BobP

I use clothes pins

I don't have any insights but have painted a few 1/2 oz HLE's with no problem in years past. It's questionable whether Rapala would replace them after custom painting but you never know. If they had a bad batch, you may be one of many customers complaining and they may send replacements without having the bad baits returned.

I think Esox covered most of it. I shoot plain water and sometimes soapy water through the brush between colors, using a spray bottle. If you hold a finger over the tip of a brush filled with water, it will backwash most of the paint out when you pull the trigger - better than just shooting water through it. At the end of the session, I do a thorough cleaning with the airbrush disassembled using soapy water and a set of airbrush cleaning brushes. Lots of guys use Windex. Someone here reported that an Iwata rep warned against using cleaners like Windex that contain ammonia, which can corrode metal parts. Yeah, it can be a chore always cleaning your brush. But it's a WORSE chore using a dirty clogged brush to do fine painting.

The Bostich compressor will work just fine with a regulator and water trap. I use 15-40 psi depending on what I'm shooting. Most guys paint with airbrush acrylic paints like Createx, etc. and clearcoat with epoxy or polyurethane.

"Bone" varies to suit individual taste. I start with mostly white, then add yellow, brown and gray a few drops at a time until I get the color values I'm after. More yellow than brown or gray.

If you plan to build crankbaits as a hobby and not a business, sticking with your scroll saw is fine - it's slower than a band saw but gets the job done. On balsa and other soft woods, it will cut with plenty of speed. On thick hardwoods, it can be slow. If you don't mind slow, what the heck? In the future, get a band saw if the scroll saw becomes tiresome. If I have one piece of advice it's this: symmetry is what makes baits look good, run straight and catch fish. It takes lots of skill to carve a symmetrical bait, so cheat wherever you can! Measure everything you can and mark up the bait with lines that guide you how to taper the bait and round over the square edges. Use a compass to mark a center line all around the bait from head to tail so you can center the ballast and hardware. If you have a laser level handy, mark a center dot on the tip of the lip and use the laser to align the lip with the center line you have drawn (idea courtesy of Hazmail). In other words, do everything to avoid "freehanding" and "eyeballing". A finished crankbait has complex curves which are very hard to eyeball when you're looking at wood grain at the same time.

You'll quickly get the hang of it, don't worry! I tighten the blade on my scroll saw with pliers to make it as taut as possible and keep it from wandering. When I first started, I figured a very thin small blade would help me control the cut. Wrong. A standard 1/4" blade maintains its direction better and is less apt to snap or wander. It also makes cutting a good lip slot easier. 1 blade width is perfect for 1/32" circuit board lips; 2 blade widths for 1/16" Lexan. Just take it slow and easy. The fastest blade speed will not always cut the fastest. The saw blade has to clear the wood dust it generates out of the slot before it can move forward, and the motor speed that does that best depends on blade type, the pressure you apply, the thickness of the wood and the wood type. A little experimentation can make it an easier process.

I use a small 4 rpm Micro Yang timing motor that's lasted for 4 yrs and counting. Small motors can have surprising torque and I wouldn't hesitate to use one from a microwave turntable. I regularly turn 6 oz of baits on mine (it has 6 clips). For me, 4 rpm is perfect. Fast enough to stop any finish migration and just slow enough that I can clip lures on while it's running. But anything 1-6 rpm will work fine. BTW, I checked "timing motor" on Ebay. The first auction is for a 110v 4 rpm rod drying motor at a "buy it now" price of $10.95+shipping. Not too shabby.

IPOCK, I use the method illustrated in SmokeyJ's link. You can adjust the diameter of the eye by using different size drill bits clamped in the vise. I often use .031" bright stainless steel wire or, for crawfish pattern baits, coffee colored Malin Hard Wire stainless leader wire in .029" diameter. It makes a nice "stealth" hanger. I like the method for 3 reasons: you can customize the size/color of the screw eye, it makes a screw eye that's easy to mount a split ring onto, and I don't have to stock screw eyes. It takes me about 30 mins to whip up a batch of screw eyes and line ties for 6 baits, so it's not something a volume custom builder would necessarily favor. I use the same method when making baits that have the line tie out on the lip, just make the shank of the screw eye as long as needed.

I think Dean and DRT come to the question of heat setting from different perspectives (bass baits/trolling baits) and both are valid. Everyone develops a finish system that works for them in terms of appearance, ease of use, and durability. You can't compare one to the other unless you take the whole system and how the bait will be used into account. I come at it from the bass bait perspective and basically use the same system as Dean. OK, let's call it "heat drying". I use a hair dryer mostly to speed up painting and I clear coat with DN. What I've found from removing finish from both epoxy and DN coated baits is that the finish on the DN baits is much harder to remove. It will not peel off like epoxy often will. The DN seems to have soaked into and through the acrylic paint. I'm not a coatings expert but if I were to 'crosslink' the acrylic and make it solvent resistant, that might not be optimal for the finish system I'm using for my bass baits. I'm happy with the results and its durability. If something obviously better comes along, I'll switch in a heart beat. But until then...

