BobP

No, I'm too lazy! And since the "full cure" takes days or weeks, I'm doubtful a few minutes under a hair dryer would make much difference. Maybe you could accelerate the cure by placing the lure in a heat box for 24-48 hours, similar to what some guys do to speed cure epoxy - but I don't really know. I've fished or mailed DN coated baits 3 days after application with no problems, knowing that the cure had not finished but hoping that it was "good enough" - and it was. It's analogous to curing epoxy: most brands say 24 hours to full strength but in reality, the cure continues for about a week and the "24 hours" is just a company estimate of how long it will be before it's hard enough to satisfy the consumer. But in the case of DN, the moisture cure takes longer and the chemical process of hardening may continue for weeks. I wouldn't use a DN bait for trolling 3 days after coating, but have had no problems casting bass baits after 3 days, so it's really a matter of degree that each has to decide for himself.

I think "Teflon coated" applies to the packing in the barrel of the airbrush, not the whole interior. In years past, many airbrushes did not have Teflon (aka PTFE, aka "solvent resistant") packing and solvents would deteriorate the packing, causing problems. Nowadays, most airbrushes have it and it is usually mentioned in the airbrush spec sheet. I think that even most of the cheap Chinese brushes have it. Regarding "expensive commercial brushes", an Iwata Revolution retails for less than $75 - probably less than that old Paasche you are giving the evil eye. But before you choose, check the application specs for the finishes you shoot - they often tell you the preferred airbrush tip size and pressure to use with the product. My thought is that solvent based clearcoats usually require a tip size that is larger than the tips we use to shoot water based acrylics onto crankbaits. Not many of us use an airbrush to clearcoat baits so we gravitate toward smaller tipped airbrushes because we want to cram detail and very fine color fades into a couple of square inches. That might not be the best choice for restoration work. Maybe Kingfisher or someone else who paints larger items like motorcycle helmets can comment.

Just a guess, but I doubt high humidity will have great effect on the moisture cure time. You should be fine fishing the lures after a week of curing. If anything, I'd hang them outside in the garage where it's humid and fairly warm. Temperature has a lot to do with chemical reactions.

The main thing in knots is to find a few you can 1) tie consistently and 2) work for your style of fishing. It's surprising to me that you find the Palomar hard to tie - it's seems about the simplest knot there is. I think different knots work well with different lines. I like the Palomar on regular mono line when bass fishing. When I fish fluorocarbon or braid, I want a knot that includes multiple wraps around the mainline to cushion the knot. Neither fluoro or braid have much stretch and instantaneous strain is what usually causes them to break. The San Diego Jam knot is easy for me to tie and includes multiple wraps, so I use it with those lines. For joining lines, I use a Uni-Uni knot that I tie with the help of a little Fas-Tie tool.

RG, the ones that I've had fewest problems with are Netcraft. I haven't tried a wide variety of their baits but I do like their little 1/4 oz fat shallow runner, which swims well and catches fish. The only negative is 1/4 oz is pretty light bait to fish on a baitcaster. On bodies that have the joint sanded smooth, a dip in DN makes the sanding marks disappear. I don't sell baits so my disappointment in most unpainted plastic bodies is not a big deal - I'll just build wood baits that I know will work. On plastic baits, I've decided to heck with the cheapo bodies. Life (and fishing time) is too short to be throwing junk baits. There are plenty of baits in the $6-15 range that work great.

I'm almost always disappointed by the quality of unpainted bait bodies from internet sources. They are cheaply made in China by folks who know zero about crankbaits. It's just something for the factory to mold after they stop the current run of McDonalds Happy Meal toys. They copy the EXTERNAL shape of a popular high quality Japanese or American bait. They do not copy the internals. They randomly throw in a few stainless steel balls for ballast. The seams are often misaligned. If you're lucky, they sand out the goofs and the baits don't leak. Very rarely, you find a decently performing bait - but when it does, it's just plain dumb luck. I've bought probably 20+ different unpainted models through the years and I've only found ONE that I would buy again. And that one is not a knockoff of a popular commercial bait. In my experience, it has also not helped to buy from well regarded (and I'm sure, well meaning) individuals who custom order blanks from Chinese sources and resell them. I get the same crap from them. In spite of experience, I'm still occasionally charmed into trying another one. Mental illness = doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different outcome. I started out with crankbaits buying package damaged, unpopular color (but otherwise good) commercial baits from the "$2 bin" and repainting them. If I could pick and choose which models were in the bargain bin, I'd still be doing that.

Another cause of bubbling is a clog. White airbrush paint is often heavily pigmented so it can be used to cover underlying wood grain, etc, so it is more prone to clogging. Don't be afraid of taking your airbrush apart (especially the tip parts and needle). You'll do it countless times for cleaning, clog removal, etc, so may as well get used to it! Just treat the parts with care so you don't damage them. BTW, I almost always shoot at 30 psi or more except when doing details with thinned paint. Airbrush pressure vs paint viscosity is a balance that each painter has to deal with. My way is usually to turn up the psi instead of dumping the paint, cleaning the brush, thinning the paint and trying it again. Sometimes that works, sometimes not - but it is quick!

