fatfingers

I've only tried one brand of wood filler and I was not happy with the results. Maybe it was the brand of wood putty that I used but it shrunk after the bait was done and the outline of the hole showed slightly. I've also tried mixing sawdust with elmers; that was pretty good. I am now use Devcon2. I lay it in the hole with a small stick and mound it up a bit on the surface. I wait and see if it settles and produces a slight indentation in the cavity. If so, I put more in immediately. After allowing it about 14 to 24 hours to dry, I hit it with the sandpaper drum using the dremel. That quickly and easily takes it down to almost perfectly flush and then I simply sand off the remainder. To date, zero problems with detecting where the weight was placed. Got to check out Husky's method though. He is the World's Greatest Tipmeister.

That clear coat can sure collect on the end of the "S" hooks! I take a needlenose plies and pinch the gob of devcon and the rotate the pliers around the hook a few times to break it loose. If its a bit sticky yet, I can usually get the lure off with a little coaxing. For what its worth, I don't use brass rods. I cut up a thinner wire coat-hanger and bend the pieces into "S" hooks with a strong pliers.

I did see a video of a paintbooth and how it was built, but I'm not sure the guy was Walinski.

I've found that muskies can easily bite through two coats so I always use 3 or more on those baits. The thickness of multiple coats might be an issue on smaller baits because it may affect the action. You may have to experiement with a few.

doomdart, your avatar bait is beautiful. Outcast: Good deal. I use a toothpick. As to the lighter....no, no, no, now listen. If you're going to be a lurebuilder you have to willing to shamelessly steal things from your family. Surely your mother or wife, or sister has a blowdryer? Or your brother or father has a heat gun?

Maybe I'll post a few pictures when its done. Unfortunately I've still got a few things between me and being able to paint. but its getting closer and I'm really looking forward to it. I have nearly 50 baits ready for primer and paint and I can't wait to get at it!

Skull, that was and still is a consideration. The exhaust fan is the fan from a furnace, or at least one that is very similar to that commonly used on household heating systems. The reason it is a better choice is because of the fact that a "squirrel cage" type fan has the motor somewhat separated from the intake portion of the apparatus. In other words, the electrical motor isn't really exposed to the exhaust particulate as it might be on an ordinary fan such as those used to circulate air within a room. The electrical motor is essentially on the outside of the squirrel cage blades which draw and move the air. Additionally, I'm considering even furthering reducing the risk by separating the exhaust fan from the paint booth and placing it inside a separate box. Thus the air will be drawn from the paintbooth, through 4 inch corrugated hose to the exhaust fan and then out of the room through vent piping to the outdoors. The theory is that the particulate and fumes will evaporate and/or collect on the corrugated piping prior to entering the separate box which contains the exhaust fan. Again, thanks to rjbass for providing that information to me.

Nice work, Kb. It look like you actually cut the eyes into the wood and then paint the eye inside the cavity; is that correct? The top one look like a real bass catcher. Did you make compound turns on a lathe or did you carve it by hand?

Good deal. Post some more pictures of your work when you get done. I like how you use color.

Try using a quality oil-based wood sealer instead of a varnish, if that's what you mean my the polyurethane stuff. The wood sealer is designed to penetrate deeper and seal the pores, whereas the varnish will seal the surface only because it isn't really made to penetrate. If you try the submersion thing when using the wood sealer, you'll actually see bubbles coming to the surface as the air is being displaced and ejected from the wood when the sealer is penetrating the wood. If you think about it, you want the air out of the wood, because that is what is causing the clearcoat to bubble...escaping air. Just give the sealer a full 24 hours or longer to set up and dry before priming, and painting. I use a quality wood sealer from Minwax and I've actually tested baits after sealing and before priming or painting with no raised grain or water penetration.

You might consider trying to soak the bait first in a quality sealer. Soaking can allow displacement of air within the wood. Cut some PVC, cap one end of it, and fill it with the wood sealer. Place the bait in the pipe and let it soak for a while, then give it adequate drying time. That might help when you prime, paint, and clear.

Good tip about the footpedal, Terry. I used an old ceiling fan switch that I salvaged and stored a while ago. It worked great and gives the blower 5 speeds. Bigbassin, I agree that a lot of stainless would be expensive, but in my area there are several salvage warehouse businesses that make a variety of materials available at reasonable or even cheap rates. I could also make it from aluminum or line the interior walls with thin aluminum sheeting. The idea of course, is to create a reflective interior that is relatively easy to clean in the event of minor spills, maintenance, etc. Half the fun of doing this stuff is scrounging for the stuff you need and looking for bargains.

