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The topic of the post is "How much would be too much?" the actual post ended with "How much would you pay?" when you knew from the begining you have to have $600 per unit and sell $180,000 worth to make your investment worth while. I think if you would've stated this in the begining you would have gotten better responces. The idea is new for the smaller folks but all of your large production machines not only circulate material from bottom to top but it also stirs it at the same time. I can do the same thing as this machine and produce 40 baits every 2 minutes (demolded) and all I do is mash a button. I'm all open for new products, there is one or two new machines premireing at Icast this year, but when you say you have something that is the best and produces the best product, from a manufactorer's point of view you should have some visual details about the product. Sounds like this gentleman is very inovative and at the start of a very good idea and I think there has been some very good comments made in this thread but I think a lot of it has been taken as critism when it should be looked at as consumer advice Camrynekai, sounds to me like you're on your way. For 600 bucks you know your consumers want something that can produce a large amount of baits to help pay for itself, but you've got to be open minded when you say you have something new. I'm glad you posted this thread there is alot of skilled guys on here and even though there were probably some things said that you didnt like you did hear what the need of the consumer was. Use your inovvation and your skills to fill these needs, don't just say "I don't like what i read" and stop your development of something new but take it all in with an open mind and fill the nich. This is how small companies turn into large companies.

Hi , folks , Just made a little video tonite displaying my latest lure construction , still in a blank condition , though , ...... probably one or the other fellow carver in here could take advantage or gain some input from my work ! Constantly carving and turning new blanks these days , wonder when I'd ever get to feel like finally painting them ! greetz , diemai

Good to see you here!Richard

X2

I agree with Ben. Use mylar. If you want to preserve the originals scan them, print them, and then do the tracing and cutting from those. OR...post them and I'll print them LOL! G

Nicely said CarolinaMike!!

@ littleriver Thanks for your interest in my video , Vic , ........in fact all of the spinners shown are homemade ones , except the ones at 1:06 and the two "ABU's" at 1:21 , ...........the ones shown at 1:06 are my favourite commercial spinners back from the time , that I've started to fish back during the late 1980's and early 90's , ......named "Balzer Colonel" . This German brand used to be a bit cheaper than my other favourites "Mepps" and "Blue Fox" and the "Colonels" did perform and used to catch pretty well , too . The lower ABU weight-forward spinner at 1:21 is the famous "Abu Mörrum"(named after a famous Swedish salmon river) , originally designed for strong river currents it also made it's way into the tackleboxes of stillwater anglers to be fished real deep and jigged along drop-offs or underwater structures , ......IMO it's the best weight-forward ever made ,......... despite the kinda small blade it's said to be able to catch even bigger fish . That squid spinner at 0:37 is a homemade one , ....also shown later in the video with some lookalikes . These kinda spinners are quite easy to make , just put a matching olive or teardrop inline sinker in the squid's head , you'd also need two small metal beads and a piece of cable insulation tube as a spacer towards the hook eye . The blades are homemade of 0,5mm stainless steel , ........there is another picture compilation on my YouTube channel displaying how to shape such blades . At 6:11 there are two special versions of squid spinners shown ,....... these rather have a bigger plastic bead and a very light sinker in the squid's head(only somewhat around 1/10 ounce) and an integrated anti-twist leader , rigged with commercial colorado blades in this case , .........these lures were first designed by Belgian or Dutch anglers to be fished in the shallow drains and ditches of the Netherlands , ....but naturally they work over here in local drainage ditches of the north German marsh lands as well , .......due to a lot of air resistance and lack of weight very poor to cast(ditches and drains are only a few yards wide and just up to 5 feet deep , often even less) ,...... spinning gear essential , ......but run very shallow even on slowest retrieve paces , just perfect for the job . As far as I'm concerned , there are no spinners with ammo casing bodies shown in this video , .......the ones , you must be refering to , have bodies of metal tubing cast out with molten lead . But I've made ammo casing spinners before : http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/5429-early-career-inline-spinners/ These large ones turned out a bit too heavy ,........ I've also made smaller ones out of special blank pistol casings ("8 mm knall") available over here , ........matched with blades size 3 these made up for perfectly balanced spinners . Concerning the banana lures , ........it was not easy to get these to work properly in the end , but finally I got behind their dynamics after having produced quite a few rejects . The linseed oil method really takes away some buoyancy off the timber material , but this strongly depends on the kind of wood as well , ......I'm only using this sealing method for abache wood exclusively nowadays , ...made bad experiences with other timbers , either it turned out too heavy afterwards or the oil reacted with containing raisins in the wood affecting the later paintjobs . In future I will definately prime linseedoil-treated blanks with epoxy topcoat prior to painting , ..seems to be the only reliable way to prevent the oil from "sweating out" some day to yellow or even spoil the paint jobs as it happened to some , ....though not all , .....of my baits made this way ! But these lures in the pictures also have very heavy hardware assembled("figure 8" wire forms epoxied into bores and crosswise pinned , ...no screw eyes) , but all in all abache wood works well for such baits , especially around the 3" to 3 1/2" sizes , ....only requires a little belly ballast somewhere between tow eye position and belly hook hanger , .......rather more to stabilize it's swimming action . I'm just busy these days making a few different banana baits out of PVC , .....these have to be overloaded with ballast , as the material is so buoyant , ...but first blank bath tub tests looked promising . greetz , Dieter

