northrivergeek

Another thought did post b4, I would recommend a band saw for cutting out lips about $100 bucks for new bench top mode. And if you have a air compressor, Freight Harbor Tools has cheap air brush on sale recently for 5 bucks, not a great air brush but good enuff to start, I bought one and is pretty good for 5 bucks, I also recently bought 2 more, real pain to clean it out every time you change the color of paint. This way got my 3 main colors ready to go. But of course you still have to clean out really good when your done. And another thing that would be I would say is a must have is a drill press, most hardware and home stores have a electric drill adapter that turns your drill into a small drill press. for 15 - 25 dollars. I was lucky enuff to get a old Atlas Drill press for free.

Lowe's had them in the grill accessories here in Chattanooga, TN, Wal-Mart lawn garden employees just gave me the deer in the head lights look, and then said duhh what iz that there thing ya lookin fer, a roto what? Told them never mind.. looked hing and low right b4 xmas .. no where but Lowe's had them and they only had 4 2 at 19.99 an 2 at 39.99. I saw several motors on ebay for 5 -10 dollars but by the time I paid for ship could just go to Lowes and get the $20 dollar one that had warranty on it. But I guess Santa got sick of me bitchin bout it and bought me one I tried paint stirring motors , record players, etc .. the Rotisserie universal kit was the simplest.

oldlure.com .. I figured was old lures .. nah just stands and hook protectors. why would I by a stand when can make my self. The hook protectors just clear tubing. I can by and cut and slide hooks my self. Nice stuff if you just want someone else to do it for you. But If that's what I wanted I'd just buy my baits not make my own But I guess that's how people make a buck.. I will keep first few I make to put up in my old lures display case. Heck I may just amuse my self making replicas of the old time lures complete with card board, and dovetails wood boxes, and start a case just for them. Oh and yes I am having fun, hope to get good enough to someday make some extra cash selling my excess to pay for better tools , maybe even new boat

Easy way to copy a already produced biat is to get a bait trace the outline of the bait on to the balsa. Flat sided baits are easist to duplicate. No special tools required for making just a few. Dont even need power tools. I made my first bait with a coping saw and a hand drill, disposable razor knife, and sand paper. Professional paint jobs not so easy without airbrush. But if hand painting works for you it sure wont matter to the fish. After all you cranking it past their fast so fast .. and trust me no fish is all that picky.. "oh yum here comes diner .. eekkk its a hand painted baited .. so low class wait till a pro painted bait comes ripping past" The one thing you will want to buy is a rotesire kit with motor for drying your baits after you put on the top coat of devcon 2 ton epoxy or envirotex or what ever type of epoxy you settle on to coat the bait .. trust me I tried all the cheap routes .. ended up gettin a rotessire .. best money Ive spent yet $20 - 30 bucks worth every penny unless you want to hand flip the lures every few minutes so that the epoxy doesnt run to one side while curing. There is sooo much info on here and if ya get stuck feel free to ask .. lots of free help here .. best thing is to do some searching of the forums. Just about every question has been answered by someone at least once. Ive been building crankbaits since about the middle of Dec , already built several. There is alot of info here and a lot to learn ... no wonder so few build them for there own use instead of buyin premade baits .. its a lot of work to build all you will need to fish for the year if you fish as much as I do .. but it sure as hell is alot of fun. and the people here are great bunch of people. Have fun .. and dont get discouraged .. I almost threw in the towel several times. But with the encouragement of many here I kept going back to the drawing board. check out my web site to see some of the lures Ive built so far. click on the www link out from my nick.

One more view of the spotted bait, forgot to post it thanx again

Hey All .. been working on some new baits .. need some feed back .. the wife is useless. " Yea honey those are pretty " does not get it. And the pictures are great .. I gotta get some better lighting so it will show the colors correctly. The spotted one is supposed to be purple back and green spots, and chartreuse belly. anyway thanks in advance. IMG]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c296/northrivergeek/newlures011406006.jpg[/img]

Sounds like tuff stuff .. but the 2 lacquer coats process and needed extra ventilation longer curing time. and the problems with storing and the extra costs make it not sound so hot. Sounds like alot of extra work, than with other products, humm not so sure I want to use it after all. I contacted the manufacturer .. they won't or don't sell in any size but 1 pint and 1 quart, but they will sell factory direct For net invoices of $1,000.00 or more, Eclectic Products, Inc. will ship freight prepaid. they have opening order minimum of at least $250.00, net invoice. Here is my contact at Eclectic name and number for those who want to buy that much volume of the product. Linda D. Gibson Sales & Marketing Associate ECLECTIC PRODUCTS, INC. Phone: 800/693-4667 Fax: 541/746-1983 But for now I think after weighing all the ups and downs etex and devcon will be the way to go until I'm ready for high volume.. long ways from that point yet.

