BobP

After you epoxy the foil, you need to be careful not to get paint on the parts you want to shine, especially on the shoulders. On the shoulders, you want a "fade" from the bright foil to the dark back color. If you wipe any errant paint off that area, it will leave a line that looks unnatural. The belly, if it's either silver or white, is a little more forgiving since there isn't such a contrasty color change as there is on the shoulders. When you're painting foil, hold the bait at an angle away from you so you won't bounce paint where you don't want it. And remember it's easy to wash the paint off and start over if you screw up.

Tx, if you need to take the old paint off, sanding is the quickest way. I never had much luck with solvents, they just make a mess. I start with 220 and go to 400 grit to finish. If the old paint is not trashed, you can just sand it lightly with 400 to give it a little tooth before applying new paint. Yes, if it's important to keep the same weight as the original, you need to take all the paint off AND you need to use a thin clearcoat similar to the factory clearcoat. But we're only talking about a couple 1/100ths of an ounce either way, on a typical bass bait.

I never use anything else! As long as it feeds from the bottom, it's still a paint sucker-upper, I.e., a syphon feed. The cup holds enough paint for 2-3 all-over color base coats on a bass bait. Hint - don't fill it to the top or it will spill out. I squirt paint straight into the cup and thin it with a spray bottle of water, mixing with a little plastic stick. Clean the cup and the syphon tube between colors with the same spray bottle.

LOZ, I do the same a you, waterproof then white acrylic basecoat, then color. I try to keep it simple. In my experience, the more steps there are, the more often something bites me. Right now I use either acetone/epoxy or propionate as a waterproofer. I'm thinking of switching to some kind of white waterproofer to eliminate the white color basecoat. But I don't want to use anything that will leave a strong solvent odor on the bait after it's finished, which happened with white auto primer. Stunk up the whole crankbait box! Maybe something water based with a white tint, like a sanding sealer? I like the acetone/epoxy and propionate because they level out nicely to hide any small sanding imperfections.

When it happens to me, I retune the bait to see if I can get it to do the same thing in the opposite direction. If I can, that tells me there is SOME tuning point, however narrow, in which the bait will run straight, at some speed. If not, I suspect the lip/body is not symetrical or straight. If it can spiral in both directions, I suspect one of 3 things; either there's too much lip, the lip angle is too large, or there's not enough ballast to stabilize it for that lip.

It usually takes me 3 days to complete a batch (2-6 in number). How many hours of actual work? It depends! As I gained experience over several years as a hobbiest, the realization came that I should let it take as long as it takes to get the result I want. That's the only way you can make baits that meet your expectations. What's the point of anything less? Regarding paint specifically, some of us (certainly including me!) will never become "crankbait artistes". But you do get better as you paint more baits and eventually you will get to be satisfied with the results. Not all the time on every bait, but your percentage will rise. I personally like to do the whole paint job in one session, heat setting the colors as I go. If I make a mistake, I can sometimes wash it off without ruining earlier colors. If not, cest la guerre, it all comes off and I start from scratch. No sense ending up with an ugly duckling that nobody wants to fish. BTW, I find the bass are usually much less critical of paint than fishermen tend to be

Ok, watdidja catch'em on, where was it and can you give me driving directions and a GPS waypoint Nice fish!

I think most of the best commercial poppers like Yellow Magics, Splash-Its, etc are made from balsa. Guess it depends on the action you want versus the castability.

You have 2 basic options: buy a dedicated airbrush compressor or a small tool compressor. Most guys like a compressor to sustain at least 30 psi running pressure. Some inexpensive units say 30 psi but that's with no load; pull the trigger and it drops to 15 psi in one second. A tool compressor with a tank has several advantages - they are cheaper, they develop higher pressure, and the tank stores pressure so the motor doesn't run all the time. No compressor is especially quiet but the airbrush compressors, being smaller, are quieter. Like CD216 says, do a search on compressor and you'll get a bunch of info including some good recommendations for specific units.

I'd look for a clear acrylic latex that you can shoot just like the colors.

Hey guys, if your baits are properly waterproofed before you begin spraying colors, you can just practice on the real thing until you get it right. Screw up? Just run tap water over the bait and the paint comes right off. Even if it's dry, a gentle scrub with a sponge will usually remove any paint. Hey, I've done it LOTS of times!

Pressure treated is the green stuff you use for outside projects. It's lots heavier than regular framing 2x4's because it's impregnated with chemicals to retard bacteria, mildew and insect attack.

