BobP

I have made a lip too big, thinking "too much is better than not enough". And it's usually a bad idea. A too-large lip will cause a bait to plane off to one side and "stagger" on the retrieve. I think I can trim the lip after testing to make it behave. Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't because reshaping a lip freehand is more black art than science. I bend the thru-wire to avoid the lip slot. It can be hard to do on a small balsa bait but I don't want wire or epoxy squeeze-out in the lip slot because it makes installing the lip more difficult. I have enough trouble keeping the lips straight without the added hassle!

If the slot was correct when you cut it, the body shaping was not symmetrical. Like everyone - been there, done that! Balsa can be harder than other baits to shape because it's easy to take too much material off the blank - then, it ends up out of whack or you end up shaping a nice soft toothpick. I go to the extra trouble to mark center lines, taper lines, and sanding limit lines on baits before I start shaping. It's a PITA to do it but I don't know any other way to keep bodies symmetrical if you hand shape bodies. You can't depend on eyeballing to make a complex body symmetrical because of the grain effects in the wood. You jumped right into the deep end of the pool and I think that's the right way to approach it. You learn from the mistakes you make.

I do fish a clear water lake, but basically it's because I don't like shiny lead on lures. Unless it's a silver/flake plastic swimbait, I don't think shiny lead "goes" with anything. I also oxidize lead bullet weights and won't use tungsten weights unless they are painted green pumpkin or black. Maybe it's just a 'thang' but I want plastic lures to look as natural as possible.

I visit a friend in Virginia who trolls crankbaits for stripers and in my experience, a crankbait trolled on 150' of line will typically run twice the depth it will run on a long cast. I don't know if a 6XD will actually run 20 ft when cast, but I'm doubtful. So I also doubt that long lining a 6XD would get you anywhere near 50 ft deep. I confess I'm jaded by all the false depth claims put out by crankbait manufacturers. Is there anyone out there who still believes a DD22 runs 22 ft deep? They run 17-18 ft deep on 10 lb copolymer with a 100 ft cast. Anyone believe KVD casts crankbaits 100 YARDS? No way! I chalk up the "50 ft deep long lining" to the usual fishing hyperbole.

Well, I know one that DIDN'T work A few years ago, I went out with a guide on Guntersville and we threw red lipless crankbaits until my arm fell off. Results: 2 ea. 2 lb bass. Biggest waste of time and money I ever spent bass fishing.

Braid vs fluorocarbon - Braid is exceptionally strong but not as abrasion resistant or tooth-proof as fluorocarbon leader material. There are many kinds of fluorocarbon but fluoro leader material is harder, stiffer, and stronger than fluoro line. Fluoro leader is typically sold in 30 yard spools in the saltwater department. Companies add softeners, etc to fluoro line to make it castable. That also gives it more stretch but makes it less strong than leader material.

Yeah, I noticed early on that there are guys on TU who are true crankbait artists using airbrushes that many here would consider of lesser quality than Iwata or other high-end manufacturers. In the end, it's about the artist, not the paint brush. There's a technical and an artistic side to airbrushing, and for me the technical is mostly about learning to control the airbrush. Better equipment makes learning control easier and faster but I'm living proof that it doesn't make you an airbrush master artist.

It only takes a second to squeeze a few more drops into the top of the brush if I run out of paint. However, I was sizing the cup for typical bass baits, not musky baits so can't speak to whether the Rev B cup is the ideal size for that. It's not like you sight down the barrel of the a/b when painting, so a larger cup is not necessarily a detriment, except perhaps in the balance of the a/b. But like Ben said, Iwata uses different size tips depending on the size of the paint reservoir on the brush. I like to use the brush with the smallest tip that will still spray every paint I want to shoot and that's been the .3mm tip. Not to say that guys who use .5mm tips can't do great paint jobs. You'll find that airbrushing is about 75% user skill and 25% equipment.

I have an Iwata Revolution BR which comes with a .3mm tip. Unless you are into production painting and need a big reservoir, I consider the 1/16 oz reservoir on a B series Iwata "perfect size". Most of the color shots I do on a crankbait are squeezing 4-5 drops of paint into the reservoir. I also use my Revolution BR for color basecoating and a cup full of white is enough for 2 heavy coats of Polytranspar Superhide White on a crankbait. The .3mm tip is also just large enough to shoot flake and pearl airbrush paints, which a .2 mm tip is not. JMHO, if there is such a thing as a "one brush does it all" high quality but economical a/b out there, this is the one. $70 for the a/b and hose is a good deal. You can often find a Revolution for around $70 retail but without the hose, which costs around $10 extra.

