BobP

http://www.lurebuilding.nl/indexeng.html Look at the How To Tutorials here on TU. Check the above URL, a Dutch site, that has a number of build plans for pike lures which include info on ballasting.

A density table cannot describe the density of a particular bait or a particular piece of wood. Wood density varies depending on where in the tree the wood comes from, where the tree grew, and the wood's moisture content. That doesn't mean a nominal density number is not useful - it will tell you, on average, how two different species of wood are likely to behave in a crankbait. But that's about the extent of it.

There are several options. The easiest is adhesive foil - no messing with glue, etc. Just peel and stick. The Venture Brite-bak foil designed for stained glass artists is the best I've found and can be gotten online from Sunshine Glass and other art supply vendors. It's thin, strong, and has a good adhesive. It conforms well to rounded baits and is thin enough to show most 3D features on plastic baits. You texture it with scale pattern after application on wood baits, as needed. The other 'peel & stick' option is aluminum HVAC tape from a home center. It is not as reflective and is much thicker than Brite-bak, which is a disadvantage since you will need to hide the foil edges on your bait. There is also "transfer foil", which is a clear plastic film with holographic foil on one side. You glue the foil on the lure and then peel off the plastic backing to leave the holographic foil behind. This kind of foil works well on flat surfaces but I find it hard to use on round baits or baits with 3D features, such as many unpainted plastic baits. I'm trying some Stampee transfer holographic foil now. Jones Tones foil may be similar but I haven't tried it. Nova, this may be the "rub-on" foil you asked about - I don't really know. Lastly, you can use gold leaf foil, which you glue down on the lure and brush off any loose particles. To say this option is a finicky way to get foil on a bait is an understatement but the foil comes in a variety of colors and I have seen some eye popping foil effects done with it.

Don't think we got around to answering the specific question - Yes, you can use hobby acrylic paints like Apple Barrel, etc. IF your airbrush has a large enough tip to shoot them after they are thinned with whatever (tap water, Createx 4011 Reducer, home brew Future/water, etc). I used to use Apple Barrel white for color basecoating, thinned with a little tap water (however much is needed to make it shoot OK). Apple Barrel white has lots of white pigment so does a good job of hiding whatever is underneath it. Downside: you will also get more brush clogs with any hobby acrylic paint than you will with airbrush paint. Also, dried hobby acrylics have a rougher "pebbly" surface compared to airbrush paint. How big is "big enough" for your airbrush tip when using hobby acrylics? I had no trouble shooting them through Paasche VL or Badger 170 airbrushes. Neither model states its tip diameter size, but I think they are larger than .35mm. When I switched to Iwata .2 and .3mm tipped airbrushes, hobby acrylics became "Clog City". Look, using airbrush paints with an airbrush makes life easier and better. I order paint online in 4 oz bottles. I reorder maybe $50 worth of airbrush paint every 2 years, so the stuff lasts a long long time. Yeah, I probably pay twice as much as for hobby acrylics at Walmart but after years of using both paints, IMO saving $10-15 bucks a year just ain't worth the hassle of using hobby acrylics. And I paint better when there are fewer hassles. For color basecoating, I like using Polytranspar Superhide White. Shoots well, covers great, dries fast, and leaves a surface that is harder than most other acrylic paints.

Beauty is as beauty does. If it swims well, it's a winner. I doubt there are many materials harder and more durable than oak. The advantage you get with a resin is that it will not absorb water like wood will. The finish on a swimbait takes a lot of abuse and once it's breached, water absorption will wreck the bait.

I see on "The Docks" that his airbrush is a single action Paasche, so most of the fixes for double action/internal mix a/b problems are not germane. You'd think single action airbrushes are about as simple as you can get. But adjusting the air flow on them can be pretty finicky. Ah yes, the Good Ole Days - running down to Michaels with a half-off coupon to buy a can of compressed air for my single action Badger. It actually worked OK and got me into lure painting for a total cost of $20, so no complaints. That was a long time ago and several airbrush upgrades ago.

I draw the outline of the lip with a template and then cut about 1/16th" outside the line with metal snips. A Dremel fine sanding cylinder takes the Lexan down to the exact line and a Dremel felt polishing cylinder will clarify the edges of the lip. This works faster than a scroll saw and is more exact. I use Wiss straight cut metal shears (yellow handle means straight cut) from Home Depot for around $12.

