Vodkaman

I tried turning a slow setting epoxy and turned the machine off when I thought it had set enough not to sag, if fact I was convinced that no way would it move. Next morning I had to scrap the lot, it had sagged so badly. A lesson learned. Leave it running. Dave

I do suspect that you have a point to make and possibly that you are getting a little frustrated that no one else is 'getting it'. I didn't 'get it' either, in fact everything that you wrote flew way over my head with the birdies. Why not have another stab at writing your point, only this time keep it simple, after all, your audience is a bunch of woodworking fishermen, not poets. Dave

You should post the pic or get it to me somehow, 'cos I am only guessing here. I do not own or use jigs. I think you are right, 90 degree is prolly the best way to go. yes, the plastic lure will solve a lot of problems. I need information to continue further. Hook dimensions and gauge (pic with a ruler). How is the plastic attached, barb? size? or coil? Dave

I know it is inconvenient, but no one is permitted to link to their own business. This is a fairly common rule on most member sites. Without this rule, TU would become one big advertising campaign. Dave

I can foresee a problem with the swimming of the lure that we are contemplating. Consider a crank bait. The water forces on the lip rotate the lure nose down. This raises the ‘back’ of the lure, until the water forces on the back equal the forces on the lip and equilibrium is achieved. On our proposed jig, there is no ‘back’, just a bare hook. The result being that the lure will continue to rotate nose down, even past 90 degrees, so the lip will be pointing back. At some point in this rotation, the CoG (centre of gravity) will align with the tow line or more precisely, the swimming direction. When this happens, the lure becomes unstable, with nothing to keep it upright. The lure will spiral or death roll. I think the scrounger head, with its heavy lip, solves this problem with its heavy lip and therefore a much lower CoG. Gravity stops the lip from rotating too far, the CoG is still below the tow line and so the bait performs. My guess is that if you jerked the scrounger hard enough, it would probably spiral also. The attached drawing is just my first stab at a model and the hook is just invented, not real. You can see that the critical angle is only 25 degrees, in other words, if the lure goes nose down past 25 degrees, it will flip. I have extended the lip above the hook eye, in an attempt to reduce the rotation forces. This will help some, but won’t solve the whole problem. The assembly CoG or overall CoG needs to be lowered. Maybe my hook is heavier than reality and the problem is not as bad as depicted. A lighter wired hook could also be used. Another solution is to push more of the lead south towards the tip of the lip, also maybe you can live with more lead. Also a hook with the hook eye at 90 degrees would solve the CoG problem, but would increase the rotation force on the lip and require a shorter lip, not a bad thing though. Because of the soft lead, the jig would be prone to distortion if snagged, but I do not consider this a big problem, jigs do not last forever. I throw this out for discussion. Sorry if it is a bit techy, but I think it is a good idea to understand and try to solve a few of the problems before we start going to the trouble of building masters and making molds. Dave

Cannot see any pics. Dave

Another solution that you might prefer, is to reduce the size of the scrounger design and mount (glue) a polycarb or mica lip to it. This way the lead content is reduced to around 0.06 oz. Much easier to make than the crank idea. Dave

The problem with this kind of jig, is getting the thing to swim with the hook point ‘up’. The centre of gravity (CoG) is above the hook shaft. The scrounger head achieved this by making the lip from lead. Works well, lowering the CoG below the hook shaft, but is too heavy for your application. I am sure there is a solution in the form of a crank jig, a miniature wood body, ballasted, lip glued on the front and slotted down the spine to take the hook. Obviously this would be more work than pouring lead, but I think it is possible. The jig will be about the same weight as the hook. I can design one using CAD as a feasibility study. This will allow me to solve the CoG problems before actually building anything, but need weight and dimensions of the hook, if you are interested, as a TU project. Maybe it has already been done anyway. Dave

The amount of weight has very little to do with how deep the lure will dive, unless of course you add a silly amount. The depth is all about the lip angle and tow eye location. A 90 degree lip will swim on the top, a 0 degree lip will dive. But the eye position on the zero degree lip is critical. There is an optimum position for maximum depth. You can get a clue to the position by going through the gallery and looking what others have done before you, but at the end of the day, you will have to do your own testing to find the 'sweet spot' for your particular lure. Ballast location will play a part, but mainly the lip and tow eye. Dave

Is it the same paddle that fails each time, ie. second pour, paddle closest to the centre of the mold. Dave

I thought the leg threading was obvious, but my idea for installing the tail was completely different, but it works. The tail is fitted after pouring the grub. Tools - A length of SS wire, folded in half forming a narrow loop. Threaded needle. CA glue. Method – heat the loop. Push into the grub about 0.25”. From the top, push the needle and thread through the wire loop. Retract the wire loop, pulling with it a loop of thread. Remove the wire. Insert the tinsel/tail material through the thread loop and pull back into the grub. Remove the thread and apply a small drop of CA glue at the base of the tail. Dave