Make that 22.49 per pint and 41.99 per quart my bad .. still gonna get some and try it out

I found it in quarts $22.49 and gallons 41.99 .. a liitle cheaper than your buying it for . Sounds good to me .. Im gonna get a quart and try it out http://leichtung.com/cgi-bin/FULLPRES.exe?PARTNUM=953-446 They have retail locations Albuquerque, New Mexico 5604 Alameda Pl. NE Albuquerque, NM 87113 (505) 821-0500 FAX: (505) 821-7331 Casper, Wyoming (corporate headquarters) 1108 North Glenn Rd. see map and pictures Casper, WY 82601 (307) 237-5354 FAX: (307) 577-5272 Graham, North Carolina 1125 Jay Lane see map and pictures Graham, NC 27253 (336)578-3001 FAX (336) 578-1401

Never mind I found the answer to my question already posted here .. I figured must be just couldn't find it .. like most questions in life its not what you ask its how you ask it .. I stuck my fingers in my eyes really hard, and the lights came on.. did a search on just "BandSaw" and poof answers appeared.. Thanx for the previous posters of great answers and questions. Black Jack , Riverman, always seem to have the answers I need. All hale the Kings of hardbaits. of course others have great answers too .. these 2 seem to always have the answer I need. I'd like to spend the day with each one of the guru's here .. be like going to the high alter of lure building.

Hey all .. Just got me a Ryobi 9" band saw no more cuttin out lips, and bodies with hand held saw .. one prob found so far.. little blade is to thin to cut out lip slots in one pass, and I'm afraid gonna get lip slot too wide or thin, or heaven forbid cock-eyed. What is the secret, do I just keep using circular saw, or jig saw on the lips or is there something not yet figured out... Thanx in advance for all your help... sittin here scratchin my head waiting for a brilliant response from the many experts on here.

My wife replied to my comment about new found hobby ( Lure Building) .. oh great another hobby for you to spend too much time and money on. I only have 3 hobbies .. Fishing, Computers, and Lure Making.. sheesh give me a break ... true I'm obsessed by them. At least I'm at home when making lures, well sorta .. out in the shop. I keep telling her that if she lets me bring in the band saw and drill press she would see so much more of me.. er well of my back. LOL

Finally figured out the spray paint thing .. here is pics of my first successful attempt at it on my lure dryer. I figured out easier way to make wheel .. with no wheel.. lol see pics .. using the craft magnifier (remove magnifier and weighted base) with gator clamps to hold the lure on rotisserie meat hooks, and you get 2 lures drying per meat hook fork, that's 8 lures per meat fork.

I found a paint stirring motor at a junk shop , they had several , aprox 40 rpm, but was 4 bucks, and figured they were made to take abuse, gonna try the bigger pulley to reduce rpm.

Your right we do look similar, both too fat lol , but seriously I can see why ya say so .. cept I'm better lookin But he has sure made more money fishing than I have so far .. I'm coming at ya Mr.Fritts .. I gotta crankbait rod in one hand , and a spinnerbait rod in the other .. deadly with both! Look Out! rflol

Yea that is sweet.. I've been trying to find motor for mine .. not easy in the winter Some on ebay .. but dont trust electrical used stuff from ebay, not to mention by the time pay for it and the shipping can buy new one at lowes 22 bucks. Been trying to find one at thrift store .. did find one but it was almost gone.. grinded like crazy and stopped and started. Ive seen a million rotessiere motors in the past just never knew I would need one. Would like to find a bigger geared down motor ,, those suckers are 300 plus dollars.. any other ideas for motors out there besides rotessiere motors?

