Vodkaman

A simple home made manometer will give you an indication of speed. It will show you if the air is going faster or slower. I have no idea what you are trying to do or how much you know, so I am just throwing this out there. A manometer is simply a U-tube fitted to a TEE at one end, open to atmosphere the other end and half filled with water. When there is zero airflow, the water sits level in the U-tube. As the flow increases, the pressure in the pipe drops and the water level rises on the pipe side of the U-tube. The pressure is the measurement in height between the water levels. Lots of information available by Googling on manometers. Dave

The pipe that you are talking about I think is way too big. A 1" depth of lead would weigh 17Lbs. A 4" inside diameter pipe would hold 2Lbs of lead at 1" depth. A 6" inside diameter pipe would hold 4Lbs of lead at 1" depth. I think a 6" diameter would be more suitable and probably easier to source. DAve

I have recently been doing lot of work on small, flat sided cranks, 2" length. I bought a 1/8" radius round over router bit for the job. I built a small platform that fitted the router bit and gave good stability to the wood blanks and it worked perfectly, with no snagging or tearing. I was very happy with the result. Still, it is not good having your fingers so close to the cutter and I will be making some sort of holder, like many that have been published here on TU, it is just that my first attempt at such a device did not work. When I return to Indonesia and get back to my shop, the holder is the first job on my list. Dave

Bad luck on the crack. Don't skimp on the thickness of the mold. PoP is cheap, so go thicker. I usually go for 1.5" thick, each half, you might get away with 1.25, but why risk all that work. Dave

I guess I missed the point in this thread, I was thinking that the volume of lead was the problem and not the weight was the problem. If you want to reduce the overall weight then changing materials is not going to help you. Definitely you will have to reduce the displacement to get a lighter lure. Trimming the sides was the most effective solution, but will it perform the same? Only testing will answer that. DAve

Mark covered the Archimedes side of things with his usual flare, LOL. The only other way is to reduce the amount of lead is make the lure out of a denser material. Dave

Maybe the bait is not a dud. Have you tried tweaking the tow eye. Most baits require some level of tuning to make them swim correctly. Try bending the tow eye to the right and see what happens. It won't need much. Dave

If the baits are roughly evenly spread, the motor is not under much strain. Start up is the problem, getting the mass moving. If the motor is 50ftLbs then is should have no trouble with your 15Lbs of wheel. Consider a second hand wiper motor, they are amazingly strong. You would still need to sort out a 5 amp power supply (battery charger) and gear it down (bicycle sprockets and chain). Dave

I think the bubble occurs when you start the pour/injection. The bubble forms behind the inlet and moves rearwards during the pour. To test this theory, try starting the pour ultra slowly, once the nose is filled, you can speed up. If this is the case, rounding the underside of the pour spout might work, removing the sharp corner which is causing the bubble. But this is going to make more work trimming the sprue of course. Dave

I don't always manage to get my lip perfectly aligned, but I have never had a problem getting the bait to run, by tweaking the tow eye a tad. I think the tolerance is quite generous, more than people might think. However, if you are selling or even giving the baits away, you have your reputation to consider. You really need to find out why the bait failed for future reference. Failures are our best instructors and should be savored! Don't throw it away until you understand what went wrong. Dave

I'm not sure if I am retired or not. I haven't worked for five years, by choice. I am not claiming any pension and financially struggling, but happy, oh so very happy! Dave

I have actually just drawn up plans for a flat sided lure. But it is only 40mm long. Let me know if it is any use to you. Yes, there are nearly always going to be problems. When making a new bait, you have to assume that it may take a few prototypes to get to what you want. When you build up experience with building a lot of lures, you can cut down this work and occasionally get it right first time. But to get the most out of a particular body shape does take a few trials, lip sizes, tow eye positions, ballast locations. Dave

I will keep a look out for that, thanks. Have been suffering a lot with line breakages lately and getting sick of it. So many of my prototypes swimming around in fishes mouths. I do feel sorry for the fish too.Dave

What I found was how much further they fly without the restriction of line, when it snaps because the bail arm flipped back. It was impressive, however, my language was not! Dave

Ha! we have all been there. The next will be even better anyway. Dave

Why not. Should have a nice flowing movement to it. Dave

Thanks Vic. If I ever sell baits, I will get into painting, but until then I will be fishing nekids. Dave

I make something very similar to this and they work really well. I was having a lot of problems with line breaks at the knot, so I designed mine to take a whip knot, which seems a lot stronger. You cannot buy spade end connectors on quick releases for some reason. I was going to post mine in a few days time, but you beat me to it. Well done. Dave

Ha! it was a total disaster. I have documented the story on another web sight. Hope it is OK to link it, if not, please delete. The baits performed very well though. I will have to shoot a video soon. Dave

I recently did some test builds to explore materials and ballast locations and found that the wood choice made no difference. Like you, I found that the heavier woods performed as well as the lighter woods and gave less problems finding space for ballast. Well done on your swimmer. Dave

I print out a te,plate from the computer in PDF format. Glue to sheet and cut with band saw to within 2mm of line. I sand to line on the belt sander. Yes, I do understand that you don't have power tools and if faced with that situation, I would probably use a hacksaw and try to cut several at a time. Maybe rig up a lekky drill with a disk sander attachment, by holding the drill in a vice. A hand drill and a bench vice are very useful tools and won't break the bank. Dave

I too totally agree. For me, action is everything. Today I made a batch of twelve lures that I will be fishing tomorrow. No paint or epoxy top coat, naked with a few dips of prop. Hopefully they will all be waterlogged and shredded by the end of tomorrow, that will make me very happy. Dave

I thought about it, as I have a new design that I am currently testing, a flat sided lure that hunts. But the rules state that you must use Alimilite products, so that's me out of the game. Nothing against Alumilite, I tried to order some, but they would not deliver to Indonesia. Dave

You might be better pulling the resin through with a vacuum. I posted the technique for plastics, but I see no reason why it shouldn't work for this medium. Dave

Very good. I have thought about a similar solution to this, but as I don't powder paint, I never followed up. Missed your inventive posts, but a great contribution to get back in with. Dave