well when you don’t succeed the first time, you must try and try again. that’s half the fun. after the feedback I got from my buddy testing the first version, i went back to the drawing board. the positives were the size of the basket was good, adjustable flat bungee worked good, depth of the basket was good, spikes were a little too tall and the grooves on the hex bolts impeded the shooting line by causing too much tension. so, went looking for an alternative that would be slick and sturdy, and by luck found some cheap plastic paint brushes for applying rod wrapping epoxy. they were inexpensive, slick, the perfect diameter and tapered. I just measured them out to a little over 4 inches tall and hack sawed them. then i drilled a thin hole on the underside and found picture hanger loop screws that were thin enough to screw into the bottom of the bucket and through the plastic brush. I bought some plastic epoxy for adhering the hooks into the bottom of the bucket. now I have sturdy plastic spikes that should do the trick. back in the game with a bad ass stripping basket for under $20.
PS: the first version isn’t going to waste. i found hex bolts that had partial threads that i hacked saw off so they are smooth as a babies butt and shouldn’t slow down the running line from shooting out. I will epoxy these into the version one and they should work just fine.