Step One
From a bait shop I purchased some pencil sinkers in the 4oz. to 6 oz. size, and a few 1 and 2oz sinkers for fine tune balancing of the decoy.
Drill holes in the keel setting the depth gage on the drill press so you don’t drill through the keel. I usually start by drilling holes forward for Marsh ducks as they tend to rude the water chest down. For divers I start drilling holes in the middle of the keel. In this case the sinkers I bought fit into a ½ inch Dia. Hole.
Step Two
Put the sinker into the hole and mark with a pencil
Step Three
With a hacksaw cut the sinker to size. Cut just below you pencil mark so the lead weight rides below the wood.
Step Four
Attach the keel and test float the decoy to make sure it self rights. With the self righting achieved look to see how the decoy rides in the water. First check front to back. If you need to adjust the weight you can move the weights by drilling another hole and moving the lead, or add more weight if needed to achieve the front to back proper flotation. Then check side to side. If you need to add weight to one side to balance out the decoy, here is what I do. I first take the smallest sinker and tape it to the decoy opposite the low side and near the edge. If there’s too much weight I cut a little piece off using side-cutters (start by cutting of the swivel). Then test float the decoy again. If you should need more weight then go to the next largest sinker. When you have found the size weight you need drill a hole into the decoy near the edge, insert the lead, and seal the hole with tough carve, or epoxy. When the filler has hardened sand, seal, and paint the bottom of the decoy. The final step is to attach the decoy using two zinc plated decking screws.