BobP

If it bugs you, it's possible to "T" (bend the tines) on the trebles so they reduce the amount of hook rash. Guys who troll crankbaits often do that. Alternatively, you can use VMC In-line trebles that center the eye of the treble so the tines swing equally on both sides of the bait. They are sold by Cabelas. There are also hooks like the new Mustad KVD trebles that have the tines bent slightly inward, which eliminates most of the problem.

The basic steps are simple. I don't use Minwax, but reiterate Mark's advice that your bait needs to be well sealed before painting (I often use Devcon 2 Ton for that). Then you need to lay down a COLOR BASECOAT of Createx that will hide the underlying wood grain and make your color shots uniform. Most guys use white for that. Then shoot your COLORS, drying each shot with a hair dryer or heat gun. Note: heating a wood bait with a weak seal coat can cause expanding air to be forced out through your seal coat, bubbling the paint. When painting is finished, coat the lure with Devcon 2 Ton, spin it for an hour, and let it cure hard for at least 24 hrs before fishing it. I haven't had Devcon failures on wood baits that Mark reports but rarely build musky baits. Envirotex Lite (aka ETEX) epoxy is popular among musky builders. Maybe that's why. But it does require multiple coats and longer spin times.

I guess the critical part is the size of the hole, as to what patching works best. I'm usually drilling a 1/4" hole, so the can patch works fine for that. I size the patch so it overlays the hole by 1/16" or so.

Matt's right - and it will yellow and crack pretty quickly exposed to the weather. You need an automotive clearcoat. You can buy them in aerosol cans but the best are 2 part high solids clear coats that are mixed and sprayed while wearing a proper protective mask. You could probably do the painting, then run it by an auto paint shop to have them shoot the clear for a reasonable price.

You can also patch the hole with a small round piece cut from a soda can, which easily cuts with scissors. Superglue it down, sand the edges to conform to the surface of the bait and it becomes invisible when you paint the bait.

The only way I can envision doing a true thru-wire in a segmented balsa bait is to run stainless wire from the nose to the tail with the joints formed into interlocking hand wound eyes. It would be a royal pain to get proper spacing for the joint eyes, but not impossible. In reality, I'd opt for a lighter wood like cedar or paulownia. Or I would do it in balsa but use hand wound screw eye joints (they have much greater glue area) glued with epoxy into a split bait segments. A continuous epoxy backbone strengthens a balsa bait considerably. Enough that a bass will never tear one apart. Now, if you're talking musky baits, that's a different kettle of fish.

I actually prefer painted eyes on many styles of baits rather than the 3D stick-on eyes. Gives the bait a more "traditional" look and I can't tell any difference as far as what the bass think.

I use cotton swabs from Walmart for the eye (they are wound with cotton more tightly than Qtips), and some small daubers I bought from lurepartsonline.com a few year ago for the pupils. But as you see from the posts, lots of things will work.

Sure, why not? If it looks like anything separated during storage, give it a shake. All of the pre-mixed thinners sold by the paint companies have similar contents and they may be stored for months/years before you buy them.

If it's just one, lay the bait to cure so the epoxy is on top. More than one, rotate as usual.

I've sometimes been able to lay a perfect little pool of D2T into a missed spot. If you take your time and the spot is small, it's feasible. If you think it's not gonna work, better to re-coat the whole lure. The epoxy will tend to fill the hole and level out smoothly over the bait. After a few of these episodes, you develop a methodical routine to avoid any missed spots while coating the lure quickly. The time pressure is one reason I often thin my epoxy by mixing a few drops of denatured alcohol into the mix. It will increase the brushing time by at least a minute and will not retard the final cure time siginificantly. Even with thinning, I usually mix enough D2T for only 2 baits, 3 max.

David, I don't know anyone who shoots DN S81; most brush it or dip it. It's solvent based so protection against organic solvents while spraying it are highly recommended if that's the route you want to take. You can clean it with acetone or lacquer thinner. Shoot clear water out of a spray bottle to clean the a/b between shots of Createx, including backwashing the brush by holding your finger over the tip while activating the trigger. There have been no reports of chrome paints that work to anyone's satisfaction here on TU, and the ones considered are very expensive. Never heard of hydrocoating but if you have experience in it, there are lots of guys here who would like to hear about what it is, how to do it, and see the results in the Gallery. Most of us use foil when we want a chrome look. A majority of TU'ers only shoot water based acrylic paints, so mixing pearls in a solvent based clearcoat is also something that hasn't been reported. There are flip-flop acrylic paints available commercially.

Kingfisher, thanks for the insight. I give baits a pretty good blast with a hair dryer but it's not the same as using a heat gun. One thing I always worry about is hitting a wood bait too hard with heat and forcing interior air to bubble the undercoating and paint. That can happen even if the bait is undercoated with epoxy since the heat can soften the epoxy and the air pressure inside accumulates at end grain areas. Like you, my attitude is based on removing finishes I've previously applied. Mostly I depend on the topcoat to keep paint on the bait. Dick Nite S-81 is my gold standard for adhesion. I use a mishmash of paint brands including taxidermy paint and the DN soaks into the paint and down to the substrate to form a very durable unified finish similar to factory finished baits (and sometimes better). Epoxy is different because it never penetrates very far into the paint layer. My attitude has been that as long as the epoxy holds up, no problem. But once it is compromised, nothing will keep paint on the bait for very long. I should rethink that last idea based on your experience.

Yes

http://www.lurebuilding.nl/indexeng.html European builders make lots of "medium size" gliders and the link above takes you to a website that includes detailed build plans from several expert builders. You should be able to get some ideas by studying their designs - especially about how to ballast them.

