Vodkaman

I'm still very confused on these lures. I have been told that the convex surface must point down to the head. This makes sense if the blade rotates, as the aerodynamic effects will carry the blade around (air and water behave the same). But using a swivel for the lower blade does not control the attitude of the blade, it can turn. Members are using 'spin' when they perhaps mean 'wobble'. I have already asked the question, " does it rotate" and the answer was no. So, why does the convex surface need to point down? Maybe their is more than one type of lure going on here. You have to excuse me, I am just trying to understand what we are talking about. Lures of all types fascinate me, but you have to take me back to basics here. Some video's would be nice, showing what is expected. I get the feeling that I am not the only one confused on this issue. Once I understand what is supposed to happen, I promise not to get technical (liar). Dave

Welcome to TU flyman. Absolutely nothing wrong with trailblazing, right out of the gate. You will learn more and quicker that way. True, sometimes you will be way over your head, but you will surface in the end. Just hold your breath and keep thrashing around, someone will throw you a line. Dave

MrBilky, I know your main question is about fishing techniques and I cannot help there. But as far as achieving a translucent finish, it is possible by using very coarse salt, maybe sifting the finer dust off first. The result will never be truly translucent, the salt crystals will be visible. This is because the plastic and salt have different refractive indices. But can be a cool effect. Headshot wrote a thread on this subject and posted the results of his experiments. Well worth a read: http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/soft-plastics/16871-clear-plastic-salt.html Dave

Jrav, very good question. So good, it really deserves a thread of its own. There is no real difference going negative buoyancy, other than the lure sinks when you stop. As density increases, inertia increases. How important this is, depends on the type of lure that you are designing. But, no matter how dense the material, you still need some ballast to hold a vertical attitude. Often the hooks and split rings are enough to achieve this. Often and I include myself in this, we are too quick to write off denser materials, but they do have there place in the tackle box. I have only built cranks so far, plus a couple of swimbaits. For lively cranks with a wide

Not sure if it is the same thing or what you are looking for, but Hazmail (Pete) has written a lot on mylar foiling. There i even a tutorial in the 'how to' section, at the top of the page. No reason why this cannot be applied to 'slabs'. Do a search on 'mylar' for more reading. Dave

I will share most things, but never my green pumpkin recipe. Dave

Both stainless steel and brass, work harden and become brittle when working. I remember my foreman freaking out when i took a chunk of 1/4" thick stainless to the grinding wheel, I was making a bowie knife. He jerked me away from the machine and switched it off. Only a stub remained of the wheel and I was surrounded by a thick layer of gritty dust. Aparently, it could have exploded at any second. You will have to do a google to find out the annealing methods, as I cannot remember, it has been a long time since college. Annealing relieves all the stress, something to do with molecules or vortices, can't remember which. Dave

Good ideas Husky. Always on point duty. I find that using a cake icing syringe, I can mix the resin/microspheres to a non-pourable consistency, like thick mustard and inject into the mold. Bubbles are a problem with this method, but a little filler takes care of that. A vacuum would be useful, it is on my list of future acquisitions. The icing injector is very easy to clean, simply pour some acetone in a cup and pump in and out about 20 times (wear a mask). Then dismantle and wipe the piston head. Any excess left inside the syringe, simply fills any voids and makes the syringe more efficient when next used. I bought several syringes for this purpose, but I am still on my first, after around a hundred pours. Dave

Like a stone. Dave

Threads from end of 2003 to end of 2006 were lost, so the relevant thread is probably amongst them. Dave

I have used polyester resin (fibleglass resin) with microspheres in the past. Cheap and readily available are the advantages. Very brittle is the main disadvantage, also, I suspect not totally waterproof, but never tested this fact. The main problem you will find after using foam, is the density. But you are talking about swimbaits, so this is not really an issue. For cranks, the resin killed much of the action when I tried it, reducing a wide 'X'ing to a tight wiggle. Smooth-on feather lite would be my choice (if it was available here), as it already has the microspheres mixed in the product. Dave

It is no wonder that this type of bait needs some tuning, four variables have to be balanced: resistance of the blades, resistance (bulk) of skirt, weight of head and angle of wire. interesting thread. Dave

No need for apology, we are sharing your learning experience. You did the correct thing by reporting back, that is enough. Have you considered annealing the metal before assembly, to make the final forming process a little easier? Dave

You probably touched your face without realising it. I had this problem when I was working with polyester resin. My hands did not react, but my face did. Dave

This is Jim's PoP insulator thread: http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/soft-plastics/11472-keep-your-pyrex-cup-plastic-warm-dipping-multiple-color-pours.html good solution. Dave

So, with the elbow wire, does the blade spin or not? I am seeing conflicting views. Dave

Kelly. I thought that the blade was supposed to spin. It all makes sense though, I was struggling to see how it could spin at a steep angle, forced by the skirt resistance. It would be nice to see a vid of one of these baits in action. Dave

Have you tried adjusting the angle of the wire legs. I would have thought that this was critical. Dave

Bear, it does happen. Ocasionally, they lose their footing and drop on you from the ceiling. When you are dozing or very relaxed it can be a huge shock. Or you enter the kitchen in the middle of the night and the rubbish bin starts rustling violently. The worst experience was when I was pouring the last remnants of a bottle of soy sauce on my noodles and a dead lizzard flopped out. I had left the top off the bottle at some point and it has crawled in to the bottle and drowned. Still tasted OK though. Dave

Mark, a valid point. Question is, what is a reasonable life expectancy of a lure, in hours. 500hrs, 1000hrs, 5000hrs? Next time I visit the electronics mall, I will pick up a solenoid and see if I can rig up some sort of life testing rig. I have been thinking about such a rig for a long time. Seven strand wire also needs testing. Dave

I dismantled a bicycle chain link to examine more possibilities. The pitch of the holes is exactly 1/2" and the hole diameter is 3.5mm (0.138"). The 3mm dia tube is a little sloppy, but no more than the twisted wire. Would be much tighter on a 1/8" dia tube. But, like the swivel idea, drilling accuracy would be very important. The links have a rust proof coating, so should fare well in the water. They weigh in at 0.9 grams per plate and strength is beyond doubt. I see no conflict with any patents likely to have been issued regarding chain links, as this idea only uses the plate. I have not researched patents though. Just another one for the hinge library. Dave

MT, like I said, I did think about it, but nothing wrong. I agree with post No3 too, it appeared while I was typing. Dave

Not me, I have not reported your posts. I hadn't even noticed any of the deletions either, but I don't dwell on 'plastic type' threads. I had noticed a change in style of how you write your posts and figured that a mod had spoken to you, I have noticed the same with other authors too. The PRIVATE MESSAGE that I sent to Pitbull was not directed at you, but was rather pointing to your faithfulls. But nothing wrong in this or rules broken as far as my interpretation goes. You provide a good service, posts that acknowledge good service are a good thing. I was going to post the text, but then decided against it, to avoid another pile of doodoo, but here we are again. My mistake. Regarding the mask, I actually did think about the name being visible and thought about blurring with photoshop, but then forgot about it. But, again, nothing wrong with it. You really need to talk to Jerry about what is going on, hopefully he will chime in here and explain a few things. This thread should clarify a few issues. It can be confusing, as the policy is to delete without explanation. Dave