BobP

A bandsaw is faster by far than a scroll saw in cutting hardwoods. For balsa, there's less difference. If I were making 25 hardwood cranks a week, I'd use a bandsaw. But I'm in no particular hurry when I make cranks in batches of 4-6, so a scroll saw works fine. JMHO but cutting your own gives you the freedom to experiment and opens an endless variety of bait patterns not sold by the blank makers. If you continue making baits, you'll want that. But starting out on pre-made blanks is a good way to get your feet wet. It's easier to end up with a symetrical crank that runs correctly and catches fish if you start with a symetrical pre-made form.

http://www.nationalbalsa.com/products.htm is where I bought my last basswood. As a generalization, I also think it's best to drill from the bottom and place your ballast low. Low placement for rattles too. But experimentation can sometimes yield a winner. Sealing the wood, painting and clearcoating plus the hardware and bill will add quite a bit of weight (usually 1/10th oz or more, depending). Doesn't seem like much, but if it sinks, ! I don't use thru-wire except in balsa, preferring hand-twisted ss wire hangers in hardwood. I don't like screw eyes, not because they won't hold but because its hard to get split rings on them without bending the rings out of shape. Basswood has a good consistent density and sands very nicely without much grain effect.

I'm told that if you recoat the lure with a properly mixed batch, it will cause the soft epoxy underneath to also harden.

http://www.mcmaster.com/ sells a couple of variants of G10, G11. Most sources I've seen sell it in 1x1' sheets. McMaster-Carr has the best prices I've found and good service too.

I used a Badger/Propel for awhile and they worked just fine. I bought Propel at Michaels craft stores whenever I saw a 50% off coupon in the paper and it wasn't expensive since you can get quite a few baits painted with one large Propel can. It's a rational way to get started in airbrushing. You won't have the control or precision of a better setup but you can do perfectly OK shading and frisketing to turn out baits that bass will be happy to chomp.

P.S. Marking a centerline around the bait gives you a reference for hardware and ballast AND just as importantly, it serves as a checkline while you're shaping the bait. I hand shape my cranks with a Dremel sander. If I don't have a center reference line, they end up lopsided in some dimension. Maybe it isn't as important for large musky cranks, but when you're building 2 1/4" bass baits, it better be symetrical or it ain't gonna run straight. The more cranks I build, the more I appreciate that keeping things straight and symetrical is the best way to guarantee performance.

Finding Center - I use a good quality drafting compass and a ruler. Measure half the width and mark a dot with a sharp pencil. Adjust the compass so its lead runs through the dot while running the steel pointer along the edge of the bait. Then just run the compass around the bait, marking a centerline. If you think there are inconsistencies in the bait's thickness, turn the bait over and run the compass down the other side. If there are 2 lines, your center is in the middle. The lines are usually very close together anyway, but we want to get it exact.

Maybe Lexan (a brand of polycarbonate) absorbs tiny amounts of water but it's the most durable clear bill material. You can soak it in water for a long time without it affecting it. I've found lures snagged on the bottom for months before their hooks rusted off and floated the lure, and the polycarbonate bills seemed as good as new.

I give up predicting if bass prefer a flat or a round crankbait on a given day but usually start with a flat sided tight action bait because I feel that most days, most lakes, it will get more bites. Especially in spring and fall but don't discount them year round. That's not rigorous analysis based on hard data - just one guy's opinion based on personal expeience.

I guess width depends on the size of the bait. I like 2 1/4" flat cranks to be about 3/8". That's the size that seems to work best with the shape of that particular shallow crank and its bill, but you have to experiment to get the right dimensions for any crankbait. As far as centering holes, I scribe a center line around the entire bait while it's still "square", before any shaping, then go ahead and drill the ballast and other holes. The center lines also help me keep things symetrical while I shape the bait. If there's anything that seems to mess up the performance of a small crank, it's usually having a hook hanger, line tie, bill, or ballast weight off center.

A drying wheel will make the clearcoat more uniform and level from head to tail but I've also just hung baits by the bill and let Devcon 2T cure without turning. It still levels out OK and a few drops may drip off in warm weather, but the overall clearcoat looks fine.

I'm with you on fine detail with an airbrush - just ain't gonna happen. I tried friskets for details and fjound I just don't have the patience or skill to make them properly except for large scale features like bars or speckles. I use fine and ultrafine Sharpie pens to draw small details like gills, etc. As long as the clearcoat you use doesn't contain solvent, the Sharpie will do fine.

McMaster-Carr's G-10 is definitely yellow, their G-11 is a more neutral greenish (and stronger than G-10). www.asp-rocketry.com is an amateur rocketry site that sells the whitest greenish G-10 I've seen. It's a couple of bucks more expensive than McMaster's.

