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How to: hand carved bunker

20K views 20 replies 9 participants last post by  MontaukMonster 
#1 ·
Seeing this little plug has brought so much interst I've decided to share it's build.
As always, protect your lungs and eyes...

you will need a piece of cedar or pine, 4"X2"X1/2", some 3/4" SS screw eyes, either a lead pot or small 00 split shot, some 1/0 hooks and 5H split rings, I used glass eyes but you can buy doll eyes or animal eyes at your local craft store, or simply paint them on.

First trace out your design, once you make one you like, trace it onto a piece of scrap wood and shape it the way you want...this will be you template, now trace your pattern and cut it out with a coping saw, jig saw or as I did, with a scroll saw, be sure to leave the lines,just rough it out.... now bring it to your disc sander, if you dont have a disc sander, a disc sander can be used on an electric drill...

Now your plug, make a line down the center of the plug, top and bottom, make a gill mark using a compass at 1.25" from the nose, make another mark for the eye at .750", using an awl, scribe your gill marke, center punch the eye.. on top of the plug ceterpucnh a mark at 1.50" on center from the nose, repeat on the bottom, center punch another mark .750 from the tail,these will house you screw eyes for you line pull and hooks..

Now drill you weight holes, they will be evenly spaced, from the nose to the screw eye.

Now bring your plug to the belt sander, following the countors that you have drawn rough shape your plug with your belt sander, again this could be done with a disc on a drill, it's just alot harder..

when this is done you can weight you holes and fill with putty, I lkke the Elmers 2 part epoxy wood repair putty.

Tracing the Hand carved Bunker

Cutting The Blank

Before Shaping

After shaping

Marking The Plug

Drilling Weight Holes

Weighting The holes
 
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#2 ·
After 24 hours (time neede for the putty to cure) sand your entire plug.. by hand... shaping the final contour you want..if you want to have a 3D gill, it should be engraved or ethched at this time, I use a dremel tool with a triangular flutted cutter.

Now coat your plug with adhesive from the gill mark to tail ( I use duro spray adhesive) spread you mesh and press into place, once the glue and mesh have set, trim it to fit the countour of your plug.

Now lay the plug on a strip of foil, I fnd that the stickey backed foil used for duct work to be the eaisest and most durable/shapable...
Trace your plug and cut out the shape, this piece will fit the side you just meshed.. clever huh?
Now peel back the backing and lay the foil on the plug.. if you screw it up, you will have to remesh and refoil, I find a rag dampend with turps handy to keep adhesive off my finger, which also keeps it off the foil..

press thge foil into the voids with your thumb, I use the a wooden q-tip(cotton removed) to press the foil into the voids, the wooden"dowel is also used to burnish any wrinkles and to flatten the edges... repeat on the other side..

Some people that foil plugs make the seams meet, I do not, I prefer to sand the edges with 100 grit paper so they blend ito the wood on the belly and on the back, on the flat part of the head, I use a utility knife to remove any flased over foil.. I then prime the bare wood with the bins primer.







 
#3 ·
after the primer is cured I start adding colors to the belly and back,as well as any detail I might want to add...
once the paint has cured 24 hours, I give a scratch coat of E-tex spray install my hardware, addinf a drop of marine grade 2 part epoxy to the threads, then I apply a THIN coat of e-tex to the plug, this helps secure the hardware... so far it has held with fish to 28lbs....







 
#6 ·
A few things I forgot to mention,first is the head shape, in order to swim correctly, the flat portion must extned back ro or close to the pull eye, if it doesn not the action of the plug is lost..

the other thing, between coats of paint, I buff the overspray off of the center of theplug with grey scotch bright, this removes the overspray, and shines the foil....

It is a neat little design, swims in very rapid side to side motions and dives deep....thye are very easy, it looks harder than it realy is...
 
#7 ·
I've got one shaped, and weighted, and sealed, just waiting for the sealer to dry and I'll get primer on, the foil and paint, and post a pic.
Made some assumptions about the location and amount of lead, and poured it in. When I dropped it into the sealer bath, the thing floated very nearly vertical, with the tail sticking up out of the water. :smile:
 
#8 ·
Ed, How much weight did you put in that thing????? I dont measure it, but its less than 5 grams total.....

you want the plug to sit perfectly leval....

What kind of wood???? western red cedar (what I use) is the most boyant of the cedar... Pine (if that is what you ued) sits a little lower and needs less weight....


Practice wioll tell you how much weight.
 
#9 ·
You're telling me that with all that lead in the front of that thing that it sits level in the water??!!??
I expected more of a Rat-L-Trap posture, tail up....when the primer dries I'll do a test run.
PS I had no hooks or hardware on it when I dipped it in the sealer....maybe the hooks level it out a bit? We'll see.......it's foiled and primed.

As far as the wood, it was just a board I had laying about.....light wood, not pine, something from Homies.
 
#10 ·
Ed,
It's all about balance... each type of wood is different.you might hsve to adjust your weight... I hand hooks on my prototypes and add weight until I get my balance

Here's a shot of the little guy's sitting in a bucket.. kinda look like a bunch of shiners

 
#14 ·
Roccus, after looking at those (which look awesome by the way) i have yet another question. The thing that stood out to me for some reason were the eyes. Do you think that eyes on a plug make a difference? How big of a difference? I was looking at my "WILDEYE" storm shads and some of my other plugs and thought that maybe bigger eyes are more appealing to fish. It seems that they eyes on those bunkers are pretty big.....also I remember in Al McREynolds story he thought about changing one of his plugs because the eye was missing. (I cant remember all of the story but Im pretty sure the plug with the missing eye caught that 78.5 ponder). The eyes may or may not make a big difference.....just wondering
 
#19 ·
very productive plug, especialy on medium to small fish.... it was responsibe for one 38lb fish this past fall that was hiding below the schoolies....

As a note on the weighting, diofferent woods require differant weights, I've gone to mahogany and use alot less weigh...
 
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