I think you need to consider each lure on its merits when repainting. Most lures only need scuffing to prep them for new finish. If the old finish has chips and cracks, more sanding and maybe some filler may be needed. Using solvent to remove finish is usually messy and most solvents strong enough to remove finish will also cloud the diving lip. On some, the finish can be peeled from the lure with a thin sharp knife pretty quickly. But peeling finish off an old wood crankbait is chancy because you don't want to get down into raw wood anywhere. On some wood crankbaits, it is very easy to remove the finish in a few seconds by simply heating it with a propane torch or a heat gun until it softens and begins to blister. But some brands of wood crankbaits have a thick undercoating that is very flammable. So the best method depends on the particular crankbait. I always try to use the method that is the least damaging (scuffing) when possible, moving on to more extreme methods only when necessary.

I would let them oxidize asap because I don't like shiny jig heads. I soak lead in a solution of Oxyclean to speed the oxidation process along!

There's nothing wrong with solvent based lacquers except the spray is toxic and you have to wear a mask rated for organic solvents to use them, which many guys don't want to do. As far as water based acrylic paints, Createx is the industry standard in quality. Createx also makes Auto-Air which include some pearls and metallics. I mix and match water based colors from any manufacturer to find the colors I like. I often buy from Wasco, http://www.taxidermy.com/ and like Smith Wildlife paints the best. Createx makes acrylic paints in 2 variants: opaque and "transparent". You can layer colors for more life-like fish effects with transparent colors. But you will still need a few opaque colors for white color basecoating, etc. The Polytranspar Superhide White is the best white basecoat acrylic I've ever used. Most of the taxidermy paints come in only one acrylic variant, most often transparent. Be mindful that most taxidermy paints are stocked in both water based acrylic and solvent based lacquer types, and it's easy to order the wrong type.

Not to complicate life, but if you go to Tackle Warehouse and look at their Vision 110 jerkbaits, you'll see 7 different versions of Wakasagi: GG, GG Flashing, HT-ITO, HT HAKONE, ITO, MG, AND STEALTH. Most have some kind of translucent brown/olive back and often some translucent purple on the sides. Wakasagi is a Japanese smelt.

I'm retired so can build anytime. Unlimited time is both a boon and a curse. After 12 years of building, my stock of finished lures is tightly packed into a growing stack of 3700 boxes - and that doesn't count crankbaits I take fishing or the many I give away to friends and relatives. Nowadays, I only build to satisfy a request or try something new - so I'm constantly searching for inspiration. Sort of frustrating, really, since I do enjoy building them. It's a case of "Be careful what you wish for!".

My gut feeling when I have a bait that planes off to one side at high speed (assuming everything is symmetrical) is that the bait has a little too much lip length or alternatively that there is too little ballast to stabilize the forces created by the lip. Those 2 attributes are related. I build flat sided baits from basswood that are 2 1/4"-2 1/2" long and I shoot for a finished weight of .35 oz (9.9 gm) with #6 trebles. I would expect a 3.5" bait to weigh more than 10 gm, which leads me to wonder if some additional ballast might help to stabilize your bait at high speed. Like Mark suggests, an easy fix is shortening the lip a little, if the lip shape permits (easy to do on square lips, not so easy on round or coffin lips). Before deciding on other mods however, you do need to make sure the bait is optimally tuned via the line tie. All baits need left/right tuning of the line tie to run their best. If tuning is the only problem, you're golden.

I keep notes on every batch of crankbaits. Even if you build only one bait per month, believe me, you will forget the build details of number 1 by the time you finish number 12. Notes will help you eliminate mistakes in the future and more importantly, they will tell you how to replicate a great crankbait which you will only identify after you have fished it. I note the body shape, lip shape and angle, and ballast position from the patterns I use to make them. Then I note type of wood, lip material, ballast amount, type of undercoating and topcoating, and the wire used for the hardware. I weight each finished crankbait on a digital scale to 1/100 oz and list its paint scheme. If I can think of more stuff to note, I do it. You cannot have too much info.

Question 1: What is the most common or "best" way to seal balsa before laying down a base coat? I use Devcon 2 Ton to seal balsa lures. Thin it slightly with denatured alcohol, sand with 400 grit before painting, and recoat if you sand through the epoxy to raw balsa anywhere. IMO, the best alternative to D2T is multiple dips in a propionate/acetone solution. Question 2: Since most of my baits will be balsa ( 3 inches or less) and i plan to use through-wire, where can one source the apropriate wire? I have seen folks mention using bicycle spokes but that doesn't seem like a viable option for me... I like SOFT temper .041" type 304 stainless steel wire from McMaster-Carr (cat nr 8860K16), a good online source for wire, Lexan, circuit board Question 3: I have read numerous opinions concerning topcoat epoxies/dips etc and have narrowed it down to D2T and Dick Nite's S83(?). I emailed DN yesterday from the link on the corresponding thread but haven't heard back yet... Is this product still available? One product, 2 uses: D2T is a fine topcoat for balsa lures and is also good for sealing. I'm not sure what S83 is but I only like Dick Nite moisture cured urethane S81. Don't forget to cut your lip slot just after cutting out the basic lure blank - while it's still "square".

