Douglas fir balusters

[Back Beach]

I know what you guys are probably going to say, but I'm asking anyways....I purchased a few 1.5" douglas fir balusters from my local lumber place just to mess around with and found out this stuff is very difficult to work with. It turned down ok, but seemed brittle in places and very hard in others. Some of the annual rings are like iron and others real soft, which caused the drilling process to be very challenging.
Have any of you had similar experiences with this stuff? Any other feedback on this stuff? Save it? Burn it? Turn it? Stick with eels?

[numbskull]

Don't know my firs and spruces. Used to turn bluefish plugs from 2x4's and they seemed OK by me. Any wood with a lot of resin that hardens the grain lines tends to deflect your drill (Southern yellow pine is real bad). You could try drilling your through hole on a drill press before you start turning.

[Back Beach]

The neat thing about this stuff is its got lazer straight grain, which causes the lure body to parallel with the water, so cutting lip slots and hydro testing was quite simple. I'm a bit concerned with the brittle nature of the wood due to the fact I placed a piece in the water(unsealed) very briefly to orient it and it cracked around the hook hanger holes. Its bouyancy seems to be somewhere between AYC and pine.

[O.D. Mike]

Back Beach,

I was at a customers house down the cape last year and I went to throw some trash away and there was a full bucket of scrap wood. He let me take whatever I wanted....

So, I turned him a stubby pencil, he told me, "I will fish the canal with it". Later that year I needed to go back and there it was on the wall. I asked him how it casted and he said he would never cast it and it belongs on the wall....

Sorry about the pic, could be better....

Mike

[go4broke44]

I use those same douglas fir ballusters quite regularly.

I agree, it can be a real pain to through-drill with the hardness of the resin lines in the wood, I try to pick through the pile and grab the pieces with the smallest grain lines, I feel they machine the best.

The stuff is also a little harder than AYC, and seems to dull the tools faster, although I think thats partially them getting gummed up with the resin too.

Makes great plugs though, I fish mine in the canal a lot. Never had any issues with cracking, etc. - maybe you had a bad piece?

The one thing I really dislike about it though is that the density is not very consistant. You could have one balluster that weighs maybe 1lb, and the next one weighs like 5!

[Back Beach]

Originally Posted by go4broke44

I use those same douglas fir ballusters quite regularly.

I agree, it can be a real pain to through-drill with the hardness of the resin lines in the wood, I try to pick through the pile and grab the pieces with the smallest grain lines, I feel they machine the best.

The stuff is also a little harder than AYC, and seems to dull the tools faster, although I think thats partially them getting gummed up with the resin too.

Makes great plugs though, I fish mine in the canal a lot. Never had any issues with cracking, etc. - maybe you had a bad piece?

The one thing I really dislike about it though is that the density is not very consistant. You could have one balluster that weighs maybe 1lb, and the next one weighs like 5!

Thanks, I noticed a lot of the same things, particularly the variation in weight, as well as the grain line diameters. Not sure why one of the bodies cracked, but its the only one in about 10 so far.
Also, the plug body feels ribbed after you sand it down a lot due the variation in density.

[Back Beach]

These plugs weighed in around 2.125 for the small one and 2.625 for the large. Small one gets a pikie 2 and large gets a pikie 3. Just pulled them both off the drying rack after 2 days and they look very good. Finished weights should be 2.5 oz for the small and 3oz for the large. Both get .250 belly weights.

[Back Beach]

This is the one that cracked around the holes, but it seems to be a superficial crack. Just to be safe, I'll keep this one in my bag once finished.