Tied this popper with foam I glued together and turned down with a Dremel tool.
Very nice job, I use the same technique using foam from flip flops. My daughter had a pair of white flip flops that were about 2" think which can yield several bodies from one plug. Of course, coloring wi th markers doesn’t give the crisp lines of gluing layers together. That bug should produce lots of bluegills and some bass for you.
What would be the best way to cut the foam out? I have tried copper tubing, but they look kind of torn up. That is a nice looking popper.
Probably the best thing I have found is the shaft from a wrecked umbrella. If you can find a automatic umbrellas that collapses to a smaller carrying size they are ideal, some have steel shafts, some brass. Either works well if you will chuck it in a variable speed electric drill, an AC powered works bettter than a cordless because they have higher speeds at the top end. Square off the end of the cutter and sharpen the edge, the dremel does a nice final sharpen, deburr. The umbrella shaft will possibly yield two or three sizes of cutter. I found one with a hexagon shaft that worked great.
I bought a set of these…
http://www.harborfreight.com/9-piece-hollow-punch-set-3838.html
I had a machinist buddy turn down the larger sizes to fit in my drill. You can also punch out the 2&3 mm foam the old fashioned way…with a hammer, and glue the disks together. Both methods work well.
Brad
The copper tubes should work if sharpened and if you use a drill instead of just turning by hand.
I did exactly what Brad did including the machinist friend.
Also made a larger one by grinding off the saw teeth and sharpening.
I just glue the foam together, cut the pieces off with a razor blade and turn them down with a tool I got from a place that is not a sponsor here, using an emory board. Here is a bigger one for the salt:
Hi Idice,
A very good way to cut such is with a sharp cork borer. This type of tool was used by chemists, and still is in some cases as I still use one from time to time, to cut nice round holes in corks and rubber stoppers.
Go to Ebay and type in “cork borer.” You can also find cork borer sharpeners there sometimes. They still make them, and you can buy new ones. The best deals of course are when they sell an old set that they got from a lab that is closing down, or some similar source.
Electric cork borers are available at times, but they might be from somewhat to pretty darn pricy. Hand operated crank ones, that look a little like a cross between a drill press and and a brace and bit, are available, and I have brought one of those home from work, and they do a good job.
If you decide to go the route of the cork borer, the 3mm size is about 1/8 inch, 6mm is about 1/4 inch, 10mm is about 3/8 inch, 12mm is a little less than 1/2 inch, and a big one like 18 or 20 mm is on the order of 3/4 inch. I warn you though, if you use a 18mm or 20mm, it will take a while to cut each popper if you use the manual type rather than a hand crank model.
Another approach is to used a fired hand gun cartridge with the primer pocket drilled out to take a small bolt so it can be used in a drill press or power drill. If you go that route, you may need to make a small slot in the side of the cartridge case so that you can force the popper body out of the case.
No matter what you use, a lubricant like glycern, from the drug store, will help the borer or any cutter to cut more easily. Glycern is a good choice, and is one of the traditional material used for cork or rubber stopper boring, because it works well as a lubricant, and it is water soluble, so water will wash it off the cork, rubber, or foam.
Another thing about boring with a cork borer, or any other borer for that matter, is bore in a bit until it starts to grab or become more difficult to bore, then back out a bit and bore back in and out a time or two to work more of the lube into the slot you are cutting. Sometimes you have to use a plastic dropper to add a drop of lube as you go.
Regards,
Gandolf
http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=hollow+punch
Harbro Freight is your answer. This set is $6 and fits any standard electric drill. Much neater than doing it by hand, which I suffered with for years.
The size of the punch would limit you to making small poppers - or am I reading it wrong?
Tim
Some helpful hints after making several thousand poppers:
http://www.flytyingforum.com/pattern6910.html
(1) look at the pattern at the site shown above
(2) note that MAJOR improvements have been made in the technique since then, but the basics are the same. What follows are some of those improvements.
(3) use a heated bobbin to create a hole in your foam head to insert the hook. Depending on the size of the hook eye, you may have to wiggle the bobbin a little while it is in the foam to create a bigger hole
(4) Using a large eyed sewing needle (canvas needle) insert the legs through the head at the level of the hole you created with the bobbin. The advantage here is when you use CA glue to put the head on the hook you will also be glueing the legs in place from the inside.
(5) I’ve got a couple of articles on this site about superglueing foam you might want to look at.
(6) Always use a long shank hook. The thickness of the foam can substantially reduce the hook gap once you have assembled the fly, especially if the foam is near the hook point.
