BobP

Netman, your original post said you sealed/primed/painted it. Didn't say you applied a durable clearcoat afterwards. I hope that was an ommision? Waterproof the bait with 50/50 epoxy/acetone first, then paint it, then use the same epoxy (not thinned with acetone) for a durable clearcoat. Your problems should be over.

I'd expect a bait that size to weigh around 1/2 oz. You said it had "a little" ballast. Maybe "a little more" would help to settle down the action and make it more predictable.

The water will eventually evaporate out and the bait will shrink. There is often no straightforward way to determine where the leak was because baits absorb water differently according to the grain pattern and the density of the wood, and internal pressure from expanding wood easily trashes the finish in various places. But water leaked in somewhere and you'll have to waterproof the bait completely to prevent it happening again.

BTW, Lexan is the GE brand name for polycarbonate, of which there are various manufacturers.

If you're refinishing baits that didn't crack before, water is penetrating the finish and cracking the wood. If the cracking is near the tail, I would suspect a leak around the hook hanger. I'd consider waterproofing the bait with a 50/50 solution of Devcon Two Ton epoxy and acetone before applying the finish.

I use the little "eye dotters" sold by staminainc.com. 3" plastic sticks with little spongy balls on the ends. You can rinse them out and reuse them. Don't know if it works better than anything else, though.

Anything that waterproofs the wood so the grain won't rise when hit by water based acrylic is effective for hardwoods. For soft wood you might want something that is hard and durable to protect the wood from impact and toothy critters. Like Snax, I often use propionate disolved in acetone. It seals and reinforces plus leaves a hard smooth surface after 5-6 dips (which take about an hour total). I haven't tried plastic cups in acetone, but it apparently works fine if you use the right plastic.

IMO, epoxy is epoxy as far as durability goes. Devcon goes on thicker and cures faster. The largest Devcon I've seen online is a 9oz set of bottles, sold here: http://www.texaswoodcarvers.com/tool_index.htm

Bemidjibasser, I make mostly flat sided cranks but that doesn't mean sharp edged shoulders or bellies - I round them off so it looks natural and isn't a problem with epoxy. It's like that Gorton fish commercial on TV when the crew hauls in a net full of square fish: "Now that just ain't natural".

There's one thing I don't like about epoxy on swimbaits or any other lure - it tends to draw away from any sharp edge during the cure process. It LOOKS fine initially but a little use quickly shows the weakness. Best cure = round off all the sharp edges or find another clearcoat. This really came home to me on some crankbaits I made with carved detailing but it applies across the board - for instance, at the tail hook hanger on wood crankbaits.

David, I agree Dick Nite is great stuff. I use it on a majority of the baits I make nowadays. Not least because I prefer to dip rather than brush epoxy! But I was going for a simple and cheap (but good) coating regimen. Since you can use Devcon for both waterproofing and clearcoating.... Also, storage and application of Dick Nite requires more care and better timing than epoxy, and the consequences of screwing any of that up are worse.

PB, that VMC manual is a nice resource. Thanks! I do it upside-down: keep 50-100 of each size 6,4,and 2 and mix and match according to what fits. One thing I've learned - you can never have too many trebles

Gamakatsu EWG's use heavier wire than the Round Bends. Tat sacrifices some penetration so I don't use them on bass lures. But they'd work OK on pike and muskies. They remind me of Mustad Triple Grip trebles but the tines are not turned in as much. VMC makes round bend trebles in several wire diameters (2X, 4X, 6X) and finishes (bronze or permasteel) , which seem well suited for musky and pike. staminainc.com carries them. I use VMC permasteel trebles on all my saltwater baits. Unlike a lot of other saltwater trebles, they come very sharp right out of the box.

My bad - my current version of Firefox seems to be logging in and staying logged in OK now. Thanks!

DD-22 = 2 ea #2 DLN = 2 ea #4 Small Bandits = 2 ea #6 Rapala DT6 = Short shank #4 front, #6 rear DT-10 = 2 ea #4's DT-16 = 2 ea #2's Rapala sometimes uses intermediate size hooks, like #5's or #3's on some of their baits. Those sizes are not carried by most suppliers. If you liked the VMC trebles on your Rapalas, you can get them from Cabelas.

