Tenterfield Tow Wires.

G'day all.

I've been busily testing?tuning lures for the last couple of days while house sitting a mates place with a huge test tank pool.  I've been running amok since I started this caper again and had about 50 to play with!

Quite happy with a lot of the stuff I've been playing with but some of the deep divers have been giving me grief trying to get them tuned. 

While I was sitting out there contemplating the whole thing it struck me that the fiddling with tow points might be made easier if I used a Tenterfield setup.

So, the wire was removed from one of the biggest PITA deep runners and I bodged up a rough  Tenterfield setup from some soft wire I had with me. A bit of fiddling, a bit of a tweak and bend and the bloody thing magically behaved itself and did so consistently!

So, this raises a couple of questions.

Firstly, am I right in thinking that the main purpose of the T setup is ease of tuning, or was my little experiment a fluke? 

Second, I much prefer Lexan bibs because I reckon overall profile size is important in a lot of what I do.  Is there a recommended way of making a Tenterfield setup with Lexan, given that soldering may end in tears? 

Cheers
Slothy

Darby wrote: There shouldn't be a hassle with soldering around true lexan/polycarb. mabye cover the bib with masking tape to keep it safe from drips, and if you hold the tow with pliers across the loop, above the bib, they should act as a heat sink and keep any heat transferance deforming the tow holes. Commonly available solder melts at these temps, The higher the lead content (the last 1/2), the higher the melt point. 60/40: melts between 183–190 °C 50/50: melts between 183–215 °C Polycarbonate has a crystaline transition stage of about 147 °C, so it softens gradually above this point and flows above about 155 °C. Cheers

Thanks for that Darby, I'll give the soldered type a try when I get back home.