BobP

It gets pretty smooth with 400 grit. Some use a thick waterproofing coat to get it even smoother. Epoxy cut 50% with acetone works fine but might require sanding afterwards to get rough areas where the solution was totally soaked into the bait. Propionate disolved in acetone is a great for multiple dipping and dried very quickly. 6-8 dips makes balsa as smooth as silk. Both methods reinforce the wood, too.

Yeah, I don't know any way to waterproof wood segments so they'll last forever, you just have to keep an eye on it. If you clearcoat with epoxy, avoid sharp edges on the segments because epoxy naturally draws away from them as it cures. It may LOOK covered but it's very thin there. On a $60 bait (Wow, $60!!!) I might consider a moisture cured polyurethane like Dick Nite's Lurecoat. It has more gloss and is very tough, plus it's thin and won't change a lure's weight significantly. Like epoxy, it continues curing for a week or longer to reach max hardness. It does have some handling and storage limitations that epoxy does not. Lots of TU discussions on it, just do a search.

Sounds like the Restore-It should work just fine. Solvent or epoxy based primers are waterproof. Water based primers are water resistant when dry but can raise wood grain. Some solvent based primers have a strong odor even when dry. So an epoxy primer is usually a safe bet. Propionate is also a very good waterproofer. There are various good choices. You just need to choose one that makes sense within your build process.

Just a guess but the hook appears to be just about at the balance point of the body. Weighted there, the bait would swim with a standard "X-ing" action. When moved forward, you get a head down attitude that makes for a stronger thump. When you move the ballast around, you change the angle at which water hits the lip and body. That can change the bait's action significantly.

"Priming" versus "waterproofing" versus "color basecoating" are often confused. No you don't have to prime or waterproof under foil. However, you do need to waterproof and color basecoat areas that aren't foiled. I waterproof with 50/50 epoxy/acetone over the whole bait, even under foil. It lets you smooth the foil after application, or take it off and reposition it, and it takes care of the non-foil areas at the same time. If you're talking soft balsa, you need every little bit of wood reinforcement you can get, so the epoxy serves two purposes. To me, primer is an intermediate coating over the waterproofing that promotes adhesion of the subsequent color coats. Some guys use a waterproof primer that does dual duty. Some use a white waterproof primer that "does it all". I generally waterproof with 50/50 epoxy/acetone, then put on a white color basecoat and then colors - no primer. As long as I finish with a durable clearcoat, I haven't had problems with paint delamination, etc.

I cut reusable "false lips" out of lip material, drill a hole in the end to hang the baits from nails. Insert the false lip into the bait so it holds firmly (a little masking tape added if needed). Use a pair of locking forceps to hold the baits while painting and the false lips keeps everything out of the lip slot until it's time to glue in the real lips.

Most crankbaits will just flop over on their side without ballast. The treble hooks are ballast but rarely enough weight to keep the bait in an upright posture. You have to balance the ballast against the action of the bait - too much dampens the swim action, too little makes the bait uncontrollable. BTW, when searching the User Submitted Tutorials, go to the bottom of the page and change the search period to "From the Beginning" instead of 100 days. Then you'll have tutorials to read.

In either orientation, all the points on the bait get rotated through 360 degrees, so it doesn't matter. If I had a 3 rpm motor, I'd stick with it. Mine is 4 rpm and works fine. The only problem you might have is with very thin polyurethanes. Dick Nite is fairly thin. I let it drip on a piece of paper for a few seconds before attaching it to the wheel.

Give the surface some "tooth" by light sanding with 400 grit, then shoot a white basecoat and colors, etc. I don't recommend heavy sanding on a wood bait to remove finish. If you hit bare wood on a balsa bait, you're in deep kimshi. If you're concerned about the weight of the new finish, you can also dip clearcoat the bait with moisture-cured polyurethane like Dick Nite Fishermun's Lurecoat, a very hard, thin, glossy coating. There's often an ad for DN at the top of this page. Click on it and you will be led to a discounted trial sample offer.

I'm Bob from N.C., 60 yr old retired fed who loves to fish. I eased into making crankbaits by painting and modifying commercial baits, then started making my own 5 yrs ago. I figured if I can buy $15 baits that won't work right, I can make my own that won't work right for way less Well, that was a few hundred crankbaits ago, TU tought me how to do it right, and I'm hooked. I'd still rather be fishing - but making crankbaits is a close second when "they ain't biting" or it's too wet/cold/hot for a lazy man to go fishing. I fish all of mine or give them away to friends, family and poor sods I see wandering by my garage. I love this site; it's Knowledge Central for custom crankbait makers.

http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10686 Check out this tutorial for some basic ideas, then do a search on the finer details of luremaking by using the search feature at the top of this page. Crankbait making is small scale woodworking. You can go a long way with a Dremel tool, a scroll or band saw and sandpaper. Painting is a whole 'nother thing but again, the search feature can provide more ideas than you can read in an evening about how to do it.

PB, I use inexpensive Apple Barrel hobby flat white as a basecoat and shoot it with a large tip brush like a Paasche VL or a Badger 170T. Any white will do as long as it is heavily pigmented. Some brands sell a "Cover White" airbrush paint that works well. The 2 "must have" body colors are pearl white and chartreuse. Everything else depends on your personal taste. I tend to favor transparent paints over opaque, but there isn't always alot of difference between the two. Createx and most other brands can usually be used full strength straight out of the bottle. If you need thinning, just mix in a little water until your paint is the consistency of milk. You have to experiment some to get the perfect viscosity for your brush and the effects you like to create.

