BobP

There is a boating and fishing show in my area every winter. Used to be a lot of booths selling custom lures and plastics 10-15 years ago. Lately, only the mid to large scale lure builders and boat dealers can afford to rent space. I quit going because I can see their stuff online and don’t want to pay $6 for parking and the $8 entrance fee just to walk around.

Btw, I see synchronous 120V low rpm motors for sale at Amazon.com for less than $10. I used 3 pieces of shelving wood for the basic stand, a piece of 1/2” dowel for the axle, 3 short pieces of 1/8” dowel glued into the drilled axle for the arms, and 6 alligator clips. Total cost was maybe $15.

I don’t recall seeing one for sale. They are easy to make with a slow rpm A/c motor and whatever contraption you bang together for the size of lures you make. Mine runs on a synchronous 4 rpm motor I found online 15 yrs ago for $7. Barbecue rotisserie motors are popular. Microwave turntable motors, etc.

As Braided Line said, there are a lot of good videos on YouTube. For recommendations on Airbrushes, compressors, paint, clearcoats, etc shift over to the hardbait forum and use the search feature to explore literally hundreds of posts on specific topics. You’ll find that painting crankbaits is more about developing your skill with an airbrush, any airbrush whatever the cost, than it is about the equipment you are using. Good luck!

There’s definitely some “art” required in using epoxy while moisture cured urethane (MCU) and UV cured polyester are simpler options but more expensive. For most guys the choice is determined by what they try and then become comfortable with using. All of them give you durable, attractive baits. I use epoxy or MCU and want to try Alumi-UV at some point. For wood baits, I often use epoxy. For refinishing plastic baits, MCU gives what I consider a more “factory-like” result. But if Alumi-UV has good clarity, it will be worth the expense to have a clearcoat you can dip into and cure hard in just a few minutes.

There are all kinds of clearcoats used on crankbaits. Epoxy is still one of the most popular and yellowing is not a big issue if it is measured and mixed well. I’ve had epoxied baits 4-5 yrs old without noticeable yellowing. That said, there are other options: moisture cured urethanes like KBS Diamond Coat, UV cured polyesters like Alumi-UV. All have advantages and disadvantages. You should use the search feature to explore their attributes, application techniques, pros and cons.

I googled this and the consensus seems to be that repeated freezing might harm the paint. That’s a pretty nebulous warning. Defrost, shake well, and see what you get.

Airbrush: The question is does your setup do what you need and want it to do? When and if you hit limitations or problems is the time to consider upgrading. Yellowed lips: sometimes it’s a clearcoat on the plastic, sometimes it’s the plastic itself. If the latter, there’s no remedy. If it’s clearcoat, you can sand it off and dip the lip in a urethane or moisture cured urethane to fill the sanding scratches and return the lip to “as new” appearance. I don’t recommend epoxy as it will itself yellow and doesn’t look very good when brushed onto a flat transparent surface. Paint removal: media blasting with mild abrasive (not sand) is the best. Many of us get by with hand sanding, either just to rough up the old surface to promote new paint adhesion or to remove all the old finish before repainting.

Spy baits have small props front and back which are, with some body rocking, their main finesse action. No side to side motion. Quite different from a Rapala Countdown minnow or jerkbaits that have swimming lips.

I think the vertical orientation of line ties to some degree comes from the manufacturing process. It’s easier and more logical to put a vertical tie in a bait that is built in two halves as most plastic and many wood baits are. It also makes tuning the bait to run properly a heck of lot easier.

In addition to fast uniform coverage with dipping, you don’t have the problem of creating wasteful clouds of poisonous fumes that aerosol sprays will produce and which you need advanced breathing and vent systems to protect yourself from.

I confess confusion on “epoxy” primers. Seems to me that epoxy always requires a resin and a hardener in chemical reaction. So if a guy dips a bait in such a primer, how long is the pot before it becomes useless? I see epoxy primers offered for sale and they usually are sold as two part sets. I also see aerosol “epoxy primers”. I’m wondering if that is a real thing or just marketing BS.

I put a vent screw in the top of the can and a pour screw in the bottom side. Since I had a can of Bloxygen handy I shot a little in the vent after dispensing but am not sure if it’s really necessary. I can’t remember whether the guys who started using this storage method added Bloxygen. I don’t think so but?