Hey Riverman... I tried the 40 lbs air pressure you mentioned on the phone, using just the cheap craft paint .. and playing with the line width, It made all the difference in the world. I was expecting one pass to create the dark color on the back .. having no experience with a airbrush previously. I'm still gonna try the createx like you said when the art store opens but it did make a big difference even using craft acrylics. I will just have to make a couple passes instead of one to get the color depth I want using craft paint createx may do the trick in one.. will let ya know.

It as best as I can tell from looking at paasche airbrushes there ez-starter airbrush sold under central pnuematics (freight harbor) brand name it is a 20 dollar air brush if sold under paasche name brand, its a external mix brush not internal mix. what brand and price range (cheap as possible would be good) just to get me going without so many headaches .. I've priced them from 20 to 500. I see why some on here just hand paint . But I would like to get good enuff to be able to sell some to pay for my hobby someday. Obvioulsy long ways off from today LOL. I guess its like fishing or anything else you dont come out of the chute knowing how to do it .. At least the making the baits is coming easier than the painting is. I guess for the time being I'll be buying more premade baits to fish with than Im making my self. Here is one I hand painted .. got frustrated at trying to airbrush it and said the heck with it. looks better in person http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c296/northrivergeek/DSCF0004.jpg

Mine is single action no brand name, was $10 on sale for $4.99. external mix bottom feed. I guess I just need more practice on paper ... and I think a better brush dual action internal mix would be better .. I need to see If I can find a local airbrush artist to see what they use and how they differ from what I have .. ez of use and detail work. Thanx for the link to beginner lessons, I may see if I can rent a video on the subject too. would help to not have 3 yr old buggin the holy crap out of me !

I bought a cheap airbrush (Harbor Freight).. probably most of my problem, or paint is too thick or too thin can't decide. Ive read over and over the other posts here.. but cant figure out what the prob is.. doesn't help that I have a 3yr old standing next to me .. saying daddy I wanna paint .. please please.. let me paint ahhhhhhhhhh I'm losing my mind and patience lol. Ive tried adjust air pressure lower and higher 15 - 30 psi either I get no paint or too much .. and it seems watery when comes out .. cant get good solid paint line for the top. Maybe its just that I do not know what paint should look like as hits the lure .. seems to thin .. watery, but looks to me as milk should look when mixing it, I'm using acrylic craft paint, Im too cheap to by airbrush paint yet .. lol.. I may have too big of needle on the cheap brush I think its a #3 says 1/4 to 1 1/2 inch spray pattern. Maybe I'm expecting too dark of color as it comes out, like a spray can of paint, I need to find someone local that airbrushes to see what the correct way it should look as it hits the lure .. or maybe some one here has done a tutorial on what it should look like as it comes out of the nozzle, correct and incorrect spray width and how close you should be when spraying the back color etc etc. Makes you have a true appreciation for those who can .. starting to seem like I would rather just buy a 20 to 30 dollar bait than do it my self lol I haven't given up yet .. but sheesh its a big learning curve.

That rat looks like my mother-in-laws cats toy .. hummm.. glue on lip, ad treble hooks. Here kitty kitty lol .. Just Kidding

I took the crank out on the TN river today .. lapala was right lip too long .. so I whipped out the cordless dremel and kept grinding in till didn't roll over any more .. bout half what it was Then I kept playing with the weight till it had the correct wiggle .. now time for paint.. or maybe don't need to paint caught 3 bass on it testing it, biggest was 6 lbs I guess they liked the natural balsa look .. sure ain't nothin they had seen b4. lol

I was hoping longer bill help keeps it from hanging up running thru shallow trees. Hit lip bounce off limbs. I have yet to try it .. just got first sealer coat on it .. plan on tommarow taking it for test run. Will modify lip and weight on the river as needed. That is if it dont rain on snow on me.

Opps forgot to paste url to image http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c296/northrivergeek/myfirstcrankbait1.jpg

Hey all looking for feedback on this flat side .. not painted yet .. just looking for feedback , bill length in ratio to body etc .. My wire frame technique needs help .. I bent the wire with small needle nose pliers .. after gluing it up .. I saw the how to bend using wire jig from TU member.. oh well next one will be pur-Tee :grin: