Hi everyone. Just asking for a little input. I don't normally mount fish on panels, but will if customers insist. As you can guess, I always run into the problem of the inside fins hitting the panel. In the past, I cut a piece of oak, stained it, and used it as a spacer between the fish and the panel. Does anyone have a better method?(other than telling the customer no way!)
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? Pectoral and pelvic fins?
How about postioning the fins accordingly if you know the fish will be on a flat panel?
I did position them to minimize contact, but it was pretty much impossible to eliminate contact altogether, at least with the fish directly to the panel. If I eliminated contact altogther, the fins would be in an odd looking position.
Mount Mate 3-D Hangers
$2.99
Item no : 01001009
1 3/8" x Length - 2 1/8" Sold each:
These Mount Mate 3D hangers are designed to set the fish out away from the wall, so that the fins can be extended in the natural swimming position. Attach the hanger to the fish using the appropriate length screws, and then hang. The soft rubber footpads on the hanger stop the mount from twisting, and the saw tooth hanger makes balancing a breeze.
He was talking about screwing them to a panel.
Mouty if I was going to mount on a panel I would lay the wall side pec fat agains teh fish and put the pelvics underneath the fish in a relaxed postion.
3-d mount mate is your answer. Do not smash fins against a "plaque."
Not only old school...it is anatomically messed up.
I always use 1/4" wood dowels. Just place dowels on wood where you need them and cut them off at the length that will accomodate the size fish you are working on. Place a drop of paint on the ends of the dowels and lay the back of the fish on these pegs(dowels) which will leave a mark on the back of mount to show where you need to drill your holes. Place hot glue in holes and slide your mount on. Viola! Cheap, stable,quick and easily removed if a different scenery is wanted at a later date. Been doing them this way for a LONG time without problem and infact ship many fish this way, only without the fish actually on the scenery and the customer completes placement and the hot glueing when they receive the mount. I do this to accomodate the size box I ship the mount and wood in. Hope this makes sense. Good luck!PS, really big fish may need thicker dowels.PSS. My philosophy is to always find good products or materials LOCALLY rather than send away for specialty products.
I've done the dowel thing too.
Dennis, so you're saying hang a fish on the panel with the 3d hanger and then hang the panel on the wall? That not only sounds redundant but it's a great way to have the fish fall off the panel by a careless customer. I'll go with Marc's idea that is more permanent as I know how careless customers can be.
And yes I have used the 3d hangers on many occasions but not on a panel.
Old School? Don't underestimate this "old school" taxidermist. He may show up at your state show some day and blow you away.
...You already solved the problem. The spacer works just fine. I've always done it that way. It's more secure than dowels and requires very little extra work.
If I don't use a panel or driftwood I make a "bracket" with a 1x4 (or 6 depending on the size of the fish) and then a 2x2 in front of that to space the fish away from the home made bracket. An eye hook is used to hang for everything except the panels. I've tried the 3d brackets and I don't like them. I get more surface area against the wall with a 1 by vs. those three balance points. I've used them twice and one of my customers came back because his fish flipped off the wall! (probably my customer's fault, but I have a 100% track record with my home made brackets). With half of my fish flipping off of the wall with the 3d brackets, (I suppose the repair work is nice but) I'd rather stick with my 100% track record with my home made brackets. Oh btw, dowels are also used in the home made brackets.
OF, if you use the correct diameter dowels for the size fish you're hanging, that fish ain't going anywhere.
Why do you say "more secure than dowels"? Has that method not worked for you? I have not ONCE in my tenure as a taxidermist had this system fail or give me trouble. Not that the spacer you are using doesn't do the job equally well but, to say more secure sounds like you've tried it and had trouble? I think "maybe" if my method was submitted by a more well known or should I say, well liked perticipant in this forum, no questions on it would have been brought up. LOL, just my thoughts which I need to start keeping to myself. LOL
for some reason I too have had customer fish come off the wall with the 3d hangers. I guess they're not idiot proof enough. One thing I've learned with customers -- they do some pretty dumb stuff. LOL
Hey mate, not calling you old school, just the method of laying a fish on a plaque with the fins smashed parallel against the surface. I see them all the time in bars throughout Wisconsin. I am sure the dowels and other methods work well. I like the 3-D mounts for their speed, and in "wall pedestal" scenes, fish can be positioned wherever you want. Customer can change their mind, move them around, etc.Plus, they are shiny and pretty!
...where a fairly popular taxidermist in my area (whom thinks his work is the bomb) mounted the fish on the driftwood, THEN attached a 3D hanger to the back - LOL! My customer also gave me another bass he recently caught that he wants added to the driftwood with the other LM. The "restoration job" is really only some fin repair and touch-up of whites. Otherwise, the paint job looks like crap. I'm torn on what to do at this point. My work certainly isn't "the bomb", but it's going to look REALLY good next to this other one. OR, the whole mount collectively is going to look really stupid. I'm kinda torn right now on whether or not I should contact my customer prior to putting my mount next to this other one. OR, just doing it and see what he says. I honestly think it's going to look stupid, so I think I may call him and discuss the matter. Anybody else ever have this predicament?
It's just that oneupmanship is so common on this site it looked like another example of it. I'll try not to be so touchy in the future.
I've had fish on dowels/pins come loose. Not so much that they've come off the panels, but they've been loose. Even when the holes were hot glued. We were using the dowel/pin method back in the mid 70's and it still works. I just like the solid spacer better and feel that can't come loose and the dowels can't get pushed through the front side of the fish. I saw that done once by one of the "new" guys in the shop. The boss "asked" him NOT to come back the next day! LOL With the solid spacer those problems aren't going to happen.
I always cut the points off the dowels and I triple check my clearance via my eyeballs, but I could see how a beginner could plow a dowel right through! Pretty funny.
I still can't see how the dowels came loose on you. But I suppose (in a panel especially where you only have 3/4" or so of depth to sink a dowel vs. the nice depth of the d-wood) it could happen. It's never happened to me but I tend to overbuild things considerably. I usually sink 3 dowels and sometimes four or five on a really big fish like a musky. I'll use 1/2" dowels on bigger fish too. And if folks are doing their mounts properly, there shouldn't be a whole heck of a lot of weight to support either - even on a big musky skin mount. If I think it's an issue, I'll also put a spacer on the panel as well for extra "grabbage". So I do a little of both sometimes. But those 3d hangers - I still have a half dozen or so collecting dust in a drawer!
Dennis - shouldn't you be doing fish instead of hanging out in all them Wisconsin bars? (LOL)
Cecil, hopefully this is considered a "debate" and not "oneupmanship" as you call it. But I REALLY don't like that term/answer you consistently throw around. All of these websites with messageboards are places for folks to throw in their opinions. Manytimes a response warrants another response because there needs to be some clarity on what people are saying. It seems that whenever somebody disagrees with you and they may get a little "touchy" with their response that you throw in the "oneupmanship" towel! It's sort've like a kid taking their basketball away because they don't like the way the other kids are playing. The "oneupmanship" response in my opinion is a cop out when you've run out of answers to continue the debate...
When someone disagrees and uses the phrase for what I do as " Not only old school...it is anatomically messed up" the way I understand it he is saying what I am doing is just that.
You don't think there is any oneupmanship and egos trashing each other on here? Are we on the same site?
If you haven't noticed in the Current Events category whatever I post I'm dished as "stupid" or "you're an ass" by Charlie and Brad or Charlie and this site is replete with trollers waiting to pounce on people.
And I see now whether it's deserved or not the trashing of this Rasmussen kid is one of the fastest growing sports on this site. Ken must be sitting back and entertaining himself about it. I hope he doesn't get too smug about it as some day a serious contender will start a Forum website that has more options and is civil, that could leave this site in the dust.
I re-read Dennis's original comment and I didn't extrapulate any slam whatsoever towards you (which I think you admitted?) I haven't been following things much lately as I've been busy with work (imagine that eh?) So maybe you two have had the gloves on or something? If not, then I wouldn't consider that comment a "dig" by any means.
And then what's with the I'm going to kick your doopah in competition comment? Seems a bit insecure to me (respectful opinion of course - lol!)