You can use any brand formulated for airbrushing (assume we're talking acrylic latex). I can't tell the brands apart when dry, so when I look for paint it's mostly about specific color. The HP's with .2 mm tips will not work with coarse hobby acrylics. Any airbrush can be 99% cleaned with a spray bottle of cool water, or by running tap water over/through it. Windex, soap, or solvents like acetone or denatured alcohol make it a little quicker and more complete, IMO. Ultrasonic cleaner? Even better but most don't use one. Be careful with your HP needle and nozzle. They are EASY to damage and not cheap to replace. Everyone starts out with paint, equipment, and no experience. You work your way through it and develop procedures that work for you, adopting tips you see here on TU if they fit. Do a search on Devcon Two Ton epoxy and on Dick Nite moisture cured polyurethane for the 2 most popular clearcoats among TU'ers.

Actually, I think the absolute worst is brown. I won't even try to guesss what they grind up for that color.

Speaking of ink, I use Createx black acrylic. Wonder why black is the least likely color to clog your airbrush? It's pigment is something like carbon black which is naturally microscopic. What the heck, had it on hand anyway, besides I use it the last thing on a bait to apply the "kill spots" so I just dip the pen in the bowl of the airbrush.

If you use a solvent based pen like a Sharpie it will run if covered by a clearcoat containing solvent. I use acrylic paint and a cheap ultra fine point caligraphy pen. Still looks like child scribbling but at least it's small! Using an engraver to sign the lip is a neat idea and looks great but I haven't tried it.

After trying just about everything, I use 220 sandpaper because it gives the most control. Solvents end up a mess in my experience and they will cloud the lip, and aren't really any faster. On a wood bait, be careful not to remove the finish down to raw wood. On baits where bouyancy is not a big issue, just scuff the existing finish with 400 grit and paint. You can reshape lips with a fine grit Dremel sanding drum. If you heat Lexan or plastic with a heat gun, you can manually bend it. If you use a flame, it usually ends up with soot in the lip. Yes, you can make a new lip out of polycarbonate (Lexan) or out of circuitboard (G-10 Garolite). Trace the old one on a piece of cardboard, cut it out and use it as a template for the new lip - or design your own. Cut the lip out with metal shears and sand down to the exact line with a Dremel sanding drum. It's pretty easy.

It's a heavy duty non-staining clear-whitish grease - 100% synthetic and contains PTFE (teflon). Comes in a 14 oz can for $6-7 or you find it in small plastic tubes for around $3. Buy the can. It's used for greasing wheel bearings, sports equipment, etc. Daiwa uses it for fishing reels, for which it is excellent. I'd check auto supply stores, especially NAPA. Any grease will work - Super Lube is just the best and it can be used for many purposes.

I use a hair dryer. Run it on low, rotating the bait so you won't push paint around or dry it too fast. If your paint coating is thick it will crack if dried too fast. I don't like to wait between paint colors so use a dryer 100% of the time.

I use hand twisted wire screw eyes for hangers. I've seen baits with straight wire hangers that have been crimped several times to provide more glue area. Straight ones probably work fine but I'm SURE twisted ones will never fail. 5 or 30 min epoxy is fine. I use whatever, depending on how many baits I'm gluing and how soon I need to do the next task. I use Rod Bond paste epoxy if I'm feeling lazy. It's stays very soft for at least 2 hrs and takes 5 hrs to really begin to harden, so you can mix one batch and take as long as you like. I hate mixing a bunch of small batches of 5 min epoxy!

I don't always soak the parts but I do shoot acetone thru it, clean out the cup, and disassemble the front of the brush and clean those parts (including the itsy bitsy nozzle) with acetone. I get a little lazy with my Badger but the small tip Iwata just won't abide neglect. It's a case of "pay me now or pay me lots more later". Takes 5 mins.

Don't know which Iwata you have but the Dixie Art brush sets are all too large to fit an HP model. Between colors, I shoot water through the brush and clean out the cup with a Qtip soaked in acetone. After painting, I shoot a cup acetone through it, disassemble the front of the brush, soak the tip parts in acetone, and use the needle reversed to clear any paint remaining in the barrel while running cool water through the trigger slot. The nozzle on an HP is so tiny only the needle is small enough to clean it out. You can usually wick the paint out of the nozzle with a Qtip soaked in acetone.

You can usually fix tacky epoxy by recoating it with properly mixed and measured epoxy. It should have cured even in low 60's temps by now. If you get a slow curing batch of epoxy, you might as well recoat even if it eventually hardens - it will never be as hard and durable as it should be.

No, RJ, I agree the live (or recently live) pics I've seen are almost exclusively chrome color. I was just describing the Lucky Craft AS pattern, which has been one of their most popular. Don't know where LC got it but it probably isn't meant to be exactly lifelike. However, most fish vary considerably in coloration with the subspecies, water they live in, etc.

Lucky Craft American Shad is a highly reflective holographic foil finish. I think you can get close but not holographic and not with the exacting detail of the LC version. Foil overall; silver belly paint overshot with faint pink (aka transparent red) stripe; transparent yellow stripe on side (gold effect); faint pink transparent on shoulders, metallic blue back overshot with transparent brown; transparent orange/brown spot behind upper gill plate. The overall scheme is foil and the judicious use of transparent colors. If you check the Createx lineup, you'll find transparent acrylics that will probably fit the bill.