pikeman

P.S. I'm not receiving e-mail notifications about the new posts in the threads I've wrote

welcome glad to be helpful

This sounds great , I have a low speed internet connection unfortunatelly and I saw a change of speed when the site is loading so I'm happy with the change, hate the colors too but if Jerry sais that he will implement the skin system it's ok with me Miss the gallery , are you guys working on it

OK, this may be a little bit dangerous but here it goes I've tried this on plastic lures and wooden too, the lip had a good bond to the surface of the lure so there was no chance of removing it , tried playing with the xacto knife around it and also couldn't cut the lure because the toe eye was in the center placed somehow on top (not getting out from under the lip). So , I worked around using a hot wire (some fumes involved too, but not to much) and started to melt the plastic of the lip , this causes also the resin (or the glue) to react while you are digging into the plastic and after two or three tries you can get out the remains using the Xacto Hope this helps

IMHO if it was too hot in the room you night have a problem, high temperature makes the epoxy harden faster, 2 minutes of mixing it's ok another way too look at the problem maybe you didn't measure correctly the mix ratio and you've put too much hardner (the yellow stuff)

definitely more weight to check that you may also apply weight on the treble hooks, how much of the lure enters in the water ? also check for proper lip alignment but as I see from the pics you have a large lure poorly weighted

don't know about the "high strenght" part , but if think you are in a mixing problem , did you gently mixed the two parts for about 1 - 2 minutes? it should have been cured in 24h, you are one day over that period so it's useless to wait for another day...I'll give you a tip that it usually works...the yellow tube is the hardner so when I mix the two components I put a little bit more of this one, just a drop or two, don't exagerate, you'll end up with a solid rock in your mixing pot in a few minutes. It's just better to be sure that the hardner is at least the same amount as the other component usually I do this by eye (never had problems, just with some small parts that didn't covered due to touching the lure after painting it )

OK, here is one aspect to DeanMcClain and Husky ffor giving them credit As a contest participant to our national fishing tournament (in Romania) there are only two stages were we use hard baits (small cranks) and I'll tell you this , in an overfished catch and release lake the predators will not respond as you would expect to commercial lures, especially in a contest when there is pressure on the lake due to over 60 to 99 boats. Another reason? the lake is fished with comercial lures over the year so bringing a new handmade lure into a contest is (in my opinion) the surprise factor and this is already tested, as Dean said each participant has a handmade lure in it's pocket, if they are sponsored they'll probably tell you how the fishes were caught at a comercial lure, but believe me it ain't like that for the majority of them Another way to look at this, there is one person that owns a lure factory, but he will fish with own not in production made lures, yes, the lures are made by himself but he doesn't give them to mass production

this is were you got it wrong, there are a lot of factors to consider, that's why you must have some knowledge about fishing with lures before you begin building one. How do you know the wooble is effective? How do you know a lure that you've bought is effective? Just because someone else caught a fish with it ? ... even so what about the factors? time of the year? water temperature? water color? location (the depth were the charges occured)? lure color? You must build different lures with different actions for different situations...even if the eye sais that you got the correct wooble (from your opinion) yet you still have to find out the moment to use the lure ... it's all about practice. But remember , the fishes are unpredictible, if you are full of fishing experience, you may find moments when even if all the conditions are perfect they will not respond to what you gave them in other similar situations and this my friend is why we love fishing, cause it is an adventure...it wouldn't be the same if you would catch fish in every trip and with the same lure

http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/hardbait-how/10686-micro-through-wire-construction.html ??? no spiders in there

and than you realised that you are wayyyy into deep to go back now + you kinda love it , if not you wouldn't have bought all sorts of tools, but damn you forced the limit and wanted more and more

about the action? there are ways to figure out this problem I'll give you some hints 1. build the body , water proof it , place a lip, screw eyes or whatever, treble hooks too and take a needle, place some lead on it and push it into the lures belly , go for a swim in the bathtube or a tank, move the needle on the lure until you find the proper action, if the lure is larger use more needles or lead , be sure to check the lip alignment and the toe eye too before you start the bathtub fishing. After you found the place for the lead, make holes and place it in the lure 2. build the body , place the lead, screw eyes, lip and treble hooks , prepare a set of plastic lips and go for the bathtub, gently replace the lips until one catches your atention by giving the lure the action you want...don't forget to waterproof the lure before you start 3. throw out money on the window...buy a lure and tare it apart, this will bring you information...but you won't be so good of doing an exact replica , and if it's plastic with chambers in it , remember that you use wood (not the same density, and it's difficult to place chambers in it at the beginning) Oh, another important tip: practice, lure shapes , lips shapes, toe eye placement (on the lure, on the lip) this is the way to experience

