BobP

Sweet! Kudos to Mr & Mrs both

One popular clearcoat epoxy is Devcon Two Ton 30 min epoxy. Another is Envirotex Lite. The 5 min Devcon is not suitable because it cures too fast, turns brown eventually, and does not level out well. Dick Nite Lurecoat is a moisture cured polyurethane. JMHO, the Devcon Two Ton is the easiest to use in terms of cure time, leveling, one coat thickness, and lack of "gotchas". Make sure you measure accurately and mix thoroughly when using any epoxy.

Mark, I use a small Swiss Army knife to lift finish off of crankbaits whenever possible. You can sometimes insert the blade between the finish and the plastic/wood and simply pop off the finish in sheets, so it can be fast (epoxy clearcoats will do this). But it doesn't work on all baits, especially ones that have been soaked in the lake for the 2-3 years and have become chalky. If it comes to scraping off paint, I go to sandpaper. The plastic in some baits has a "grain". If you scrape in one direction, it does OK. In the opposite direction, you get tears in the surface of the plastic that can be hard to sand out. I used to cruise the "$1 bin" in tackle stores for unpopular colors of baits I liked. Anything chrome was a prime candidate because the finish on them would almost fall off the bait with minimal prying.

I save every one I find if it's a good brand/model! I usually hand sand the old finish with 220 and 400 grit Norton 3X paper. The Dremel raises too much dust and I can get them smoother with hand sanding. The only time I'll break one off and lose it is if I'm catching fish out of the immediate area and retrieving it will disturb the bite. But it's not unusual to come back an hour later and find it floating around

Click on the "HowTo" at the top of this page, then click on the "Hard Bait How To's" in Member Submitted Tutorials. Lastly, go to the bottom of the page where it gives you "display options" and change the time range to "From the Beginning" and then click "Show Tutorials". The list of tutorials includes foil and photo finishing procedures.

Yes, the Revolution BR. I've used one for 6 mths and like it very much. Don't know anything about trigger models but I figure they're designed for painting larger things like gas tanks, cars and motorcycle helmets. I like the BR 'cause it's 1) good quality and 2) holds the right amount of paint for doing crankbaits. If you want to paint larger stuff, you will want a brush with larger capacity. I use Createx, Smith Wildlife and Translatex acrylic latex airbrush paints. You brush on Devcon 2 Ton or any other brand epoxy. You can either brush or dip Dick Nite Fishermun's Lurecoat or other polyurethanes. A drying wheel is not absolutely necessary with Devcon, but is required for any other clearcoat and is a big advantage with Devcon too. Anything that rotates at 4-8 rpm is good - rotisserie motors, microwave turntable motors, or small stepping motors in that rpm range. If you're doing musky lures, a rotisserie motor has more torque.

I also use Iwatas and think the Revolution B model is a great general purpose gravity feed airbrush for a very moderate price. It has a .3mm tip. Gravity feed uses less paint and is much easier to clean. Any compressor will do as long as it will develop at least 35-45 psi under constant load. That includes small tool compressors, which many guys favor due to the low price and high capacity - plus you can use it for other stuff around the house. You need a moisture filter and a pressure regulator to go with it. Yes, you can try cheap hobby paints and thin them to shoot through your airbrush. BUT you'll be happier using paint formulated for airbrushes because it has smaller paint particles and flow enhancers to prevent clogging and spray better patterns. If I had it to do over, I'd skip the hobby paint and go with airbrush paint only, for the convenience and efficiency. If you want to do details, buy some frisket material and make templates for gill slits, craw patterns, kill spots, etc. I've been painting cranks for 5 yrs and still depend on templates versus trying to do details freehand. It's just more reliable and repeatable (remember you want both sides to look the same!). Get some small netting to shoot through for scale patterns. Createx has a good standard color palette. You'll probably find you want to buy some special "fishy" colors and Smith Paint Nature's Gallery, Wasco, Translatex, etc are all good sources for "taxidermy" airbrush paint. I'd check out Dixie Art for an airbrush plus a selection of paints. Their prices are decent and shipping is free for orders over $50.

