Skeeter

You can mix paints into Devcon. It will not run. Skeeter

Either water got to the bait because something wasn't clearcoated correctly, or there is something in the wood.... (water, oil, or whatever). Make sure that the wood that is used for crankbaits is kiln dried. This process removes most unwanted stuff that is contained in the wood. Everyone is really hung up on this sealing wood thing. All you need to do is wipe on some polyurethane, let it dry, lightly sand, and then prime the bait for painting. If your clearcoat is applied correctly, then the wood is protected. Skeeter

So are you saying that the clearcoat is peeling off or everything? Skeeter

I have used the same #3 tip in my VL for 5 yrs. Clean of the excess paint with solvent and then when done wash in hot soapy water. That is all you need to do. Skeeter

Soak them in acetone for about 15-20 min. Then take them out and let them dry. They will be stiff once they are dry, but you can work the bristles with your finger and it will be ready to go. Skeeter

Once again.... use the lighter fluid on the bearings only. I have an article in the General section of the site on how to clean a reel. Unless you want to tear the reel down to the last nut and bolt.... those instructions are as good as any. Skeeter

Ok, lets go thru the whole reason folks started cleaning out bearings. It all started because reel gurus wanted to wring the last little piece of performance out of a reel just like mechanics do out of an engine. Over the past few years, super oils have come out to help increase casting distance. There have also been casting competitions that really got the performance thing going. Try throwing a 1/4 oz. spinnerbait 100 yds. on 10lb. line with one of the old round ABU reels. All of these super oils are super high grade THIN oil. Before these new oils were added to the bearings, the thought was to completely strip and clean them of old thicker lubrication and dirt. Then apply only 1 drop of thin oil to the bearing. You have to oil your bearings and honestly keep up maintenance on your reel if you decide to go this route. Usually you need to apply a drop or two every 3 trips or so. If you do not keep up with it, then the bearings will wear prematurely. Thin oil will really allow bearings to spin up very very fast. But it also wears away much quicker. When you make a cast and the spool first starts to spin, it is known as the "Moment of Inertia". If you have a heavy spool in your reel then you better have a trained thumb. You are going to need it. Heavy spools that are spinning "hot" are very hard to slow down. It is like trying to stop a runaway train. Once the bait stops, a heavy spool is still spinning hard. This is what causes monster backlashes. Many of the high performance reels from Japan have the lightest spools of all. I have never seen an American reel with a spool weight that even comes close to the light weight of the spool in my Scorpion. These light spools decrease the chance of a bad backlash. They will backlash, but not as often and not as severe. It also takes less weight to get the spool spinning fast. Heavy spools just need more weight to get them going. They will spin hot also. You just really need to have that thumb trained to control them. I use straight Shimano oil for my Scorpions. These reels perform really well on this oil. ABU makes a good grade of oil also. If you really want to go light, then I would go to the "rocket fuel" oils that are sold through Heartland Tackle. From all of the literature that I have read, lighter fluid is the accepted cleaner that has been so widely used and accepted with good results. I would just use the lighter fluid. Lacquer thinners etc. leave residues behind. WD40 type cleaners are not lubricants. Oil will not adhere to surfaces with WD40 on them. Personally, I do not soak my bearings in anything. Unless you have dirt in your bearings, have old dried oil on them, or you don't do regular maintenance to your reels, I don't see a reason for it. Skeeter

Doomdart and Mattman are correct. It is cigarette lighter fluid that you want. It is the Naptha that is the main ingrediant. The fluid is to clean bearings only. Lighter fluid is a solvent. It is dissolving the oil off of the bearings. Most fill a pop bottle cap full and soak the bearings in that for about 15 min. YOU MUST REMOVE THE BEARINGS FROM THE REEL. Make sure that you note which side of the bearing is up. You need to put them back in the same way they came out. After they soak, tap them out on a paper towel and let them completely dry. Put the bearings back in and then put a drop or two of oil on them. Skeeter

philB, I disagree with you..... us Yanks have seen enough Jack the Ripper and Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde movies to know thay you poor Brits live in constant "Pea Soup" fog. Skeeter

Just put a small amount of epoxy on the back of the lip and push it in the slot. You do not need alot of epoxy on the lip to get it secure. Don't forget to put your holes in the back corners of the lip and get the epoxy into those holes with a toothpick. Get it in straight and level. If the epoxy really builds up on the nose and chin from slidding it in, then wipe off the excess with your finger. If it did not then leave it alone. Let it dry. Then if there is a deep slot on the side fill in alittle epoxy in the slot and let it dry. Now.... if you use devcon for a clearcoat, put some devcon on the brush and start about 1/8 inch from the nose and put the brush down on the top of the lure and gently push forward on the brush and push the devcon over the nose and onto the lip. You can control how much devcon gets on the lip this way. Then start brushing back towards the tail smoothing everything out. Do the same when you get to the chin. You want some devcon on the lip. This really helps to seal the lip in place. When you clearcoat the entire bait with devcon, then the devcon that you first put the lip in place with and the rest of the clearcoat become one solid piece. I have never had a lip loosen or pull out in 7 yrs. doing it this way. Skeeter

Let us know the results John. Skeeter

I don't foil baits. I never cared for the way that they look. I never used createx much either. I could not get the results that I was looking for from it. I got better results using regular latex house paint thinned with water. But createx should stick to the foil. Just baby it untill it is clearcoated. Skeeter

