BobP

My saw requires a hex wrench to tighten the blade clamps. BTW, after trying various blades, I find that the big (?1/4"?) standard blades that are about 1/32" thick are the best for cutting out blanks. They cut faster, bend less, and wander less than thinner blades with more teeth per inch. Added benefit, the big blade is the right size for making a lip slot in one cut for .031 circuit board lips.

Paint and a Devcon epoxy finish usually adds about .03 oz to the weight of a 2 1/4" bass bait. It's mostly about the topcoat, so using a different coating will change that. It may or may not be significant but it's worth considering. Don't forget the weight of the hooks either.

You can find imported blanks that mimic popular commercial crankbaits but the internal compartments, wall thickness, and amount of ballast is NOT the same. They sell based on their resemblance but are entirely different. Don't buy a $2 blank that mimics a $15-20 Japanese crankbait expecting it to fish the same. It won't. That said, you can sort through a number of blanks and find some that make decent baits. And that's the problem - sorting through them. One I like is the little shallow fat 1/4 oz bait sold by Janns. JMHO, a good alternative is to buy name brand baits from the "$2 Bin" at Walmart, BassPro, Gander Mtn, Dicks, etc. They are usually discontinued or unpopular (aka "What were they thinking?) colors. Same goes for Ebay, if you have the patience for it.

.051" hard stainless is plenty strong. I do joints on bass baits with .031" wire because it's easy to twist into screw eyes with hand tools. Fish can do "funny things" to lures but all said and done, if the joint wire is several times stronger than than the line you tie on the lure, you're probably OK. .029" stainless leader wire is rated at 180 lbs. The guides on a freshwater rod begin to tear off the blank at less than 15 lbs dead weight lift. The only concern I have with a wire joint is that it might be deformed if torqued, not that it will break.

I like the Smith Wildlife Pearl Chrome. It's a transparent very light gray with chrome flake that gives underlying paint a silver metallic sheen resembling a baitfish. It will slightly darken underlying light colors so you can use it for light/dark tonal shading on different areas. It's a flake paint, so you need a .3mm tip or larger airbrush to shoot it.

I ordered from them a couple of times, no problem. If you order solvent based products, it has to be shipped UPS at higher cost. I don't know another source for some of the brands they sell, so will probably order from them again!

Is this the same buddy that dropped your airbrush? We have to forgive our friends their faults and trust they will do the same for us.

Epoxy levels out pretty well after application as long as you haven't left any dry spots, so the brush is player's choice. I use (and reuse) inexpensive artist brushes, most often a 1/4" wide square brush. Clean it thoroughly with lacquer thinner or acetone and it will last indefinitely. I've used the same $8 package of brushes for 3 yrs and several hundred baits.

I've never had a problem ordering DN. He runs a business and sells to us TUers at a steep discount as a favor. If he's a little slow answering an email on occasion - well, everyone has priorities, like paying the rent, feeding the family, etc. Like RayburnGuy sez, access his site via the banner ad on this page to get discount prices available only to TU members. I think he also offers a small amount of topcoat for the price of shipping it, if you want to "try before you buy" a bigger amount.

I use a lip with about 1/2" exposed length. I cut them from polycarbonate but you can cut a bigger lip down with tin snips, or sand it down with a Dremel tool.

The translucent green board from McMaster is G-11. It's more durable than G-10 and costs more too ($7.52 for a 1x1' 1/32" thick sheet). I've tried it, and it was indistinguishable from G-10 for lip use. I haven't tried G-7. The McMaster-Carr site (McMaster-Carr) has good descriptions and tech specs of various circuit boards if you're interested. Look under Plastics/Garolite. We crankbait makers care about color but we're a tiny minority that buys circuit board. If anyone knows where to get white G-10 in sheets smaller than 4'x8', I for one would be interested! What we need is a board sponsor to buy white G-10 and cut it down for resale!

If you're "gonna be building baits" and want to topcoat with epoxy - including ETEX or D2T, you might as well go ahead and build yourself a rotation frame. ETEX is runnier than D2T and takes longer to harden. You can usually take D2T baits off a wheel in 45-60 min vs 2-3 hrs with ETEX. D2T is thick enough and cures fast enough that you can put a hanger in each end of the bait and switch it upside down every few minutes for 45 minutes if you don't have a wheel. I have used several rod finish epoxies like Flexcoat and Glass Coat. Some guys like them on crankbaits but I prefer D2T as it's faster to cure. I haven't used rod epoxies in awhile but had some problems with them yellowing on white baits a few years ago, so switched. My preference for trouble free, quick and easy topcoating is dipping baits in Dick Nite moisture cured polyurethane. Dip'em, Hang'em, Done. A single dip is similar to the topcoat you'll find on most commercial crankbaits. I've used multiple dips but can't tell a big difference in durability. Important tip - if you go with Dick Nite, do yourself a favor and order some Bloxygen Finish Preserver to spray into your dipping jar whenever you close its lid. It's the only way I've found for a hobby builder to keep a jar of DN from curing after a few months. BTW, as far as cost, DN is at least as cost effective as epoxy, even if you're dipping baits and "wasting" some. You're "wasting" epoxy too when you mix up a batch. JMHO

I also use a notebook. That makes it handy to jot down info as I work at the bench. I write down the bait design name, number of baits in the batch, paint scheme on each bait, and the build details I need to reproduce the bait - wood type, amount of ballast, lip type, waterproofing, topcoat, hardware and lip specs, and the finished weight of each bait with the treble hooks. I use a library of body and lip templates, so don't need for pics or diagrams on my "standards". When I'm prototyping a new bait, I get more detailed and add traces of the body with ballast position noted, and the lip. I note the weight of the sanded blank before ballast and weigh the bait several times during the build to see how choices in waterproofing, ballast, and finish affect the weight. The data allows me to build a bait that's usually within .01 oz of a target weight. It's easy to jot this stuff down while you do the bait and having details is essential for future builds. Believe me, if you do more than 10 baits per year, you will forget how you did it.

