BobP

I use one too. Of course, it's another thingy in the air line that can leak air but what the heck, it makes things easier.

I've topcoated baits with D2T in a 50 degree garage with no problems and they still cured hard overnight. Same for the summer when temps are in the 90's. Yes, epoxy curing is an exothermic chemical reaction but how exothermic depends on the hardener being used. The quick 5 min epoxies put out much more heat than the slow cure varieties which we use for topcoating. You can definitely speed up the cure time with moderate heating, I just don't do it because I'm not in a hurry and don't want to introduce new variables into the process that can mess it up. Patience: if you don't practice it yet, building crankbaits will teach you all about it, especially the cost for its lack.

Sharpies - it depends on the clearcoat you are using. If it contains any kind of solvent, the Sharpie will run.

A few Tu'ers have used or are using auto clearcoats to topcoat their baits. My sense from reading threads on this for a few years is that almost all of them opt for 2K clearcoats because they are much more durable than 1K clears. Of course, the 2K clears come with the downside of considerable toxicity. I once painted a reel and used 1K auto clear and was not happy with the durability. And crankbaits get a lot more abuse than reels or cars, for that matter. Perhaps UPOL is better stuff. All you can do is try it and decide for yourself whether its durability is up to your standards.

I don't think things happen with no rhyme or reason and when MCU is involved, in my experience wrinkling is caused by one of two things. Either it is reacting with a coating underneath it or it is forming a skin on top but allowing wet MCU to pool somewhere underneath the skin. I've dipped lures in Dick Nite MCU in all temperatures and relative humidities without a problem, but I can't speak about Garco. I've also never used the specific paints you mention. If they contain any kind of solvent, and some acrylics that are formulated for auto paint do, that may be the problem. If MCU pools anywhere under its drying skin, that will wrinkle just about any kind of acrylic paint. I had that problem when first using MCU because I was coating the baits and putting them on a lure turner to level out and dry. It was not apparent that the MCU was pooling under its skin, but that's what was happening. When I stopped using the lure turner and just hung them up to drip dry so any excess MCU dripped off the tail, the problem disappeared and never returned. The only thing to do in this case is eliminate the possible causes one by one until you get a successful finish.

There are several kinds of propionate. The one we use in crankbaits is cellulose propionate. I comes in little bluish white beads. Where to get it? The only place I know of, and this was several years ago, was from a TU member named Palmetto Balsa. If you find some, I recommend you dissolve it in acetone. Make up a thin solution and use multiple dips to coat raw wood. The acetone evaporates quickly. I dip 5-8 times with 2 mins between each dip and then let the crankbait hang overnight for the prop to get really hard. Bottom line IMO, prop is an OK undercoating but there are plenty of other options so it's not magic or anything.

The question I have is why the "UV Clear" under the epoxy? Is it solvent based? If so, it might be what is causing the pin holes in the epoxy and also might be why your MCU wrinkled. BTW, any UV blocking product has to be on top of a coating you are trying to protect. MCU is solvent based and the solvent is pretty reactive with some other solvent based coatings. It will also wrinkle acrylic paint if left in a liquid state too long in any place on the lure. That's why it is better to coat the lure and then simply hang it up to drip dry - that lets excess MCU drip off the tail instead of collecting in a spot underneath its drying skin and wrinkling the paint. For me, epoxy has always been pretty foolproof compared to other coatings as long as it is measured and mixed properly and I have brushed it on the lure in a thick enough coat without missing any spots. Pin holes and fisheyes can happen if the epoxy is applied over a spot of oil or wax to which it cannot adhere.

I sometimes use a thin solution of cellulose propionate (aka "prop") dissolved in acetone for undercoating balsa. The first several dips get sucked into the balsa and emit bubbles. I just keep dipping until I get a nice smooth coating on the bait. That's usually 5 to 8 dips. Because the acetone evaporates very quickly, I only have to pause for a few minutes between dips, so it's not that troublesome to do the multiple dips if you're coating a batch of 5-6 baits. I'm not familiar with the sanding sealer you use but say "do whatever it needs" to get the result you want. If you're concerned about the time it takes, you can use a 30 minute slow cure epoxy like Devcon Two Ton to undercoat balsa baits. One coat and it is smooth, hard, and waterproof. Lightly sand it to remove the gloss before painting. It takes 8-12 hours to get hard enough to sand and is pretty much fully cured in 24 hours. One good thing about epoxy. You can use it to both undercoat and topcoat a wood bait. Learn how to use the product and you're set for both tasks, plus you only need to keep one coating on hand for both jobs. But you need to build yourself a lure turner when you start using epoxy.

