BobP

It's a matter of personal preference but the HP-B with its top mounted 1/8 oz cup works great for me. I think top feed brushes work a little better than the bottom syphon models, and they're easier to clean. 1/8 oz of paint is enough to fully coat 2 bass baits, so the 1/8 oz seems "just right" to me for crankbait painting. And if you run out of paint, just squirt a little more directly into the cup.

Most guys mod a Pop R by sanding or shaving the bottom of the front lip so that instead of catching water and "blooping", it slides across the water and spits. You can buy Zell Rowland edition Pop R's that have the same mod. But alot of topwater afficionados prefer Ricos and Yellow Magics regardless.

I got into airbrushing with a $20 single action Badger, then a Paasche VL, a Badger 175, and most recently an Iwata HP-B. The finer the spray pattern and atomization, the more detail you can achieve with less effort. But I've seen astounding results with something as simple as aerosol rattle cans. The brush is just a tool and you have to supply the artistry. There should be a couple of more threads about this at the bottom of this page.

I'm not sure how much effect ballast placement has on the width of the wobble; that seems to be more a function of bill design, though l agree with DD that everything affects everything else. If you ballast after a bait is finished with bill and trebles, and then put the ballast at the point where the bait naturally balances, you get a bait with "X-ing" action, i.e., wobble centered on the natural balance point. That's probably the widest wobble from a given body and bill design. That's just an observation, not necessarily how I want my bait to swim. A majority of wood baits have integrated belly hangers/ballasts, and so are ballasted forward of the natural balance point. And that forward ballasting also pulls the balance point forward. So, you need to experiment. I know everyone tires of hearing that. Along with others, I'm waiting for a Lure God to respond to one of these posts with the Wholistic And Inarguably Correct Theory of Crankbait Design. Lay it out clear and straight. While we're waiting, I have to believe that NOBODY can say for sure how a changed bait will react until they fish it. You may get a desired effect in one area only to find another area is compromised. It's a puzzle you'll never completely solve. That's the fun part.

I like Lexan for lures with large bills since it doesn't increase the "perceived size" of the bait. Circuitboard has a sharper rebound off cover (especially rock) that bass find attractive, so it's popular for shallow baits. Both are very durable. I use .062" Lexan and .031" G-10 for bass baits. There are some recent posts about line tie positions you should read.

There are lots of acrylic colors that aren't very applicable to crankbaits so I'd shy away from a master kit unless there are other things you plan to paint. My most used colors are Cover White, Pearl White, Neon Yellow, Black, Moss Green and Dark Green. But I've collected around 50 colors during various forays into paint buying. Createx is widely available but there are other good paints available too (maybe even better!), such as Translatex and others.

The first brush I used was a $20 Badger syphon brush with a can of Propel CO2. Worked just fine and the larger cans of Propel will do quite a few crankbaits (15+). I got the Propel at Michael's craft stores during their frequent 1/2 off sales. It won't do any detail work but you can do basic fish schemes (light belly, darker back).

You can use any highly pigmented white acrylic. Apple Barrel Flat White works well thinned with water (and is cheap) but the best I've used is Translatex Cover White acrylic, which is formulated for airbrushes. It adheres very well and is smoother than Apple Barrel. I can scrub Createx off with water and the underlying Translatex basecoat will still be intact if it was flash dried with a hair dryer. Createx has its advantages but adhesion is not one of them, IMO.

Hey, anybody can sue anybody for anything. But you better have plenty of $$$ for lawyers. The practicality is that it rarely happens no matter how flagrant the infringement unless you have deep pockets like the motion picture industry or major software companies. The only REAL defense is to get your product to market fast and in sufficient quanty to flood the market before the clones arrive. The Chatterbait is a good recent example.

The green glow acrylic I tried would not spray properly and had poor adhesion compared to other Apple Barrel paints. I like their neon yellow better than most other brands - it has a nice clear, bright hue.

I'd Just tape the bill and sand the clearcoat with 400 or 600 grit paper. I wouldn't spend a ton of money/time/experimentation trying to find a matte clearcoat unless you'll be doing an awful lot of it.

Welll - That oblong opening is its 1/32 oz paint cavity. Iwata says the brush will spray as little as one drop of paint introduced into that cavity. I recently got a HP-B and am surprised at how far its 1/8 oz capacity goes with airbrush formulated paint. The HP's have very fine atomization. So perhaps the AH would be OK depending on your needs. If you also have a high capacity brush like a Paasche VL for basecoating and larger area shots, the AH is undoubtedly a great detail brush. But if you conclude 1/32 oz is too small, I'd suggest exchanging it for a HP-B or the B model that also includes the integrated pressure controller.

I've drilled and dripped into balsa and it works but it's not secure. If you slap the bait on the water to clear weeds, it will slap the ballast out. So it's prefereable to epoxy in the ballast. And if you're going to the trouble, you may as well split the bait and install a thru-wire for the hardware too. It's as easy to do that as to patch the ballast hole. IMO, soft balsa baits are not very strong unless they are split and thru-wired. Gluing the halves together gives the bait a durable backbone. The new Bomber balsa baits with the polycarbonate backbone use the same principle. The secret for splitting is to scribe a center line around the bait while it's still "square", at the same time you cut the lip slot and before you begin rounding anything. Run a single edge razor blade around the guideline to split the bait neatly.