Now don't start backsliding on the concept of how a turner works, Brent! It won't be better or worse, but just exactly the same as far as rotating lures goes. I like keeping the diameter of the wheel as small as practical to take up less space and minimize the mass that the motor has to spin, so the 7" diameter wheel might get my vote. But maybe a larger wheel would better accommodate the size and number of lures you plan to be rotating. You have to judge that. Larger or smaller, the lures will be getting rotated just the same. BTW, another question that often comes up is whether it's better to orient lures on their horizontal or vertical axis while on the turner. The answer is both work equally well. As long as every spot on the lure rotates through 360 degrees, any orientation you care to name will keep epoxy from moving around on the lure - and that's what a lure turner is all about. I use a very simple 6 rpm turner. The motor is connected directly to a 10" axle and there are six 1" spokes coming off the axle, with alligator clips to hold the lure by their lips. The axle and spokes are made from 3/4" and 1/8" dowels. About as basic and ugly as you can get but it's worked for 5 yrs. Guys come up with all kinds of designs based on the volume and the size of lures they build, and materials they have available to build their lure turner. As long as the baits get rotated, it's all good.

If you're talking about hollow plastic baits, they will expand if the internal temp gets near boiling. I think the melt temp of powder paint is higher? If you use an epoxy to topcoat the bait, why use powder paint at all? Epoxy cures at room temp. If you're talking wood baits, you'll have to figure out the combustion temp of the wood, plus the melt temp of the lip material and compare that to the melt and cure temps of the powder paint. I've never heard of anyone doing it. Even if it's possible, I'm sure it would be very difficult to control all those temps exactly.

No, the lures will still be making exactly the same RPM as the motor no matter what diameter wheel you are turning. What matters is how fast the lures are being rotated through 360 degrees of rotation. Rotation, not velocity is what keeps the epoxy or other finish from sagging and running. If the diameter of the wheel doubles, the lures will be moving through the air faster but the rotation rate remains the same.

Some guys brush DN S81 and use multiple coats. I dip baits in S81 once only. Perhaps one of the brushers can chime in with their dos/don'ts. In my experience dipping, S81 tends to react with itself when recoating unless I wait a minimum (and ideally longer) of 24 hrs between coats. There may be a "window" nearer to the initial dip time that works also but I haven't found it and am not looking. My lure turner takes up less than a square foot of counter space and runs 6 lures at a time. Your space must be REALLY limited.

a 12 rpm motor is a 12 rpm motor regardless of the wheel size if it is directly driving the axle of your lure turner. As the wheel gets bigger in diameter, the speed through the air increases but the rpm is the same. I have a 6 rpm motor that I like because I can clip lure on while it is rotating. If you're talking rotating epoxy lures, anything 1 rpm or more is probably sufficient. In your example, I'd choose the 9 rpm motor for its moderate speed and better torque. Women AND Dave sometime confuse me.

Buddy, western red cedar has good moderate density at about 21 lbs/cu ft. The only problem is contains red oil that can bleed through your finish unless you prime it with a solvent based primer. Can't comment about store bought screw eyes because I hand wind my own from .041" soft ss wire. You can custom size them to your crankbait, which I like to do.

Nedyarb, I use whatever epoxy is handy as long as it hardens slowly enough to get the job done on the number of screw holes I have to do. My favorite is Rod Bond epoxy paste (slow cure formula), which you can mix up and use for several hours before it begins to set up. It's the Lazy Man's epoxy! It's also excellent for gluing lips into baits. I sometimes use Devcon Two Ton epoxy because I have it around for topcoating baits, but it begins to harden in 3-5 minutes. Doing just one bait? A 5 minute quick cure epoxy will work. I can see why you might not like Gorilla glue, with its black foaming action.

Honestly, I got no idea! But it is more durable than acrylic paint alone. One question I have about "heat cured" Createx: do guys think hitting a bait with a hair dryer cross-links, melts (or whatever chemical/physical process) Createx as if they were ironing it on a T-shirt? Any objective evidence for that? I'm wondering because I seem to remember that Createx recommends a ironing temp that is considerably above what you can achieve with a hair dryer. I use a hair dryer after every paint shot but to me, it's just a way to speed dry the paint and move on to the next shot. ps - I just started playing around with Pledge a month ago so if you want a 'hard working expert', you're barking up the wrong tree! Signed: Lazy Hobby Guy

Solvent DN is my favorite clearcoat but if you're talking about coating heavy glitter, it may be too thin and applying multiple coats of DN can be problematic. I agree with Woodieb8 and Matt that an auto clear is probably ideal. Can't really speak to one aspect without considering others - the best clearcoat depends on the glitter surface - how large are the flakes, what is the glitter material (metal or plastic), and how rough is the surface before clearcoating. If it's "pretty rough", it will require a thicker clearcoat if you want a smooth finished surface - and an auto clear that can be sprayed rapidly in multiple coats would be ideal. Of course, you may not want shell out the bucks required for rather expensive auto clear + the protective equipment you would be an idiot not to use with it, unless you plan to do a lot of similar lures or want to generalize on using auto clears for your baits. BTW, Not germane to the glitter question but if you aren't using epoxy because you don't have a lure turner... get over it. Epoxy is too good a coating not to knock together a cheap, easy-to-build turner.

In-between only. Water resistant is not waterproof. Some use clear acrylic paint (or Pledge) as an intermediate clearcoat to protect the underlying paint in case they have to rinse off a later "goof".