rofish

Mark, I have such foil because I drink sour milk and yoghourt. :)The plastic glasses for such products are covered with a lid made out of such foil. There are many food stuffs which come in packings that include such foil - margarine, cheese, sliced fish in different sauces, etc. One side of the lid is painted with a brand name, expiry date, a happy cow perhaps, but the other can be used to glue the printed image on.

Sometimes I need to paint the back of the lure after foiling, but sometimes not. I use the printing foil technique, using thin paper glued to foil. You can see the ridge there, but I think the fish won't. http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k5/rofish_2006/rofish_2006-4/foiled002.jpg http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k5/rofish_2006/rofish_2006-4/foiled003.jpg

My experience in foiling tells me that the glue on self adhesive foil, wether metal or not, does not withstand solvents. I do not think that there might be different formulations for such glue, and some of them could be solvent proof. But it is easy to check if the glue on the back of the foil can be neutral to solvents or not. Therefore I prefer foiling with non adhesive foil, using contact cement (or at least this is how I think you would call the glue I use). Must be applied on both the lure and the foil, thin layers, and after 4-5 min. you bond the 2 parts. Metal foil is much easier to work with, because when you bend it the way you want, it will stay bent. And this is useful when you have wrinkels you want to get rid of.

Lure buildind may not ever become an Olympic sport, but competitions for lure carving and building have already taken place. Ask LaPala, he knows better.

Diemai, I don't know how much a beer costs in the bars of my town. I don't go to bars, because when I have some spare time I use it for fishing or lure making But I can tell you that I pay $0.8 - 1.00 for a beer of half a liter when I buy it in food shops.

Diemai, I think you are wrong. I am a TU member, and still, I cannot post pictures in the gallery. Let's clarify some terms. There are 2 types of TU members here. The "simple" ones, as myself (maybe you can find a more appropriate word than myself for such members), and TU Club members.

excaliber551, That's a superb action. Congrats. Allow me to suggest you something: tie the line to a small flexible stick (like the top of a strong fishing pole). You will have a much better control on the lure, and also in the video we will see more of the lure and less of you.

I have not made many lures from poplar up to now, but I like this wood. It is light and tough. As said above, I cannot imagine a single reason why this particular wood would have durability problems. Just check that the wood is healthy and very dry before starting to shape it.

I think that both lures do not swim great, or awsome, or nice. They swim just perfect.

Yes, Downriver T. is right. That space under the black cover could be an excellent dryer for your lures:lol: I was thinking to suggest that you paint that black cover in white, so if you forget your lures there, you will not have such problems anymore. And you could make a drying box at home, painted in black:) But what I wanted to say earlier is that physics will take it's toll on every chemical you may find on the market, regardless of quality. So you do not have to think that a stuff like Minwax may be the culprit. What you have to think of in the first place is how to reduce the difference between the 2 temperatures: the one at which you have sealed your lures, and the one under the cover of your boat. Everything you say about thin layers of paint which have to dry perfectly before applying another coat is right, but this hobby requires a physics orientated mind as well.

Mark, Your problem may have nothing to do with chemistry, but with physics. If you sealed the wood at low temperature, heat would expand anything which is left in the wood (air, acetone, water, etc) and so such problems will certainly appear if the difference in temperature is very high. To diminish the possibility of physics cracking your lures, you simply have to seal your lures at a higher temperature (preheat them before sealing). And you will do nothing wrong if you preheat them before any other layer you add to them. That's because the clearcoat will always crack from inside out, not from the pressure from the outside the lure. The lure can stand a high pressure from the outside. If, in the case you described, you saw that the primer was not cracked, that doesn't mean a thing. The situation may be that air escaped from the lure, but did nor crack the primer, it just went through it, causing the problems to other layers.

It was said here that acetone is way too fast to thin epoxy. I agree. I do not like acetone, because it evaporates too fast, causing problems like clouding. Instead, I use a thinner desighed for "nitrocellulosic products". It says on the label that it contains toluene, acetone and buthyl acetate. I use it both for thinning epoxy and to dissolve propionate. The propionate solution would produce sometimes the clouding effect, but this is really an exception, and it happens when the air has a lot of moisture in it. Once I made a thick propionate solution using acetone as a solvent. I dipped the lure in it, and when it cured I saw it lost some colour(it was cloudy), but the clearcoat was a perfect matte finish. I dipped a lure having several coats of normal, thin propionate solution as sealer into this thick solution of propionate and it happened again. It lost colour but the matte finish was perfect.There was a question in the past about matte finish (don't remember who's question it was), that's why I mentioned it. Then I dipped both lures in the normal thin solution of propionate+thinner and the colour and the gloss were back again. I do not like to use the epoxy as it is, I like to thin it. I usually make crankbaits using the printing foil technique, and I noticed that unthinned epoxy would not let the foil come through. But if I used thinned epoxy, the foil shines through the image of the fish. It is clearly the thinner which makes the difference. It was also said by TU members that some types of epoxies have already some thinner in them (off the shelf, of course). I think that this would mean that both components have some thinner. At least some types of epoxies can be used together with thinners. Just google "epoxy thinner" and see the results. Maybe someone could explain me if such thinners are used for 2 component epoxies or just for one component. The picture below is meant to make the difference between a lure topcoated with unthinned epoxy (the one on the top) and a lure where thinned epoxy was used as a clearcoat (the smaller one). The foil was exactly the same for both lures. I do not have 2 pcs. of the same lure to show you the difference, but I think the picture speaks for itself, even though when you look at the real thing the difference is higher than in the picture. I admit that if you paint your lures you do not have to use your head with such problems.

