Vodkaman

I would make a peg board. It will be fiddly, but should work. You do the first set of bends on the peg board. Then put in a vice and complete the three whip turns. DAve

I know about the warping problem as the mold gets hot, from when I was developing a ballast pouring system. The solution that was suggested to me by Sagacious, here on Here is a write-up I did on the subject. I could not find the original Sagacious thread. Dave

I had to give up my rented house when I could not pay the rent. So everything that I had built got dumped. I am currently in China, working to get some funds in the bank, so that I can start again. DAve

A very cool piece of kit. May well be enough for small cranks. It broke my heart to have to bin my 8' x 4' x 18" Dave

Here's wishing all the best for a full recovery. A poignant message to us all, well made. Dave

Nice CAD work too. Dave

Mark – whatever angle the bait is going to swim at, happens instantaneously. There is a critical angle that achieves the maximum depth. Either side of this critical angle and the bait swims shallower. A good analogy of this is throwing a baseball for maximum distance. There is a critical angle for maximum distance, either side and distance is reduced. This depth critical angle is controlled by a combination of the pivot or fulcrum of the tow eye position, lip length and body length. Seeking 56 – Gliders are a different animal and outside my experience. Good points about the density of material and the effect of changing hook size. Don-art – a very interesting point that I haven’t thought about in relation to the swim angle theory. I think that the roll axis must pass through the fulcrum too. This explains the off center action of the swim. If you study a few videos, you can visualize where the axis of rotation is, and it is rarely down the middle of the lure body. Seeking 56 – regarding the automobile analogy, if you are thinking in terms of laminar flow then the answer is no. One of the first experiments that I did was to arch the back of the lure to achieve lift. The result was right as predicted, but the cause was not aerodynamic laminar flow lift, but merely as explained in my post above, reducing the area of body, causing the lip to dig deeper. There is no laminar flow, even though the body may be a laminar flow friendly shape. The turbulence vortices are created at the lip. These vortices continue well beyond the lip and prevent laminar flow around the body. I can’t prove this, just opinion. Robalo01 – Exactly. You can adjust one or all of the variables to achieve different results. Careful though, you could adjust two or all three and end up with the same result. I already patented the lure spoiler Dave

I cut mine before even shaping. The lip position is on the glued template, enabling me to cut it first. This way there is plenty of wood to hold for this operation requiring fine control. Dave

This is a fascinating subject and is bringing out a lot of relevant ideas and opinions. I have spent a lot of time over the years doing tank test, experimenting with lips, body shapes, tow eye positions and various ballast ideas. My opinion is that the ballast, other than keeping a central grouping, is the least important. It satisfies static shape in the water, so that the bait sits upright and the lip gets a good start with the retrieve. The central grouping of the ballast promotes a wide action. If you want a narrow action, spread the ballast and/or use a denser wood. The most critical attributes are the lip width/length, tow eye position and body back width/length. I have mentioned this before, but it also happens that these three features are all connected very closely in the dynamic or moving attitude of the lure, which is quite different (usually) than the static balance. This is because the forces due to the moving water are far greater than the effects of ballast. If the lure swims correctly then the lure is in balance, between the water forces pressing on the lip which rotate the lure nose down, the water forces on the body which rotate the lure nose up and the tow eye which is the pivot point between the two forces. If you make a second identical lure, but with the tail curving down, you effectively reduce the forces on the back. The lip forces will cause the lure to dig deeper at the lip and possibly give more thump. The lure will still swim shallower than it did before, as the lip would be getting closer to vertical in the swim attitude. This is assuming that the lure still swims of course. The same effect can be had by increasing the lip length or moving the tow eye upwards. It is all about three separate features which all affect the same function. Another thing that will be noticed, is that the faster the retrieve, the more effect the lip has compared with the effect of the body. This is because the lip is a knife edge compared with the rounded body. As the velocity increases, the vortices or water effects increase at a higher rate than those around the rounded body. Eventually, as the speed increases, the lure will start to hunt, as the lip passes through the vertical. Much faster than this and the lure will likely blow out. This is not theorizing, but my interpretation of my experiments in the test tank. It is open to discussion or disagreement. Dave

I am an expert on CAD, having done it for a living since 1983. So, naturally I am happy to sit by a tube and press a few keys and produce results for my hobby and take great satisfaction. Dave

When I couldn't pay the rent, I had to move and throw all the machines that I had made away. I did make mistakes and so I hope to return to the project one day. I thought about the half nuts for a quick return, but the saw cutter cut both directions and it was possible to reverse the motor (automotive wiper motor). I hand carved my masters and glued them onto stainless steel rods. Changing masters was three bolts, so only a couple of minutes. I never felt the need to do a stock feed mechanism and was happy with just trimming the stock pieces ready for the machine. I held the stock with a home made clamp mechanism with two pins. Pressed into the wood and nipped up with an hex key bolt. The main mistake I made was making the swing arms too long. These need to be kept relatively short, to keep any extraneous movements to a minimum. Yes, wood masters, even with epoxy coating, do not last long, I would say a few hundred. If this is an issue if you want to make thousands, the best way is to cut a dozen or so, finish them and use as future masters. Keep the original safe until you need to cut more masters. Dave

Saltwater - I certainly understand about your reluctance to post. I would be interested in having a read of both your docs, if you wouldn't mind sending. I will PM my email. Dave

If your pre-shaped bodies are consistent, then a Bondo mold can be made to hold the body. I have written about this method before, the relevant post is No6. Dave

I agree with you, it is pointless sanding, other than achieving the required shape, until the grain has been fixed. DAve

I used the liquid MEK, but both work just fine. Dave

Stone tumbling might work better. DAve

Dan Patton and I talked about this idea a lot, but sorry, never got around to trying it. Dave

I have only used coiled wire and not ever had any problems with it. After forming, either by hand or using jigs, the forms are rarely straight. A couple of tweaks with pliers, a tap with a center punch to tidy the hole shape, and they are perfect. I don't imagine using straight wire would be any different. I have done some work with brass, when the SS steel wire just didn't look thick enough. Both are just as easy as each other to work with. Note - both brass and SS steel wires work harden when being formed. This is a good thing, as the action of forming the loop, actually stiffens up the loop at the same time. Dave

Stay away from galvanized, it will eventually rust and will be too springy to work with. You need to look for Soft Stainless Steel (sst). Probably a lot more available than you might think. If you find a coil of wire in a store, bend the end of the wire when the storekeeper is not looking. The wire should bend easily and NOT spring back. DAve

I agree Bob. I remembered those early days, and that's why I put the effort in. DAve

Not that desirable then - scrap it! Dave

Interesting comments TC. Yes, repeatability was always the main issue that I wanted to find a solution for. Just before I had to stop lure building, I cracked the problem. I did a production test and produced I think it was 11 out of 12 hunters. The one that failed was my fault, I rushed it and took too much off the lip. I don't think it would be possible to mass produce thousands per day and achieve hunters every time, but for the custom builders repeatability is very possible with just a little effort. The explanation and h is the final couple of paragraphs of this thread text. DAve

I'm living in China now, so no You-tube unfortunately. Pity, I was looking forward to this vid. Next time I am back in Indonesia, I will have a look. DAve

Good job - the extra tags make all the difference I suspect. Thanks for posting and hope the meds go well. Dave

Ben and I did a lot of work on this. I found the original word document that I can email you, if you think it will help. If you email me, make sure you put 'TU' in the header, or I will not open. Better still, just PM me your addy and I will send. Dave