Yet another fish trap

[JohnK]

Here's a few pics of a fish trap build I just finished. It's not a perfect example of clean acrylic work, but it's %100 functional and an easy project for someone wanting to learn to acrylic work.

This might be a little hard to follow from the pics, but feel free to ask any questions. Basically it's a small acrylic box, with a sliding trap door on top that can be closed by pulling on a fishing line. This is a smaller version of an older trap I made that has caught all of my fish when I needed to treat for ick a couple of yrs ago, and has also caught numerous other hard to catch fish (I've loaned it out to a bunch of people).



First pic, acrylic box with top and bottom attached. Edges not yet routed off. The hole in the top was cut by clamping the top sheet onto a 2x4" jig and then cut out with a flush cut router bit.

 

[JohnK]

Another angle of the same phase of the build

 

[bluehd60]

what did you use to cut the pieces of acrylic?

 

[JohnK]

Next step, cover holder attached on one side, the other holder seen sitting across the top of the trap. Edges routed flush.

The cover holders are cut out of 1/2" acrylic, Used an edge guide and a 1/2" straight cut router bit to cut out a slot little wider than 1/4" to fit the trap door. Once the slot was cut out, the holders were cut off the sheet on a table saw, leaving a long L shaped part. (see pic if this doesn't make sense)

 

[JohnK]

Top veiw of the cross part that will hold the fishing line so it will pull the trap door shut.

 

[JohnK]

Another angle on the same part. Hopefully this one makes sense to look at. It's a 3/8" thick peice with a small hole drilled in the center, then slipped in between the rails, attached, then a 1/4" strip attached above it to ensure strength.

 

[JohnK]

One more angle since that part was hard to explain...

 

[JohnK]

Basically done, trap door in place for test fitting

 

[JohnK]

Trap door closed

 

[JohnK]

All the parts were cut out on a table saw. This is the rough way to do it, but is way easy and quick for a project that needs to be functional but not "musem quality".

The hole in the top and all the edge trimming is done with a router with a flush cut bit. This is the better way to cut acrylic for quality work.

 

[JohnK]

Most of the paper removed, note quarter for size reference.

 

[JohnK]

Ready to go. Note fishing line.

 

[JohnK]

Pull the fishing line....

 

[JohnK]

And with the door shut all the way.

 

[customclimates]

That is one sweet trap! Nice job Jk

 

[JohnK]

Thanks Scott, glad you like it.

FWIW there is a tube of weld-on #16 visable in some of the pics. I did not use that for this project, it's all done with #4. Weld-on #4 is much better for almost any acrylic build. The #16 is better for repairs and odd jobs, but not the solvent of choice for a scratch build.

 

[bfree]

Very kool JK, cant wait to get you to visit my ghetto set-up. Call me in the morning or now if you get this tonight, I have some interesting news you may like.

 

[Leroy]

Nice job on your craftsmanship with the router. Always good to see there's more than one way to build a better fish trap. Building is the easy part, tough part is catching that one PITA wrasse which is the only smart fish that won't feed in the trap. Put some beer on ice beside you, pull up a comfortable seat and go fishing. The fish goes in the trap to feed when you go for a bathroom break after all the beers you've drunk.

 

[JohnK]

For posterity, here's my other two traps. I'm posting this since people often ask to borrow them, so I figured this thread would be easy to refer to for size and shape questions.

*The DIY I made in this thread is no longer in my poessesition, it was for someone else (I'm not making these in mass, it was a one off project).*

PICS-
The big one is a very ugly DIY, but it works. The round one is a 3" ultralife store bought trap.

Big trap is 15"(open, 10" closed) X 5" X 9". The opening is 3.5" X 6.25".

Small trap is 9" X 4.75" X 9" (open, 5" closed).

Pic includes a dollar bill and a 16" ruler for reference.

 

[JohnK]

better pic of the big ugly one.