Vodkaman

Here are two links to threads that discussed the subject of adapters: http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/topic/21130-converting-pour-molds-to-injection/page__p__157644__hl__adapter__fromsearch__1#entry157644 http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/topic/20428-injection-molding-pop-or-resin/page__p__152393__hl__adapter__fromsearch__1#entry152393 I only suggested the idea, as far as I am aware, only Jim (formerly Ghostbaits) has actually made the adapter. Unfortunately, he has left TU and is no longer available for information. My thoughts are that even a thick pad of rubber with a hole, would work, but you have to figure out a way to hold or mount it in position. It should not be difficult to figure something out, with a little imagination. Dave

I switched back to FF yesterday and the problems seem to have been sorted out. IE was killing me, painfully slow. I have used FF since my computer engineer recommended it as a solution to my speed problems. I won't be so quick to take up FF's offers of upgrades in future. If it works, don't fix it. Dave

I use wire exclusively, but would not dream of claiming that it was better or stronger than any other method. As long as your drilling, gluing, fitting, sealing and top coat strategies are sound, then all the methods are good. Fish are not the problem regarding lure strength, although they do have their moments. Someone recently posted a pic of a swimbait, were the rear hinge was ripped apart, due to leverage gained from head shaking. Heavy cover, rocks and snags are the main problem. We cannot design indestructable lures, but too strong is almost strong enough. My guide as to how thick the wire should be, is 'does it look right'. I know, not very scientific, but if it looks right, it probably is. On my 7" to 8" swimbaits, I use 1.5mm diameter wire (roughly 1/16"), but in stainless steel, this was very difficult to work with, so I used brass. Still more than strong enough. Friction is probably the worst enemy when trying to get a swimbait to swim. Certainly an eye/eye construction will have less friction, as the eye is not rubbing against the slot surface. I prefer pin/eye for the extra space it gives me for ballast. But with planning, this should not be a problem. Lots af very good builders use the eye/eye construction. I look forward to the pics. Dave

There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with your material choices. The CD case should definately have worked, as they are made of polystyrene. After 14 dips and no sign of a coating, you definately haven't overloaded the acetone. Other than condensation and overloading, I cannot think of anything. Sorry for your frustration, as you don't seem to have done anything wrong. If it is the condensation thing, you will have been very unlucky, buying from two different supliers. Dave

There was a similar discussion recently. The author did not report back, so we do not know what the conclusion was. Again, I suspect the acetone has diluted itself with moisture. Dave

A bandsaw, scroll saw or a hacksaw are all unlikely to give you a slot to the correct width of your lip, depending on what lip material you intend to use of course. My lip material is 2mm thick polycarbonate sheet. I make two parallel cuts and a little bit of jiggling. Parallel cuts are much easier with a machine, such as a bandsaw or scroll saw, as you have more control over the work piece. It is not a job stopper if the slot ends up too big. You can always pack it out with wood shavings. I prefer to make a small wedge, fitted rear centre, to hold the lip in place. It can be pulled out after glue has set and the top coat will take care of the small hole. I have only recently started using the wedge, but it works very well, especially if using a slow setting adhesive, like D2T. Dave

If I start from a rectangular block, after gluing the template and rough cutting the profile shape, the first job is cutting the lip slot. If you non't have a bandsaw or scroll saw, a hacksaw does the job just fine. Just keep checking that all the angles are right. It is easier to see if the cut is square from a block than from a carved body. Insert a steel rule in the slot. This magnifies any discrepancies. Slots can always be corrected later, using a Dremel and cutter disk. The second job is a through drilled hole, 1/16" diameter at the eye position. Again, insert a piece of straight wire through the hole, to magnify any angular imperfections, especially if you are hand drilling. If the angle is off, you can move the block around on the drill bit and make the alignment perfect. The hole is useful if you are using brad point bits to cut an eye recess. Some members use a folded template to mark the eyes and gill plates. This too, works well if you are just painting eyes. Dave

