DIY DR Weight Designers Needed

[SuperD]

I've embarked on building some DR weights for next salmon season and I know there are some good minds here. Rather than going the rebar or pipe route, I thought I could smarter and more stubborn by going with a steel plate design. I picked up some 3/4" X 8" X 10" slabs that weigh right around 15 lbs. as a flat plate or pancake, I was hoping it would track straight. I've got a bunch of other armchair engineers shaking their head at me. What do you guys have to contribute to experience or design changes?

 

[dragonfly]

dave I built some of those out of ss a few years ago to see how they would work mine were in the 10 lb range I milled a sharp edge on the leading edge and milled the top and the back down about 3/8 of an inch in and about 3/16 wide and drilled 1/8 inch holes all around the top and end so I could insert split rings to find the best place to hook things up and for me it was just foward of center on the top and in the middle or above on the rear depending on the size of the rig I was draging. the disadvantages were on lakes with cross currents or when trolling above 2 mph they did want want to swing it wasn't real bad and they did hang pretty streight at 75 to 125 where I fish, but they did sway but the biggest problem was with the sonar because of there mass there were huge lines on the screen hope this helps narrow your curve dfly

 

[ctkid]

i saw a cool video on you tube where gary coe had made a stainless DR weight out of a rod. he runs it right near the bottom and it doesn't even hook up. you can get right on the bottom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9eGmpJJUN8

 

[ctkid]

watch the video at around 10:35 on the time. you'll see the set up.

 

[sawtooth]

Super D, I fish for salmon in BC every year and I have noticed I have a lot more problems with the currents on the east side of Vancouver Island moving my 15 lb. pancake weights around as compared to my cannonball weights. If you are fishing in an area with alot of current, I feel a flat plate will really have problems not tangling your downriggers when you make a turn in strong current. I prefer the pancakes at the lake, but not in strong ocean current. Just my 2 cents.

 

[SuperD]

I ran these in a lake environment this last Friday and couldn't have been more happy. They are SS pipe filled with lead, capped and powder coated with glow in the dark finish coat. They tracked wonderfully and had very little to no blow back.

 

[sawtooth]

They look great. What do they weigh? Did you fill them with bird shot or pour in hot lead?

 

[DLM]

Those look nice, I have been thinking about the same kind of thing, only using pvc pipe and 10lbs of lead shot.

 

[SuperD]

They were poured with hot lead and weigh just under 8 lbs. Dave, my only concern about PVC would be if it gets brittle and breaks open.

 

[lowe1648mt]

I used lengths of propellor shaft 2 1/2" in diameter. They feel about the same weight as my 8 lb. cannon balls. However they have about 1/2 the blow back when set at the same depth. Bought the pieces at scrap prices and had a machine shop cut them. They are hard to cut because it is hardened S.S. They hang on S.S wire . No problems with differing metals.
Easy to test if you have 2 downriggers. Next time I will have the machine shop drill and tap the slugs for me. S.S. eye bolts with 10/24 threads were not hard to find. They are loctited in place.