Thanks for the reply and the tips, Clemmy. I'm going to try plastic wrap over the windows. I'm not going to be too concerned though, because I'm already planning the next one. The reason is that I had so many great pm's, emails, and tips sent to me that I can see how to improve the next one an awful lot. rjbass was kind enough to send me some info that really taught me a lot. Thanks again, rj. That was great. I may build the next one of stainless steel. It will have slots inside so that I can slide plates of glass right in for the 3 windows. That will make cleaning the windows a breeze and the stainless will reflect a lot of light to make the painting easier. Also the venting will be a bit different on the next one. I'll detach the exhaust fan and segregate it from the booth by way of a length of 4 inch hose, the kind with the spiral on the outside. That will allow the overspray to dry and collect on the hose so that it does not collect on the blades of the exhaust fan and throw the fan off balance (which can cause vibration). Anyway, I'm about done with the booth and I'm working on finishing the inside of a room on the garage which will be dedicated for painting, drinking coffee, and BSing with my friends. It should be a great season.

Great work, rowhunter. In the first photo, you show the wire. Perhaps you could add a twist or two to the wire at the point where the hook hangers drop down from the lateral line of the wire. Just a thought. It might add another element of stability to the wire in the event of severe stress . Just a thought, not a criticism. As I say, great work!

I'm not sure which species you fish for, but I do know that musky, pike, largemouth and walleye seem to show no shyness as to the materials commonly used for baits by most of the guys on this site. Also when building your own crankbaits twitchbaits, you could drill a hole and place a chamber (such as a .22 caliber shell casing) inside the body of the bait to hold your favorite scent.

Style #5 and #19 on the link that Landor listed are particularly useful and universal lip styles. I'd love to have those with the center line and the line that rofish mentioned which allows you to either extend the lip or make it a bit shorter. I think your idea of a library is a great idea, Vman.

Shoot me an email and I'll be glad to send you some of mine.

Not only does the epoxy hold them on nicely, you can actually build the epoxy up against the sides of the eyes a little bit to give the bait a nice molded look around the eyes.

Vodkaman, that would be great! What you might consider doing is making up a sheet of lip in different sizes and configurations so that we could download the entire file and then resize them as needed. You could either post it as a tutorial or on the "tips" thread so that the entire membership could download it and use it. Just a thought, I hope I'm not being too forward here.

Pete, I want that lip slot tight enough that I have to work a little to get the lip place in there. Here's a trick for positioning the lip straight. Before you install the lip, make a paper template of it. (Or better yet, save the template you used, if you cut your own lips out of Lexan) Then fold the template in half so that you have a line that runs right down the center of the lip. While the template is still folded in half, run the edge of a permanent marker down the edge of the template where its folded. When you unfold the paper template you now have a fine line running perfectly along the exact middle of it. Glue the template to the top of the lip with rubber cement and give it a few minutes to dry. Peel off just enough of the template so that when you put the lip in the slot there's no paper where the lip goes into the slot. It will peel off easily because rubber cement disconnects from the Lexan easily. Cut off the excess paper you peeled back with a razor knife or scissors. You can now use that centerline from the permanent marker to help you be sure that the lip is centered. Now glue it in and hold the bait by the tail and sort of sight down the back of the bait and see where that centerline lines up for you. You can easily tell if the lips need to be aligned to the right or left a little. Here's some pictures to give you a better idea: Cut paper template...lay the lip on a piece of paper and cut around the lip with an exacto knife: Next fold the template precisely in half: Make a mark along the folded edge with the edge of a permanent marker (Its easier to do with the side of the marker instead of the tip): Now you have a centerline precisely down the middle of the template: Finally glue it back on the lip with rubber cement. I've drawn a pencil line and arrow showing the part you cut off before you install the lip: In this photo, I've place the lip in the bait to show you how you can use the line to align the lip by sighting down the back of the bait from different angles. You can also see how I've removed the part of the paper template where the lip goes in the slot:

I have a few questions. It the epoxy slightly fogging only in the areas where the foil is exposed and unpainted or only lightly painted? If so, the solution may not be any of the above. I've had similar problems. I clear the foil with epoxy before painting because foil does not like to hold paint that well. It has a tendency to flake off VERY easily prior to clear coating with epoxy... So I started clearing the foil prior to painting but immediately noticed the same problem you mentioned. I can eliminate most but not all of the very slight fogging when clearing prior to paint by brushing out a bit more and hitting it with the heat gun.. Now the type of fogging I'm talking about is very slight and requires that you hold the bait a certain way in the light before you might even notice it. I find this thread interesting because right now I'm about to try something different to eliminate the problem. I'll let you know if it works.

Is there any way you could use a pop-rivet for the flange?

Thanks Tigger. I had a great time. You guys ought to see his shop. Baits everywhere and each one is an eye-popper! Amazing. As to the booth, rjbass was kind enough to send me a link to a video about building a booth and I'm already thinking about modifying it! Lol, that's the story of my life. Thanks for the help, rj.