BobP

I'm not much of a woodworker and don't own a router (so far) so I still use Dremel sanding drums. First, I taper the tail and head on a disk sander. Then, before rounding with the Dremel, I lay out sanding lines on the sides, top and bottom with a compass. That makes things much more symetrical than whacking away freehand. Fast? Not especially. But if you aren't gonna use a router or a duplicating lathe, there really don't seem to be many options.

ricam, click on FORUMS at the top of this page, then scroll down to MEMBER SUBMITTED TUTORIALS and click on it. If none show, scroll down the page and change the search period to BEGINNING. You'll find pertinent info. If you need more on a specific subject, come back to the Hardbait forum and do a seach on it. There's lots of info in TU, you just have to dig a little for it. Thru wire is mostly used on balsa baits because that wood is so delicate. Ballast can be anywhere you want it. As a basic principle, keep it low in the bait. Most commercial builders use integrated belly weights/hangers because it's easier and puts the ballast in about the right spot. But you CAN put it in front or behind the hanger (or both). Stainless handwound screws hold just fine in epoxy, as do the storebought brass or stainless eye screws. I don't know what a lip alignment tool is - most of us eyeball them. Rattle - drill a hole from side to side, insert a worm rattle and cover it with sandable wood putty. When I started building, I copied commercial baits that I admired and worked well. Not a bad idea. Everyone wants their crankbaits, whether the first or 1000th, to work properly. Start from a design you know will work and elaborate from there as you gain skill and experience. My best advice? If you're making baits for yourself to fish, take your time, have fun, and do everything you can to keep the bait symetrical and straight. Hardwood flat sided plugs are easiest. You're on the right track.

BB, it's frustrating to dig into a finished bait but it's a heck of a lot easier than building another from scratch. Re: segment gaps. My impression from the ones I've done is that the leading edges of the segments catch water and amplify the bait's action if they have the space to do so. I may be all wet because I don't build many swimbaits. On my first swimbait I built the segments very close together but found they would not swing freely, which ruined the action. On my next bait, I loosened them up and slanted the segment cuts slightly backward from bottom to top so following fish can't see daylight between segments. Much better. Speaking of lip size, I used a lip copied exactly from a 5" King Shad on a 7" Triple Fish wakebait, just set at a steeper angle, and it worked fine. That isn't a big lip, yours probably has more surface area, so I don't think lip size is the problem.

I only build to catch fish and if a lure doesn't, it's just a key fob But I appreciate Vodkaman's scientific method (hypothesize, test, evaluate, modify hypothesis). It's really the ONLY way to reliably isolate and describe design factors that matter in crankbait design. I don't have the patience for it but whether I understand and agree or not, it's food for thought. I for one would love to get to the point where we could look at a design and be able to tell through reason (not just instinct and experience) that it will work or not. That would open up a huge design space for all of us to play in.

With that steep lip angle, I think it wants to be a wakebait not a swimbait. IMO the lip size is plenty big. I built a 6" 3 segment paulownia wakebait recently that had a 1.5" head segment followed by 1.5" and 1.75" segments. .10 oz ballast in rear of the head segment and .10 oz the front of the 2nd segment. No ballast in the tail. (.20 oz total ballast). Lip was about 80 deg from horizontal (10 deg to you). The segments were about 5/16" apart. The finished weigh was 1.16 oz without trebles. It swam nicely with a snake-like motion and the guy whom I gave it to likes it alot. There was no rhyme or reason why I chose those particular segment lengths, except they worked out well so the bait could carry 3 ea. #2 Gamy trebles.

I think a heavy braid would be the same as Kevlar fabric, at least functionally. I recall that somebody here on TU has made jointed baits that way. I use stainless wire because it's easy to make and easy to adjust the gap between the segments. Using a braid or Kevlar thread seems like it would be akin to pushing a piece of cooked spagetti and keep it straight Maybe there's a trick to it I don't know.