Thru wire is best on balsa baits but not essential. I never use it on hardwood baits. You can make a balsa bait that holds up for bass fishing without it if you use a sufficiently long line tie and hook hangers (1") and epoxy them in well. For thru wire, I scribe a center line around the "square" rough blank before sanding. After the bait is in its final shape, split it in half along the line with a razor blade. fit in the wire frame and epoxy it back together with 5 min epoxy.

I think most "studies" of how rattles attract fish are as much sales pitch as science. Most of the evidence is anecdotal but many guys who fish for a living like rattles in stained water and use them less, if at all, in clear water. Then you have lipless cranks filled with rattles that catch more bass than any other crankbait. There are probably also differences among largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass as to the degree they find rattles attractive. As a builder mostly interested in catching fish, I generally don't include rattles. If I need them, I have plenty of plastic cranks filled with them. Second, most cranks do have rattles, so throwing one that doesn't can be an advantage. I figure bass can shy away from rattles if they've been fooled by them a few times. But that's just opinion, not proof. You have to draw your own conclusions and build accordingly.

I use 2 power tools; a scroll saw and a Dremel multitool. Of the 2, the Dremel is the most useful. Shape the raw blank with a Dremel sanding drum, drill the ballast hole with a Dremel high speed cutter, drill the hangers and line tie with Dremel drill bits. Cut eye holes for 3D eyes with another Dremel high speed cutter. That works for me. Other tools do a fine job for other builders, depending on what feels handy to them and how many crankbaits they're building.

I use mostly non-AB acrylics including Folkart, Plaid and Apple Barrel. They have larger particles than Createx but I haven't had inordinate problems with clogging or any noticable damage of Paasche VL parts when thinned properly with plain water. I set them with a hair dryer. Besides the 88 cent cost, I like the wide array of hues including some nice metallics. I haven't had good luck with Delta Ceramcoat. Does it have an additive designed for being fired on pottery? Dunno. My bottom line is find colors you like, then adapt them work. About the only Createx colors I like are the pearl white and the metallic blue. Every maker has different color tastes and that's a good thing.

The brand of epoxy you use, the temperature, how thick you coat the bait and the shape of the bait all make a difference, so that's a difficult question. On flat 2 1/4" bass baits, the Devcon 2 ton I apply at room temperature adds about .025 oz. I record the weights of components during the build so it is easier to replicate them but the initial one is trial and error. I'd try finishing the bait without ballast and then float test it to find the correct ballast/position. Yes, having patched ballast holes is not ideal but it gets a bait that works, and you can build "perfect" baits with the information you gather.

Saw a TV program where they were testing scale models of a pickup truck in water to see if tailgate up or down gave less drag and better gas mileage. (tailgate UP is best). They used a jet pump in a circular tank - sort of a race track design. When I saw it, I thought of crank testing. However, if you want something that takes up minimal floor space, it needs to be a test chamber on top with the pump, return plumbing and other hardware underneath. As much of a pain in the neck as it is, I just save my cranks until I can tune them on the lake. The optimum scenario is a swimming pool where the lanes make it easy to see if they run straight and the depth markers make it easy to evaluate their dive characteristics. Hey, maybe the local YMCA needs a night watchman!

I use a scroll saw, even thinner kerf, so have to make a couple of passes for thicker lip material. As long as you mark/cut the bait while it's in "square" condition and take your time cutting so you don't deform the blade while doing it, I don't think you'll have a problem.

I see a bit of bubbling around tip threads but it has never been a problem. The only time I see bubbles in my paint cup is when I forget to take the tip cover off before spraying. That suggests you may have blockage caused by a mismatched or damaged tip/needle/cone. It's EASY to get them mixed up.

I've also been using a (Chinese) Digi-weigh bought from an Ebay store for $20. Has been working fine for a year and weighs in 1/100 oz, grams or whatever. Can't accurately ballast small cranks without one.

Amazing crankbait! Nice work. It's great how your hinge section mimics the vertical bar on the real fish.

P.S. I seldom paint SB blades any longer - the mechanics of doing it neatly are a big hassle. The colored crystal glitter SB blades from Staminainc.com hold up surprisingly well. I guess the finish is baked on.

For topcoating blades, I like thin epoxy so minimal extra weight is not added to the blade. Etex Lite would be better than Devcon 2 ton for that. Hang curing is maybe better than rotating here because it sheds extra epoxy/weight. Two notes - most epoxies tend to yellow a bit over time, as will urethanes. Also, epoxy will often draw away slightly from a sharp edge as it cures, which may be an issue. But I haven't found anything else as durable overall.