Foamy, Not to preclude Kellure's generous offer, but it's easy to twist up your own screw eyes from ss wire. IMO, the advantage is you can customize wire size/length of the screw to suit the particular bait, plus hand twisted screws have more glue surface than tapered screw eyes. I can see the attraction of factory built screw eyes if you build in high volume but if you're a hobby builder, hand twisted is a useful alternative.

Hard to recommend what will best remove the original paint since we don't know what the paint or clearcoat is. Acetone will disolve finish about as well as anything as long as there is no plastic on the lure to get eaten up by it. When all is said and done, I usually resort to scraping finish off lead heads with a knife. There are various options for painting the heads: Powder paint is probably the most durable. I'd check the Wire Bait forum for more opinions.

Only fish at night, and only on nights without moon. Come home before dawn and store all baits in a refrigerator - oh, and pull the fridge's light bulb. And buy a good pair of night vision goggles. So says Batman! Mark, my bet is there will be some protection to the underlying layers.

Kudos to Hazmail on his tip about using a laser level to check the alignment of lips when installing them! I used my level today to install lips in a batch of deep divers and what is usually a doubt ridden process was a snap:worship: Couple of tips: run a centerline around the bait with a compass after you cut out the blank, while it is still "square". This will be your reference line when mounting the lip. Go over the centerline with a Sharpie pen so it will stay put while you shape and sand the bait. Second, put a pip of Sharpie ink on the center tip of the lip. Shoot the laser down the centerline on the body and onto the lip. Adjust the pip so it is cut by the laser and VOILA. I've eyeballed the lips on many baits and no matter how careful I am, SOME of them ended up out of alignment. What looks straight from one angle may not look the same from another viewpoint, especially when you are looking at wood with grain lines in it. The laser makes it a no-brainer - which some of us badly need

Hey Mark, I think all epoxies and polyurethanes will yellow eventually. A UV inhibitor just makes it take longer. If you can build an epoxy coated crankbait that won't significantly yellow in 3-4 years, it's an accomplishment. Of course, if you can fish a crankbait without losing or trashing it in 3-4 years, that's also an accomplishment, so it may be a moot point.

James - With airbrush acrylics I blow dry each color with a 1500W hair dryer on low until all the water gloss disappears, then for another 10 secs on high to be sure it's thoroughly dry. I usually let the bait hang for a couple of hours after painting before I apply D2T or DN. Perhaps Auto Air or other brands have different drying requirements but Createx, Smith Wildlife and Van Dykes Natures Gallery seem to do fine. I don't know if you would call that "heat setting". The temps reached are far below what the manufacturers recommend for heat setting paint on fabrics, but I've never had a problem.

There's someone in the store responsible for managing inventory in the paint dept. You need to ask them. They can order it for you if Walmart still stocks the brand.

Just remember max upload size is 500 KB. That's quite large.

If you click on the bait title in the Gallery, you get a page showing a larger pic and the text entered by the builder, plus any comments. Click on the pic in that page and it will enlarge to full size, whatever the pixel count was sent to TU by the builder. Fatfingers uploaded his pic at high resolution so it enlarges to a sharp full screen pic.

I use the opaque Createx black. It works well in a calligraphy pen because it has pigment grains that are finer than other airbrush acrylics.

Easiest, guaranteed no smear? Go to Michaels or any hobby shop and get a fine point calligraphy pen for $3. It looks like the steel nib on an old fountain pen mounted in a plastic handle, and It makes a very fine line. After you spray the kill spot on the lure as a last painting step, dip the pen in the black Createx left in the airbrush and sign the bait. The black acrylic paint won't run. It's quick, it's easy, it's cheap, the pen lasts forever.

I had a "Duh!" moment using DN today. When I started using DN, I dipped baits, let the excess drip off onto a newspaper, then put them on a lure turner until they hardened. I'd been using Devcon for years so the turner was a no-brainer. If you don't spin epoxy coated lures, the epoxy collects at the tail in a blob. But the only time I had problems with DN wrinkling paint was if I put the baits on the turner before they had a chance to drip off all excess DN. Well, here's the "Duh!" DN is very thin so any excess drips off the lure before it begins to harden if you just hang it up to dry. No lure turner needed - just dip'em and hang'em up. Works fine and avoids the pitfall of excess DN causing paint wrinkling. Tried it today and it looks just fine. My

Mark, how would you compare Azek to solid woods like cedar or basswood in weight and buoyancy? I make bass baits where buoyancy is important for lively action. Maybe that isn't the same for swimbaits.

Do you put the lure on a turner after applying the DN? If you do and there's excess DN on the lure, enough to pool in one spot, it will run back and forth under the forming skin and cause the paint to wrinkle. Been there, done that.