BobP

All epoxies, plus finishes with names ending in "thane" (urethane, polyurethane, etc) can yellow over time and I think there's really nothing else that's durable enough for topcoating crankbaits. The question is "how fast" and "how much". You can minimize epoxy yellowingy by measuring it exactly and mixing it very well so that all the hardener chemically reacts with the resin. I have Devcon coated 7 yr old white baits that I can't see any significant yellowing on. 5 yrs is beyond the average life span of a well used crankbait in my tackle box, so I'm satisfied. Yellowing is accelerated by heat and UV light. You can buy both epoxies and urethanes that contain UV inhibitors if you are willing to pay more for them than "regular" stuff. Flexcoat Ultra V, Nu Lustre with UV filters are epoxy examples. I've also had good results with Dick Nite moisture cured polyurethane. It forms a very thin, very hard and slick topcoat. Even if it yellowed, you might not be able to notice it because the coating is very thin. Bottom line, I think you'll be satisfied with the Devcon. It's probably the easiest and fastest of the epoxy topcoats.

I think there's plenty of info on the site to guide you in the right direction, but if you're looking for specific instructions on a 1 inch long jerkbait, you're probably not gonna find it. Check here for general build info: http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/forum/48-hardbait-how-to/ If you have questions on a particular topic, you can use the SEARCH function at the top of this page to get into numerous discussions on it.

I haven't tried any of the Stamina bodies. I tried a few of the Jann's Netcraft bodies and like their fat shallow 1/4 oz crankbait.

How about these? http://lurepartsonline.com/cart.php?m=product_list&c=2050

It depends on what kind of baits you make. I mostly do bass baits with lips, so a setup with alligator clips works fine and I can clip the occasional rattle bait on the turner by its line tie without too much drama. If I did large musky baits or lots of rattle baits, I might opt for something that would secure them better. My 6 lure turner is 2 boards screwed to a wood base, with a 6 rpm timing motor driving the axle, a 1/2" dia dowel. The axle has 3 ea 1/8" dia dowels epoxied through it, onto which the alligator clips are crimped. I put a strip of painter's tape over the ends of the lure lips to keep the clips from marring the Lexan.

I turn slightly thinned Devcon 2T for 3 hrs, Envirotex Lite for 6-8 hrs. It depends on the ambient temperature. There is a point where the epoxy feels pretty stiff but will still sag, so you don't want to rush it. There's nothing worse than finding the epoxy sagged, knowing a little more rotation and 5 cents worth of electricity would have avoided ruining a whole batch of baits. That's a lot of work down the drain. Patience is a virtue and building crankbaits will teach it to you.

JMHO, your candidate compressor seems much too weak to me. If it has a max output of 25 psi, the sustained psi under the load of an airbrush will probably be around 15 psi (there's usually a 10 psi drop). Many crankbait painters like to shoot at between 30 and 45 psi sustained psi. I'll occasionally reduce psi to 15 when I'm shooting detail with thinned paint, but not often. 15 psi is too low to shoot unthinned paint consistently. Many of us like to use regular tool compressors that have a max psi of 100 psi or more. You can always put a regulator on it (in fact you always should) to lower the compressor's output to whatever you like but you can never increase the psi after you buy a compressor. You can buy tool compressors starting at around $60, so a lot of guys go in that direction.

There are all kinds of variations on those standard color patterns, so saying one is the "authentic pattern" would be mistaken. There are at least 4-5 different Strike King Sexy Shad variations sold by Strike King. Their original was pearl sides, a chartreuse stripe, gray shoulders, and blue back with a little glitter and a little pink shading on the belly. The gray shoulders separate the blue back and chartreuse stripe so that they don't mix to become green. The Homer patterns I see are a subdued chartreuse or yellow body with a bright green back. The Classic Chartreuse is a chartreuse body, green shoulders, and medium brown back. How you mix different acrylics to get specific hues depends greatly on what brand, and sometimes which run of paint, you are mixing. Some guys use only Createx and have specific formulas - check out the Hardbait Cookbook recipes in the first thread on this page for some of them. But keep in mind that their recipe may not be the color you had in mind. If you are at a loss to know which primary colors mix to which intermediate colors, check out Color Wheel theory on the internet. Most of the classic color schemes were invented by makers of wood crankbaits and many of them are still sold. Google Bagley crankbaits because they were one of the first mass producers of wood crankbaits and invented many of the standard color schemes. Zoom WEC is another maker that uses the old terminology for their color schemes. Then you can look at a BassPro catalog and see that most of the modern companies also sell the classic color schemes, just called by a different name.

I used "hobby acrylics" like Apple Barrel, etc, when I first started. There's nothing wrong with their performance on the bait but they do leave a paint surface that's rougher than airbrush paint. Like RG says, they have large pigment size and will not shoot through an airbrush with a tip size smaller than about .35 mm, plus you will always need to thin the paint before you shoot it. Regardless, there will be more airbrush clogs with hobby paint because there is no standard about the size of pigment grain from bottle to bottle. Since you are forced to use larger tips with it, your ability to do detail and shading will be somewhat compromised. In the end, if you find that you like the hobby and want to stick with it, it's almost certain that you will want to switch to airbrush paint. The results are better and it's a lot less hassle. A 2 ounce bottle of Createx lasts an amazingly long time when you use it a milliliter at a time through an airbrush. The way I economize is to buy large bottles of paint that I use a lot, like black, green, pearl white and base white, and smaller bottles of colors that I use less often, like purple or red. The cost per volume for 4, 8 or 16 oz bottles is quite good compared to the 2 oz size bottles that are stocked in most craft stores. When all is said and done, one nice thing about the crankbait hobby is the cost of materials is almost negligible. My greatest expense in a finished crankbait is always the treble hooks I hang on it.

