POPPER FEATHER TAILS

[dontheo 0]

I am working on making a series of poppers using plastic formed bodies. I saw in an older book where the tail was tied on the hook first and then inserted into a slot in the body. As I want to spray the bodies and use a clear coat over the finish I am not sure how to tie the tail on the popper body after the hook has been glued into the body. It seems it might get a little unsightly but I am sure there is a trick or two I am overlooking. I would also think it might be tied off with a few half hitches over the hook bend and feathers?

 

Thanks

 

Ted

[FFNC 0]

I'll tell you a little trick I came up with when tying poppers and I have yet to see this done by anyone. Instead of gluing the body on the hook I heat the hook up and it melts the hard foam right on there and it does way better than glue. I use a small butane lighter that I have for lighting my cigars. What you do is turn the hook up side down and straight out from the vise. Heat the hook till it glows orange let it cool for 1 second then align the body on the hook carefully holding and keeping it straight. Depending on how thick the hook is you need to let it cool a second or two because the bigger hooks like a size 4 will hold the heat longer and it will melt the foam/plastic too quickly. Do 3-4 and you will have it down. Your poppers will last a long time doing this method over glueing them. I always put the body on first then heat my needle and poke a hole through the body for the legs. Then I paint, then I put the legs in after they dry. Then I do the rest. Nick has a good article with pictures on Tying Poppers

[dontheo 0]

FFNC:

 

That sounds like a great idea. Any problem with heat transfer to the jaws of the vice? This could make them soft and be a problem in the long run. I was thinking some type of cheap heat sink (like for soldering) might round this proceedure out to perfection.

 

Thanks for the link for tying on the feathers. If you use the heating method, how do you do the feathers?

 

Also, how the hell do you get away with smoking in the house? I would be outside with Abbie and Sis if the wife even heard the lighter click:).

 

Ted

[FFNC 0]

The heat never reaches the vise at all. The hook disipates heat so quickly. Here is the type of lighters I use you can grab 1 off ebay cheap Cigar lighters

I heat the hook first, then put the popper body on, then paint, then do the feathers afterwards. Nick ties his feathers and stuff on first, I don't do that. I just thought the link will give you some general ideas. Besides the foam he is using on that popper couldn't withstand heating the hook method. This method ONLY works on HARD foam and plastic. One thing to mention too is I made the mistake of tying on TOO much rubber off the back end along with the 2 feathers and when you do that on a size #8 hook it ends up being to much weight on there and it doesn't pop good. Make sure if you tie smalled poppers like and size #8 that you don't put rubber off the back end for tailing material. You can do that on size #4 and bigger but not the smaller ones. Also make sure the hook stays as close to the bottom as possible. I tried positioning the hook at different depths in the middle of the poppers and the closer they were to the bottom the better they popped. The more they were towards the middle the worse they popped. When you heat the hook up and put the popper body on, if the hook is too hot (glowing red still) it will melt the hard foam too quickly and go in too deep. Size #8 popper hooks disipate heat quickly but size #4 poppers take a second or two before you can put the body on. By the time you do 2-3 of these you will see what I mean.

[dontheo 0]

FFNC:

 

Thanks, I will try the lighter tonight. If the tail doesn't come out to bad I will post a pic.

 

Thanks again

 

Ted

[Guest]

That sounds like a great idea, heating the hook. I've often noticed how if you don't pull the bodkin/needle out of the foam fast enough and it starts to cool even slightly, how tough it is to get out.

[FFNC 0]

I noticed it so much luvinbluegills that a thought hit me.......hummmmmm....what if I...... By the way I like that web site of yours. Now I know who you are on RS too. I used to live in Western PA in Beaver Falls. Hearing the word for sure

[BarryTX 0]

I've started making my own foam popper bodies usning foam on a Dremel tool (as a lathe). My first attempt to put the body on the hook was to use super glue and push the body on the hook over the eye. Since the "lathe" already created a hole in the foam body down the center this seemed to make sense, but I found the super glue hasn't done a great job of holding. Some of the fly bodies come loose when stripping fast. I was planning to try epoxy as the adhesive on the next go-around, but after reading this thread I think I'll also try the heating method and compare results.

 

Barry

[dontheo 0]

Just got done using the heating method and it worked great. A few observations:

 

First, I onlu used a match and it just took a few seconds to heat the hook. I still think it could weaken the hook hardening process by heating it red hot and it didn't need this much heat anyway. I also had an old cheap vice I set up to hold the hook but there was very little if any heat transfer to the head of the vise.

 

Second, I was working with small popper bodies and once I got by the first two with minor burns to the fingers I got it down.

 

Third, there was still a large gap at the bottom of the popper body where I inserted the hook after heating. I filled it with some RTV silicone thinmking how smart I was. This was a screw up because I won't be able to hold any paint to the silicone. Maybe a better choice would have been caulk or glue just to fill the gap.

 

Finally, I got so in to it I forgot about the barbeque sauce I had on the stove. Now thats a mess.

 

The Don

[Guest]

QUOTE (FFNC @ Jun 3 2004, 11:38 PM)

I noticed it so much luvinbluegills that a thought hit me.......hummmmmm....what if I...... By the way I like that web site of yours. Now I know who you are on RS too. I used to live in Western PA in Beaver Falls. Hearing the word for sure

I am undone!

[Glenn 0]

Just my 2 cents but I tye my tail feathers and hackle after I attach my popper head and paint it.

 

I have been using super glue for attaching the body but I might have to try the heat method.

 

As for filling in the gap under the body I first tried epoxy but it was way to messy and time consuming so I went out to the shop and got my bottle of "Titebond" Waterproof Wood glue and it works great.

 

It is easy to use and clean up is a snap.

 

Paint sticks right to it

[Guest]

Never had the luxury of the plastic bodies, make mine outa cork,razor knife, sandpaper. Lot more creations with cork. Always wrapped hook with some thread and glued/epoxy hook in slot cut into cork. Then paint the bodies, put tails/flashbou and hackle, install mono weedguard, and use pliers/needle to insert rubber legs. I don't bother with the hump shank hooks, make my humps from serious sharp worm hooks in large sizes. Do all my bodies, then mount all to hooks, then after drying then comes the feathers and last the eyes and accent glitter and dots/spots.....

[Guest]

Nice work denduke

 

 

OSD.

[Guest]

Little tid bit here. If you insert the hook too deep in the cork it might make more of a "plick" sound than a "baloosh" which is not as effective, to me, but the darn things try to dive/roll over with the cupped face when you try to pick'em up and make for harder casting. Need the body/face of popper to ride high IMO. Tough when you make a killer lookin bug and the darn thing don't do right! Not fun to hit yourself in the head with half a chicken either when it digs in on the pick up, He He....