BobP

I think any slow cure epoxy is fine. D2T, Flexcoat, Envirotex Lite, etc all work. Epoxy’s advantage? It’s tough and thicker than most other options so resists impact and hook rash better than most. The only thing maybe better is a good UV resin, which is also thick and even tougher;than epoxy.

Hmm, ease of use and durable smooth finish? My vote goes to KBS Diamond Coat. Dip the lure, hang it up to dry/cure. Voila, you’re done. Whatever clear you choose has peculiarities of application. You just have to dive in and see for yourself what you like best.

Flexcoat works just fine. But it’s more expensive than many other epoxies because it’s custom formulated for rod threads. Just about any SLOW cure epoxy works well. Just dont try to use fast cure epoxies. They don’t level out well and they yellow quickly.

I just use whatever clearcoat product I will use as a final clearcoat to also seal the wood before painting That’s either epoxy, UV resin, or moisture cured urethane. Never have to worry about chemical incompatibilities that way AND the clearcoat is tougher and more waterproof than most of the products you might otherwise choose as a sealer.

Just to answer Deadly Duck’s original post, good baits are symmetrical and have their hardware exactly on the center line of the body. This suggests you mark a center line all around the bait after the blank is first cut out but BEFORE you start shaping and rounding it. Weight placement is variable but in my experience, many commercial custom baits use a one piece belly hanger/ballast weight. Lurepartsonline sells them. Of course, you can weight your bait wherever and however you want and build your hook hangers and line tie however too. But generally I like mine at the hanger with any additional ballast placed in front of the hanger.

There are various UV resin suppliers. If you want clear “doming resin” you can use Alumi-UV or go with Asian suppliers of jewelry UV resins that you can find on Amazon. The Asian stuff is cheaper but seems (to me) to take longer to cure, maybe as long as 30 minutes. It depends on the specific UV wave length the resin is designed for. I use Asian resin and cure it in a UV fingernail cure box (also from Amazon). If it feels a little tacky after box curing, I set it outside on a lure turner in the sun. Sunlight contains all UV wave lengths, so it works surprisingly well. I don’t see the need for lots of equipment or special lights if you are doing baits in small batches as a hobby. If you want large scale production, that’s different.

Yes, Two Ton works and is plenty strong. But I prefer an epoxy PASTE that is easier and less messy to use but gives the same strength. Rod Bond epoxy (the regular slow cure version) lets me fiddle with lip alignment for an hour or more. I fill the slot with it, push in the lip, and wipe off the epoxy pushed out the rear sides of the slot. No drips, no mess.

Epoxy works just fine. UV resin also works well. Neither outgasses much and they don’t contain much if any solvents.

I use soft temper stainless wire from McMaster-Carr online in size .041. Easy to form, good size fit for most bass baits, plenty strong.

I often take off the crankbait’s split ring and use a Norman Speed Clip instead, which is basically a split ring with little arms that you press to open the ring and clip it on-off the bait. Most other clips seem iffy to me. You need a split ring or clip for a crankbait to work properly. That’s why manufacturers sell baits with them installed.

Yes, from Asian manufacturers where you can either buy existing designs in bulk or work with a company to have your own design produced. You might contact some of the sellers to get more info.

I choose wood based on its density, which determines what kind of action the finished bait will have. Three kiln dried species for me. Balsa for lively shallow running baits. Paulownia for slightly more dense and durable baits but still lively action. And basswood for dense, easily shaped and sanded deep divers. Is it critical to use these specific woods? Nope. There are other choices. You need to experiment and then settle on a specific set of materials to become competent with them and produce baits of consistent quality. I say “material”, not wood because there are other choices like PVC trim board and various casting plastics that are also popular choices.

Chris, you’re right that a line tie in the nose of a wood bait can be a weak point, especially in soft balsa. If you break the finish in the bait while tuning it will be a goner quickly. Rather than use a steel screw eye, many builders use hand twisted screw eyes made from soft temper stainless steel or brass, either of which is easy to bend to tune a bait. I use .041” soft temper stainless from McMaster-Carr online in standard sized bass baits. It’s easy to twist accurately and plenty tough enough to last well, and won’t break finish while tuning the bait.

