blackjack

https://www.freemansupply.com/products/machinable-media/renshape-tooling-and-high-temperature-work-boards

Just finished cutting a master with the P/U board; stuff is tremendous for making a master

3d printers are great for prototyping, you can have a lure in your hand to test in less than an hour or two. For molding purposes I design the lure and mold as one process and create masters to create molds for resin and foam lures. The mold masters pictured were designed in CAD and printed on an SLA printer. SLA printing is expensive. A decent build volume for a SLA printer will set you back close to 10K just for the base model. Im not sure what CAD program you are working with but I have switched from Fusion 360 to Vetric Aspire and the design and build process is the bomb with Aspire!!

Bondo is your friend

I have been playing with a stencil project for the baits that I make and for repaint purposes. first test prints so I am getting close, gotta thin the shell down and make the alignment tabs a bit thicker. What baits are you wanting to make stencils for?? K/O baits or for your own baits?

Depends upon how deep your pockets are. If you are willing to put the time and effort in there are kits available that will cut wood an aluminum all day long http://www.cncrouterparts.com/pro4824-4-x-2-cnc-router-kit-p-250.html

Personally I would pass on the duplicator unless you are doing production work. I went with a CNC and have never looked back. The cnc gives me the freedom to cut all of the jigs necessary for drilling operations, lip slotting, and cutting lure bodies with minimal sanding. Want to change your design? No problem, a couple of mouse clicks., wider,thinner,longer. shorter all in a couple of clicks of the mouse. Design to a solid body prototype in hand in 1 hour!! Need lips cut, cut them on the cnc. Need belly weight molds, cut them on the cnc. See the pattern there! J.M.H.O.

Radial arm saw and a jig to hold the bait while it is being cut

Personally I would build a wooden bait to completion,test, test again, and retest, then mold. Kinda hard to make changes once you do the molding

I think the plastic idea is an excellent one . I will be experimenting with solid garolite rod in 1/8" and 3/16" and will post my progress this coming week!

I have been working on a jointed bait as well. There are a bunch of solutions that I modeled up. I am going to make some of both styles and the bait with the better action will get the nod! PonyFoot123, if you look at the picture of the top profiles you can see that the angles are different on each side of the cut. This strategy will give your tail section a make a much wider swing in the movement in the tail of the bait

If I were going to attempt something like this I would design a body profile with the head(or front of the lure) that pushes water to create the action that you are trying to achieve. As far as joints go, depends upon what you are building with, wood, resin/foam etc.

I have been honing my crankbait skills in a deep ,dark, dank cave. I have alot more time these days as I retired from my day job. Its good to see the O.G. crew is still around. Also thank you Mr Hughes for you compliment!!

I have tried many of the various manufacturers chrome paint and have used the Alsa MirraChrome. It is expensive and it does work if the directions are followed to a T and you use their clear coat(also expensive), It must be on a glossy black base or the effects are muted. I prefer good old aluminum foil tape. As you can see there are many ways to manipulate the foil to create interesting patterns.

Thank you. that means alot to me coming from you!!