Vodkaman

Jason - Good points about testing how you intend to use the lure, just like you should always test with the hooks and any other hardware attached. If speed is important in my design, I measure how much line for one crank of my reel. After that, it is not difficult to estimate how many cranks per second you are retrieving. From here, you can calculate speed in meters per second or miles per hour, what ever you need. Variables - everything can be said to be a variable, as there is hardly anything that you can alter without it having an effect. Tie a feather to the rear hook and it will have an effect. The secret to lure design is understanding what each change/modification/alteration will do to the performance of the lure, be it action or depth. Understanding the mechanics of what makes a lure move the way it does, I think is very important to design. Understand this and you can start to get creative in your design and even come up with new designs never seen before. Google 'vortex shedding' or 'Kármán vortex street'. This is the engine under the hood. DAve

Indeed Dieter, the upward force of buoyancy is an obvious counter to achieving depth. Not really part of the lure construction, but your choice of line thickness has a huge effect on depth. The cumulative effect of the lines cross section is what ultimately sets the maximum depth that a lure can swim to. Dave

Benton B - your statement of the Lexan and the circuit board fits the profile exactly. The sharp edge of the thinner circuit board generates more energy for want of a better word. SLT785 and anyone else - I can explain in more details, any of the cases quoted above, if the statements are not making sense. Dave

Flyoline - a very good suggestion. I don't recall ever seeing a vet sign, so I googled and there are a few. I bought two cake syringes, expecting only to be able to use a few times. I never opened the second one. It worked so well, I doubt I will try anything else unless I fall over something interesting. Dave

From the Forums page, scroll down to knowledge base section, Under 'Member Submitted Tutorials' are all the 'how to' forums. DAve

RipLip - I tried all kinds of searches and could not find anything, even knowing it was Carolinamike. I finally remembered the 'runner' word. Sometimes the search function just does not help! This idea of using tags is going to improve things down the line, if everyone (including me) starts to use them. It will take a few years though I think. It might be a good idea if we could add tags to old posts - just a thought to the management Dave

The plastic is called 'runners'. Below are three links on the subject. One of them mentions that Carolinamike no longer sells them: Link 1 Link 2 Link 3 DAve

I would love to have had a play with those. I have done a few projects that needed larger syringes, not just the resin injector. I am thinking of the vacuum assisted molding of plastics. Dave

RW - do not concern yourself about the questions. Even if the question has been asked before, it serves a purpose to re-address a question and see if any new ideas come to surface. This is a very interesting question and was actually one of my pet projects in my early days of TU, when I attempted to write a spreadsheet for designing lures; were you enter in all your parameters and the sheet would tell you if the lure was stable or not, how deep it would swim, how wide the wobble would be and how fast it would wobble. Everyone warned me that it was impossible, but that only encourages me. Actually some things are possible to predict mathematically, but there are so many variables that have to be taken into account. At the time, my limited knowledge was holding me back, but as my knowledge from testing improved, I found that I did not need a spreadsheet to tell me how a lure would swim, I could just tell. Predicting the depth is one of those difficult features. This is because there is a lot more to it than the length, shape and angle of the lip. The most important variable in determining the swim depth is the tow eye position. But, there is even more to it than this; the length, width, shape and curvature of the back of the lure has an effect. The length of the active edge of the lip, combined with the length, width and shape, all these features have an effect. So, certainly predicting a swim depth with simple spreadsheet maths is not possible. What you can do, is learn what affect each feature has on the depth of the lure. Think about how a lure achieves depth in the first place. Understanding these details is what experience is all about. Here is an example: A deep diver design, long lip, shallow angle with tow eye on the lip. There is an ideal position for the eye for maximum depth. Move the eye forward and the lure swims shallower, move the eye further back and the lure swims shallower. Analogy - firing a cannon ball. There is an optimum firing angle. Fire too low an angle, distance shortens, fire too steep, distance shortens. Back to the lure; The eye position is a balance of all the features that I mentioned above. This means that I can alter the swim depth by altering any of those features. Let's say you have a lure that has the perfect balance, then obviously altering anything is going to make the lure swim shallower, but what we can do is think of the change in terms of the tow eye position. Starting off with an easy one: Shorten the lip length - effectively eye position moves forwards. Swim angle reduces, bait swims shallower. Lengthen lip length - eye position moves rearwards. Swim angle increases, nose down, but bait swims shallower with a harder thump. Narrower lip - eye forwards. Wider lip - eye rearwards. Thicker lip - eye forwards. Thinner lip - eye rearwards. longer body - eye forwards. shorter body - eye rearwards. Fatter body - eye forwards. Thinner body - eye rearwards. Rounder body - eye forwards. flatter body - eye rearwards. This should be enough to get you thinking about the design. Dave

I think the best material is called PetG for vacuum forming. I am not saying that you need to get into VAC forming to get this to work. As mentioned above by Jonister, judicial application of heat and a bit of practice should get the job done. I did a lot of research into VAC forming several years ago and petG stuck in my head. Dave

Forgot to mention and MarkNY's post about fisheyes reminded me; if you buy syringes from a chemist, they usually have a thin coating of silicone grease inside the tube, so first job is to thoroughly degrease the syringe. Really, the same goes for any surface or container that you intend to mix epoxy. Just 'cos it looks clean, doesn't mean it is. Dave