Maybe one of the TU'ers who build lots of swimbaits have better suggestions, but I doubt you can just look at a bait and decide where and how much to ballast it except through testing. Too much depends on the buoyancy of the bait "as built" and what kind of action you think is optimal. The several swimbaits I built had 3 body sections and a diving lip, no tail. They all seemed to work best with ballast in the rear of the 1st segment and the front of the 2nd, and no ballast in the tail segment (which tended to kill the swim action when I tried it). But that was just my experience - can't say how yours would behave with the same treatment. BTW - nice looking bait!

I've also ordered parts from southwesternparts.com with good and fast service. They seem to be a pretty big business. But ordering parts direct from the manufacturer can be faster and cheaper for some brands. A bonus, factories sometimes have a policy of free parts/shipping on items less than a minimal threshold, say $5. They don't see parts & service as a "profit center" and will sometimes even fix problems or supply parts for out-of-warranty reels for minimal or no charge to keep us customers happy and buying their reels. Anybody ordering anything from a small reel maintenance business in the fall will probably have to stand in line. It's the busy season as tournament and saltwater fishermen send in reels after the summer to be cleaned and serviced for the following year. The backlog can run to several months. A small reel business can't stock a comprehensive inventory of parts for all makes and models - they have to order the parts from the factory. A delay due to that can't be chalked up to "bad service" - except by the manufacturer. Bad service comes into play only when the reel shop doesn't communicate delays to the customer. When they do, it isn't fair for the customer to cancel out. After all, the shop has already disassembled the reel, cleaned it, and diagnosed the problem requiring the new part(s). So 80% of the fix has been done and here comes Joe Blow, asking that service be cancelled and the reel returned at no charge. You can see how small reel services can get a little paranoid. And no, I don't own, work in, or even use a reel service business I'm strictly DIY because I don't like to wait either! If I fix it, there's nobody to blame but me if it doesn't work perfectly afterwards.

http://woodworker.com/cgi-bin/fullpres.exe?partnum=914-785&gclid=CK359-mWspYCFQQrFQodFWdXLw I ordered mine from the above. It took 2 months because they were out of stock and said it was difficult to get shipments from the manufacturer. Found it on Google. You might do the same and get an alternate source. The Bloxygen company site contains a list of vendors, or you can order direct from them.

To keep your DN from curing you might want to try Bloxygen. It's an inert gas (argon) in an aerosol can. Shoot a little into the bottle when you store it and it sits on the surface of the DN, blocking the air and moisture in the bottle from getting to the DN. Another TU'er recommended it so I recently got a can to try. I like to dip baits in DN and although I was careful to handle and store it to exclude moisture, it began to cure after the jar was half empty - I assume from the larger quantity of moisture-laden air in the partially used jar.

You're right about color variation - the lake, the depth, the cover they're using all figure into it. I think we seldom get it exactly right - but "sorta close" will usually get bit. I shoot mostly shades of green over a cream/bone color, with black side markers, thinking that bright colored bass are usually shallow to medium depth and around green vegetation. Light Bass Green (a yellowish light green) near the belly, bright green shoulders, then black/green back. I shoot a misting of Wildlife Color pearl chrome over the sides, nose and back to "unify" everything and give it some iridescence and shadow. I like your bluegill pattern except the fish here (piedmont NC) seem to have a bit less blue on them.

The couple of times I ordered from DN I had no problem via the email link on his TU order page but you know how it is with small businesses - stuff happens and they can't always sit by the phone/computer. Especially if they ever want a vacation I just sent in an order for DN today, so we'll see how it goes......

Here's whats on his web site Address: Dick Nite Spoons, Inc. PO Box 175 Lake Stevens, WA 98258-0175 Phones: Toll-Free: 1-888-321-LURE Local: 1-425-377-8448 Fax: 1-425-377-9707 Email: dicknite@dicknite.com

They're the same stuff. The 9oz bottle set is considerably cheaper per volume than the 30 ML syringes - if you don't have to pay shipping charges.