Wow, what a realistic bait! Beautiful! Looks like you nailed it to me, and I like the action. With a bait that already looks so good in the water, you don't want big changes, IMO.

I never thin it. Doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't - but I haven't found any Smith Wildlife I can't just squirt and shoot. I use a BR to shoot Smith Wildlife Pearl Chrome, which won't shoot through a .2mm brush. Flakes are flakes - you can thin them and they'll clog even faster if the flakes are too large.

dixieart.com carries Iwata parts, or has them drop shipped from Iwata. You lucked out on the nozzle, they are only $10.80 for the BR (.35 or .5mm) and the needle is less than $10. However, minimum order is $25 and shipping is $9+. You can Google "iwata parts" for other sources, like TCP Global. You can apparently use several tip assemblies on a BR. TCP Global lists .2 and .3mm parts. Be sure what size your original tip is and get the right size parts, or they won't fit the rest of your tip assembly. Mine came with a .3mm tip ( I think!). Man, sorry that happened! Been there, done that, but it's worse when it isn't even your fault.

When I got my Iwata HP.2mm airbrush, it came with a factory test paper shot by the tech who tuned it. The spiral he did on the test paper went from hairline width to about 1/8". When I become good enough to do that... well, let's not delude ourselves - that ain't gonna happen. It takes more than a fine tool to produce fine work.

Depends on the lure. On most, I think you'll be fine lightly sanding with 400 grit and giving it a washdown. I've never had a problem with paint adhesion on lures with 3D features (the uneven surface actually helps adhesion) but you have to be aware that acrylic paint and the topcoat will tend to fill in fine patterns. If it's something with pronounced relief, like a Diamond Shad rattlebait, sanding isn't going to help much. You might consider getting some Bulldog Adhesion Promoter. My basic attitude is that a finish will hold up as long as the topcoat does but won't last long if it doesn't. You aren't in much danger of water infiltration on a plastic bait, so they tend to be even more durable.

I've never heard of this particular problem. You didn't say how long it was before the epoxy cracked. If the epoxy is hard but cracks before you use the lure, there may be something wrong with the batch or you may be doing something during mixing/application to cause it. But what usually causes epoxy to crack on a bait is the lure body swelling for some reason, most often because it has absorbed water during fishing. Like any domed surface, epoxy on a lure resists outside pressure much better than it can resist pressure from inside.

I agree, bubbles in the cup indicate a clog. I put some acetone in my Iwata HP and shoot it while gently moving the needle back and forth, and that disolves the clog or pushes it out through the airbrush nozzle so I can keep painting. I haven't had a particular problem with WASCO paint like Gunnie, however. Clogs are usually a skin of partially dried paint that you squeeze into the cup without realizing it.

Yeah, I have one of those LC Flat CB-20's in Spring Craw, and I removed the claw print from the lip. Like it better without.

Glonation Green glow paint - I ordered 4 oz, it came in 4 ea 1 oz jars. The price was good and the shipping was fast via USPS from Kentucky. This paint is a non-toxic off-white acrylic soft gel. The gel keeps the grains of glow substance (strontium aluminate) from settling in the jar. It is quite grainy and if you rub it between your fingers, it feels like the paint is laced with fine salt. I used it on some Jann's Netcraft jigging spoons that were basecoated white (recommended in the instructions). First, I thinned the gel with some airbrush flow medium and shot it through the large tip of a Badger 175T. It sprayed but for the best glow, several coats would have been needed. Not wanting to wait, I brushed on 2 thick coats of the unthinned gel with a soft artist's brush, waiting an hour between coats. Turned off the lights and voila - lots of glow. I'll let it dry completely and topcoat it. Observations - I was a little surprised at the graininess. The lure surface is still grainy after it dries but not so much that a clearcoat won't smooth it out. There are surely glow paints better suited to airbrush application and they are probably more expensive (Glonation is one of the cheapest glow paints I found via Google). Overall, I'm happy with the end results.

It's hard to know what a fish will bite - or not - but most of us go to the trouble to make baits as lifelike as we can in the belief that the more natural the look, the more likely it is to get bit. In that regimen, clear lips get the nod. There is also a practical side to it however, which is where circuit board lips come in. Circuit board lips started out on shallow baits meant to hit cover continuously. They were short lips that hopefully didn't detract too much from the natural profile of the bait. But I've seen large circuit board lips on deep divers and they catch fish. Some new Rapalas come with translucent red lips, some Wiggle Warts have craw color accents on their clear lips, some Lucky Craft Flat CB-20's have craw claws printed on their lips. So what's a boy to think? To me, clear lips are still preferable unless there is some important design reason to go with an alternative.