You can buy integrated ballast weights/hook hangers from lurehardware.com. Drill a hole, put in some 5 min epoxy and push it in. If you want it elsewhere, drill a cavity and pour in a measure of melted lead, then cover with wood filler. On baits where you split the body for a through-wire, hollow pockets on both sides and lay in solder strips. As a general rule, keep the ballast low in the bait. Using a digital gram scale to weigh components helps alot in determining how much ballast to use. Too much kills the action, too little makes it impossible to control. I keep a record of each lure so when I get it right, I can repeat it. Lastly, if there's one thing to remember, it's to center all the components. You have to maintain symetry for the lure to swim straight.

You can use any wire that you can accurately twist and bend. Various methods exist, here's mine: I use .040 soft brass or .032 soft stainless steel wire from mcmasters.com. The soft wire is easier to bend and easier to tune but will stand up to bass fishing. I twist up the line tie using a drill bit clamped in a vise and some visegrips to twist the wire, trimming off the untwisted tag ends. I make mine about 1.5" long so I can do the bends easier and so it's sure to be long enough. Bend the tie 90 deg slightly below the eye. You want a gap between the eye and the 90 deg bend equal to the thickness of your Lexan. Fit the tie through a hole drilled in the Lexan that is just large enough for a friction fit. To finish it off, cut a small slot in the center back of the Lexan bill and bend the wire up and back over the lip, cutting off any excess with a Dremel cutting wheel. Make sure your lip slot/hole is large enough for the wired lip. If it's too tight, it will be impossible to adjust the bill left/right to get it centered.

I'm sure what you're doing is fine for hardwood baits but I strongly prefer handwounds. It's a quality and performance thing for me: - The thin wire makes it easy to install split rings. - You can custom size the loops and can make line ties from soft ss wire or brass for "hunting" action and easier lure tuning. - You can make them the exact length you need. - They have much more internal glue surface for anchoring. It takes about 20 mins to wind the screws for 4 lures, at nominal cost. As a fisherman, I had factory wood lures fail when the regular screws back out, leak, etc. When I started hobby building, I decided handwounds were a way to fix that, so it was an easy decision.

The market for "average" crankbaits is saturated. A successful custom builder has to offer baits that are way above average in looks, build quality and fish catching ability. Even using every build efficiency, it's a labor intensive process for a small builder. My dad was a hardheaded businessman who once reminded me "If you sell a product below cost, it means that you'll just go broke faster the more you sell". If you sell great crankbaits for $20 and want to make $20/hr in labor from them, you better be able to turn one out every 30 minutes or so. JMHO, custom building as self supporting hobby or as a second income is a reasonable goal but if you're talking about BUSINESS, there are realities that have to be acknowledged.

How durable? I fold a piece of frisket film (with its backing) and freehand a gill cut at the crease with sissors. You need something that won't absorb paint and that's pliable. I leave the backing on when I shoot through it. It will last until clogged with paint.

JMHO, I'd leave the old finish, sand lightly to kill the shine then give it a white color basecoat and the new color. Commercial crankbait finishes generally weigh less than .02oz, so leaving it in place rarely effects the performance. If there are damaged areas or you want to thin the walls of the bait, I'd remove finish with a sharp knife and sandpaper, not a solvent. I ruined too many diving lips that way

I paint on foil tape with no problem but guys who foil by gluing metalic foil sometimes report problems with paint adhesion. If you have any doubts about the paint scheme, a coat of epoxy over the foil makes it easy to change paint or fix goofs. When you epoxy foil, the scale pattern shows through perfectly but it's encased it in a smooth surface finish.

Player's choice. I use a scrollsaw. It can be a bit slow and tedious to cut hardwood like basswood, paulownia or cedar but it zips through balsa. It's nice for cutting thin circuitboard lip slots and you can do smaller radius cuts with it. For speed and convenience, I think an ideal tool might be a mini bandsaw with a thin, fine tooth band. Whichever, get some polycarbonate safety glasses and wear them. I use a pair of clear shooting glasses I found at Walmart.

I'd check the hose first - they usually have little O rings in their end connectors which can easily pop out.

BTW, recoating an uncured area with new epoxy will almost always cause it to cure, if you don't want to strip it. Remember, every curing stage for Etex Lite takes at least double the time required for Devcon.

I honestly don't believe just-painted-and-dried acrylic has any grease on it. The fisheyes I see in epoxy are usually caused by not brushing the epoxy down enough onto the underlying surface. If a spot isn't wetted out by epoxy, it will void as it cures. It can also happen with oily woods like cedar if they haven't been undercoated with an oil based primer. However, if I wanted to degrease acrylic, solvents are obviously out. I'd spray it with a mild Mean Green or Oil Eater solution and rinse it gently with cool water - done after the paint is THOROUGHLY dry. No rubbing!

Wish I did! I bought mine new on Ebay for around $130, less than the very inflated retail cost. They seem in fairly high demand. I don't see many used ones for sale but alot of new ones are offered.