Matty, the product used as a topcoat is Envirotex Lite, a two part epoxy usually sold in a box with 2 ea. 8 oz bottles (resin/hardener). It is advertised as a pour-on durable finish for tables and bar tops. Baitmakers brush it on in multiple coats as a topcoat. Do a search in this forum for techniques and tips on using Etex for more info. I've not heard of using Envirotex spray sealer as a topcoat.

I've never been able to get a crankbait to run deeper than about 5 ft unless I put the line tie out on the lip. If you put a long lip on a crankbait and put the line tie on the nose, the bait will usually swim in an uncontrollable spiral. You can come up with various hydrodynamic theories why, but practically it doesn't matter why. The sole exception I can see is if you build a sinking crankbait with a short lip and the line tie on the nose - but not many people want to fish that kind of crankbait.

Propel cans are designed to be used with the less expensive Badger airbrush kits that come with the proper adapter and a can of Propel aerosol. My Paasche airbrush kit did not come with one. You need to go back to the store and get the proper adapter, or trade your Paasche in for a Badger kit that has one.

Rofish, I tried heating Devcon Two Ton to make it more brushable in cool temps but for me, it just didn't work. I think how much heat to apply is a guessing game I often lose. Too little, there's minimal effect. Too much and you're screwed with fast hardening epoxy. So instead I mix in a few drops of denatured alcohol to get the epoxy to the consistency I like to brush. You can use various solvents to thin epoxy but denatured alcohol works best for me. It does not evaporate so quickly (like acetone) that the epoxy re-thickens during the brush period. It lengthens the brush period by a couple of minutes (a good thing) but does not appreciably lengthen the total cure time (which lacquer thinner can do).

NO, THE FIVE MINUTE DEVCON IS NOT THE RIGHT STUFF! It cures too quickly, does not level out like the Two Ton "30 minute" variety, and turns yellow/brown very quickly. You can use denatured alcohol to thin D2T but the best practice in warm climes is to apply it unthinned. I mix a FEW drops of DA into my D2T when cold ambient temps make it too thick to brush easily, or when I'm coating a bunch of baits and want to increase its "pot life" by a couple of minutes. But thinning does mean that the coating will be thinner and offer less protection.

When I want to take line off a reel and save it (the only line I save is braid), I use a conical wood rasp bit with a shaft that fits in a cordless drill drill. Picked up a set of these rasps at Home Depot years ago. Stick the rasp into an empty line spool, tape the end of the line to the spool, and zap it off the reel in a few seconds with the drill on "high speed".

1/32" circuit board or 1/16" polycarbonate (aka Lexan) is stiffer and more durable.

Brite-bak foil, Dick Nite, done.

It sounds like you are making a small version of what the pike/musky guys call a glider, a slow sinking twitch lure. If so, I'd check out some of the European pike and musky lure building sites. I've seen one (but don't have the url) that has build instructions including ballasting for quite a few lures of this type. It would give you a ballpark idea of where it should be ballasted for good action. BTW, many gliders include some ballast toward the tail of the bait. Maybe someone can help with the URL?

For those of you interested in mapping GPS units like the Humminbirds or Lowrance, you can go to the Navionics web site and find lists of lakes that are covered in their Hot Maps and other chip families. The Hot Maps Premium cards seem to be the most comprehensive for fresh water lakes. I use one on my H'bird 987C and it has been great. Now JMHO, I like the high end H'bird units with sidescan sonar if you can afford them - they aren't cheap! For less expensive sonars without GPS mapping, I have enjoyed using Garmin units because of their very clear displays, good service, durability. But I don't like that Garmin only sells proprietary GPS map cards that will not work in any other brand. The wide applicability of the Navionics map cards allows that company to update their lake maps more often and includes many popular lakes in "HD", that is 1 ft interval topography via custom surveys. You also need to think about future upgrades to your system. If you are running a Lowrance or H'bird unit now and you plan to move it from the helm to the front trolling motor while upgrading to a bigger/better helm sonar, you want to get the same brand unit. That offers the possibility of networking the 2 units. It also allows you to troubleshoot one unit with components from the other same brand unit if a problem arises.

I like adhesive foil, no messing with glues. First I tried aluminum duct tape. Works, but it is thicker than ideal. Then I found this stuff: http://www.sunshineglass.com/rcol/i-proj/mosaic-access-vent.htm The Brite-Bak tape works great, is thin and strong and has good adhesive. Peel and stick.

If you feel the need to thin Createx the bottle says use water. The retarder does the same thing but is intended to prevent "tip drying". The only other stuff I use is Createx 4011 retarder with Auto Air colors, per instructions. Your HP-C Revo has a .5mm tip, which should be plenty big enough to spray Createx and other airbrush paints without thinning.

Never had it happen, never heard of it happening. If the D2T was correctly measured, mixed and cured to a normal hard coating, I just can't believe it. I'd ask Buddy to show you the lure, otherwise write it off as b.s. None of the water based paints you mention should have any effect.

When I mentioned a "heat box" I was thinking of a wood box with 2-3 100W light bulbs and the interior covered with tin foil. Honestly, if you are going fishing 4-5 days after applying the DN, I don't think you'll have any trouble just hanging the baits to cure in the garage, etc. (if your region is as hot as mine is right now - 90+ degrees and high humidity!)

L-P, the reason I dip is several fold. First, I know the bait will be coated entirely, every time. Second, I think dipping gets the maximum usable amount of DN on the bait in a single application (and I want to apply DN only once). Third, it's fast and there's no clean up: dip it, hang it, done. However you apply DN so that you're happy, without problems, is fine. I don't think there's a wrong way as long as the results are good. My current batch of DN is about 9 months old, no problems so far.