That's a single action airbrush where the air nozzle has to be adjusted to the right distance from the tip of the paint nozzle in order to draw paint through the airbrush. If no air is coming out of the hose, the puncture clamp that goes on the air bottle must not be making enough contact. Adjusting the air stream can be fairly finicky once you get air flow but if you stick with it, it should work.

I think the topcoat is what keeps the finish from rupturing due to heat expansion. I've had cured epoxy used for a seal coat rupture when heated hot enough during painting. The air pressure concentrates in a section of the wood that has open grain and voila. Not saying all sanding sealers aren't tough enough - I haven't tried them all - but they are designed to fill open grains in wood after sanding as a smooth base to carry later finish layers - not to be tough and impermeable.

If you heat the bait during painting, you need to you a tougher seal coat than run-of-the-mill sanding sealer. That stuff is not designed to contain the air pressure you create inside the wood when you heat a bait.

What kind of airbrush is it? Give us a specific model number - different ones work differently. If you pull the trigger but no air comes out of the gun - but you are still using up your air can - where is the air escaping to?

One thing we haven't addressed - at what pressure are you shooting your paint? With the hobby acrylics, I always had to use more air pressure to get them to shoot consistently - around 30 psi or more. If you keep airbrushing, you'll find the extra couple of bucks spent on airbrush paint is a good bargain, considering the hassles of hobby paints. That's especially true when you start shooting multiple colors. Get several colors on the lure, then your next color screws up everything with splatter or runs, ruining the whole job and making you start from scratch. Doesn't take many episodes like that to make you start using paint that sprays more consistently.

Rob, I also think you are thinning your paint too much. It should stick on the lure and form a coherent film. If you thin too much, it can't do that. Createx is formulated for airbrushes and may be thinned as much as 50% but that's not relevant to hobby paints like Apple Barrel. When I used Apple Barrel, I squirted it into the siphon cup of a Badger brush, squirted a small shot of water into the cup, and mixed it up with a swizzle stick. What was the percentage of thinning? As little as I could get away with, but never more than 25%. Hobby paints like Apple Barrel have large paint grains and no flow agents or extenders like airbrush paint. If you thin them too much, the grains tend to clog the airbrush and all that comes out is water, with the paint grains left behind to clog the brush. Soak the brush in lacquer thinner overnight, then shoot a cup or two of solvent through it to force out any old paint. Once acrylic paint has dried, water will not remove it. When you get the brush clean and the paint thinned correctly, you'll like the results and ease of use.

Obviously, the companies selling pre-formed balsa baits aren't doing it themselves. I'd contact Janns and LPO, explain what you need and ask them for contact info on their supplier.

I still buy a few "known good" knockoffs and occasionally try a new one just for the heck of it. I'm disappointed more often than not but this is only a hobby for me. If I were painting baits for resale, I'd go with popular name brands only. I think experienced fishermen are the real customer base for custom baits and they like new and unique paint schemes - maybe even yours! But they want them done on baits they have used and which they know catch fish. If you are selling baits that perform less well than a guy can get by dropping by Walmart, I don't think you are going to get much word of mouth advertising or repeat customers, either. JMHO

If done right, powder paint is the fastest, most durable way to paint a jig head. I recommend you check the wire baits forum for info on it. If you are looking for more variability in color than you can get with powder paint, you might try airbrushing them with lacquer or acrylic latex paint topcoated with a moisture cured urethane like Dick Nite S81.

Google "airbrushing" and you'll find a number of sites that contain info on painting helmets and motorcycle gas tanks, etc.

I just squeeze the epoxy bottles at the same time to get 2 equal size pools. It's not rocket science and I haven't had a failure in years. If the lure is soft all over, you screwed up measuring. If you have soft spots, you screwed up mixing. After a few lures, you get an idea of what's necessary and how long you have to brush it. The anxiety caused by hurrying causes most errors. If you shake in a few drops of denatured alcohol (specific) and mix it in after the epoxy is mixed, that will relieve some of the anxiety by extending the brush time and making it easier to brush. No, you don't want to lolly gag in getting epoxy on the lures. But there's plenty of time to do a good systematic job on a couple of lures. Note: "30 minute epoxy" is epoxy that will cure enough to form a glue bond in 30 minutes. It has nothing to do with how long it will remain brushable. Using 30 minute epoxy as a lure topcoat is a "non-standard" application for the glue.