Hi , folks , Here's another little picture compilation on how I do my own spinnerblades out of stainless steel sheet(please also read my YouTube describtion) . Another video on making spinnerbodies from round brass dowel will follow soon . Any further questions will be answered here , ........greetz , diemai

As promised , ......here ist the second video displaying how I make spinnerbodies out of round brass dowels , ....sorry about some pictures turned out of focus , hope that they are still recognizeable . Please also read my further describtions on YouTube , .......any upcoming questions will be gladly answered , .... greetz , diemai

Hi , folks , Some years ago a friend lend me a strange little American topwater lure and I made a few knock-offs for myself , ..........gave one away recently and up to this year's predator's season the remaining two lures on the first picture where dumped into my basements storage boxes for years . But now I've fished them quite a bit these days , .......had a few missed strikes of pike on them and I'm fully convinced and pretty much amazed about their ability to be cast and worked through pad fields and even trough waterweed already breaking through the surface , .........all with only few times snagging up pads or catching loose weed strunks on the surface . Now I'm bound to do some more lures of this kind , but my own designs for this time ,..... but all utilizing the same principle , ........at rest they would hang about 30° to 45° tail down and be able to be tossed over the pads with the hook still pointing upward , ..........even if only little action can be generated with rodtip manipulation , the ondulating skirt obviously does it's share to attract fish . To get some more of noise out of such lures , I designed and carved this "PoppingPadFrog" yesterday , .......it will be also trimmed to hang tail down with it's face indention still remaining above the water's surface . The long-shanked spinnerbait trailerhook will be cast into it's accommodating groove with epoxy glue , ....also the line tie screw eye will be epoxied . After having the lighter abachi wood sealed , a belly weight will be set in at the right location to achieve the desired swimming position and a nice casting performance , ............the so-called "quick skirt" also does it's share to enhance real far casts , as it folds back around the lure body to create a truly streamlined "projectile" , ...........when in the water , the skirt rather acts a little like a jellyfish ,..... pulsating on the slightest moves of the lurebody ! This "PoppingPadFrog" blank dimensions are about 28 X 25 X 67 millimetres(W x H x L) excluding the little round extension for the skirt , .........just thought to post this blank design in here to probably provide some input to fellow carvers and also possibly get some hints for improvement , if neccessary , ...........so well , ...... all questions and comments welcome ! greetz , diemai

