Vodkaman

You might want to consider building a spray booth. Even using water based paints like createx, without an extractor system, your work area will get a coating of paint dust and you will be breathing this dust in. Createx is not poisonous, but any kind of dust in your lungs is a bad thing. It does not have to be a fancy construction. I have seen spray booths made from cardboard boxes and they work just fine. Not so sure of the validity of hydrocoating for lure coating, especially chrome. There was not a great deal on the web for this subject, but I found this: http://www.emblempros.com/hydrocoating_info is this the process that you had in mind? Dave

Thanks for the input guys. I did not explain myself clearly and misled you. The slots do not go right through the body, they are hidden or blind hinge joints. I know blind joints are not essential to how the lure works, but I really like how they look and would like to stick with them. Musky Glenn - the body will be carved to shape (duplicator machine) before cutting into sections, so the square stock is not an option. Dsaavedra - I have that attachment, it is ferrrrocious. (I like your swimbaits). Dave

I am making a few swimbaits at the moment, to try out different ideas, experiments to decide how I am going to build all my swimmers in future. Two of the operations are a real pain: 1 - forming the hardware wires. I have solved this one with a Vman special jig, LOL. 2 - cutting the slots. I really hate this operation. Currently, I dremel out the slots with a combination of drill, mill and a metal abrasion bit. The results work, but not very pretty, difficult to control and time consuming. I have just fired up the CAD to try and design a solution. Could be an all-nighter, got some beers in. So, how do you cut your slots? Dave

The test I did last night, was to take a flattened piece of modelling clay, cover it with cling film, squeeze the air out and form it into a dish. It worked very well and is how I will be mixing my epoxy in future. The plastic film is peeled off and cleanly disposed of. Dave

first of all, welcome to TU. I do not pour more than a few ballast weights for cranks and swimbaits, so this is not my field really. The furnace reads like it would be OK, but it is designed for ladle pouring. I do know that quite a few pourers use ladles. What are the arguments against it? Dave

I like it. No corners for unmixed epoxy to hide. I am always on the hunt for small mixing pots. I like the clay stabilizer too. Your idea has given me two new ideas. I have just set up a test for them. Dave

A good marketing tool is having original baits to sell, that no one else has and catch fish of course. But that requires imagination and a lot of work developing and testing the lure. But on the up side, it is really not that difficult to do, far more rewarding than marketing yet another senko and you do not have to worry about patent infringement. I am in the process of modelling up a bunch of baits for another TU member. At least two of them are in a machine shop as I type. All original designs, modelled from rough sketches. If you thought catching a fish on your own hand pour was cool, imagine other folks catching fish on baits that you designed and paying you for the privilage, now that is way beyond cool. Dave

There is a discusion on Bears site about this. Dave

I think the only way to improve the cork mix from where you are now, is to use a vacuum unit to remove the air. Hardly worth it as you are moving to foam. Good luck with that. Dave

The pear shape cross section (thin bottom, thick top) does work. I use this shape with all my cranks. There are two centres under consideration, Centre of Gravity (CoG), where all the downward, gravitational forces act, and Centre of buoyancy (CoB), where all the upward forces act. For the lure to swim upright, the CoG MUST be lower than the CoB (and while we are here, for the lure to swim horizontal, the CoG MUST be directly under the CoB). The pear shape raises up the CoB and thus increases vertical stability. The problem with this lure, is that there is no buoyancy force. It is only that the lead wants to sink faster than the rest of the body, that tends to keep it upright. With the the force keeping the bait upright being so small, the bait becomes susceptable to other influences like the flow around the pectoral fins (like Mark and Dsaavedra explained). Dave

Bob is right. RPM stands for Revolutions Per Minute. You can run around your house at 12rpm, but you will have to run a lot faster to run around your block at 12rpm. You need to think about revs per minute and get it straight in your head. You should not worry about going too slow. Some builders up-end their lures once a minute, this is the equivalent of 0.5rpm. Turning too fast could arguably be more of a problem, as you are not allowing the epoxy enough time to flow out in one direction, before it starts flowing back again. My wheel turns at 5rpm and I can set lures at 3.5", 6.5" and 9.5" radii and they all work equally well and they all turn at 5rpm. Wheel radius only affects centrifugal force. A 12" radius wheel only has a 5% centrifugal force, 100% being when the lure becomes weightless at the top of the stroke. 100% would require a 24 foot radius wheel at 12rpm, so unless you are building a giant wheel, radius can be ignored (trying hard not to get techy here). Dave

You will learn more if you do the changes one at a time and test after each, or you will not find out what effect each change has. The fin lift theory was interesting and could well be the problem, but I will stick with ballast. It was also interesting reading the variations in ballasting methods. Dave

You guys are too kind, but wrong. Women confuse me all the time. If you want to achieve 8rpm from a 12rpm motor, you will need two pulley wheels with a diameter ratio 8:12 or 2:3 examples motor pulley diameter 50mm, lure drier pulley = 75mm (50mm / 2 x 3). motor pulley diameter 2", lure drier pulley = 3" (2" / 2 x 3). You should try direct drive at 12rpm, you will probably find that it works just fine without all the messing about with pulleys or gears. Dave

All the photos that I uploaded to TU were lost. Probably well over a thousand. I still have the pics for this project: If you need any more pics or info, let me know. Dave