It's only common if you don't measure and mix properly . Soft spots are almost always mixing problems. You have to mix the heck out of it and make sure the mixing container has no recesses where unmixed resin can hide during the process. I do mine in a small jar cap covered with HD tin foil and mix it with a plastic strip cut from an old credit card. If you add a FEW (4-5) drops of denatured alcohol, it thins the mix and makes it easier to get the components blended well. It also extends the brush time by a minute or more, which should relieve you a little of the "Hurry Up!" feeling. I mix Devcon vigorously for at least 30 seconds.

I dip cranks in Dick Nite S81, which makes scuffed lips look brand new. Most topcoats will make the lip clear again but I don't like to use epoxy because it is not as thin as urethane and it will yellow over time. When you fish a bait with a scratched lip, water does the same job as a clear coat - so coating the lip with a topcoat is probably more about the fisherman than it is about the fish.

If it's not hard in 12 hrs, it never will be. Cover it with a second coat of D2T and that will cause the soft epoxy to harden too.

Try Scotch brand 2242 Linerless Rubber Splicing Tape, from any home center. It sticks to itself strongly but not to the surface, is waterproof, and tough. Cut off a 3-4" piece and wrap it around the ring while stretching it. It won't come off unless you want it to and will never become sticky like electrical tape. I also use it to splice electrical wires, anchor wires from the front sonar onto the trolling motor control cable, and even to cushion tool handles.

"Seal coat" may be a misnomer if you're talking spinnerbait blades. The real issue is getting a finish that adheres well to metal. What works for me: sand the metal with 400 grit paper to give it some tooth, shoot a coat of white acrylic paint as a color basecoat (only if needed), then the colors. The biggest step to success was using a moisture cured urethane topcoat (Dick Nite S81) that penetrates the dry acrylic paint and bonds with the underlying metal. You can simply dip the blade in the urethane and hang it up to dry, making the whole process pretty simple. And the urethane forms a thin, tough coating that is very durable (more durable than many of the pre-painted blades I've tried). When I first tried painting blades, I tried shooting an aerosol primer on the metal, then painting it with acrylic paints and topcoating with epoxy. Acrylic paints really don't adhere very well to solvent based auto primers. Also, epoxy thins out over sharp edges so it and the underlying paint chipped off very quickly during use. Epoxy also made the blade much heavier than I wanted and it tended to yellow eventually. You need a FINISH SYSTEM that will work together to adhere. If you randomly mix and match coatings, you usually find something won't adhere to something else and the finish quickly chips and wears off. The acrylic paint + Dick Nite happens to work. If I were doing lots of blades, I'd try solvent based Dick Nite lacquer colors instead of water based acrylics, for a possibly even better result. After all, that's what Dick Nite uses to finish the spoons that are the mainstay of his business. I just don't want to start airbrushing solvent based products. Heat setting acrylic paint: it's formulated to set when heated with an iron on a T-shirt. Basically, I think that means a hot iron melts the acrylic plastic into the cloth. I've never heated paint that hot; I just speed dry the paint with a hair dryer. That has always worked fine for me. Thinking about it, I'd be concerned that melting the paint into a coherent film like on a T-shirt might in fact stop the urethane from leaching through the paint and adhering to the metal. But that's just conjecture on my part.

There are lots of variations but this is how I do it, when I do it (balsa baits only). 1. Cut out the basic lure shape and sand down one side until the maximum width of the blank equals the finished bait width (use a compass to scribe the max width). 2. Cut the lip slot while the bait is still "square" 3. Measure and scribe a centerline longitudinally around the bait with a compass. Do it from both sides so you will be certain it is on the centerline of the bait. 4. Measure and draw the head and tail taper lines on the top and bottom of the bait, then sand them down to the lines. 5. Round over and bring the bait to final shape. Do not sand off the centerline. 6. Cut the bait in half along the centerline and insert the thru-wire frame and ballast. I trace the thru-wire with a Sharpie and then make a depression in the balsa with a nail set so the thru wire frame and ballast fit inside the bait and the halves fit neatly together again, without pressure. 7. Coat both halves with 5 minute epoxy, lay in the hardware frame and join the halves. Wipe off any squeeze-out epoxy with lacquer thinner (including inside the lip slot!) 8. Use a little spackling compound on the bait's seam to make it disappear, sand it smooth. 9. Undercoat the bait with slow cure epoxy (Devcon Two Ton), paint it, glue in the lip, and topcoat the bait.