You can buy belly weights with hook hangers molded into them here: http://lurepartsonline.com/Online-Store/Muskie-Bait-Parts/Plug-Belly-Weight-Inserts.html I like them because it keeps construction simple. However, it's just as good as far as the final product is concerned to drill a hole for the belly hook hanger and then drill hole(s) for the belly weights, and that offers you more options about where to place the ballast. Of course, you have to fill/repair all the holes you make in the bait after you epoxy in all the hardware. I use Elmer's water based wood filler for that because it's fast and easy to sand smooth. It's worth noting that the lower the ballast is in the body of the lure, the more stable the lure tends to be. But sometimes you want to place the ballast higher in the body to generate some body roll in addition to the wiggle. This is something that encourages the bait to "hunt", a desirable trait - if you get everything else right. My best advice for a new hobby builder - start out by copying a successful commercial wood bait that you particularly admire. They have been engineered and tested to work. And buy a small digital scale to weigh all the components that go into your bait so you can make as exact a copy as possible and later, so you can document how you built a good bait that you want to replicate. Building crankbaits is an exacting craft. You need to document how you build your baits if you want to improve later versions of that bait.

Well, I Googled it and looked it over. I don't know anyone who uses it for crankbaits. My questions would be: How much do the cartridges cost and how long do they last compared to a regular airbrush and acrylic airbrush paints? What is the solvent carrier for the colors? Alcohol? Are the colors dyes or are they pigments like in typical airbrush paint? I buy airbrush paint in 4 oz bottles for about 5 bucks apiece and they last a long long time, typically more than a year of hobby painting. The airbrush system itself looks rather simplistic compared to modern double action airbrushes. I'm not saying the Copic system isn't great - it may be - but I would like a lot of practical questions answered before I plunked money down. Just sayin'.

I rarely use thru-wiring on baits anymore, opting instead for longer hand twisted wire "screw eyes" that are epoxied into pre-drilled holes. Every builder has to decide for himself whether thru-wiring is appropriate/desirable. As far as ballast placement goes, it depends on what action you want your bait to have. The majority of custom wood crankbaits sold come with integral belly weights/hook hangers. Obviously, one reason for that is it's easier to construct a crankbait with fewer steps involved. I use integral weights/hangers too but I may add other weights, just depending on what I'm trying to get the bait to do. Neither I nor anyone else can tell you reliable rules for ballast placement. Yes, throat weighting will make the bait swim with a more nose down attitude. And that will change the angle of attack for the bait's lip and its performance. That may be a very good thing or a bad thing, depending on the whole bait's design and how it performs with other ballast placements. So like a lot in bait making, you just have to try variations and test them on the water to see how they work and whether the bass agree with your ideas. I built a shallow flat sided bait that had extreme front ballasting. So much so that it sat in the water completely vertical at rest, with just a little of its tail sticking above the surface. It was one of the most productive shallow baits I ever made. But the ballasting was only one part of the bait. The body size, shape, thickness, lip angle, size, configuration, line tie position all figured into how the bait performed.

Frankly, I wouldn't topcoat a lure that has sharp edges with epoxy because it draws away from and thins out over any sharp edge while curing, leaving the edge very prone to quick wear and chipping. I'd probably go with moisture cured urethane instead, but any clearcoat other than epoxy would be preferable in this case. That said, if you are unable to disassemble the lure to topcoat every segment separately, I'd also recommend the rubber bands. They will hold the segments immobile during topcoating and then can be easily removed afterward. If any topcoat seeps past the bands, you can usually remove it with a Dremel tool with a micro drill bit or a piece of ss wire mounted in it.

Yes, the paint is thick enough that you can touch the bait with the swab and still get a good opaque coating. The amount of pressure you use and the amount of paint you load on the swab determines the size of the eye. I squeeze a few drops out of the bottle onto a piece of foil and work from there. I just hang mine up to dry after applying the paint. If you try to speed dry it with a hair dryer it can cause the paint to crack. I daub on the eye, wait an hour or two for it do dry, then daub on the iris. If you misplace a daub, you can dampen a cotton swab and roll (not wipe) it over the mistake a few times to remove it. I'm sure using different size nail heads to hold the paint also works just fine but it seems more "touch finesse" is required for that method.

Well, I go to my local hobby superstore and buy a bag of chicken feathers for a few bucks. You have to sort through them to find the right ones to use and you often need to trim them but you still get a lot of feathered trebles out of a bag. I color them with a Sharpie when I want an accent color. They seem to hold up just as well as any other feathers I've tried.

I daub on eyes and found that the paint you use and the dauber are critical to getting a good eye. First, I use an acrylic paint called Delta Ceramcoat, meant for decorating pottery. It's thick and viscous. Second, I use Swisspers cotton swabs from Walmart as a tool. They have more compact and tightly woven ends than regular Q-tips. For the black iris, I use Createx black and some small paint daubers I got from lurepartsonline.com. Some guys prefer to use the heads of nails as their daubers, I guess it really doesn't matter as long as they get the job done. When I tried doing eyes with regular Createx paint, I found that it was usually too thin to make a really solid opaque eye.