First, you post them in the Gallery, not here on the Hardbait Forum. Click Photo Gallery/Hardbaits in the upper left hand corner of this page. Then, click on the UPLOAD button in the upper right hand portion of the Hardbait Gallery page and it will step you through posting your pics there.

I freehand sockets with a Dremel and yes, it's takes control but I think it's easier with a cylinder shaped cutter. The Dremel cylinder cutters have some small grooves on the top that will eventually do the job but for something with a little more "bite" get a carving cylinder with carbide teeth. I don't like ball cutters because if you fill them with a 3D eye, there is an air pocket behind the eye that can bubble through the clearcoat. I'm sure there are other sources but I got some at http://www.texaswoodcarvers.com/tool_index.htm They sell Typhoon, Kutzall, and Saburr Tooth brand cutters.

Most of us are using water based acrylic latex instead of lacquers or HK colors so it may be hard getting a "read" on this. I think it's lucky that none of your colors or intercoat clear seems to be having a drastic problem since S81 often has compatibility problems with other solvent based coatings. Generally, I'm happy S81 penetrates because it will unify the finish into a very durable whole. All I can suggest is to use acrylic latex colors or stick with the stuff you're using if the color run isn't noticeable. I've never had any runs with with acrylic latex. As far as the lettering, the same problem happens with any solvent based lettering and any clearcoat containing a solvent (including some epoxies). I use a cheapo fine tip calligraphy pen and water based Createx black to sign baits.

Well, worst case scenario is you'd trash a $5 crankbait, so what? On the other hand, KVD spent time getting the 1.5 to run the way he wanted and I'm wondering what it is you don't like? Personally, I've had poor results when trying to modify the lips on shallow running plastic baits. There's not a lot of lip to work with and the problem you might think is the lip can be something else entirely. It hasn't kept me from tinkering with them, though.

I do mine the same way as Mark and as in your photo. There are various ways and one is not better than another, some are just a little easier to do. Some guys drill 2 small holes in the lip, insert the ends of the line tie in the holes, then bend the wire underneath and straight into the bait body, untwisted. Some use heavy gauge hard temper stainless wire, make one small hole in the lip, then bend the end of the wire into a circle for the line tie, bend the shaft 90 degrees, insert it into the lip, and anchor the single strand of ss wire in the body. I make a long hand-twisted screw eye for the line tie, bend it 90 degrees and insert it into the lip, then back over the top of the lip into a slot cut in the rear of the lip. Trim the excess. It makes for a fairly rigid lip package. You have to cut grooves in the top and bottom of the lip slot to accept the wire. On deep divers with the line tie far out on the lip, I run a bead of 30 min epoxy along the sides of the line tie under the lip to further anchor the line tie. I see more custom baits with this twisted line tie running into the body than other line tie schemes and for me, it's the easiest to do. Whichever method you prefer, it's critical to bend the wire accurately - so you need to use wire that will allow you to do that. I like to use soft temper .040" stainless wire because I can bend it accurately and easily with hand tools. The soft temper wire holds up well and makes the bait easier to tune if needed. I drill holes in Lexan or circuit board lips exactly the same way - with a set of micro drill bits chucked in my Dremel tool. I feel it's important that the line tie have a good tight fit through the hole in the lip, and a set of millimeter drill bits ensures I can do that.

I use a screw eye inside a screw eye for hinges and epoxy them in when the bait is completely finished. However, I can still get epoxy in the hinge when installing them and when I do, I use a micro drill bit chucked in a Dremel to zip it out. Can't say if that would be a fix for hinges incorporating hinge pins.

Pro - you can't ask for much quieter than "hisssssssss". Con - I think the tanks are fairly expensive and of course, you have to pay to get it refilled. I'm assuming any commercial gas supplier would be putting fairly dry gas into the tank, so I doubt moisture would be an issue, but you'd have your pressure regulator on there anyway so could also add a moisture filter.

Ben - Again, you gotta be careful. A Dremel at 15000 rpm low speed is fast enough that if your needle is bent only a little, or chucked off center, it can seriously bend from the rotational forces. I ruined one of mine that way. I would consider running the needle chucked in an electric drill.