Personally, I think MCU is tougher and slicker than epoxy per equal thickness. But epoxy, especially D2T, is applied much thicker and in my experience will hold up better to hook rash than one thinner coat of MCU. I like D2T on wood baits that will be trolled for long periods and wood baits that end up with a less than smooth surface after finishing. Otherwise, MCU is fine with me.

I still use DN. To avoid the hardening problem, I use the “tap the can” storage method. I decant a small amount and use a soft brush to quickly flood coat the lure with MCU, then hang it to drip dry. It takes only a few seconds to do and works just a well as dipping. Haven’t tried it yet but the Alumi-UV sounds promising, if a little more expensive.

There’s a recent thread on this topic. If you are limited to cutting the slot by hand (no table saw, don’t want to build a custom jig, etc,) I cut mine with a fiber reinforced cutoff disk and a Dremel. If it looks wonky, I cut it wider until I know there’s a straight slot in there somewhere. Then fill the slot with epoxy putty and push in the lip, adjust to straight. Voila. After a few baits, you get the hang of it. I mark the slot before cutting with a thick rubber band stretched over the head of the bait as a guide,

I’ve not had to clean Paste epoxy off lips because I don’t put any on the lip before inserting it into a slot packed full of the Paste. The excess paste just gets squeezed out he back of the lip slot where it’s easy to wipe off with a piece of paper towel.

It certainly isn’t unique but I like to use linked screw eyes and specifically hand twisted screw eyes so I can control the size of the eyes and shaft length. I seem to get a freer tail movement with them and they are simple to implement compared to other options. Sometimes there is just no advantage in trying to reinvent the wheel.

I’m just going by the posts I’ve read about KBS. I have only used Dick Nite. Again, I encourage you to search the forum and explore the threads on KBS and Dick Nite. Both of them are high gloss topcoats.

Dick Nite S81 is used by Dick Nite in his spoon production business to topcoat lures painted with his lacquer colors. He dips. The problem with S81 is it will begin to moisture cure in its storage container pretty soon after dipping introduces moisture into the can. As a hobby builder, I’ve never been able to keep a can liquid for more than 6 months when dipping. Maybe you could depending on your production volume. KBS is also a MCU. TUers report that it doesn’t cure in storage as fast as Dick Nite and there is also a solvent you can add to a can if it does. Use the search function to explore application techniques and storage of both these MCUs. There have been a ton of posts on both. Personallly, if I were producing baits in quantity I would choose dipping in MCU as the fastest and easiest way to give customers a durable and attractive product.

I like using Ceramcoat acrylic paint for eyes. It’s very thick and I daub it on with a Swisspers cotton swab (firmer than Qtips). Let it air dry for a couple of hours, add a black iris with a smaller paint dauber. I recommend letting eye paint air dry to avoid cracking. You can topcoat it with just about anything.

Yes you can use aerosol paint and paint stencils. A few guys prefer just painting with brushes and turn out nice looking work too. You should undercoat or prime the raw wood and then color basecoat with a solid color, usually white, before applying paint. To preserve the paint you need to topcoat it with a durable waterproof product. Many of us use epoxy for that but some use urethane in multiple coats. So there are a multitude of solutions. It just depends on what you can afford, what equipment you have on hand, personal tastes, and how durable you want the lure to be.

There are lots of viable options. My workhorse is an Iwata Revolution BR with a .3 mm tip. Sells for around $100 and has that Iwata quality. You can get brushes with all kinds of “extra” features but you have to pay a premium and I find the BR gets everything I need done.

Lots of ways to do it. If I had 50 lures to fix, I’d probably use an epoxy putty stick. Just knead it up, cram it in the holes, smooth surface to match with a wet finger and 5 minutes later, you’re ready to go. It drills and sands like a hardwood, with similar density.

Well, I know where you’re coming from and agree that the most essential practical quality of a crankbait is that it catches fish. But craft in a crankbait goes beyond that one quality and it would be impossible to judge all the aspects of a crank from a pic of it hanging out of a fish’s mouth (or better yet stuck deep in its gullet!). The practicalities just don’t make it possible since the judges have to evaluate a range of qualities set out by the contest sponsor that just can’t be captured in a boat pic. But I applaud the sentiment.