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http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...eadFloats1.jpg
I made these using foam floats and putting a dowel through them. then i used a nylon sleeve over the dowel end and inserted a barrel swivel into the sleeve.
What do you think? I have since painted the 2 others in black and white. They are unweighted. The other 3 painted ones have copper wire wrapped around them for weight.
Nice.........good job
They look good
Looks like you done good. I would think you could make a hole in them to add weight. Not all the way through mind you, just a small indent with some weight and painted over them, but nothing wrong with what you have here.
Maybe even some of the flat weights that come with bass jerk baits that you stick on and indent them and paint over? They kind of look like the old flat caps kids use to pop in their guns, but these are silver and for weighting a bait.
Again good job,
Skip
Fish
for some reason (GOVT COMPUTERS) not getting the pic, I'll check and look when I get home.
Fatman
Very cool good job
Nice floats fish. Skip had a good idea about how to weight them. Storm makes suspend dots and strips for weighting cranks.They are flashy and I don't know how good they would paint over. Maybe they are worth a look. I use the cone shaped floats,drill holes in the fat end,shove some small shot in the holes,drop of glue and finished.The small end floats up so it's easy to pull under.
Shoot man, they look professional.
Now that I can see them they look good!!!!!!
Fatman
I will have to look into some other ways to weight them but that is a LOT of copper wire. I wold bet the bottom one has a god 1/8 ounce on it if not more. The top weighted one is at or right under an 1/8. The middle and the middle weighted is like 1/16 or so. I tried putting the copper wire under the float but it tore it up.
Right now I am trying to get a whole mess of balsa floats so I can modify them just like these. a couple auctions on Ebay have a mess of them but I am trying to get them for less than $0.50 cents each because I know I will destroy a few. That and balsa is better in my opinion anyway. I can drill them and add weight and do lots of different things including use better paint on them and not melt them.
Anyone got balsa float bodies for cheap or any other wood float bodies? LOL
Oh, BTW, total cost is less than $1.25 each and that was buying everything from a little hardware store.
Nice job. Here is a thread from the archives on how to add weight to bobbers or floats.
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/archi...d-crappie.html
Thanks, I will have to try that with the ones I get. I don't know if o like the lay flat method but it will work here at times. Almost always have a wind so stand up is better so I can see the lightest twitch easier.
Is more stuff to try. A larger jig will make it stand anyway and I have lots of ideas.
One way would be to use a longer plastic tube (Maybe another 3/4 inch) and before cementing it over the wooden dowel, drop some lead shot or BB's into the tube to get the desired weight either for casting or less resistance to the fish. If the tube is long enough, the shot will rattle which can be beneficial at times.Quote:
Originally Posted by fish_4_all
That's a good idea. I just bought 50 balsa floats on Ebay that have hallow tubes so I can add shot to the tubes and not drill the body. BB's should fit in there I hope and that would let me weight them very precisely.
Any thoughts on colors to paint them?
How about natural color? :D These are some micro ones I did to fish around reeds in some clear water. Darn thing is they got a backhoe in and dug out the reeds this spring. :mad: This size doesn't hold more than 1/16 oz of weight.Quote:
Originally Posted by fish_4_all
I carve my own from balsal (2"x4"x12" block cost $5 or $6) and use ball point pen guts for the shaft on slip floats. The BB's work good, and with balsal, you don't need much of a hole, pushes in easy. I like your idea with the swivel!
Brown makes sense with all the sticks and such you would find on the water anyway. Will have to see what I have for colors to match them.
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...alsaFloats.jpg
This is a picture of the probable floats I will be getting. Lots of sizes and shapes hopefully to make them for many different fishing needs.
Any suggestions for a paint to use that will stick the best on the plastic if I can not remove it? Also, what would be the best way to secure the bb's in the tube so they don't move too far up the tube if I need to do so?
I am also kinda stuck on how long I should make the shaft out the bottom. I see lots of floats for lots of species that have a really long metal rod out the bottom supposedly for stability. Is it needed to stabilize a float in flowing fast water or is it really needed if weight properly?
I wonder if it is possible to powder coat plastic???? Assuming the melting point is well above 500F of course.
If you want to paint the plastic you can get Krylon Fusion spray paint, it's made for painting plastics without any primer or extras. It's easy to find as well anywhere that has a spray paint section should carry it. It comes in several colors and Rustoleum Plastic is another option as well.