Vodkaman

DGagner - I found the post, but like a lot of the older posts, it is messed up. There are photos lower down the post. Similar to your scale, it is a beam, with a coin(s) one end and the object on the other. The main difference is that I slide the beam along a knife edge fulcrum and read off the weight. The weight markings are calculated on a spreadsheet. The problem is always that the beam has to be as light as possible otherwise the weight markings become too close together as the beam weight has an effect. I made my beam from paper. One of the pics shows the markings at half gram intervals, between those marks you can eyeball to 0.1g. The scale worked, but the post is a horrible read. I now have an electronic digital scale that weighs to 0.01g and is repeatable, and can weigh up to 500g. With this, I can measure lure volume as well as weight, allowing me to calculate density. Dave

I am loving this series, two so far, hoping for more. I have done a lot of work in the balance thing myself, and I posted a paper constructed beam balance. Good work. Dave

Shine2200 - Word file sent. Have a look and decide if you want to take this further. If you decide not to I will understand This is not an easy project. Dave

I am working on it now. I will give you a full parts list and a graphic step-by-step. Give me a little time as I will have to check my work. The home made hand sanitizer is kicking in at the moment I will ask you questions as to flash rate, how many flashes per second that you would like. Have a think about this. I am going for red LED lights with this design. Getting an LED to light is as easy as stated in a previous post by Datguy. Getting the LED to flash takes a little more circuitry such as a 555 timer chip. Getting the electronics to switch on and off with water contact requires more electronics again, and this is what I am going for with this circuit. Electronic components come in two sizes; SMD and standard. SMD are miniature surface mount components and are rather specialized. I have never used them, so I have gone for easily available standard components. If you want smaller, the SMD components have the same pins but will be a lot fiddlier to construct. My design is complex enough, but will be a good apprenticeship. Dave

I did start to construct a word document outlining the soldering order, but due to lack of interest of members I did not finish it. The document links with the 8th post showing the circuit diagram and shows the soldering order. As a word document, it cannot be posted, but I am happy to email it to you. PM me your email address. If the idea becomes more viable for you, I am prepared to pick the project up again and complete the document for you. I have not actually built this circuit, but it is based on published circuits, and experience from past work using 555 timers devices and touch switches. Dave

I like it. Dave

My idea is to bend 2mm of the end of the wire, doubled over and crimp with pliers. Tap into tight hole deeper than the crimp. The idea is that the folded wire acts as a barb. Dave

Mark - I have just been having a think about the lateral weight dry transfer. I don't know how you picture the weight movement in your head, but this is how I see it: 1 - Lure waggle to the right (start of motion). Due to inertia, the weight will stay almost static until it comes in contact with the left end of the tube. 2 - Lure reaches end of waggle, fully right. The weight will shoot to the right and strike the right end of the tube. The waggle may have already started moving to the left. 3 - Lure waggle moves to the left. The weight stays in contact with the right end of the tube. 4 - Lure reaches end of waggle. The weight moves to the extreme left of tube. Steps 2, 3 & 4 are continuously repeated with the weight motion slightly lagging behind the waggle. The longer the tube then the longer the lag time. Introducing a damping material; Vaseline, oil or water, will extend the lag time. A short dry tube would give a short lag time, and could possibly enhance the waggle. A long wet tube with a long lag time, may take several waggle cycles for the weight to reach the end of the tube. This means that the weight's cycle would be much slower and erratic. Whether or not this is enough to disturb the lure enough to change direction or not will be down to experiment with tube lengths and different levels of damping. But, the criteria for an erratic hunting action is there; namely something that happens every 3 - 4 cycles. I hope I did not make this hypothesis too complicated, but feel that you just might be onto something here. Dave

Good luck with it, and I look forward to the feedback Dave

Mark - The frequency will be 4 - 6 cycles per second, possibly even faster depending on lip width. Keep in mind that a cycle is back and forth. Even if you injected a little water into the cavity, I suspect that the movement will be killed. This is just an opinion, so you need to go ahead and test. Dave

In defense of my original comment; I am reluctant to advise expenditure when results can be achieved with minimalist tools. I like to feel comfortable that people are on the direction that they want to pursue rather than a whim. Dave

My fav tools are; belt sander with a disk on the side, band saw, drill press and Dremel mini drill with lots of bits and pieces. I went with a battery powered Dremel, but next time I would stick with mains power. Dave

Barehook - file sent. Dave

As far as I know, the bait has to be balanced so that the nose stands up, say 30 to 45 degrees. I just want the experts to step in with some solid construction advice. Dave

All good advice, except on the balance of the bait. The information that will take the bait from a pretty object to a functioning fish catcher. Function comes first, then we can make it pretty. We need real advice here! Dave

I am replying to give encouragement. The lure looks great, it looks perfect, and I understand the topcoat problems. I say only encouragement because this particular lure is outside my experience, I only do shallow lipped crank baits. I also understand that you are coming at this project with very limited experience, and I am sure that many will jump in here to help you. I understand Nathan's comment above, his recommendation is good. BUT, you need to get a successful lure and be sure that this is a path you want to follow. This is a walk the dog type lure, and it has to be balanced a certain way in order to make it perform. Ballast (lead weight) has to be added correctly to achieve the action. You can do a search, or better still, someone can jump in here and help you with that. As far as topcoat, I would get down to the hardware store and buy Devcon two ton epoxy (D2T). Do another search for how to apply. I am talking searching on this site. It must be 30 minute epoxy, do NOT go for 5 minute, totally the wrong stuff. To other members, step in, because I cannot help here. Dave