9rpm is fine and 3.5ft-Lbs is plenty strong enough. Dave

Instinct says no, but I think it might be possible. The problems are air, moisture and charring. The air expands in the pre heat oven and has to be long enough so that the temperature settles and the air stops expanding. The moisture will be brought to the surface and driven off, but could raise the grain and give a surface finish problem, but the coating might cover this. Charring may or may not be a problem. Air expansion is more of a problem in the curing process, as the lure cooled a tad while the powder was applied. Curing heat will cause this to expand again and might bubble the surface. I think if you heat it in the oven to drive off the moisture and then give the body a final sanding, to flatten the grain, it will work. Lips are like weed guards, best fitted after coating and curing. I think you are going to have to get a scrap of wood and try it out and report back. Dave

I think it is a ballast problem, as you already suspect, judging from your comments. You have ballast in the front section, but there is nothing to tell the other sections which is up and which is down. I think the other sections are dragging the bait onto it side. When I build swimbaits, I treat each section as a separate lure and balance it so that it sits horizontally and is close to neutral buoyancy. Your body material is heavier than water before you start adding hardware and ballast. That lure is going to sink fast. You should consider a lighter material or add micro balloons, to get some buoyancy going. The more buoyancy you have, the more ballast you can add and the more vertical stability you will get. Adding a lip is not going to solve this problem, in fact it will probably make it worse. This is all just my opinion. The lure is looking good. Dave

For filling ballast holes, I mix CA glue with microballoons. It is set rock solid in minutes. I carefully sand it back with a Dremel drum sander and finish with emery. If you have MB's, give it a try. Dave

That is a hard one to prove. But heat setting advice seems to have solved a lot of top coat problems. I cannot remember anyone comming back and saying 'that did not work'. On a general note - if any piece of advice works or doesn't work, you should come back to the thread and say so. Feedback is very important and teaches us all something. Dave

I agree, not silly. The link demonstrated the principle. We all know well that we don't need a 14ft rotator to make a few frogs. I tried a single axis rotating method and the results were very uneaven (resin). A two axis system might well solve the problem. The main issue is getting power to the second motor without the wires twisting. A battery powered motor would solve this, but I would like a mains solution. I think this project is very do-able as a garage contruction and won't take up any more space than a regular drying wheel. Dave

The foam will solve your density issues, but there will be a learning curve with this stuff, do not expect to get perfection straight away. I am not sure if it needs a release agent with RTV. Hopefully someone else will jump in here with some suggestions, but you should do some searches and read up some before starting. Also, start with a junk mold for practice, don't risk your prize mold until you have experience. Man, those screw eyes are heavy. Maybe you should have a go at twisting your own, if you want to save some more weight. Flounder1, interesting solution. Dave

Very nice. I use the template technique a lot for routering profiles for other projects, but never considered it for lure bodies. Screwing the stock to a large template keeps those valuable fingers out of harms way. I would not have thought of using the radius cutter for the whole operation. I would have used a 1/2" cutter for the profile, then rounded off. But your method, using the radius cutter for the whole operation is safer, as they don't kick as much as cylindrical cutters. The overlapping cuts with the larger radius cutter, to achieve the body tapers is genius. Obviously a little bit of sanding to do, but the bulk of the work is done. The screw holes do not go all the way through, so they are no problem. A very good solution and a very generous share. Dave

I don't think any of the additives will need sealing first, especially cork, which is primarily used for its resistance to liquids (wine stoppers). In any case, the sealing operation is only the same as putting it into the resin. Using chopped additives can be controlled very accurately, with very predictable results, but you have to work in the metric system. Weight volume and density in metric units, all tie together very conveniently and with numbers that make sense. If you know two of the three numbers, the third can be calculated. The weight is easy with a gram scale. With the fine controls needed for your project, you should already own a gram scale, if not, it should be high on your shopping list. Everything can be calculated, using only a ruler, a gram scale and a simple calculator. One piece of information you do need to work out, is the volume of your lure. This too is very easy to do. If you want to know more about this, PM me your email addy, 'cos if I write too much techy stuff here, some members get upset. I ballast all my lures using numbers, the first float test my lures get, is after the final top coat has cured, even suspended lures. Dave

I have been using a piece of SS wire, folded in two. This picks up more liquid in one scoop. I push the wire in and work it around, to make sure that the entire hole surface is wetted. I try and get as much in as possible, without wasting too much time, as I usually fill ten at a time. I coat the eye wire an insert, wiping away excess. Top off the hole, if required, with one more drop. I tried a syringe without the needle yesterday, but was a disaster. The nozzle was too large. I am going to look for a syringe with a larger needle, to try Hillbilly1's idea. My syringe cleaned out just fine and is ready for re-use. The only way you are going to feel comfortable with your technique, is to rig up your own pull test. It is very easy to set up. Scrap piece of wood, twisted eye each end, some strong thread, a large bucket of water and a mop, just in case. Don't make a special effort with the test piece, build it as you normally would. I usually leave the pull test running for 48 hours with a weight of 20Kg (44Lbs). I do pull tests on all my design changes. It gives me confidence in what I hand out. I just completed some tests on a new swimbait hinge idea. It failed and now resides in the bin. Dave

Pette, it is not enough just to let createx dry, it has to be heat set with a hair drier. Lots has been written about this, so you should have no trouble finding information. Search CROSS LINK or HEAT SET. Dave