An unsecured pot, full of molten plastic, sitting on the edge of a stand/shelf/table is a huge mistake. I think we have responsibility to new members who are contemplating pouring, to start them off in the right direction and generate in them the right attitude towards safety. It is just not good enough to tell people not to be careless. Mistakes happen, even when we are paying attention and not being careless. It is a well known and accepted fact that we all have made mistakes. It may well be fact that no one has ever tipped over a pot of plastic, but statistics state that sooner or later, someone will do it. I would take comfort in the fact that because my pot is bolted down, then that statistic won't be me. Ten minutes to drill four holes and insert four bolts is not a great chore. Hopefully, someone will read this and bolt their own pot down. While I was typing this post, someone set off a very loud fire cracker outside my open window. I jumped really badly. I imagine what would have happened if just at that moment had I been pouring a ladle of molten lead, or in this case, had a mold pressed up against the tap. There are so many ways that an accident of this type can happen. I hate wasps. If a wasp landed on my ear during a machining operation, I would like to think that I would maintain composure, but I could not guarantee this. Dave

It is all about the air velocity at the pot, where the fumes are generated and nothing to do with the size of the room. I have an axial fan fitted in my workshop door. On the blow side, it will blow your socks off, but on the suck side, I can stand three feet away and smoke will hardly deflect towards the fan. The problem is that the fan is drawing air from all directions, so to generate the required airflow, say 1 foot per second, is going to require a powerful fan. But, if you reduce the size of the hood and mount it as close to the pot as possible, then you can achieve the required airflow with a very small fan. With a bit of thought and ingenuity, a standard range hood fan can be made to work for you. Dave

That is a very cool design. It solves a lot of space problems and allows you to get closer with the hinge pin. I really like it. In the second picture, looking at the hinge. You can see how the top eye is touching the top of the slot and the lower eye is touching the bottom of the slot. This is a possible friction source and could be your problem. I would trim the slots just a tad, to guarantee that nothing is rubbing. Only need to do one of the slots. Edit your pic size next time. Dave

Bolt it down. It is the sensible thing to do. Dave

First of all, congratulations on getting it to swim. A four inch, three section bait is not an easy build. Can you post a pic, so we can see what we are discussing. Pics are allowed as long as you are not just showing off your bait and it is valid to the discussion. I think that your biggest problem is mounting the hook in the second segment. Probably would have been much better to mount it in the first section. The head generates the water forces that push the second section and generate the S shaped wiggle. By mounting in the second section, you are effectively stifling the action. By mounting the hook in the nose, you will be damping the first section and more forces will be imparted on the second section. The result should be a steadier nose, a more fluid action and probably enough energy left to drive your dressed hook at the rear. There is nothing you can do to improve this bait, other than check the hinge joints and make sure there are no rough spots. The slightest blemish will spoil the action. Try the nose mounted hook on the next build. Dave

Ben - thanks for the input. Good suggestions, but I really do not want to start messing about with the start file and stuff. I am just not that computer literate and would be afraid of deleting the wrong thing. I just do not have the funds to pay someone to come in and bail me out. I have just installed IE8, what a PIA that was. It took about two hours with all the updates, flash downloads, then more MS updates, transferring bookmarks etc. Installing FF takes about ten minutes. I am starting to remember why I left IE in the first place, it is much slower than FF, but at least it all works, including the videos. I will check FF in a few weeks, to see if they have solved the problems, as I want the speed back. I concidered Google chrome, but seems a lot of users are not happy with it either. So many bells and whistles, my head is spinning. Why don't they bring out a bog standard system, for those with older computers and just leave it alone. I don't mind a few security updates, but I just don't use all this stuff. I click a favorite, read and write the occasional post. Someone is going to realize this and clean up. Dave