NASA of bait making - I soooo like that Welcome KS. Dave

Crom - The guys are telling you to think hard and make the right decision for YOU and giving you all the information we can. We are also saying GOOD LUCK and wishing you every success. Dave

Fishnart - I totally understand. It was a good point to bring up. Dave

I was just asked about my method of using a cake syringe for injecting a thick resin and micro balloon mix. I remembered writing a whole article on the subject but could not find it on a search. I searched my computer and found the article and photos, so obviously never posted it. Better late than never: Cake syringe for resin/microsphere injecting The first time you try injecting, you spend about half an hour trying to clean everything up and soon realize that this is not the way to go. Also, the pour is not efficient, with a lot of waste filling the gaps and crevices. The three images show two identical syringes, one unused. The secret is to fill all these gaps and crevices. This serves two purposes: 1 – greatly reduces wastage, improving efficiency. 2 – clean-up is reduced to a minute or two after very little practice. First job is to fill the end of the plunger. Image No2 shows the recess in the end. Fill this flush. You can use the resin or some other filler. Second job is to fill the unused space inside the barrel and nozzle, as seen in image No3. The best way to achieve this is to have a dummy run. This also covers the clean-up procedure. You need half a jar of solvent, I use cheap paint thinners. An old rag and a scraper, I use an old knife. 1 - Spoon in some mixed resin, insert the plunger and squirt out of the nozzle. 2 - Pull out plunger, scrape off excess and wipe with the rag. 3 - Re-inset plunger, draw up some solvent and squirt back into the same jar, repeat about 20 times. 4 - Remove the plunger and allow to set. The syringe is now ready for injection. The clean-up solution can be used many times. The sediment settles and can be decanted. You can see in image No1 that there is a build up over time. The syringe in the image has been used more than a hundred times, so you can see that the syringe is good for at least 500 operations. You could extend this life by figuring out a way to efficiently wipe the inside to prevent the build up, but I didn’t bother as the syringes are so cheap anyway. You never need to remove the nozzle. Hope this helps, I am not famous for explaining things clearly. Dave

As for brushes; mine get used hundreds of times, be it epoxy or resin or whatever. I have two glass bottles, one with used acetone, the other with fresh. The first wash is with the used. I have a length of very hairy rough cut timber that I scrub the brushes on. This gets right into the roots of the brush. I then repeat with clean acetone. The used clean acetone is then poured into the first bottle. The debris settles, so take a few seconds every few uses to decant into a fresh bottle and you can make the most of the acetone. Dave

I thought this was common knowledge and had been mentioned every time epoxy was discussed. But, I just did a quick search for 'epoxy thinning edges' and the last entry was 2012. I then changed my search to 'epoxy edges' - that worked. DAve

To me, there is only one solution to preparing epoxy and that is syringes. Some epoxies come in linked syringes, these are quite good, but you have to take care how you store them, so that they are nose down at all times. I buy epoxy in larger volumes, it comes in tins and measure out with indexed syringes from the chemist. I keep the syringes plugged and stored vertically, being very careful not to let any air in. Once air gets in, it is difficult to judge the measure and the contents cannot be trusted. I clean the syringes out and start again fresh. What annoys me, is the squeeze tubes of epoxy. The components are different consistencies and dispense in different diameters. How can you possibly get close to equal volumes when one flattens out and the other stays in a round blob. As for mixing, the best container for mixing is the bottom of a fizzy drink container. There are no difficult corners for the epoxy to hide. When done, you wipe them out with a piece of old rag and let the remains cure for re-use. If you get into the habit of collecting the cans, you rarely have to re-use, especially if your family help out. Another method that I use, is to flatten a lump of kids modelling clay, cover it in plastic kitchen roll, then form into a dish. When done, the plastic is discarded and a new piece added. Use a rounded Popsicle stick for mixing. The sticks are best re-used, as they become smoother with a coating of epoxy. In fact, when the epoxy builds up too much, I grind then down on the belt sander, it takes a few seconds. Using epoxy doesn't have to be difficult. It is just a matter of finding a method, a routine that works for you. A repeatable quality finish can only be achieved if your method is repeated and consistent. Dave

Simple, cheap efficient - great idea. If I had a bag of baits like the one in the picture, I'd want to protect them too! Dave

I understand the flushing concept and I like it - a lot. But, you are not flushing that middle cavity. The molds that worked, the lures look a lot thinner and they are all connected to a flushing vent. Perhaps the flushing reservoir(s) need to be increased, by extending with another pipe. You can then extend the flushing until you get it right. Finally trim the pipe to the length that works, so it acts as a guide. Something else to consider; the plastic takes the route of least resistance. You need to give the plastic a reason to flow through that middle cavity. The point of your thread was to share your method, which I don't recall seeing before, so well done for coming up with an original idea and putting it into practice, and good on you for sharing. But, if you show a problem, we all want to help you fix it Dave

If the first coat has already hardened, you should scuff it up before applying the second. The scratches will give a good key for the second coat to grip and will not be visible. DAve

It certainly looks like it needs a vent. Dave

I can't see a simple, flexible solution. It is going to be a half frame with three strong, fixed clips to hold the eyes. The lure will have to be attached to the frame before applying the epoxy, so something hand held would be convenient, that can then be clipped to your drying wheel. Dave

Lure engineering at it's finest Dave

I don't like cutting lips either. I started designing a router safety jig for cutting multiple lips from a sheet. When I get a workshop going again, I will definitely be returning to that project. It was dual purpose, for cutting body profiles also. Dave