TJ, I use hand wound wire line ties; poke 5 min epoxy down in the hole with a piece of wire then coat the line tie and fit it in. Never had one come out. I think a twisted or threaded line tie is more secure than a straight cotter pin - it has more glue surface. You can twist cotter pins by fitting the head over a drill bit, clamping the bit in a vise, and twisting the legs with a pair of Vise Grips. I've taken apart commercial baits that had a cotter pin crimped in several places along its length to rough it up and increase the glue surface. That seems to work OK but I prefer a belt AND suspenders.

Wow Spare Tire, $500 for rivets? Now that's topwater commitment! I made a few prop baits recently and the aluminum buzzbait rivets from Stamina fit their #5 props with a bit of persuading. Riveted props do spin much more freely. The Stamina rivets look longer than the ones on your bait, which is a disadvantage.

Many of the newer japanese and domestic baits have a piano style hinge built in as part of the plastic body, with a pin running from top to bottom. JMHO, they look neat and very "custom" but don't provide the best action. I prefer handwound stainless eye screws built one inside the other. You can make them as long and as secure as you like. You can position them where you need them and use as many as you like. You can size the hinge eyes to control the distance between segments and their action. Once they're installed you don't have a problem with sticking, rusting or breaking. Last but not least, you have hinges whenever you need them as long as your stainless wire doesn't run out!

Duh? Surely your buddy was kidding you. If you want spitting, buy a popper. Props spin in whichever direction the leading edge of the prop is bent. They spin a little easier if the blades are bent backward slightly. They kick up a little more water if straight. It's not unusual to have to tweak props to get them to spin well but they should do SOMETHING right out of the box - especially for $22!

Nice clear exposition, Vodkaman. Along with Rofish, I also think the position of the line tie is always critical. I offer the following observations. 1) for baits with line ties on the lip, i.e., medium and deep divers with lip angles less than 15 degrees: An "average" position for the line tie is 40% of the distance from the lure body to the tip of the lip. Relatively small adjustments of that tie point toward the body will result in tighter, more erratic action. At some point, the bait will become uncontrollable and tend to spiral. 2) for shallow diving bass baits with line tie on the body (not jerkbaits): The strongest wiggle is almost always obtained by positioning the line tie directly on top of the lip. I have no varying observation on this since I ALWAYS do that and it is very rare to see a commercial shallow bass crankbait in different configuration. But it's worth mentioning.

Yeah, my elbows finally ran out of grease Dremel bits: The fine (120 grit?) Dremel sanding drums are inexpensive, do a great job and last a long time. I use them alot for rounding off and contouring, and for shaping lips. I have a few 1/4" dia tungsten cylinder bits and they're great for fast contouring on hardwood baits and also for drilling the recesses for 3D eyes and cavities for ballast. NEVER use them on anything but wood as it breaks off the little tungsten teeth. I drill the line tie and hanger holes with my Dremel because it's handier than a big drill. Lastly, I zip cured epoxy out of the hangers with a piece of ss wire chucked in the Dremel. All standard Dremel bits have a 1/8" shank. To use drill bits or other bits with shanks smaller than 1/8" you'll need the Dremel arbor pack (4 arbors of differing sizes). American Science & Surplus (www.sciplus.com) carries a bunch of oddball bits including sets of millimeter drill bits at cheapo prices.

I think you hit the nail on the head, KcD. I also think that if one slipped by Bessie painting eyes on the assembly line, it wouldn't matter to the bass since the top-front eyes are usually not anatomically correct anyway.

Click on FORUM at the top of the page, then scroll down to the bottom KNOWLEDGE BASE section and click on USER SUBMITTED TUTORIALS. You'll see no entries, so go to the bottom of that page and change the search period to BEGINNING. Now you'll see lots of pertinent tutorials. Kinda awkward to get there, but worth the trip. Enjoy!

http://www.texaswoodcarvers.com/Tool_Catalog/Adhesives.htm#Epoxy%20Glue You can get a 9 oz set of Devcon Two Ton epoxy here. Also, many Walmarts carry double syringes of D2T for about $2. While you're at the website, check out their tungsten wood carving Dremel bits. Nice stuff. They give good service and fair prices on epoxy and shipping in my experience.

