blackjack

Hopefully you do not touch the bait after you have finished painting it as the oils on your hands will cause this. I wear surgical gloves through-out the entire bait making process to alleviate this type of problem

I only use circuitboard and lexan

Sent ya a PM

When ya get er done post a pic!! No problem on the info!!

There are many ways that will work I customized an English shop vice to fit onto a band saw. I place the bait in the vice and slide it up to the blade and run it up to the depth stop works fine. was a pain to design but it works relatively well just make sure you use a wider blade say 1/2" to 3/4" blade Tried the 3/8" blade but it would wander on occasion. The reason alot of guys are tight lipped is that they don't want someone taking $$ out off of their pocket. Personally I will share info with someone that has a problem and has attempted to solve it but has come up short, most of what I have learned has come from trial and error. I literally get a bunch of emails each week form someone wanting to know how to do this or do that. Mostly I refer them to this site and let them find the info here that is pertinent. I rarely answer emails as I have no idea who or where the emails are coming from!! JMHO

Rob, Take a piece of card stock and place the bait on it so that you can mark out the profile of the bait. Cut the bait profile shape out, this is going to be used as a template. Next you will need foil. A lot of guys use everyday house aluminum foil, personally I think it is to thick especially when doing a plastic bait as this type of foil will leave a discernible seam where a failure can occur over time. I like to use candy foil available at any craft store. On each piece of foil there is a shiny side and a dull brushed side. Take your template and mark the outline with a ball point pen, then flip the template over(reverse side) and mark out another outline of the template onto the dull side. Cut them out and place them on a flat surface. Apply some adhesive to the dull side of the foil(I like 3M spray adhesive as it makes a nice bond to the lure body) Apply the foil to each side of the bait and burnish it on with smooth plastic pen-cap. Then take a checkered tool handle and roll it across the foil to make the scale pattern. On a plastic bait you will have to apply a lot of pressure to get the pattern imprinted. When this is done I usually take a fine grade of sand paper and smooth out the seams. I then clear coat the entire lure with your favorite epoxy (I?m not gonna get into which type debate) Once the epoxy is cured paint your favorite pattern and clear coat again

Jeff, take a 10penny nail cut the point off and grind flat. then take an old t-shirt and cut a section out, place the t-shirt material over the blunt end of the nail and pull it down the shaft so that is taught, dip in M.E.K. and run the nail and shirt over the edge of the lexan make sure that the t-shirt is very taught as if it is loose it will get some of the solvent on the surface of the lip and cause a blemish. If you go back to the post about painting a citrus shad bait and look at the lexan lip in the picture I posted it is glass smooth and looks like it was molded instead of cut and sanded. This old dog still has some new tricks left!!!!!!!!

Only time I have ever had any cracking (for me it was spiderwebbing) was form Laquer Thinner I used to remove some excess paint off of a lip. I routinely use denatured alcohol to clean up tape residue left on lexan. I use MEK which is one of the strongest solvents around to smooth out the rough sanding edges on lexan lips never had a problem with that, can't say anything about acetone as I know it will melt and discolor lexan I have never used it to smooth out the roughness from sanding

Thats very nice but where do you put the baits??

After you thoroughly mix the Devcon pour it on a chilled paint can lid and you will be able to complete your sealing with one batch. I can seal 20 to 24 3" lures with one batch

Is anyone pouring and selling the smallest size of the Sweet Beaver. Need some in my favorite colors

The closest I can get to it is if you take lichen green add some yellow, then a touch of hippo gray, It is a hard color to duplicate, I will keep up the mixing to get it right, maybe need to mix the gray and lichen green first then add slowly to the yellow to darken it up.

here ya go

Skeeter, The Original Fat Free Shad color had holographic tape on the sides of the lure. When I was doing repaint work, a client asked if I could reproduce that pattern, Kinda tough without the hologram tape but he was happy with my version Chartreuse belly an shoulders then pearl scale side then blend in the aqua-blue scales over the chartreuse shoulders, orange on the throat ill attach the small pic and put the large in the gallery

Jamie, instead of ceasing production cut the lips out on the bandsaw, there are a bunch of tutorials in the how to section or do a search ther are literally dozens of posts on this subject

are you drilling flat stock or round stock, I drill all my baits before they are shaped

wrong pic

I would try 35 deg. angle on the rear section and a 40 deg angle on the front half. You will need to allow room for the tail to move inside of the front half

soaking the lip usually leaves the protective film intact. When I use lexan i leave the film intact until I install the lip in the bait. This leaves the surface of the lexan virtually unblemished if I have to put any final sanding or tooling to the lip

drop the tape get som 3M spray adhesive and use that! Spray both sides to be stuck together, let it get tacky stick together, put in vice for 5 minutes, stick your pattern on top cut out sand then soak in denatured alcohol for 5 minutes to loosen the bond and seperate them

http://www.taxlinks.com/rulings/1985/revrul85-152.htm is the link for the Federal Excise Tax imposed upon fishing lure manufacturers. If you don't pay your excise tax Uncle sam will take you to court, find you guilty and close your business down until you pay your excise tax and the financial penalties assessed by the court . There are IRS agents that search for online sites that are selling items and do not pay their excise tax. Believe me everyone here on this site if you are selling and not paying your excise tax Uncle Sam will catch up to you. If you do not have the capital to pay your penalties Uncle Sam has the right to sieze any assets that pertained to manufacturing. So before you get in to deep, contact an attorney get incorporated as a Business with a Fed. Tax ID # and contact an accountant that is familiar with the Exise Tax and have him/her file your taxes. These are the reasons that I charge 20.00 per bait. I am actually think of jacking my prices up to $25.00 per bait . If you can charge $9.99 a bait pay your state and federal taxes and you Excise Tax God Bless ya. If you are making a quality product that catches fish then there are buyers that will pay your price. Sorry about the long post but I know of people who have lost their business because they either thought they did not fall into the manufacturer category, were ignorant of the law, or were just taking a shortcut.

Shorty's Hook Sales (660) 647-2488 or email shortys@socket.net.

alright, got some molding clay, wood for the box, bondo, screws, etc. Obviously the clay needs to be deeper than the half side of the bait that will be imbedded. Does the clay around the bait have to be smoothed out?? Should I leave the existing lip slot intact or fill it in?? How well does the bondo pick up detail for the lip slot?? Should I vibrate the mold to remove any air bubbles? When the bondo has cured how do you know how much to sand off so the face of the mold is smooth? sorry about all the f.n.g. questions

Please don't tell me you are you are fluent in Russian too!! That fiberglass and concrete mold idea sounds awesome!! Keep us posted!! Great job Coley!

If you make a quality lure you will sell a few but if you make a lure that catches fish you can sell alot. I try to make the best fish catching lure I can. The rest is up to the guy that buys the bait. Ive been tinkering with this lure thing for pretty close to 10 years. Does anyone make a profit I have no idea for me If I am even at the end of the year I'm happy