RiverMan

Please delete this second post..................

Yes the .092 will straighten but lets face it, we all have drags on our reels and a direct pull on a screw eye is not a realistic test. A hooked fish runs one way then another then another so you don't have a constant pull in one spot. Every fall we land chinook up to 40 pounds on kwikfish with screw eyes that are half the size of the .092 and have never seen one straightened out. We use 65# braid, 50# mono leaders and some of the battles take 15 minutes. Its common here to see sturgeon that weigh several hundred pounds landed on kwikfish and again they have tiny little screw eyes on them. Just about all custom musky lures are running .092 screw eyes. RM

The other thing is that bondo stinks!! OMG, the stuff must be really toxic, when I mix it up my dog quickly leaves the area, he wants nothing to do with it! lol. jed

Sorry, did not notice til now that you posted the pics. Thank you! Jed

Yep......................from my experience trying to put math to wood lures does not work............there are far too many variables. Add weight, hooks, and clearcoat and test. Take notes, repeat. Sometimes you will get lucky and the first couple of tests will work out great, other times you run a dozen tests and the lure still doesn't work very well. I have entire notebooks filled with notes, trace the lure, note the lure thickness, wood type, hook placement, weight placement, test, then write down results. After running dozens of tests you will start to see patterns that will level the learning curve. RM

Dave, I tried a blacklight first because the epoxy source told me it would work.....it didn't. The epoxy would only get partially cured. I then bought a small lamp that has three lights in it to be used for tanning and had the same results. As I recall the spectrum of light I was using was partially in the recommend range but was not a good match. BTW, here are some bullets from the link Hughesy posted, does this sound perfect or what? I like the zero VOC part and also the "cures instantly" : a hardness rating of greater than 8H @ 750 grams, Admiralty's Ultra Hard Coat is the ultimate UV cured coating for a final high gloss or satin sheen application that demands a scratch resistant surface. Ultra Hard Coat can take punishment from almost any sharp object... such as keys and tools without leaving a mark. Typically used as the last coat over Admiralty Gloss or Satin Varnish. It is applied at 0.001" (1mil) thickness... one gallon covers 1608 square feet. Ultra Hard Coat is the "last coat" as nothing will adhere to it... which also makes it the perfect Anti-Graffiti product. Cures instantly at the speed of light... on-demand. • Nothing like it is available elsewhere. • Zero VOCs. • Cures at the speed of light! As you can see, the cost of the lights would kill us. Jed

In my case, I think the reason they would not cure is because I wasn't using a powerful enough UV source. Find some powerful UV lights which will likely be quite spendy and I think you will have the answer. I spent some time looking at UV cure epoxy at one time and eventually found a source for a good light and it was about $1200 as I recall. The light was inside a container about the size and shape of a 50 gallon drum with lights on all sides. Spend some time searching and you will find some good light sources but many are either way out of our price range or used for very small industrial projects. I still think UV cure epoxy is the answer for us lure builders, virtually zero fumes and instant cure. We just need to find a very UV light sensitive epoxy that will cure when exposed to a black light for example. RM

Very nice videos............thank you! You are a good painter! Jed

I have gotten a couple free samples from epoxies etc. If you make it work please come back and let me know. I have tried a couple different times with two different lights but neither of them were strong enough to make the epoxy cure quickly. RM

I would like to see a picture of it if you don't mind. What holds the baits in place? Are you sliding them between the foam circles? Dave, it sounds like you are stuck with one speed or did you find a way to control the RPM's?

There is only way to know what the lure will do and that is to experiment. Weight placed in a particular manner on one type of wood will perform entirely different than the same scenario on another wood. Shape, length, width, height, hook placement, and weight placement all effect action. Run dozens of experiments, keep notes. Jed

I have sprayed createx paints with little or no thinning for years with no problems. Some of the colors can use a few drops of water to thin them out, particularly if you store them for an extended period of time. If you are using cheap water based paints from walmart or varioius other craft stores you will need to thin them with water. You can also thin with a bit of windex. Windex works really well for cleaning the brush between colors too but I generally use it sparingly cuz I don't like to breathe it. I think what Kingfisher is saying is really impt, we definitely need to be thinking about what we are atomizing and then breathing!! If you are painting a few baits each year it's probably not a big deal but once you reach the "total spaz" stage like I have it's definitely a concern. Jed

I have been thinking about an in-line booster fan made by fantech that is used to vent air from a clothes dryer. The nice thing about it is it fits dryer hose perfectly. You could probably also make a shopvac work pretty easily if you had a way to extend the hose out a window. Jed

Some great ideas guys, I am going to follow up on the leads. Thanks! Jed

I want to be able to control the speed with a rheostat (potentiator) so that I can dial in the correct speed. I found a good motor online but again it's more than a hundred dollars. Sigh. Jed

Anyone found a good reliable variable speed motor for a lure dryer? I need to built another dryer and was hoping to not have to pay over a $100 like I did for the last one. thx. Jed

You can spray water based paints and heat set them with a hair dryer. If you can, use a epoxy type product as a clear coat. I like to use Devcon 2 ton epoxy and the smell is not bad at all, you could easily use it in your flat. If you don't have Devcon there, look for a similar type product. You want one that dries in 30 to 60 minutes, not the 5 minute versions. The nice thing about Devcon is you can hand turn the lure if you don't have a dryer. Turn for about 20 minutes then set aside to dry. Jed

I wish I had a pricture of it. I ended up disassembling it to make a lure dryer. I think I saw a picture of one here on TU and then I built something similar.......it worked perfectly but I could never get the result I was looking for. Jed