(7) The order of addition of materials to the hook should be: mono for weed guard (if you want to have one) then other tail materials.
(8) Make sure you have a base of thread on the hook shank before glueing the head on. I use almost exclusively flat waxed nylon.
(9) 3D eyes or something Michael’s carries (on occasion) called Botique Fleur black mini round gems work better for eyes than stick on tinsel eyes
(10) Make sure legs are not so long that they will get crossed with the bend of the hook. Rubber legs are very fond of doing this.
(11) Rubber and silicone legs act entirely differently in the water and give a popper a very different action.
(12) “Fine” rubber legs (usually get mine from jannsnetcraft.com) are excellent for small poppers and hoppers etc.
If you have any questons, just PM me and I probably have an answer, although maybe not the one you want.
A 1/2" popper head is a pretty big head. My saltwater heads are 7/16" up to 3/4" and the larger ones I shape entirely by hand using the method in the link I posted above. 1/2" will do well for all warm water applications (except maybe muskie).
Note, after drilling out the head, you still want to smooth and shape with the dremmel.
I use a knitting needle I’ve ground to a point and stick it in the foam then use that to hold the foam while I turn it against the dremmel bit.
Like CoachBob I’ve made thousands of foam popper bodies.
I use the puncehs from Harbor Freight. I didn’t get the ones with the nice 1/4 inch drill insert in them, so I had a friend machine them down to fit my 1/2 inch drill press. The largest size, the one that makes 1/2 inch ‘blanks’ is plenty big for bass/pike/inshore saltwater stuff.
I turn mine on the dremel with the needle set up CoachBob showed us all several (many?) years ago. I have ‘altered’ mine to include a base plate with small pins to insure against ‘spinning’ on the mandrel.
There are places online that sell drill mounted punches and mandrels designed for this application. You can get the plugcutters in larger diameters there. They are not expensive, if you plan to make a bunch of poppers, but I haven’t bought them simply because the method I use works just fine and I have little need for larger diameter foam baits. Once I get past 1/2 inch, I go to balsa bodies turned on a wood lathe. Primarily because they are lighter.
Something CoachBob didn’t mention is cutting the popper body flat on the bottom. I just take a razor blade and slice it after it’s been glued in place, the smooth with a sanding drum in a dremel. I do this with almost all of my baits larger than 3/8 inch diameter. Clears the hook gape a bit which aids in hooking percentages. You don’t have to use as long a shank hook then.
Buddy
Every once in a long while you’ll turn to one of the several forums you peruse and find a discussion such as this!
What great ideas and almost everyone adds something of note!:idea: Sure appreciate this as I’ve spun deer hair, punched out a few, bought a lot of the foam and hard bodies and even have the Harbor Freight punch set that doesn’t use a drill. Now just need to get the stuff out and start putting all this into DIY action! :tieone: This thread is better than the old Popular Mechanics Magazine that was filled with dozens of DIY tips.
Except for the frog with cat eyes (from Michaels) this will let you see what the round mini head gems look like on a fly.
CoachBob,
Did you pick up those ‘gems’ recently? I can’t tell from the picture so I’ll ask. Are they translucent or solid black plastic?
Thanks,
Buddy
Got’em about six months ago at Michaels. Solid plastic. They’re called “recollections boutique fleur mini round gems” which brings up Michael’s on Google but going there doesn’t show the mini round gems. Sorry.
Oops, the price is up to $10 but that is still a good deal. I often say that I would hate like the dickens to be a fly shop operator with all the “alternative” materials out there. Thanks for putting this up; my old punches are getting worn.
One more suggestion.
Harbor Freight has “needle” files http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=file that are $4.99 for a set, out of which you will only use two for foam flies.
I use two of the others for hook sharpeners. The handle choice is personal preference.
As mentioned earlier, I prefer the hot bobbin method to make a hole in the foam, BUT, you don’t have to use a bobbin at all or can use the needle file to enlarge the hole. This is particularly helpful when you have added a lot of tail materials and make a significant increase in shaft size after youve added flash, and bucktail and maribou and hackle and rubber legs, etc. etc. The needle file can increase the hole size at the back of the hook while leaving the hole small at the hook eye.
I don’t use the bobbin method for mounting the body to the hook, I use a razor to cut a slit in the foam and glue the body to the hook. I also wrap the thread to the rear of the body to give it more durability. Also, I wrap the shank of the hook with thread to give the glue something to bond to besides bare metal.