I got one during the Badger Garage Sale this year. I'm not knocking Badger brushes but my honest personal opinion? The flip over cup is too small in the gravity feed position. It was a decent airbrush and I had no complaints but an old Badger 170T I have performs just as well (they seem to use the same nozzles and needles so that's no surprise). Bottom line, the Iwata brushes I've used are better in build quality and performance. Iwata specifies the tip size on each airbrush model so you know how fine a pattern to expect when using it. The domestic brushes like Badger and Paasche seldom do. JMHO the Iwata Revolution BR (.3 mm tip) at about $70 is a great general purpose airbrush that will shoot any viscosity airbrush paint (including pearls, flakes) with very good control. Its gravity feed cup is just the right size to hold enough paint yet not get in the way while you use it. The build quality is right up there with the expensive Iwata brushes too. I know TUers who turn out better lures than I using a Badger, so it's clear that it's the user, not the brush that really controls the end product. But the Iwata brushes are still the cream of the crop.

Here in the SE it will be spoon jigging time! Ice? What ice? That is mostly a childhood memory around here! After spring, winter is my fave. But since I passed 60 yrs, I stay home and make crankbaits, paint spoons/jig and tie bucktails when the day won't reach 50 deg F. That means you can fish most days except in January and early February.

The last color I shoot on a lure is black for the kill spot or other details. It's quick and simple to grab a fine tip calligraphy pen (couple of bucks at a hobby store), dip it in the paint remaining in the airbrush cup and sign the lure. I use Createx black because it is a fine ground black pigment paint that will flow through the tip of the pen - any black AIRBRUSH paint will work but hobby paints won't due to their large pigment particle size.

Haz - Right on both counts! I build lures for friends/myself and one good reason is that it is very irksome losing $15-20 custom lures to shore cover snags. Make them yourself and fish them as they SHOULD be fished - with abandon and confidence. I fish and see crankbaits as almost purely functional objects. And yes, a laydown is a partially submerged tree that toppled into the water but did not float away (which would make it just a Hazard to Navigation!).

"Hunting": when a crankbait is retrieved and runs slightly off track to the left and right at unpredictable intervals while maintaining a basically straight course back to the boat. Hunting is seen as desirable because it more closely mimics how real prey fish swim. You have to experiment with build details to get hunting action. It requires a bait that swims in the narrow window between "out of control" and "too straight and narrow to look alive". JMHO, it's easy to end up building more baits that are "out of control", so it's a questionable build target unless you couldn't care less about how many "duds" you get on the way to a few hunters. Deflecting a bait off cover, or twitching the bait during the retrieve gets similar results, so I don't worry about hunting and don't hoard/treasure the baits I have that do it. Throw to the gnarliest part of a laydown and twitch it out, hitting every branch you can! Nobody said a crankbait was supposed to last forever!

You can also make interlocked screw eyes from hand twisted stainless steel wire. It's easy to do. Clamp a drill bit the size you want the eyes into a vise. Bend a length of ss wire around the bit, grab the ends with vise-grip pliers and start twisting wire. When the first screw eye is finished, do the same with a second piece of wire but thread the first screw eye on one of the wire ends before you start twisting. Voila, a screw eye joint that you can make any size with the shafts any length you like. I use .031" wire or .029" 12 gauge 180 lb leader wire for mine. I think it will work with wire at least up to .043".

Looks like you caught a keeper.

Yep, Devcon 2T - measure it accurately and mix it well in a container or on a piece of aluminum foil where unmixed stuff can't "hide in a corner". Then brush it on. It's not like brushing paint. You are "laying it on" and want to keep the brush wet at all times. I do around the lip, the belly hanger and tail first, then start on the back and continue around the bait. Be sure everything gets covered. Rotate the lure for the first 30-40 mins to avoid sags and hang it up for 24 hrs to completely cure. You'll get good results if you measured and mixed right.

Name an obscure Japanese crankbait and Stringjam has two of them! String, would you please consider adopting me?