My guess ??? If you won't try it you'll never now Minimal requirments you say? You are in deep trouble now. For me it all started like that: A piece of wood A handsaw X-acto knife Some wire Some lead Laquer Paint Plastic for the lip This should be the minimal requirments (don't ask me about the prices in USA but I think you'll go cheap with all those garaje sales and bargains, deals and so on) The trouble?? You'll want more, Airbrush, acrilic paints, epoxy resin and than you realise you pay for quality, you don't like to screw your work, you invest $$$ but also time (some fingers too if you are not carefull ) and time is money, but the satisfaction of catching fish with your own lures??? I'll let you figure it out So my advice...GO FOR IT P.S. forgot about the terrible headaches the laquer attacks the paint, one rattle can paint disolves other and the lure looks like it has cheese on it, go for products from the same factory and read if they are disolved by the same thinner, water based paints will help you go through P.S.2 You don't ask "is luremaking for me?" on the largest worldwide luremaking website cause the answer is definitely YES

This is the right thing to do, I use hot water (not very hot) but it disolves the paint easier if it's getting stiff , also DON'T forget the airbrush with paint in it, I clean it immediately after finishing the paint job, usually I do it in a sink, but I won't recomend it if you tare apart the airbrush, you don't want any pieces "going down the toilet" along with the water

it might affect the O rings at cheaper airbrushes ... just a guess never tried

thanks for all the input, I gave up the idea and either use Palmeto's method or the clasic one with epoxy 10 min mixed with wood grains

Still searching for those leafs, they are used for painting also, in Romania they are used for icons. I've heard that you can place some glue on the lure with the exact shape you want the foil to look like, apply the foil than gently brush the exces with an ordinary brush, it is so thin oh yes it takes some practice to get used to it P.S. Frank , post some pics please

To be more specific I kinda like what wikipedia has to say about it Hot melt adhesive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "For example, a wood joint properly made with hide glue may be invisible, marked only by a difference in grain at the seam line." "Surprisingly hot-melt glue can be used to assemble and repair foam models as an alternative to foam safe Cyano or UHU POR adhesive. Due to the insulating properties of the foam the hot-melt glue stays sticky for much longer than when used on wood, metal or plastics." Think I'll give it a shot, yes I know , it consumes energy and it's dangerous cause it may burn your skin, but after using acetone, laquer thinner, super glue, pouring lead, inhaling wood particles etc., etc. this doesn't look so dangerous after all P.S. never heard of animal glue but the glue stick are not made from that crap

Not sure if I remember this correctly but someone over here wrote in a post that he uses a melt glue gun to fill the slot for thru wire lures. Someone tried this method? Just curious if it holds the wire in place and also if it's easy to sand.

Hi, Has anyone tried one of these products for a topcoat Smooth-Cast

Hi Vman, I was wandering what your engineering mind worked on lately, and here it is, nice job, my boxes full of machines are jealous on your workshop maybe we'll have a chat in the chatroom like in old times

I second that, you'll have to pay me good money to use super glue for screw eyes and sealer, it's a mess when it comes in contact with water. Used to seal and mount screw eyes with super glue, man I was so happy to see how it hardens the wood until one day when I was testing an unpainted lure, the surface of the lure got white and the screw eyes got out easily when I pulled them with my fingers. I'm not going back to that moment Of course you won't get there until the water breaks through the topcoat and paint, but for me it's riscky. Maybe CA Glue in USA has better quality Propionate or fast curing epoxy mixed with acetone will harden the balsa too As for screw eyes vs thru wire : balsa - thru wire basswood ( "tei" in Romania same familly and density) - screw eyes for small fish lures - thru wire for catfish and pike Anyway all methods will work if you are confident in using them, it's just a matter of precaution(usually time consuming)