I modify a pop r by just filing the bottom lip flat. I file until I see where the seam starts to show. Filing the sides can really kill the bouyancy of the bait. If you use a rod with a stiff tip, the bait will really spit some water. Skeeter

Stay away from the oil based paints. They are just a pain. Enamel you can thin with lacquer thinner. Paints that need solvent based thinners always have strong fumes. Skeeter

More than likely the wood is a real coarse cedar that they use for fencing. The stuff is real tough. I may have been pretty weathered. I will have to agree with Red. You could probably use some new bits. Another problem with that type of cedar is what Red said about grain. That stuff has the toughest knarliest grain in the world. That grain will really rise out of the wood once you get it wet with anything. (sealer, paint, etc) Go get some better wood. White or red cedar would be much better. You can also make good crankbaits out of pine also. Go to Lowes. They have craft wood already cut, sanded, and square. They do it in both pine and poplar. Skeeter

God Bless Woodie. Hope your back to the craft quickly. You aren't the Lone Ranger my friend. I have pulled a few good ones myself. Skeeter

Some brands you can use. Look on the labels and you will see that some are actually an epoxy. The only problem is that they start to cure PDQ. Skeeter

Brother...... no one ever listened. Skeeter

I'm with MaddoxBay...... where did you hide the blood stains. Alot of work went into that one. The patience shows in this bait. Paint it up!! If you can pass LP's class, then you can achieve anything. Good work Tally. Skeeter

Yes that is what he means..... For Mags.... what I want to know is why did you feel the need to put on two coats of Devcon? Thinned or not. There is absolutely no reason to use two coats. There is also no reason to thin Devcon. You were thinking right when you changed out the split ring and the hooks. Good work. But the reason the Devcon is not working for you is because you are just spreading it on until the lure is covered and then putting it on the wheel. You can apply a thin coat of Devcon by coating the lure and then brushing the Devcon from the head to the tail of the lure repeatedly and pulling the excess Devcon off at the tail of the lure with the brush. Wipe the excess of of the brush and repeat until you have a thin even coat. Get any excess Devcon out of the hook hangers with a tooth pick. There is no clearcoat that will hold up forever. That is the holy grail on this site. If your buddy caught that many fish off of the lure, then he got his monies worth. I have baby n's with rattles that I have clearcoated with Devcon and they float like a duck in 50 deg. water. Poes has used so many different clearcoats on their baits to the point where it is rediculous. Since the company was sold the first time, their baits have not measured up. They aren't even made the same way or have the same dimensions as the originals from the 80's and early 90's. Those thin coatings that you mentioned use to be a clear that is now banned by the EPA. That is another reason why those baits are made outside of the U.S. today. They can still get the stuff overseas. But even that is not that tough. Cast any of those baits into a rock or a dock and watch them crack. The last Poes 400 that I bought had urethane clearcoat with a flex agent in it. The stuff was on that bait more than twice the thickness of a single coat of Devcon. The bait felt like it was encased in rubber. If you look at the old original Norman crankbaits, they were never clearcoated anyway. Everyone thinks that baits from big companies are consistant. Bull..... Bagley has been sold so many times that they changed from one year to the next. The big kicker was when they started making them in the Dominican Rupublic. They were a real joke then. Poes bodies have been inconsistant since the early 90's. If you find a Poes or Bagleys with a properly installed lip and everything lined up then you have found one of those 1 in 100 baits that Fritts talked about. Molds wear out and have to be replaced. They are not always made again by the same company and then that style of crankbait that you bought last year is not the same as the one you buy this year. I have seen plastic injected bodies that aren't straight either. Why, because the mold wasn't straight. Rarely, does anyone closely check out a plastic bait. They always assume that they are perfect. Not so. Try spreading the Devcon like I suggested. Oh yeah, by the way, the perfect temp for applying Devcon is 75 deg. Skeeter

You determine the length vs. width by trial and error. It is just that simple. Once you do enough baits you will be able to make a pretty good educated guess by looking at the lure. Copy a few lips from your favorite baits and stick them in your lure. Then take the bait to the water and observe what type of action that you get. It is just part of the work that you have to do as a crankbait maker. And the angle does not necessarily determine how deep the lure goes. It determines how fast the lure will reach maximum depth. Skeeter

Yes you can sand it. But sanding will dull the finish. To get it clear and shiney again you will have to put another coating on the lure. If you lure is weighted closely be careful because multiple coats of Lurecoat can add weight to a bait. If you are not trying to sell the lure, then I would just leave it alone and fish it. Skeeter

Another person that you might try is Lee Sission. Do a google search for him. Skeeter

Yes it makes a difference. On most crankbait designs, the closer the line tie is to the nose of the bait the more it will wobble. Where it is located on the lip depends on the the shape and size of the lure. Also the angle of the lip can make a difference. As a general rule I never go past the halfway mark from the nose of the lure to the tip of the lip. You will just have to experiment with the placement to get the action that you desire. If the lip is comming straight out from the bait and you move the line tie around and still do not get the action that you want, then you have only two options..... redesign the lip or start taking the angle of the lip downward. This will increase the wobble of a crankbait. Skeeter