I think Createx is very consistent in terms of viscosity and ability to shoot through various airbrushes. However, the Createx color palette is pretty "Plain Jane". Some brands like Smith Wildlife (and others) have paint designed for taxidermy fish painting and since I prefer not to custom mix paint, I use any brand as long as it is water based acrylic airbrush paint. I've had zero problems with paint brand compatibility but you do get differences in viscosity and shooting ease using a hodgepodge of brands.

I wouldn't want to inhale the initial fumes but think it's no worse than other polyurethanes. The solvents in DN flash out quickly and there is little if any odor after an hour or two. I apply DN in the garage and in winter, take them inside after a few hours to cure in warm/humid air. The cure process takes some days (maybe even weeks) to fully run its course. I'm not suggesting there is no solvent hazard involved, but I haven't experienced any problems or heard of problems from other users. RG's suggestion is a good one if you have significant concerns.

The wood oughta have dried out OK by now! Cedar contains some oil so needs to be undercoated/primed/sealed (whatever term you like) with a solvent based coating before you begin painting. Let the sealer dry for several days before painting to insure all its solvent has out-gassed. You learn airbrushing by doing it, but you can check out airbrushing sites on the internet for techniques and tips. If it's running on you, you're probably shooting too much paint/at too high a pressure/with the airbrush held too close to the work (one or all of the above). You can buy circuit board in 12"x12" sheets from McMaster-Carr online. They call it Garolite, and the most popular grade of garolite for crankbait lips is "G-10". Note that McMaster-Carr's G-10 is dull yellow in color, not the white that you see on commercial baits. I don't know where to buy white G-10. M-C also carries a G-11 sheet Garolite that's more expensive but comes in a light green shade. BTW, I suggest 1/32" thickness for bass baits.

My question is what do you do with the baits after you dip them? I paint basically the same way as you but without so much heat drying (I dry each paint shot with a hair dryer but that's all). I can dip them immediately afterward in Dick Nite poly. After dipping, I hang the baits by their lips over newspaper to dry and cure. All the excess finish drips off the tail. The only problem I ever had with moisture cured poly was if I clamped the baits on a lure turner after dipping them. Then, the excess poly could not drip off. If there was a little too much on the bait, the rotation kept it on the bait while the finish skinned over and the excess would slosh back and forth under the poly skin - wrinkling the paint underneath. I've been satisfied with a single dip in Dick Nite on bass baits. When I occasionally want 2 dips, I wait at least 24 hrs, more often a couple of days between dips. When I have tried a shorter interval, I sometimes had problems with blistering and wrinkling. You didn't name a brand of polyurethane and that can have an effect. I've tried a couple of brands and Dick Nite has the lowest viscosity of the ones I've tried. So the excess drips off more quickly than other brands I've tried, and that seems to be a good thing to me.

If I were very skilled, maybe I could freehand a crawfish pattern on both sides of a crankbait. I'm not and that ain't gonna happen! Similar to RG, I use a paint template for the whole side of a bait, then clean it and flip it over to make the 2nd side exactly the same. One tip with templates - you need alignment marks to REGISTER the template on the bait so it is properly aligned on both sides of the bait. I mark where the lip slot and the tail hook hanger should hit the template.

If it worked OK on the first bait, my first thought would be a paint clog. Sometimes they can be a little difficult to remove. Remove the needle and shoot some clean water through the brush at max psi. Then hold your finger over the tip of the brush while triggering it to backwash the brush - that is often a quick fix. If that doesn't work, pour a little solvent like acetone or lacquer thinner in the brush and work the needle in/out until the clog is dissolved, then rinse with water. Careful with the needle - you can damage the nozzle on the brush if you hit it too hard with the needle. BTW, if you are using an a/b with a small tip (.3 mm or smaller) don't try using hobby paints (i.e., brands not formulated for airbrushing, like Apple Barrel, etc). It will just be Clog City.

Soft temper brass works fine, the choice of brass or stainless is mostly esthetic - I prefer stainless because it matches the rest of the hardware on the bait. I use the same .040" dia brass as stainless steel. Soft temper stainless is a little harder than brass - but either is much easier to work with than hard temper wire. When you first work with soft temper wire, it seems soft and easy to bend. However, when formed into a small diameter circle for a line tie or hook hanger, it is quite strong and hard to deform. If I were making baits for pike, musky or saltwater, I'd have to think twice about using soft temper wire but for bass, it's a no-brainer.

I use a Dremel with a set of steel sub-millimeter bits to drill polycarbonate and circuit board. I like a good friction fit for the wire and small bits are the ticket. I get them at: http://www.sciplus.com/ I use .040" Malin soft temper stainless "safety wire" on average to large balsa baits, from McMaster-Carr. It comes in 1/4 lb spools.

Propionate, aka "prop" is a cellulose product that comes in small pellets that need to be dissolved in acetone. It's often applied in multiple dips as a waterproof coating for raw wood before painting. Some guys also use it as a final clearcoat finish; others think it is not durable enough for that application. Search on prop and propionate for more info. One or more TU members have sold it in the past, including Palmetto Balsa.

