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Today I made my 16 year old kid sit down with the fluid bed from TJ's, 5 of TJ's removable cups, and 5 jars of 2 oz Pro-Tec powder paint. I told him to make it work and show me each color when he had it right. He got all five colors working great. He took the full TJ's cups and dumped each back into it's original Pro-Tec jar. He then took one color at a time and added powder to to the cup a little at a time and played with the air until he got it fluid. The trick for him was to add about 1 oz. to the TJ's 2" diameter cup. He showed me every color and they were all fluid. If you tipped the cup to side it was as fluid as a liquid. Took him about half a hour and when he was done, he asked me if there was anything else I needed him to do. If any else has problems, I suggest you get a kid to do it!

Hi, I thought some might be interested in the method I use to paint and coat metal lures. When I started out I I wanted to do most of the work in my garage in winter where temperatures can be pretty low, 2-4 Celsius. The lures I wanted to make was molded lures of tin, with the line going through. These are molded in suitable silicone molds. Because of the low temperature in the garage a lot of coatings like epoxy etc was not suitable. An letting them cure in the house was not really an option as it would require some ventilation system. I did not want to airbrush either as that required a lot of equipment I don't own. I have a small oven out there so powder coating was appealing. However, I wanted to be able to make more details, patterns and eyes etc. After some research I found that porcelain paint and pens cure at a suitable temperature and can be used in the house without much smell or fumes. So now I work like this: Lures are molded in the garage. Most times I give them a coating of powder coat, usually black or white, and cured in the oven. Then they are taken inside to painted with porcelain paint. This is available in a all sorts of colours, both transparent and opaque. I just use a brush or a sponge and a fine brush or a pen for smaller details. There is also possible to mix some glitters and other pigments with the porcelain paint thinner and add some sparkle or other effects. I then cure them in the oven and when they are done and still hot they are given two or three dips in clear powder coat. This method is probably not suited for any mass production but is a valid option for small scale.

The wire size will affect rotation if the hole in the clevis hole is too tight and doesn't spin freely. If the clevis is too big it also may not spin. The blade may not be able to spin a clevis that is too big or the wire just rattles around in the clevis holes. Another thing to watch out for are stirrup clevises that are spread apart at the ends. I have some like that. They look like more of an arch shape than a lowercase 'n'. The clevis ends were close to a 45 degree angle to the wire. I had to squeeze the ends together some with pliers to get them closer to 90 degrees to the wire in order for them to work. If the wire is too thin for the body weight, the wire can flex and dampen vibration. Initially, I made my 1 oz body spinners with .040. The blade spun but I felt almost nothing on the retrieve. When I held the bait by the line tie loop, I could see the wire was bending from the body weight. I switched those to .051 wire which did improve the feel of vibration. Your 3/8 oz body could be making the .030 wire flex. Hold the bait horizontally by the line tie in the side of the vice jaws, slide everything toward the hook like it would be on the the retrieve, and see if the wire sags down. If you have a digital scale, compare the total weight of your assembled spinners. Compare that #3 blade with the 1/4 oz body to the #5 blade with the 3/8 oz body. That is a big jump in total weight. Maybe try a 5/16 body instead of the 3/8. Look at the weight range for the rod too. It could be the larger spinners are overtaxing your rod.