Sexy = pearl belly, gray scale shoulders, medium blue back, then chartreuse stripe just below the gray shoulders. Black shad spot. Very faint chartreuse shading on front of belly, very faint red (pink) shading on back of belly. Sparse small silver flake on the belly and sides. If you shoot chartreuse over blue scale, you get green, so that's why the gray scale shoulders.

I put 3D eyes in recesses on the side but usually put painted eyes on the top front. Why? Danged if I know. Tradition? You get all kinds of opinions. Some want big 3d eyes on the side because they feel they're an attractant. Some want them on top because they hear bass wait until they can't see the eyes (and can't be seen BY them) before engulfing a prey fish from behind. I've seen a video of bass feeding on shallow shad that suggests that may be true. So much for pseudo science Given the opposing opinions, I just stick'em where I think they look best.

I don't do volume production so find the cheap bottles of acrylic glitter at hobby shops work just fine and have some advantages. There's a wide variety of colors and particle sizes, and it's cheap. I dilute it 50/50 with water and brush it on with a soft brush. The big advantage is controlling the amount and the exact placement of glitter on the lure. Too much or glitter where you don't want it? A swipe with a wet brush moves it or removes it. When you're happy, let it dry and you're ready for clearcoat.

A patent or copyright is worth only as much as you are willing to spend on lawyers to enforce it against competitors. These days, they're mostly used by big companies to harrass other big companies and gain market advantage (regardless of the legal merits). I wouldn't worry unless you are planning to use the exact process and sell 500,000 lacquered flies.

I've used Badger, Paasche and Iwata. All of them are reliable (airbrushes have only a few simple moving parts) as long as you keep them clean and don't abuse them. As to which will suit best, it's mostly a matter of how fine a spray pattern you want, what kind of paint you use, your skill level, and how much you want to pay. There's plenty of discussion about particular models of airbrushes and compressors here on the board if you do a search for the info. JMHO, a good quality brush will usually retail for $75-200. You get what you pay for. Check out Dixieart.com and Ebay. The compressor, the airbrush, and the paint you use are an integrated system. A great brush with a lousy compressor is still a lousy system.

I don't worry about Devcon in the hangers, in fact I want some in there to insure complete waterproofness. Like Vodkaman says, I use a straight piece of ss wire chucked in my Dremel tool to zip the epoxy out of the hangers after everything has completely cured. Works pretty fast.

Whew! I just use acrylic paint and crackle medium from the local hobby emporium. It takes practice to get 2 sides of a bait to look the same.

I've never seen any unpainted bodies for sale commercially, so recommend you check out Ebay. They'll be painted but you can refinish them.

Yeah, a double jointed swimbait is as much trouble to build as three regular crankbaits I use basswood but most hardwoods will do fine. I've built them from balsa but it requires a lot of work to reinforce it and through-wire all the hinges. Do a search on hinges to get several options.

I've also had Createx "dry" to a slightly tacky finish and assume it must be the flow agents they put in for airbrush use. Letting it air dry for a couple of days doesn't seem to matter much, so I decided to go ahead with the clearcoat after flash drying Createx with a hair dryer. No problem with that so far, with either epoxy or polyurethane clearcoats. I think your problem was baking it in the oven which caused either the oil based undercoat or the Createx flow agent to bubble. Bottom line, if the Createx is dried sufficiently to remove all the water, go ahead with the clearcoat. It will probably be fine. I've never had much luck oven baking anything. Btw, you can usually remove recently dried acrylic latex by rubbing it with your fingers under a stream of cold water, without harming what's underneath.