Envirotex Lite is a pour-on epoxy that contains some solvent. Compared to 2 part auto polyurethanes containing isocyanate, it is very benign. Some people are skin sensitive to epoxies. I don't use a mask when brushing epoxies and don't think many others do either. If you intend to spray it, that's a different kettle of fish.

I don't like the Mickey Mouse style collars because I like to thread my trailer up on the jig hook to make a more compact bait. So I prefer the black rubber "spider collars". They work just as well and probably produce more sound than the Mickey Mouse arrangement. You might get more responses for jig questions on the Wire Baits Forum, btw.

There are various ways to do a thru-wire frame depending on the wood type, size of the bait, and the tools you have available. I assume we're talking balsa wood since other woods don't really require thru-wiring for bass baits. One simple thru-wire method using hand tools is this: Mark a center line with a compass around the bait blank before you begin shaping it. (btw, you also want to cut your lip slot before contouring the blank) After shaping and sanding, use a single edge razor blade to split the bait on the center line. Bend the wire frame so the hook hangers and line tie are at the correct exit points. Use an awl or nail to depress a trough in both sides of the balsa where the wire frame fits. The halves of the bait should fit together without pressure with the wire frame inside (plus any other hardware like the ballast weight) Glue the halves together with 5 minute fast cure epoxy. If some squeezes out into the lip slot, clean it out before it cures. Smear a little wood filler along the central seam to make it disappear if necessary. From there, finish the bait as normal. You can use any wire which you can bend accurately for the wire frame. I favor SOFT TEMPER stainless steel "safety wire" in .040" diameter because it's easy to bend accurately but is plenty strong enough for fishing abuse. I buy it in 1/4lb spools from McMaster-Carr online - who also carry sheets of polycarbonate for lip material.

Hmm, your silver foil looks suspiciously gold to me! I like simple patterns on silver foil to let the foil do its thing - shine shine shine. Light gray back with a pearl white or silver belly seems to get bit as well or better than other color patterns I've tried. I think that sometimes a simple color scheme with neutral colors is effective because it doesn't give the bass any negative visual cues. I'm in favor of eye candy for the bass, not the bass fisherman.

I coat D2T with DN on some baits intended for trolling. Works fine. Since DN is harder and slicker than D2T, it makes more sense to have it as the outer coating to repel hook rash. But when the inevitable happens, it's good to have the thick D2T underneath.

I thought about trying a screw-in tap for the DN but haven't heard any long term results from guys who have tried it. My concern is that SOMETHING has to fill that void in the top of the can as the level drops, and that SOMETHING is air containing moisture. In my experience, if there's air contacting DN in the can, it's gonna start to cure within 4-6 months. If butane works, that's a great! Nice to run down to the drug store and buy a can of cheap butane versus shelling out for Bloxygen (nitrogen/argon gas mix) plus shipping.

If you feel it's important that your craw segment lines reach entirely around the bait, the whole body stencil makes sense. The "whole body stencil" is also good if you're gonna make a lot of one bait size/style. To me, that's more an aesthetic than a practical thing, and I don't do enough of one pattern bait to make it worthwhile. I use artist's frisket material, which is designed for stencils. It is a clear plastic film with adhesive on one side and a paper backing. I draw an outline of the bait and the cut outs on the paper backing, then cut it out with an Xacto knife. Instead of peeling off the backing, I leave it on the stencil so I can reverse the stencil for the other side of the bait (after wiping off or drying the paint of course). To get 2 sides the same, you need to have marks or cuts on the stencil to register it against the side of the lure (beginning of the lip slot, tail, etc). The advantage of this is that you can build up a library of stencils for various purposes and can adapt the stencils to new bait shapes and sizes.

You can't calculate what ballast to use in an "average size" crankbait unless you know what you want the finished crankbait to weigh. Some good flat sided wood bass baits are 2 1/4" long and weigh in at around .29-.30 ounce with #6 treble hooks. Taking a D-bait or a Flatshad as a model, I'd use .12 oz of ballast in a light balsa body (split and thru-wired) or .06 oz ballast in a paulownia body (not split or thru-wired). Either would work out to right around the target weight of .29 oz (.25 oz without hooks) with epoxy undercoating and topcoating. As you can see, the type of wood makes a big difference. Belly weights w/hangers are often sold in gram weights - 2 grams is .07 oz. Soon after I started building crankbaits, I realized that a small digital scale to weigh components is a "must have" if you are going to build baits to a target weight. Otherwise, you'll have to depend on guestimates or do a float test on every batch if you want to get it right. I thru-wire balsa but just use hand twisted screw eyes in other woods (hardwoods). You can live without the integrated belly weights/hangers and just use screw eyes and separately installed ballast - the integrated weights just make it a little easier since there are no ballast holes to patch. Only the Devil (and the builder) knows what's in an "8 dip finish". Dip numbers are not informative. What counts is a smooth finished surface that is durable, and you can do that with 10 dips or with no dips, just depending on the coatings you select. If I use propionate dissolved in acetone as an undercoating, a balsa bait will have at least 8 dips but the bait will be no more durable than if I use an epoxy undercoating and topcoat - no dips! Hope this helps.