big popper cup face and smaller body, for some serious popping action and the second a more sedate streamlined version for calmer waters and hopefully to target some of the yellowfin tuna and perhaps sailfish in the area.
Turning these lures on the lathe is quite a simple job, with the exception of the cup face, you need a smaller chisel and careful aim in order to get a nice cup. Alternatively, you can use a flap disc (30mm) and a Dremel type tool. Once the lures are turned on the lathe I gave them a good sanding with 220 grit paper and then final sanding with 600 grit. After the sanding is complete, they have to be sealed. I used a ziplock bag with Rystix Timbaseal exterior sealer and dunked the lures into the bag, ensuring the sealant covers the entire lure, inside and out. After hanging them to dry for two days they were given a quick sanding again with 220 grit, just to remove the gloss in order to apply primer.
I used Rust-O-Leum primer in white and after two coats of primer, applied Rust-o-leum 2x cover, in gloss white. Did a paint job with various spray can manufacturers and colours. once the final colours were applied, I made the eyes from those little round labels and some prism tape. Final finishing step is an epoxy product called Tarbender by Smooth-on, it takes around 12 hours to cure to touch and 48 to fully cure - this presented another DIY challenge - I had to build a lure turner - off to the Appliance spares shop and got myself a Microwave turntable motor for R50, some googling and I ended up with a nice turner, turning 4 lures at a time.
The final step was to finish the lures, through wire, belly swivel and tail weight. I used 1.6 mm 316 (marine grade) stainless steel TIG welding filler rods, 510lb 1/0 belly swivels and carp feeder weights for the tail weights.
Here are the results of lots of googling, engineering, and just asking other fishermen for their opinion. I must thank another lure builder for guidance on lure weighting and how the lure is supposed to sit in the water - Carl Herbst from Moco Lures in Dubai - he is South African working in Dubai and part time lure builder - resin cast lures, wrapped in carbon fibre! Virtually indesctructable! www.mocolures.com