Thanks DC. I could not wait until tomorrow, so I installed the V6 beta version. Video was better, but one of the three videos that I tested did hang. Cursor over the history button has been fixed. I then tried a few bookmarks, the main problem. IT HUNG, no change. Unbelievable how stupid these people are. It is not like I am the only one having this problem, the message boards are full of it. I now have a spell checker following me around, like a piece of gum stuck on my shoe. I will have to find the switch for that. I will try the official release tomorrow and if that doesn't work, I will have a decision to make: IE of GC. A bit like choosing between cabbage and sprouts. Dave

Is anyone else having problems with FF? I have installed 5.0.1 it hangs every 5 - 10 minutes, when I select a bookmark. Hang lasts about 30 seconds If my cursor passes the history button, FF hangs, 30 seconds I don't even have to click history for this to happen Watching videos is a dead loss. The picture hangs, but the sound continues Someone needs to have his chopped off. I had to edit this post twice, to remove all the naughty words Dave

Wear a dust mask for sure. Move slowly. Be careful removing the lid, don't just rip the lid off or you'll be cleaning up for days. And move slowly. Try to avoid sneezing. Dave

My turner lives on top of the refrigerator, but I live alone, so it is allowed. Dave

I've just spent some time trying to find out that information and gave up. They do not make it easy. Dave

Coffee scent is actually patented, so I guess it works well enough for some guy to invest a lot on money. I wonder if he has ever tried defending his patent. Dave

BobP and LaPala – valid point about designing the lure for the lip. I did acknowledge this fact in post No25, but the mammoth task of developing four lures was more than I was prepared to take on. This exercise was more of a spin-off from what I was already working on. When considering the videos, the above point should definitely be kept in mind. Continuing from the previous video (round square lip comp), in this video I compare four lip profiles: round (7) square ( coffin (9) and shaped (10). Sorry about the length of the video, I crammed it as much as I could. Even the music track was not long enough. Visibly, the round (7) and square ( were very similar and had a much wider action than the coffin (9) and shaped (10), whose action was rather thin. The shaped lure had quite an erratic action, as can be seen in the under water clip. As for feel or thump, I spent quite some time on this and concluded that the square lip had more thump than the round, but there was not that much difference, but still noticeable. The coffin lip was a distant third with very noticeably less feel. The shaped lip came in fourth with slightly less than the coffin. It is tempting to introduce a discussion about the various features of the lip profiles, to determine or theorize about what exactly causes the action and the thump, but maybe better saved for another thread. I will have to add to my list of future projects, some way of measuring the ‘thump’, as this important characteristic was quite difficult to assess manually. I am now officially sick of flat sided baits and looking forward to moving onto another project. TaTa D

Absolutely, couldn't agree more. The development lure is the round lip. Using the customers lip, as he has a stock of them and also the customers body profile, I moved the other parameters around until I achieved what I considered the best action. All the lures under test are as close to identical that I can get. The same block of timber (albesia) was used, the same template and a gram scale for the ballast. So if anything, the round lip should perform better, as the lure was set up for it. Still, there will be build errors, so even a small difference in performance will hardly be conclusive, I would have to do more builds just to confirm. This could get out of hand. Vic - here is an overlay of the two profiles. It may help you see the areas better. Dave

Vic - sorry, missed your post. Yes, the numbers are good. Probly an optical delusion. Dave

PM sent. Good luck with the project and keep us informed. Send the hospital bills to Jerry. Dave

I could not feel any difference. This whole project was about finding more thump in the lure and because I could not feel or see anything, I did the above video. Again, the problem is remembering the feel and then trying the next lure for camparison. I guess I am just not sensitive enough. I have the coffin and another lip under construction (with black lines), so probably tomorrow, I will hit the tank again, make some more vids and try to feel the differences. I think the important thing is to remain objective and honest. If these differences are discussed by pro's in articles, I would expect to see or feel a distinct difference, but I am not going to report on something that I cannot feel. As for seeing, I will present the evidence for you guys to make up your own minds. Dave

Interested in your line of thought, I did a bit more investicating and measured a few different areas, the pic below is the result of my findings. This is not about proving you right or wrong, in fact I would have thought the results would have been as you presumed, but not so. Dave