If your 100 SG has a small tip, it probably will only shoot airbrush formulated paint like Createx, which contains flow enhancer and more finely ground pigments. You can try cheap hobby paint and thin it with water or Windex to the consistency of milk. It will clog more often but will give you a little practice. Honestly, Createx isn't so expensive when you consider the tiny amount you use during a typical shot. If you just limit the amount you squeeze into the brush to a 4-6 drops, you'll be surprised how much area you can cover.

Yes they can. Fish have cones in their eyes to detect colors. Reds and yellows are visible in shallow water. They begin to fade to gray in deeper water but blues and greens are are still visible. Bass here in the U.S. sometimes become selective on a color pattern if they are feeding heavily on one prey species. Some lakes have "favorite colors" that seem to catch more fish. Those colors become so popular that the color pattern itself is widely know, like "Table Rock Shad" is chartreuse belly with purple back. "Lake Fork Red" is a blood red often used on lipless crankbaits.

Home Depot - shiny aluminum duct sealing tape.

The balsa I have is very light grade and is much too soft. It was my first balsa purchase and it's lasting a looong time I like paulownia very much except it does have occasional "grain issues" - narrow dark soft porous stripes, sometimes adjacent to very light hard grain. So sanding can be tough and I sometimes have to work wood filler into the black grain to prevent it from cratering. But it is surprisingly tough and hard for its light 18 lbs/cu ft density and it makes very durable baits.

I have an airbrush compressor (reverse inheritance from my son) but many guys like Hawgydawg use tool compressors and like them. I'd go the tool compressor route if you'll be working in an area where the noise is not an issue. Compressors can be quite loud. Even the airbrush units are not exactly quiet unless you get into very high price models.

Can't hurt, but on the other hand I'm not necessarily buying the "black at night" theory. Bass prey don't change to black at night and the bass have no problem whatsoever finding and eating them anyway. IMO, if you have a confidence lure that catches bass well in daytime, it will work at night too.

Pressure treated wood is infused with copper and a poison that deters termites. Not anything you want to be breathing the dust from - that's why the manufacturer cautions against burning it in a fireplace. Besides, if you're gonna sweat to make 100 crankbaits, might as well use wood that performs well and is easy to work. Cost of the wood will be the least expensive component. Why not go crazy and pay 10 cents for 1/4 oz of good stuff?

Tboy, I wasn't trying to steer you away from crankbait making. A bunch of guys here on TU are addicted to it and others do it for income AND fun. TU has tutorials and lots of posts describing more techniques than you can imagine. If you read them all, your head will explode. So use the tutorials and the search feature on the hardbaits forum to explore your options. Starting out with a pre-made wood body bypasses some of the hardest stuff and gets you to a fish catching first crankbait faster.

If cedar didn't work out for you, balsa will probably be worse because it's much softer and you can quickly "go too far" working it. I'd try a few of the ready made balsa bodies from Jann's Netcraft or similar suppliers to get your feet wet. Add hardware and a lip, paint it, clearcoat it and voila, you're fishing. Hand shaping a symetrical crankbait from soft balsa takes experience.

I think the craft hair is good for freshwater jigs. I got some Punisher hair for float and fly jigs and it works fine for that. But saltwater bucktails is a whole 'nother thing and IMO craft hair won't last long in that environment. I'd order a calf tail from Jann's or Cableas, etc for bucktail jigs. The hair is longer, thicker and will be much more durable.

Most acrylics come in transparent and solid colors, including Createx. Some fins I've seen are transparent colors sprayed with a template, with a lead pencil used to draw in the fin rays.

You can buy open screw eyes (Stamina, Barlows, Janns Netcraft) and crimp 2 together to form a hinge. Alternatively, you can hand wind 2 screw eyes from stainless leader wire so they are one inside the other. You can also connect screw eyes with a split ring if you can get the ring onto the eyes in the confined space between body segments. It depends on how much space you want between the segments.

I have a VL and an Iwata HP-B+. Very different airbrushes. My opinion: gravity feed is superior in every way. Whatever brand, you need some variety in tip sizes. The VL is OK for all-over color basecoating with the fine tip. I never used its larger tips. The Iwata HP-B has a .2mm tip that's nice for detail work and fine shading. If you want one brush that's a jack of all trades, look for one with a .3 or .35mm tip like the Iwata Eclipse or equivalent.