I know this does not answer your question about purchasing ballast weights, but is something to consider. This is how I make my ballast weights: two blocks of hard wood doweled or pinned for location and clamped with a 'G' clamp or similar method. Drilled down the joint. Use the same size drill to drill your lure bodies. Crucible needs to be deep for stability, NOT a dinner spoon. In the picture is a stainless steel ground coffee measuring cup/thingy. Cut a 'V' notch, to help pouring, this is very important. The notch gives you control. Without it, lead will go everywhere. Pour and scrape the top/excess with the knife. After a few seconds after the final pour, remove the clamp and pry open with two screw drivers in the slots. If you were accurate in your drilling, the weights will http://www.tackleund...and-techniques/

I just figured it out too. Just tried it on a piece of jelflex, it worked a treat. I agree though, this is Fishlickers idea and he should have the opportunity to post it up. Dave

Madeye mentioned something similar in post No13 of one of Toadfrogs 'nutty idea' threads. Here is the link: http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/topic/20673-another-nutty-idea/page__p__154198__hl__nutty__fromsearch__1#entry154198 They look very nice Fishlicker. Dave

This question comes up once or twice a year, so I decided to have a read. Modern dimmers work by switching the power on part way through the a/c cycle and off again when the voltage crosses zero. The knob adjusts where in the cycle the power is applied. So the voltage (110VAC) remains full, but the length of time the power is on, is reduced. Essentially, you are switching the drill on and off 120 times per second. For techy reasons that I won’t go into, this causes an increase in current flow in the motor windings. Your motor may or may not be able to take this extra current. If not, the coil wire will burn through and the motor dies. If the motor manufacturer was generous and spent more money than he needed to, then it will work, but it will get hot. Secondly, the dimmer circuit does not like the inductive load, again techy. The dimmer will work, but sooner or later the triac will fail. From here on it is a crap shoot. If the triac fails close to zero crossing, the motor will survive, but if it fails further away from zero, a massive current surge will destroy your motor. To try to save your motor from the surge, you could fit a fuse in the power line, rated just high enough for the motor. If the voltage is 110VAC and the motor wattage is 135W, the fuse will be 135/110 = 1.22 amps, so 1.25A to 1.5A fuse would work to save your motor from the current surge. Motor dimmers have more electronics to counter the inductive load problems. Why risk your expensive motor for the sake of a few extra $$. Dave

30 min D2T definately yellows. But as long as you don't leave your lures uncovered on the deck, even if it is cloudy, they will last for years. Just be conscious of what causes the yellowing. Dave

I would have thought that some discoloration on top of the melt was normal no matter what the temperature. From school I remember that lead oxidizes very fast, so fast that you can see it (room temperature). So at elevated temperatures, this oxidation would be much faster. If I am wrong, I stand corrected. Dave

Good tutorial and kudos for giving Frank the credit for the original idea. Dave

I saw a gas torch powered, home made crucible on the web. It was designed for melting aluminium, so even in cold temperatures, it should handle lead no problem. Just lock the kids up and set it going in the garden. Just a thought. Dave

I can't help you with your questions as I have never used DWP. You have a lot of patience waiting 2 weeks, but that is the correct timing to air dry. I made a box, heated with three 100W bulbs and a couple of computer axial fans to circulate the air. This reduced time to 12 - 18 hours depending on thickness. I did write a few threads on the idea, but TU managed to lose the pics to this and a thousand or so of my other posts. I can take more pics if you are interested. Dave

I'm 54 and pay someone else to work my needle, so I can concentrate on top coating at the same time. Seem to be getting a lot of bubbles and fish eyes though. Dave

I agree Ben, it is all about quality control. A couple of years ago, mustad moved production to the far east and lost its grip on production control and lost a lot of customers in the process. Recently I have noticed that the mustad complaint posts have stopped. Either they have solved the QC problem or lost all their customers. I feel sure that a company like Iwata, whose reputation is all about quality, will not make the same mistake. The location of the plant is not important, it is a fiscal decision. But just because the labor is cheap does not mean it is of lower quality. Most quality issues can be traced back to the purchasing department, skimping on cheaper materials. Any quality parent company will be aware of this. VW are in the process of setting up production in Malaysia. This is a very informed decision, as Kuala Lumpur has 20 years experience in car production. Taiwan is set up for manufacturing, has many years of experience. A good decision JMHO. Dave Dave

Induction heating works best on magnetic materials like steel. Because aluminium pans do not work well on induction cookers, my guess would be that it would not work efficiently (just my opinion). I searched the web and could not find anything on heating lead directly. I read that the method is often used for non-ferrous materials, but they are usually impregnated with a ferrous powder. Dave

My most sincere appologies to you all, I am humbled by your correction, thankyou so much. Lets try 'transfer', 'scoop', spoon', 'dump'. Huh! Dave

Iwata brushes being manufactured in Taiwan or any other country will be just fine. It is not the same as a brush being reverse engineered and manufactured by a Taiwanese manufacture. It is the design of the product, the design of the production process and the quality control that determine how good the end product is. The parts are made by machines, the staff working the lines simply load and unload. The only manual content is the women in the clean room, assembling the guns and they assemble hundreds per day. I think we can safely assume that her assembly skills are way beyond ours will ever be, seeing that she assembles more guns in a month than the professional airbrush operator will in a lifetime. Dave