Just a few ideas. Enjoy. http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/hard-baits/13673-lure-holders.html http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/hard-baits/11007-lure-holders.html http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/hard-baits/11690-my-lure-holder.html http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/hard-baits/11683-holder-baits-being-painted.html http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/hard-baits/9486-lure-holder-i-made-today-very-nice.html

Rookie, Here is the simplest test you can do. Put acetone, or thinner containing acetone on the remaining lip. If the acetone melts the lip, you will know it is plexi. If acetone whitens the lip, it is Lexan. Better put a piece of the lip in acetone, because it takes some time for you to see the result.

I remember that Mark Poulson said once that he wants to use what is the best in Devcon 2 ton and Etex, so the first layer of epoxy in his baits would be Devcon, and the second layer would be Etex, or something like that. Others use Devcon + Dick nite. I have used thinned epoxy + propionate solution (bonds very well to epoxy, or so it seems). The ideea is that when you have a first layer of hard epoxy which might chip off, it is better to cover it with a better impact absorbing clearcoat than to add a second layer of epoxy. I have had no chance to test such a double coating in the mouth of a pike (couldn't find a volunteer yet), and I definately do not like rock-testing. Also, I usually thin the epoxy, which, I guess, makes it less brittle (this is not a proven fact, but maybe 2 coats of thinned epoxy are better than a single unthinned one). Thanks, Clemmy, for starting this thread. I was searching the internet for more than a year, trying to figure out what those tests meant, when I was trying to find out a plastic material to be dissolved then applied as clearcoat. What I know better now is that I will never be able to understand those tests.

The simplest solution I can think of is "S" wire at one side, and "S" wire + a spring having the right tension at the other. You can adjust the tension required for the spring by using different lengths of "S" wires. More complicated devices can be imagined. But what I wanted to say in the first place, when seeing the picture was "wow". That pike tells me you are a very talented guy. By the way, how did it get colours on it? Airbrush, paint brush, printed photo?

Jeep, Don't forget that you have to round up the sharp angles of wood at the back of each section, as in blackjack's drawing. This would allow the sections to move further. Also, you do not want to cover sharp angles with epoxy, because it does not like to stay there. Wish I knew to make drawings as nice as you do.

"What type of wood do most people use? What's the best?" = What type of women do most men marry? Which type is the best? Just have the patience to read this site for a couple of weeks, and you will find out there are many preferences among lure builders. Some prefer balsa because it is very light and thus the lure is livelier in action. But if you are after muskies or sharks, balsa is not the best choice. Usualy big toothy fish requires hard wood. There are many types of wood available, and you surely have throwen away pieces of wood you thought you did not need anymore. So I think you should try first a medium type of wood, like basswood, which is enough buoyant and very strong. Or poplar which is lighter but still strong enough. Try other types of wood, and then you will have your opinion on the matter.

It think this is what he is talking about... (quote) Yes, definately. Adding beads above and below the screw eye or twisted wire will let the segments move easier (by reducing friction) and also there will be less stress on the clearcoat. Just look at an inline spinner and you will know why. What I am thinking about is that halves of beads could be used (if available), so semispheres which would sit at the right place, and which could be glued to the clearcoat. This way, there would be no friction between the halves of beads and the clearcoat. What I was thinking of in the first place was using washers instead of beads. I suggested it to Diemai in his post about his first swimbait. There too, I thought that a washer could be glued somehow, even though I did not mentioned it. But I can speak only theoretically, since I have not made a swimbait yet. And Mark Poulson who has a lot of experience in making such lures, has said that such kind of protection for the clearcoat is not necessary. So I think that everyone has to decide for himself.

DSV, When glueing the foil to the body, use a cylindrical object to take out the wrinkles. I use the back part of drill bits. The paper (or is it tissue?) with the printed image on it will not be damaged, if you roll the cylindrical object over the wrinkles.

Diemai, I think you made the best paint job among the ones that do not care about the paint job. But there's something else I want to tell you. I think you have chosen the most difficult to make joint system. It has the advantage of concealing the joints, but I think it has a big disadvantage: the constant friction between the wire (or screw eye) and the next section. I think that this friction (which would surely ruin the clearcoat and paint, letting the water penetrate the wood) could be counteracted by adding washers, so that the screw eyes would lay on the washers, not on the clearcoat. This would surely add some weight to the lure, which is already weighted, but the only difference would be that the lure would sink a little faster. In case you agree, I recommend that you make the washers (not buy them, because these might be thicker than needed) out of SS metal sheet, with the thickness of, let's say, 0,5 mm.