BobP

Looks very nice so far. Maple is a very dense hardwood and won't require much ballast, so I'd sand it smooth, waterproof it, add the hook hangers and lip, then do a float test with trebles mounted to see how much ballast is needed. Hanging lead wire or solder off the belly hook works well.

Circuitboard has become popular because it's thin (dives fast) and because it rebounds off cover more sharply, producing more strikes. It's been popular on shallow crankbaits for awhile but you see it more and more on deep divers where it's used to get a somewhat deeper dive. I use 1/32" G-10 circuitboard (aka Garolite, aka Micarta) or 1/16" polycarbonate (aka Lexan) for most lures. It comes in various colors, so ask before you order it.

Q9, I think you must have mis-mixed the Etex for it not to begin hardening in about 2 hrs. It's slower than Devcon but still should be "dry to the touch" by 12 hrs, 90% cured in 24. For those seeking a one-part clear tough polyurethane, IMO Dick Nite Fishermun's Lurecoat, a moisture cured polyurethane, is tough to beat.

I wish Stamina the best and hope they're happy with the business. If they ship slower than other stores, maybe their bricks and mortar store is so busy that web orders are secondary. Slow shipping has settled in as "the norm". I think they say 1-2 weeks before shipping on their web site, so I can't say I really have a basis to gripe. I just wish they had a system to service web orders more quickly. The norm is getting to be next day or max 2 days for stores to ship mdse. Businesses who can't or won't aren't going to prosper.

"Banana" topwater baits are shaped like that for a specific reason - it makes it easier for the bait to come out of the water and walk side to side. No reason NOT to make a banana diving bait as an experiment but I don't think the shape will offer a performance benefit.

I've never had a fish - striper, bass or pike - pull a standard #2 split ring off a crankbait. When you're thinking about rings, consider the whole fishing system and its components. Rods are built to bend, line is built to stretch. 12 lbs of deadlift literally pull the guides off of a standard wrapped bass rod, so how much strength do you really need?

There are several good choices but I'm an Iwata fan and would go with an Iwata Revolution R2500. It has a .3mm tip, a 1/16 oz gravity feed cup and a Teflon bushing - $65 from Dixie Art, delivered price (no hose). With paint, hose and fittings, you're up to around $100.

I've never been happy with delays from Stamina but they have items (especially some spoons, treble hooks) I can't find elsewhere. Jann's Netcraft has many similar items and much better service. When I place a Stamina order, I try to forget about it and hope it shows up eventually - it usually does.

If you just want to repaint some of your own baits in simple patterns and don't want to get into it as a hobby, I'd get a 40% Off coupon out of the paper and then visit a local hobby shop (Michaels, Hobby Lobby, etc etc) and get a single stage Badger 100-200 with a can of compressed CO2 Propel gas. Total cost around $25-30. Use it with cheap 2 oz bottles of hobby paints like Apple Barrel, thinned with water, then clearcoat the baits with Devcon Two Ton epoxy. That will give you a taste of what crankbait painting is about without spending a bunch. If you have a tool compressor already, you might move upscale on the airbrush to a Paasche VL or Badger 175T without alot of expense (compressors can be pricey!).

staminainc.com sells scale netting in 2 sizes.

I shoot water from a spray bottle into the cup on my gravity Iwata to clean it, then shoot a cup of water through the brush. Quick, and one thing to love about gravity feed brushes. On my syphon brush there's more paint to clean out so I take it inside and give it a quick clean with cool tap water. At the end of the session, I disassemble the brushes for a thorough cleaning. Fingers, thanks for TP Tools cite. I lube needles with Superlube, a white synthetic grease. A little grease film on the fingertip does it. Superlube also works great in reels, so it stays handy on the workbench.

The minimum depends on how you want to work. I do mine with a scroll saw (would rather use a bandsaw), a disc sander and a Dremel tool with lots of bits - sanding drums, miniature drill bits, high speed shapers, etc. Minimal kit? A sharp knife and sandpaper! It's mostly about learning how to use the tools you have to best effect. More power tools make things faster and more accurate - if you know how to use them properly. But if you have the time and the inclination, simple hand tools can produce great results too.