Thanks so much for your interest in my work and your kind words , fellas , ......I appreciate it verry much ! On Friday at work I've had another idea on how to furnish sucha plug with shifting internal weights and instantly put it to practise Saturday afternoon , ........here is the outcome : To me it seems that this one here is a tad easier to furnish , as drilling centered holes and turning down closure plugs is easier than furnishing a reasonably accurate deep groove and a matching closure piece . Really looking forward to the first bathtub swim test of these pike plugs , ...........if successful , I'd surely do some other variations , ...only lack enough time for painting all of my blanks ! greetz , diemai

@ Gar-Tracker Thanks a lot , ......Off course I've designed these lures mainly to slide over lily pads , thicker waterweeds would surely take them to their limits as well . @ all By now I've carved two more blanks , and these are gonna be the last ones so far , ....actually I ran out of ideas about what else to try . First one is really a bit chunky , but I need added buoancy to keep the lure afloat and still be able to trim it to proper tail-down swimming position(if it would even be possible ) . It is a lure with an interior paddle wheel , that I have made from 10 X 10 millimeters aluminium square tubing . The groove to accommodate that wheel I've cut out on my hobby routing machine while the blank was still in it's block shape , ...I've carved the blank around that groove , so to speak ! The axis of the wheel consists of 1,5mm SST welding wire , it's bearings are small pieces of brass tubing 3,0mm X 2,0mm(bore) , ..........after painting and topcoating it will be assembled and secured by two pieces of electric cable insulation firmly pushed over either end of the axis , ....countersunks on either side of the blank allow for enough space for these tubing pieces , ....the bond could be disassembled again any time in case of maintainance required . A small piece of 1,0mm SSt welding wire makes up for the roughly "W"-shaped line tie , gonna be pushed into position from the inside of the paddlewheel groove and later epoxied . Second blank is a prop lure , .........I'm also a bit anxious , whether I'd be able to trim the lure properly to achieve the required tail-down swimming position and still have it flip over incase it would land on its back after casting . Note the shop-bought prop , .......I've tuned its tips to get it to spin much easier , .........also I have souped it up with a little bearing made of a 3,0mm pop rivet . Don't like these narrow props that much , as they do not get to spin that easy , .....but with these little modifications they'll do fine ! greetz , diemai

Thanks a lot , mate , ....here are two more(one is not weedless) , .......this blank carving just helps me to pass through my boring lateshifts easier ! First one is of the same kind like the blanks above , I even added a small nose indention for popping sound , made with a "Dremel" oval router bit . This lure supposed to resemble a small minnow swimming on it's side , ....gonna paint it in a natural fish pattern and attach a red/black skirt later . The second non-weedless blank is a version of the old "Shakespeare Baby Popper" , .......a bit of a unique lure , because different to "ordinary" popper lures it hangs on the surface vertically , only the nose sticking out . Because of this the lure can be worked "on the spot" , with little flicks from the wrist it can be used to tease a located fish to strike or to thoroughly work it at likely holding spots , ..........it would just remain at the face of the pike for a longer time . The blank is about 3" long , .......I hope , that the long rear screw eye , the big hook and the homemade brass bush for skirt attachement would provide enough weight to allow for proper vertical swimming position . The brass bush was cut off from round brass rod , drilled through in a machine vise on my drill press and turned down to proper diameter on my lathe(it's motor has a chuck) by filing and sanding , .......no milling machine neccessary . Since there is not much space to add more ballast in the tail , I'd have to wrap some solder wire around the hook shank , if I should really need more ballast . Started out working on another weedless lure yesterday , ....also same weedless design as above with a rigid hook attached , .......but I wanna try to assemble a small prop in front in a way , that the lure would still be able to be tossed over the pads , ...........difficulty is rather more to get such lure to flip over to correct swimming position aftercasting due to the added weight of the prop , .........but I shall see , ....gonna keep you updated . greetz , diemai