Musky bait builders often use .051” ss wire. But if your baits are “bass sized”, not larger than 3-4 inches, .041” SOFT temper ss wire works great, and it’s much easier to form accurately with hand tools. I use it for all the line ties and hook hangers on bass baits and it has never failed in 20 years. I get Malin wire from McMaster-Carr online.

George, I tested water based polyurethane as a clear coat a few years ago. It failed miserably so I’d be leery of using it in any crankbait application. It will definitely reabsorb water after drying (assuming you can actually get it to dry without a kiln) It will also cause wood to swell, unlike most oil based products. So, if it can reabsorb water and cause a bait to swell up, what utility does it have?

I use a UV nail polish light from Amazon. Wave length? No idea. Time to cure? From a few seconds to half an hour depending on the specific resin you are using. If the resin doesn’t want to cure completely, I stick it outside in the sun on a lure turner for half an hour and that, so far, has always done the trick. Sunlight contains ALL the UV wave lengths and hits the Earth all day long, clear sky or cloudy. Maybe not the best scheme for a commercial builder, but it works OK for a hobby builder like me.

That’s an interesting tech sheet, Jim. Thanks for posting it.

You can get just about any lure design to swim but talking guaranteed SUCCESSFUL designs, I favor copying actual commercial baits. If you build them for your own fishing and not for sale, it’s no sin. I started copying baits by simply tracing a pic and working from there. That was not sufficient to get a good copy. What you need to do is buy a bait and get exact measures and weights. That’s needed especially to copy the cross-sectional shape of the body and get a finished target weight. From there, it’s a straightforward process of weighing components and subtracting the total from the target weight to get the ballast needed. I estimate 1/50th ounce for the bait’s finish. All done, you can get a creditable copy that weighs within 1/50th of an ounce of the original and has a good chance of performing as well. It should be noted that this method works best on copies of WOOD baits, not plastic, where the variable internal body structure can’t really be duplicated in wood. My favorites are custom wood baits like the classic D-bait and the WEC E1, which are fairly pricey balsa baits that are no longer available commercially.

It really depends on how many lures you dip and how often because it’s all about how much the finish is exposed to moisture laden air. When I built a dozen baits a month, I often lost half my quart of DN to going off in the jar after 6-8 months. Using a nitrogen gas in the jar helps. Using plastic wrap under the jar lid helps. But what I ended up doing is using the “tap the can” method where you screw a tap screw into a low point in the side of the can, a vent screw into the top, NEVER removing the lid, and dispensing just enough DN to flood coat lures with a soft brush. It’s about as quick as dipping and makes the can of DN last a long long time. I’ve never used KBS MCU but it is apparently less sensitive than DN to going off in the can. I just tried DN first, liked it, and have kept using it.

I use a standard 12 tpi blade on my scroll saw..

I’ve never seen those, they must be new? My questions are: are they crystal clear? How durable is the finish? What is the cost? Is this a pure UV cured resin or is it a special formulation? No wax flakes to promote surface hardness like their dual cure formula designed for surf boards, I hope? what we need is a guinea pig to test this stuff. I nominate..... Nathan!

Createx is a good brand for standard colors. But I mix and match various airbrush paint brands just depending on color. I use a lot of taxidermy acrylic paints to get their unique colors.

I got “Let’s Resin” brand, Hard formula resin 200 g on Amazon and it came in about a week. That was before Covid screwed up everything. It takes around 30 minutes to cure under my UV nail light, which seems pretty long. But the end result is good. It’s manufactured in China but I don’t know where it ships from.

I do exactly as Mark does it. But it depends on the thickness of the G10. I use 1/32” G10 and Tin snips cut it easily. I got my Wiss compound snips from Home Depot a decade ago for about $12.

Maybe it’s just my imagination but the lip seems too far back in the body. Depending on the attitude while retrieved, the nose of the bait might obstruct the water flow over the lip, killing the action. Like Travis, I always look at commercial baits for clues to designing good baits. If anyone thinks they can build a better jerkbait than a Megabass Ito 110, they’re probably mistaken. So why not copy its basic design details. Take a look at jerkbaits from 20 different companies. See much design variability? I don’t. If you want to experiment, good on ya. I do that too. But only after I’ve built a bait that works exactly as it should and most times, that one is a slavish copy of a commercial bait I admire. I don’t sell baits so see copying as the highest form of flattery, not a sin.