I have designed a 3D rod blank 5’8” (1.73m) length, primarily because this suits the rod length for my sheltered fishing pond with limited headroom. I have designed it with a 20cm printing envelope which means the blank is a ten piece with a 30mm ferrule overlap. The butt diameter is 14mm with a tip diameter of 3mm. the handle parallel portion is 600mm length then tapering down to the tip. This matches the 15mm dia core of the handle material available to me. The constant wall thickness is 1mm and the helical reinforcing web is 1mm thickness. This is not ideal. The wall thickness should start thicker and taper down to the tip. Say 1.5mm down to 1.0mm, But this would increase the weight further. The weight of the blank, assuming a material of 1,2 g/cm³ density such as polycarbonate, would be 103g or 3.63ozs. Compared to internet data for quality blanks, this amounts to 3x the weight. Adopting a tapered wall thickness would increase the weight further. I do not intend to take this project any further because of the negative weight comparisons. However, if anyone with a 3D printer would like to test out my construction, I would be willing to provide an STL model for printing, on the understanding that this is first draft design with no guarantees. If anyone wants the model, I will have to do a little extra work in preparation. Dave

Jigmeister - Resonant frequency is one of my favourite subjects, from collapsing bridges, to waving tall structures. If you look at a flagpole in a strong wind you will notice that it sways from side to side perpendicular to the wind direction rather than in the same direction of the wind as you might expect. The resonant frequency of the pole is how fast it naturally sways. The side forces on the pole are given by the frequency of the vortices formed behind the pole in the wind. If the frequency of vortices and the pole resonant frequency match then the pole will sway wildly. So, even flagpoles need to be designed properly. Also, if the resonant frequency is 1/3rd or 1/5th etc of the vortex frequency, then the sway will multiply. The frequency of the vortices around the pole, or for that matter, the lipped lure, can easily be calculated using the Strouhal formula which I won’t go into here. This would give the frequency at which the lure swims. If the retrieval speed increases the frequency increases (it waggles faster), if the lip width is increased then the frequency reduces. This is all about the vortices and NOT resonant frequency, but very good, impressive thinking. To understand how lures hunt, you need to read my post Hunting Cranks - theory, design and build. This explains what is going on and how to build a hunter. Dave

RPM – congratulations on building the hunter, makes me feel good. Yes my designs are always stationary/static designs. The reason for this is that they are based on an idea/hypothesis and developed through prototype into theory. I have not given much thought to lateral moving weight systems. They obviously work as you and others have managed to get results. Maybe I will give lateral transfer more thought one day in the future, but I have too much on the go at the moment. I am currently working on a solar hot water system, a drinking water from humidity system and a low cost hospital ventilator. The ‘S’ style swim action I actually stumbled on by accident. It was another ten years before I figured out what was actually happening. I was living in a one room apartment in Sweden on a work contract. I had no workshop and just a few hand tools. I was experimenting with ballast, trying to find an easier solution than the strips of copper that I was using. Lead simply was not available. I glued a Swedish coin into a slot in the bottom of a piece of balsa square section and added a lip. The ‘S’ motion was the result, as simple as that. For you to find the ‘S’ motion, I suggest a 15mm wide lip at 70° for a shallow swimmer. You will have to design a crude adjustable ballast adjuster. I would start about 10mm below the lure centerline, adjust up and down until you get a result. Dave

Re your message - like I said, I am open source, and for good reason. I simply wished you 'good luck with your project'. No, I am not offended at all and have not changed my mind. If you have read many of my posts, you will realize that I am an open source type of guy, who puts information out there for anyone to use. However, I do take on commercial work in lure design and other fields, but this does not come free. There are no guarantees with a project such as yours, and one thing that I have learned over a career in design spanning 45 years, is people do not like to pay when a project fails. They often are not too keen on paying when the project is successful either. I am prepared to put thousands of hours into open source work, but I will not donate a minute to a commercial venture unless I am being paid handsomely for my time. You intend to make an ongoing commercial venture using my invention and innovation. You make a living and I get a one-off payment. This does not work for me. Dave

Shepard - OK, I am interested. If you intend to make this a commercial venture, then I would obviously want to get paid for my time and innovation. If you want to make this technology open source, I am fine with that to. Let me know your intentions. Dave

Bigblue2 - sent. Dave

This is great. I don't want to take this underground to the message system. I would like to keep it visible for members to view the process of design. Dave

Eastman 03 - sent. Dave

Welcome to TU, I would say that you came to the right place. You will learn, and with your experience you will also be a contributor. I have just replied to your 3D printer idea and I like it, though I suspect many will not. 3D design has way more strength possibilities than most people can imagine. I read your plastic post, and immediately started re-thinking stirrers, a subject I have considered in the past, but not so sure that I posted my ideas. TU needs progressive minds, they are a rarity, but I think you will fit in just nicely. Dave