RiverMan

I have been thinking, this lure has two sections, a front head section and a rear tail sections. The head section is roughly twice the size of the tail section. To get each piece balanced, I am findimg it necessary to use a fairly large weight in the head, around 3/4 ounce and a fairly small weight 1/4 ounce in the tail. I'm wondering now if the tail has so little ballast that it's pulling the head section over with it. If I make both sections lighter so that the tail section also requires significant ballast I'm wondering if it will help.

It falls perfectly horizontal, joint loose, swims good on steady retrieve and slow retrieve, nice wide left to right. On fast retrieve it comes in ok but I would like to see the belly stay down more.

Intuitively I would think a lighter body with more lead toward the bottom would reduce roll on a glider. I am working on a resin glider and it works good but I want it to work gooder! The said glider is shad shaped and 10 inches including the tail. Any thoughts, comments, are welcomed. Thanks

Thank you.

No it was sealed really well. I used a mineral based clay and from what I have been reading it has a significant amount of water in it. After sitting 12 hours or so while the first layer of silicone cured some water eventually got to the wood.

The last clay I used raised the grain on my wood original despite the fact that I had done a good job of sealing it. I'm curious what type should be used as the clay base for making two part molds. Anyone? Thanks, RM

I have a small spray bottle with a weak mix of windex that I spray into the paint cup a few times then dump out in a trash can. Then back flush then spray the cleaner mix and it's ready for next color. I seldom if ever use acetone but I probsbly should. I have a cleaning pot but only use it to hold the brush between colors.

I will try the drill press again tomorrow. I think I have the round ball bit that Travis showed. I will report back and let you guys know if it worked. Kelpkritter, sounds really cool. Thanks again everyone for commenting. RM

Some great ideas guys. Your suggestion Vodkaman is almost exactly the way I tried to do it originally. I took a router bit made for cutting slots and attached to my drill press, maybe that was the problem, Router bit on a drill press? Anyway, I clamped a fence to the drill press plate, secured the piece in a vice similar to what Travis posted and slid it along but it wanted to jump around some and ended up looking about like the rock method. It doesn't have to be a slot but I prefer it to be because otherwise you get to much up and down play in the joint. I only want left to right no up and down.

The bodies are resin and already complete. I tried making a jig on the drill press and sliding the piece along with less than good results. I thought about a simple grinding wheel for a dremel but the problem here is once you start getting deep enough you also start getting a slot much wider than you need. What seems so easy is not so easy. I may be going back to the rock. RM

Bob, I'm talking about the small slots that the screw eyes are seated in.

Anyone figured out a way to make the slots shown in the photo clean and even? I can make them work with a dremel but it looks like I used a rock to cut them. Any suggestions? Thanks.

For those so convinced it can be done with "good business planning and hard work" I say go for it! Come back and talk to us in five years. RM

Sure it's possible, anything is possible, but if you ask any 100 builders selling their lures my guess is that less than 10% of them, maybe less than 5% of them make enough off the business to where they can quit their day job. There are some very talented builders out there and many are also very motivated and yet they still can't make a go of it. It's a tough business, fun, but very difficult to do in a way that pays well. Just in the decade I have been selling I have seen dozens come and go. RM

And that's why most are doing it as a hobby. There are some but very few are making 75k+ and enough to cover medical insurance, vacation leave, and retirement contribution, very few. Most of us have a day job to pay the bills and allow for the purchase of more lure building supplies, lol. RM

I have been building and selling lures for a decade or so. I have had lures made in China, Mexico, and currently owned injection molds for multiple baits made here in the USA. You can make money at it but it's not easy. Most that jump in are gone within a couple years and many others make just enough to pay for materials and keep going. Lots of things make it difficult, one is offshore competitors, the Chinese copy everything and sell it for almost nothing. The other thing is sites like this one, when I started I spent literally weeks and hundreds of tests trying to figure out how to weight gliders, now you can get this same info online in five minutes. Videos on YouTube show you how to cut baits, weight baits, paint, clear, etc., the end result? Another "new lure company" every week. This information literally used to take years to figure out. The other thing is there are some very good big lure companies that make it hard to compete, they have their own engineers, their own in-house mold manufacturing, 3D scanners, 3D printers, paint rooms, staff, etc. Unless you have several million for start up its tough. However, having said all that, it is fun and after all these years I still enjoy it. It can be toxic with all the paints, clears, lead, wood dust, plastics, so one must be carful. I'm not saying it can't be done but it is extremely difficult...... to quote ACDC, it's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll" Jed Edited by RiverMan, Today, 06:14 PM.

Appreciate it guys, thank you.

Mark did you just drill a line of holes then smooth out the areas between?

I'm working on a swimbait. Where the joints are I screwed a screw eye in one side and want to pin the screw eye on the other side. I'm experimenting with various ways to notch the other side that accepts the screw eye head and pin. I'm looking for a nice clean slot that will accept the screw eye. Any suggestions on how best to do this? Here is a picture of what I'm talking about. Thanks RM

Some great ideas, thank you! Jed

The magnum eyes I'm using come one way, closed. Jed

I'm trying to open some magnum screw eyes and haven't found an easy way to do it. Any suggestions? Thx Jed

Video clip of my beerbelly glider. This is a 6 inch bait.

Yea the Lisa and Ed's eyes is what I'm using. If you try to use a dremel tool to remove the post you end up scraping off a bit of the paint on the back which then shows up in the iris part of the eye. Its a hassle. Good eyes but the post doesnt work for me. Thx Jed