I use stencils cut with an Xacto knife on a roll of frisket sheet (a fairly soft translucent plastic sheet with a peel-off adhesive backing). You want someting that will bend so you can press the stencil against the surfaces to be painted. My "low tack" frisket material was supposed to peel off cleanly but I it still tore paint off so now I just cut the stencil and leave on the paper backing. That also makes the stencil reversable and reusable. I use stencils for craw legs, red gills, kill spots and similar small features. Dry the wet paint on the stencil with a hair dryer after the first side, then flip it over and do the other. I think it will work better than blue painters' tape.

I've never used one and I bet most guys who paint with acrylics just clean under a stream of cool water. Airbrush paint companies sell detergent concentrates to soak parts for a more complete cleaning. Frankly, I can't see much difference so use plain water, a toothpick and a small cleaning brush designed for airbrushes. If you have an Iwata HP, the tube is too small for any brush I've seen so I reverse the needle and use the butt end as a cleaning rod. Careful -DONT bend the needle!

Yes, they are.

The finer the airbrush tip, the finer the paint droplets. Many droplets stay wet, hit the bait and stick but there's always overspray. Some droplets dry so quickly in the brush's airstream that they become dust particles. A booth keeps the dust from circulating into the surrounding air. The dust isn't a huge problem since acrylic paint is non-toxic and there usually isn't a huge amount of dust created. But dust is dust. It isn't ideal to breathe it or have it settle on furniture and other surfaces in the house. If you use a simple box for a spray booth you'll find dust accumulates inside quickly and it will get blown around in the booth and get on your work. So you'll need to clean it regularly. IMO, it would be easier to build a proper booth with filter and air than to have to clean the inside after every session. As far as holding lures while painting, a lot of guys favor Xacto handles. A fly vise would also work as long as it can hold the heaviest bait you make. I mostly use locking forceps clamped onto the lip. I like it because I don't have to pause to reposition the bait on a fixture while painting.

Spike-A-Pike, spoken like a true nawthun pike troller We-uns down hyar only use cannon balls for one thang - bombarding forts - and we dint have much luck with it, last we tried. Downrigger on a bass boat? You'd be drummed out of the local bass club. But I gotta admit, a beer and a brat sounds good!

Yeah, the lower you hold your rod tip, the deeper the lure, on a 1:1 basis. If you usually hold the rod horizontal, holding the tip at the water's surface will get you 3-4 ft deeper. It's the fastest way to get a deeper diving crankbait. If you kneel and stick the rod down in the water like Paul Elias, that works too but will reduce sensitivity.

First I saw of them was on the BFHP and they looked interesting but the price is a little off-putting. If they work well, rest assured somebody will come out with a copy in short order, just like with the Chatterbait. Until then, you'll probably have to home brew your own or pay the piper.

Nice work Chandler! I see the true arbiters of crankbait taste approved of your effort

Glass Coat is also a brand of rod thread epoxy. It yellows faster than Devcon Two Ton or Envirotex Lite in my experience.

Balsa is the least dense and most bouyant wood and gives you more options as far as ballast. It usually makes a livlier bait. But it's also much softer than other wood and requires reinforcement if you want durability. (through wire body, multiple undercoating, tough topcoating) For fishing in pike waters, I'd probably go with a hardwood. There are some great pike lure builders here on TU - check out the descriptions of their baits in the gallery section for ideas.

HappyTime, the Createx AutoAir instructions (PDF format) at Dixie Art recommend a .5 mm tip airbrush. A .3mm tip can be used if the paint is thinned 1:3 with 4011 Reducer, or a .2mm tip with paint thinned 1:5 (yeah, 1 paint, 5 reducer!). I've never used it but per the instructions, it would seem thicker than standard Createx airbrush colors. It also says an "adhesion promoter" (whatever that is) may be required on plastics. Just FYI.

I use 1 5/8" rotomolded fat balsa bodies from Jann's Netcraft. Good quality, undercoated and ready to paint with light sanding. The 1 5/8" size is as small as I want to work with hand tools. The body has enough volume to ballast for a 1/4 oz bait with good action. 1/4 oz is about the minimum for baitcasting reels. One thing I hate about small cranks are #8 treble hooks. I'm experimenting with leaving off the belly hook and using a Gamakatsu Octopus hook on the tail. As well as great holding power, the single hook pointed up makes the bait virtually snagless so you can throw them anywhere. I haven't noticed any difference in hook-up ratio with them so far.

I haven't seen one but a .35mm nozzle is a good general purpose size. The specs are very similar to the Iwata Eclipse, which is well known by TU'ers and has a very good rep.