Devcon 2 Ton is a "30 min epoxy" that I use. It cures to the touch in about 5 hours and I often fish lures coated with it the next morning, although the chemical cure process continues for several days. There's always an exception to the rule but most 30 minute epoxies will perform the same as Devcon. Guys don't necessarily understand "measure it accurately and mix it thoroughly". Pouring equal diameter pools of epoxy can be OK and will work 95% of the time but to really nail it, use a pair of epoxy syringes. As far as mixing, I do it in a small jar cap covered in tin foil and use a strip cut from a credit card, and I really get after it for about a full minute. When I'm finished, the epoxy is white from air being beaten into it but that disappears quickly, especially since I often mix a FEW drops of denatured alcohol into the epoxy as a last step to remove bubbles and extend the brushing time by a minute or so. You have about 3 minutes to brush on the epoxy, which is long enough to coat 2 baits, no problem, and maybe 3 if you push it. The small amount of denatured alcohol thins the mix slightly and makes it easier to brush on and level out, but will not greatly extend the curing time or compromise the chemical process, as some other solvents will.

Largemouth bass prefer to be beside cover and out of current, especially in very stained water. In the springtime here in the SE, prime habitat is grass, timber, and anything else that has recently been flooded by spring rains. That includes flooded docks, picnic tables, trees, you name it. If the cover has deeper water nearby, that's a plus. I'm not sure those conditions are inherently attractive to bass but I know bass will follow the forage fish anywhere they may go. And recently flooded areas are prime habitat for small fish feeding on insects, etc.

I've seen posts from newbies about building crankbaits that turned out to be novel, excellent ideas. Some of the stuff we do as hobby builders is experimentation and that is done by every builder, experienced or not. A newbie may not realize that his idea has been tried before and failed, or that there may be another solution that works better. Helping him out is one big reason TU exists. But within the TU community, THANKFULLY, there is not universal agreement on exactly how to build a crankbait, no matter the level of experience of the guys participating in a thread discussion. The differences are what make it interesting and useful as far as I'm concerned. I say if you have an opinion, post it. If you haven't been hammered at some point for a bad or incorrect idea, you simply aren't trying hard enough.

I'm not familiar with "4 hour epoxy" but in my experience any epoxy should be hard and slick to the touch within 24 hours. If yours isn't, it probably never will be and will need another coat of properly measured and well mixed epoxy to correct the problem. Sorry, no experience using shellac as a topcoat.

Ben, i was using .3 mm. Maybe a larger tip would have helped but I ended up just brushing the medium on the lure, which seemed to work OK. It was just an experiment to me since I'm not a big crackle fan and justbwanted to see how it looked.

BTW, I tried spraying acrylic crackle medium through my airbrush once. It came out of the brush as instant spider webs. I don't think there is a sure fire method for doing crackle unless you are using exactly the same products as the guy teaching the method on YouTube or wherever - so it requires some experimentation.

Createx is the standard in acrylic latex airbrush paint. It comes in standard opaque or in "transparent" versions. The transparents can be layered to give more realistic effects or you can shoot them heavier to make them opaque, so they're more versatile. Createx also sells the Auto-Air line of paints that have some different colors for different effects. Generally, you want to lay down a color basecoat such as a highly pigmented white paint before adding your colors. Since all of these colors are water based they are easy to clean up after and are non-toxic, but you have to topcoat them with a waterproof clearcoat to make them permanent.

If you want an "all in one" kit, this is probably a good one. I started with Paasche and Badger airbrushes and an "on-demand" tankless compressor similar to the one pictured and they worked OK for several years.

I bought some ounces of tungsten shot a few years ago that is .01 oz per shot and use it to tweak ballasts on baits. Not cheap but not that expensive either. As far as depleted uranium goes, if you drove an M1A1 tank in a previous life, you were surrounded by it in the tank's armor. If you flew an A-10 Warthog, the GAU-10 30mm cannon it carries shot rounds with depleted uranium cores. So if you work for the right defense contractor, maybe you can snag a few pounds!

No. The vast majority of hobby builders (and quite a few custom builders) use water based paint and topcoat it with either a solvent based topcoat or epoxy. Most of us mix and match coatings among solvent based, water based, and epoxy in our finishes. The craft is learning which combinations of coatings will work together without a bad reaction. If the undercoating and topcoat are incompatible you get wrinkling or blistering. Some combinations work OK, some are a little touchy, and some almost always wrinkle. One of the advantages of epoxy is that it will not react with any other coating. Once it cures it is chemically inert, so you can use it as an undercoat or a topcoat. UV cured polyester resin (e.g. Solarez) is another coating that seems inert after it has cured. I use it a lot for undercoating baits but personally I don't like it for topcoating due to the low gloss and the white wax blush on its surface after it has cured. I don't know of any water based topcoat that I would consider durable enough and stable enough to use on a crankbait. And I've tried several of them.