Vodkaman

Air drying will take several days. Oven set at lowest temp, with the door wedged open, will dry your mold in a couple of hours. Careful not to overheat, or the mold will be ruined. Weigh the mold at regular intervals. When no weight is lost, the mold is dry. Dave

I based my PoP dryer on this article. 3x100W bulbs and two axial fans to drive the air around. Having moving air to pick up moisture from the surface, cuts drying time significantly, even without heat. Dave

Maybe not directly. You have to build in some mechanical advantage, either with leverage or pulleys. Dave

Not sure exactly what you have in mind, but car windshield wiper motors are very powerful, already geared down and work off 12 volts. It shouldn't be too dificult or expensive to check out what they can do for you. Dave

I thought everyone used CAD. All is well, thanks. Dave

Love the underwater work. Definitely movement on the red bait. Great video. Dave

I knew I should have trimmed away the fat on this one. We're only interested in the temps. Dave

Gypsum plaster/Plaster of Paris Gypsum plaster, or Plaster of Paris, is employed by mixing water with calcium sulfate hemihydrate, nominally CaSO4·1/2H2O. This is produced by heating gypsum to about 300°F (150 °C). 2 CaSO4·2H2O → 2 CaSO4·0.5H2O + 3 H2O (released as steam). When the dry plaster powder is mixed with water, it re-forms into gypsum. The above was copied and pasted from Wiki, which although not a definitive source, is reasonably reliable. You should stay under the quoted temperature of 300°F. Dave

OK then, on to sealing. I am not sure on the drying times, but the first coat really soaks into the plaster, which is the whole point. So the first coat needs longer to dry. I hope you get feedback from someone who uses the Elmers method. I just wanted to say don't rush the process and certainly don't try to dry the Elmers in the oven. The Elmers will blister, ask me how I know. SHK is right. Be careful with temperature. Everything is OK until all the water has evaporated, but then the mold temperature rises to the oven temperature. Then if the critical temperature is reached, the PoP reverts back to its original structure and will become weak and powdery. Dave

None of these machines will give you detail, such as gill plates and fins. You still have to do some carving. I was thinking about making a kind of copy carver for post processing duplicated blanks, but the idea is way in the future. I have done some preliminary CAD drawings as a feasibility study. Dave

No. You have to completely dry both halves of the mold. Weigh them and keep drying until the stop losing weight. Dave

Yes, you got it. After sealing the wood from water, you could fit the hooks, then tape lead to the belly until you get what you want. Then drill the hole, fit, fill, sand and reseal. Yes, it is a lot of fiddling about, but you are guaranteed a good result. If you just guess at it, you may be disappointed, if you paint and finish without testing. Make notes. Next time you make a bait the same, you will already know how much lead and where to fit it. Dave

I agree, they look good to me to. It is difficult from pics to see precision because of parallax errors. You can magnify any errors for visibility by inserting a thin plate. I use a 6" steel rule or a long strip of the lip material. Dave

Right here my friend. Yes, if they are the same volume and the same weight, they will have the same buoyancy. Dave

Up to around 3". But your bait had a lot of depth, so might need some ballast. Your plan to try without is reasonable. is a video of a similar lure that I was prototyping. The adjustable weight fell out, so I decided to make a video of it weightless. You can see that it is trying to swim on its side, as the hooks are just not quite heavy enough. It does swim fine though. 2 or 3 grams of ballast would make all the difference. I have more videos of this prototype if you are interested.Dave

Ballast keeps the bait upright. Hooks are a part of the ballast system and are often enough to get the job done on small lures. Dave

Possibly the eyes are not screwed in, but drilled larger and pushed in. Nothing wrong with this method, as long as you use epoxy. It would be no different than using twisted wire for the eyes. Dave

My bandsaw table has a clamp bolt at the back which I slacken and the table rotates. I use a square against the blade, to judge the perpendicular and clamp up. I then cut half way through a block of scrap, then then turn the block (not flip) around and cut from the other side.If the two cuts are parallel, you are good to go, if not, back to the table angle adjustment. On my table, the 90 degree angle that I want is right at the limit of the adjustment. If there is something wrong and you just cannot reach perpendicular, you may have to grind a bit off the stop to allow the table to rotate a smidgen more. The sled idea is good. Make it three legged, or you will still have problems. Dave

Good vids. Haven't seen these before. Thanks for posting. Dave

My first attempt would be just very slightly aft of the pencil mark. The problem is that you will probably want the belly hook in that position too. I cast hollow lead slugs, just for this purpose. Dave

Very good point Sammy, planning for the hooks and ballast fitting is likely to control your segments more than aesthetics. Planning is important, or there will be tears. Dave

Sanding PoP is a real pain. If the PoP is not completely dry, it will immediately clog up the paper. I dry my PoP first, glue a sheet of coarse emery to a board and sand with figure 8 motion. When the paper is clogged, I blast it with high pressure air from the compressor. This works well for me. Dave

Glad you liked the vids, I have been having fun experimenting with the music. The wood that I settled on is abache. It is a medium density, around 0.5 specific gravity. It has good strength around the hinge pins, shapes nicely and seems to swim not so bad either. This wood is readily available to me, being a common building material locally. The type of wood that you choose has no effect, it is all about the density, but I have found that even this does not have a significant effect on action. The beauty of a heavier wood is that less room is required for ballast. Don't get too heavy though, as ballast is required. Dave

You would still need to top off. In fact, because of the size of the bait and the small injector nozzle, you may have to top up several times. Dave

0.051" is a heavy wire, I don't think a jig is going to help you, nor the barrel twist posts. Jigs will work with 0.040" wire and cannot imagine this not being strong enough. to my barrel twist manual method. I'm sure that this could be adapted to your needs. Form the first eye, three or four tight turns, trim. Form second eye, hold first eye with pliers and make 3 or 4 twists, trim. But in the vid I was using 0.035" wire, considerably thinner than your choice, but it should work with 0.040" wire.Dave