Leaderboard

The storage issues always held me back from trying the original DN. It sounded like the perfect topcoat, except for those issues. I have tried to simplify my building and painting processes over the years, because, while I love building and painting, I'd rather be fishing. If you're just a hobby builder, like me, and want something easy that works, PM me and I'll tell you what I use. I did make jointed swimbaits for sale for a while, and they are still swimming with no paint issues.

I can email you a CAD file of a lure body solid. Here is a list of file types that I can save to: catpart, stl, igs, model, stp, 3dmap, cgr, hcg, vps, wrl. I can make the model any size you want, just let me know. I have included a side and end view. No charge, Just pm your email addy. Dave

Took a chance today and put this particular hinge design to a test ! Still could not find suitable tubing , so I just utilized stripes of 0,5 mm stainless steel sheet ,...... the principle remains the same , anyway . The total swing of all sections scratches 90° like this , still have to take some material away from the male parts to achieve a slightly larger gap , then it should be OK , even after painting and topcoating ! The brass tubings still have to be trimmed to suitable lengths , they act as bearing bushes and to seal off the hinge bores against water sepage . I will have to epoxy them into the bores caring about accurate fit and location vertically , as they also act as spacers for the hinge sleeve , a vertical bearing surface and also set the proper vertical position of the segments against one another to maintain smooth outline transitions at back and belly . I will squeeze the bottom ends of the belly tubings closed before glueing them in , ........this way the hinge pin can't slide out at belly side anymore , ...........after the final assembly I would just secure the top end of the hinge pins with a drop of glue , ....leave a small countersunk at the back exit of the hinge pin bores for that purpose . I will also drill one or two little crosswise holes into the sheet metal connectors , so that the epoxy glue will bond them more reliable into their slots , .....the crosswise wire pins shoud assure the possibly strongest bond . Hope , that you can figure out by my pictures , ........could not take the 90° total swing of all sections , all parts are still loose , it would have fallen apart on one single improper move ! greetz , diemai

Hi , folks , Being inspired by TU and by all of the great fella's in here , I've been tinkering with a few swimbait designs during the past months(or even more than a year ?) . Always on the quest for the possibly easiest , fastest and most reliable way of joining wooden swimbait sections , .......also a lot of ideas were put up in here by other fellow members , ....just a great community ! Anyway , the last idea posted in here , that I can think of , was utilizing double leader sleeves as a joining part , and that is the basic of the construction , that I have thought of right now . My idea is to make the joining parts inbetween the single swimbait sections out of round metal tubing , that is simply squeezed flat in a vise , leaving an open sleeve end for the later connecting hinge pin to pass through . The flat side of the squeezed tubing piece would be epoxied into a centered slot in the male part of the joint , additionally secured by a crosswise wire pin , ......the sleeve end of it would reach into a sufficiently large and wide pouch cut centered into the female portion of the joint . The required slots and pouches could easily be furnished with a "Dremel" and it's different small drill and router bits . Like on my previous swimbait(also shown on the picture) I would glue in small pop rivet heads into the hinge pin bores to act as bearings , spacers and seal off against water sepage(check image , I've laid them in about the position they would be glued in later) . One would have to take care about making the pouches in the female side large enough for the joint to still move freely after topcoating as well . If the body width of the bait is still thick enough at the female front parts , these pouches would probably not show too much , ......only if the flanks do taper down the tail a kinda gap would probably appear , as the material is not thick enough anmore to cut a "hidden" pouch still providing sufficient sideward play of the joint . I intend to round off both opposing section ends a bit , so that they are able to pivot against one another without binding , ....maybe it would even be enough to round off only one side .......I shall see ? On the pictures you can see the original sketch copy of the finished bait already glued on a teakwood kitchen board , I have marked the intended separation lines with a felt marker . The front hinge piece is made from stainless steel tubing 12mm X 1mm (12millimetres dia. and 1mm wall thickness) , the one in center from 10 X 1 aluminium and the rear piece from 8 x 0,6 brass tubing , ..............these are all tubings , that I could find down the workshop so far ! Just did some testing today to see whether shaping the tubing pieces would cause any difficulties , ...but it really doesn't ! Just cut required length off and squeeze it in a vise to an elongated shape , ........now put a round dowel(drill bit shaft or nail) into one inside end of the oval , leave that end a bit protruding over the vises edge and squeeze real tight finally , .........the dowel inside of the protruding end would keep a sleeve open , you might only have to pull it out with pliers afterwards . Naturally that dowel has to be a bit thicker than your intended hinge pin diameter , in this case I used a 2 mm bit shaft and I am gonna take 1,5 mm wire pins to connect the lure sections later . The stainless steel tubing would surely hold up against any fish , but it is real heavy stuff , ........and not easily accessible to me ,...... found a piece accidentally on the scrapyard of my work . The center aluminium tubing might probably be too weak , as after bending it to shape it is obvious , that the material's structure has already been disturbed at the tightest curves , ........don't trust on it too much ! The brass tubing does not show signs of wear and tear like the aluminium one , but it is too thin , ....I need it with a thicker wall of 1 mm as well , so I guess , that this would be the one to go for , ......it is not quite as heavy as steel and also easy accessible over here ,....... almost every tool mart stocks brass tubing . Also I think , that I would need a larger tube diameter than just 12 mm , maybe 14 mm or even 16 mm , so that these connecting hinge parts would turn out a little longer , so that they could be anchored a bit more sturdy into the wood . Well , just my thoughts so far , .........I am quite confident , that this design would work out , ........what do you think about it ???? greetz , diemai

@ jamie I haven't forgotten about my promise making a homemade spoons video , .............only took some time , .......it's never too late , though ! So here it is , sadly still of minor quality , .....just bought myself a little video camera , being an absolut computer dummy I've had a tough time getting all of the originally twelve video sequences from the camera together to make up for two clips and finally submit them onto "YouTube" . Maybe also my PC memory capacity is too small , don't now , .........tried to utilize "pinnacle3"(a download from a friend) , but I could not get my camera uploads into that program to work on them , so I've tried my old "picasa3" , and I finally got it done , though dead slow ! I don't know , why sometimes the pixels run wild in that video , .....maybe next time I should do the filming with less pixel setting on the camera ? Anyway , at least something is visible , .....and in general the picture focus quality is a bit better as on my older videos taken with my simple foto camera . Hopefully I would be able to learn a bit more about all of these things to be able to produce better lure videos in future . greetz , Dieter