Terry, I use IE and Firefox and can only get the site to log me in and stay logged using IE. And yes, I have cookies enable in Firefox. Too bad since I really prefer the Firefox.

http://www.buyfishingstuff.com/products.html Here's a place I've used several times and has the best prices I've found, plus good service. 90% of bass crankbaits use either a #6 or a #4 treble, a few larger baits use #2's. I've used most brands. I settled on the Gamakatsu Round Bends because they're among the very sharpest out of the box and tend to stay that way. Plus the wire is strong compared to other brands. I use them on all the baits in my tacklebox and haven't noticed any "lost fish syndrome". Of course, experience and opinions vary! The Short Shank VMC trebles are a good solution if you have a bait whose trebles tend to tangle. Or you can use them to upsize trebles from #6 to #4's. When I buy VMC's now, I get the Rapala VMC Inline hooks sold through Cabelas. Good performance and they're designed to prevent hook rash on the sides of your crankbaits.

I bought a 360 in the Garage Sale and it seems like a decent brush. First thing I did was order a fine tip assembly from www.webairbrushes.com. The standard tip was too large IMO.

Yes, you can recoat and the new coat will cause the soft coat to cure also. The most frequent causes (almost the ONLY causes) for epoxy not hardening are 1 - not mixing it thoroughly or leaving incompletely mixed epoxy in the pot and brushing it on the lure. This is the most prevalent problem. 2 - not measuring the two parts accurately. It doesn't have to be exact exact but you want to get very close. I use a piece of a credit card and mix the crap out of mine, disregarding bubbles. Sometimes it looks milky there's so much air in it. But if you use a good brush and work it properly, the bubbles will disappear as you apply it.

Barbee, here's a list of the coatings that are probably most popular (and simple!). There are plenty of options but these work well: Waterproofing: Devcon Two Ton epoxy, thin it 50/50 with acetone after mixing. It works fine on anything except oily cedar, which can migrate oil stain through epoxy. Color undercoat: White acrylic paint (Createx) Colors: Createx is widely available, other companies offer varieties of acrylic airbrush paint tailored for animal painting (find them on taxidermy sites). Clearcoat: Again, Devcon Two Ton epoxy but this time unthinned or thinned with a few drops of acetone or denatured alcohol. If your airbrush has a fine tip (anything under .5 mm) stick with airbrush paint. The pigment is more finely ground and it contains flow enhancers. Fewer clogs = happier painter. Devcon Two Ton is sold at most Walmarts in a double syringe for about $2. Mix it thoroughly, brush it on, rotate 30 mins. Sitting right beside it on the shelf, you'll probably see Devcon 5 Minute. It's good for installing hardware but never use it for a coating - it cures too fast and will not level out.

I mix mine in a lid lined with aluminum foil and use a 1/3" strip from a credit card to mix it. Like Pete says, mix it well. You'll have time to coat 1 or 2 bass baits, no problem. Good mixing is critical for a hard slick finish. I add a few drops of denatured alcohol in cool weather to extend brush time. No need in warm weather. There's a knack to brushing D2T. I hold the lure with hemostats. D2T shouldn't be so thin that you need to worry about dripping or running while you brush. Don't overwork it. I use a flat 1/4" wide artist's brush and think in terms of laying it on, not brushing it like paint. Keep the brush loaded and brush in one direction, brushing over the wet surface a few times to make sure there are no voids and any bubbles are broken. You never want to feel the brush dragging on dry lure surface. I hit the margins around the lip and the hook hangers first, then start applying epoxy length-wise around the bait, making sure I haven't missed any spots. Don't worry about excess epoxy on the hook hangers, you can clean if off later with a piece of wire chucked in a Dremel and it's one way to be sure they're properly sealed. After you've cured the epoxy, if you find voids, missed spots, fisheyes, soft spots etc, you can recoat with another batch of epoxy and that will cure the problem.

Very nice job Oscar. Rookie's right. There's no substitute for actually doing it to get painting better.

It's like using a quill pen It has no reservoir so just dip the tip into a few drops of unthinned Createx black. That's enough for about one signature. Hobby acrylics don't work well because they're too thick and have larger pigment grains. I usually shoot black details like a kill spot last thing, so there's a few drops of black in the airbrush cup waiting to be used for the signature.

www.staminainc.com or www.jannsnetcraft.com sell propeller blades. You can mount them on a hard stainless wire shafts and use hollow beads as bearings, or mount them on screw eyes.

Sharpies are OK with unthinned Devcon. Clearcoat that contains solvent (Etex, polyurethane, etc) will cause Sharpie to run. I use a fine point caligraphy pen (it's just the nib from a fountain pen mounted in a plastic stick) and black Createx acrylic airbrush paint. It makes a line finer than an ultrafine Sharpie.