Vodkaman

Mr Chops, it all really depends on where your basement is. Giving your location as 'you basement' isn't really helping US to help YOU. Dave

BobP. The the oscillating action is generated from the lip, by vortex shedding. But this is not enough. The power of the vortex is increased dramatically, by bouncing it off the nose. This 'funnels' the flow each side of the lure, magnifying the forces. Take a regular lure with a 60 deg lip, mounted under the chin, 1/2" back from the nose. It has a good strong action. But if you moved the lip to the front of the nose, the action is greatly reduced. I have built such experiments two years ago, to prove this theory. By moving the lip to zero angle, you have inadvertantly reduced the 'chin' that deflects the flow and thus reduced the action. The solution is simply to modify the body profile, to put back the 'chin'. You will see on many old lipless lures, a carved notch, just above the nose. This serves the same purpose, deflecting the flow. If you introduced such a notch above the root of the lip, the action would increase. Why not give it try with one that doesn't swim so well, cut a notch and see the difference. Usual disclaimers in force, lol. Dave

MT, interesting project. But I am still a little confused as to whether it is intended to operate in air or water. It is a sign board, this points to air, but you also mentioned a video being made of the sign being fished, which points to water. You have received lots of good suggestions, so I am just going to add my thoughts. I am not a spinner bait guy, but have given their operation some thought. I think the tow eye should be in the corner and the curvature should go lengthways, across the diagonal, from the tow eye to the opposite corner. I am assuming that you don't want to get involved with double curvature. But it might turn out to be necessary, sorry. If it is operated in air, then you may have to go for a much lighter material, as mentioned previously. I am not going to get heavy with theory, but a couple of things do need explaining. The curvature across the diagonal is required to 'pull' the plate out onto the flow. The corner tow eye is required to give a leading edge for the vortex to form. This pulls the plate to one side and causes the rotation. The double curvature is required to allow it to slip through the water (or air) with minimal resistance. It all fits together in theory, but I could be way off base. Who knows? Also, I have noticed that both types of blades are symmetrical. This, I think is necessary. It also explains why you came close with the square plate. You did say the shape cannot be changed, but a kite shape might have more success, with the eye at the pointy end (kite in reverse). I really hope this helps. Good luck with it and post some pics when you're done. Dave

Nice job Jed, swims real good. Very stable. Was a good idea leaving it white for the vid. Mrs Jed did a good job too. Dave

Awesome, you've found a new fishing partner, at least until he discovers girls. Great pic.

Hughesy, I agree, most impressive. What is the lure clamp system you are using, any chance of a close-up pic? Dave

John. I think the only way you can hold a carved body for drilling operations is with a molded jig, but if you are hand carving, even this is doubtful. Best solution is to drill the holes before carving, while the wood is still square. This has additional advantages, that the surface damage as the drill enters or exits the wood, becomes irrelevant. Dave

I really swamp it for the first coat, Leave it to dry such that the excess can drain away. Then quick, brushed coats after that. Let it dry well between coats or the previous coat will just liquify. This could be what is causing your problem. Welcome to TU. Dave

Rubber bands would not be my choice, but just another option. Yes, they would have to be inspected regular and replaced. My favourite option would be the woven material elastic. For the reasons already stated. So much rubber available here, you would think it grew on trees! Dave

No sweat Zbass, just reporting back a result. The big problem here in Indonesia is that the postal system REALLY sucks, so I would prefer to try to source all my materials locally, at least for now. But sooner or later, I am going to have to pay and put my trust in the couriers, Assuming that I can find suppliers prepared to deal with Indonesia, most will NOT! Probably for the same reasons. Stuff just goes missing. Because of the above problems and my requirement for a light body, I have abandoned molding and am designing a duplicator machine. This will give me the good repeatability for the bodies, a quality that molding was going to give me. Ballast is critical for my lure designs, so now I will only have to account for variations in wood density, from batch to batch. The resin mold is for lead ballast weights, so the shrinkage is not going to be a big problem. I have sourced a polyester filler, I presume is similar to bondo, so will try out MDC's suggestion of a 75/25 mix filler/resin. When I do manage to source materials, they are usually very cheap, resin $2.80 per liter, filler $2.00 per Kg, floor wax $3.25 per Kg. But still looking for certain materials, a decent top coat, sealer and spray paints. They are all here, just got to find them, in this matrix of side streets called Bandung. I even bought a GPS system to help! Dave

I have just done a release agent test for two piece polyester (fibreglass) resin. I used floor tile wax. I remember someone mentioning floor wax here on TU. It worked extremely well. The two halves came apart with no effort at all. I applied a thin coat of the wax with a piece of kitchen roll and gave it half an hour to harden. I could only find a 1Kg tin of the stuff, so have enough for ten life times. Dave

Yes mark, there are many possibilities here, as well as regular rubber bands. Elastic from a materials shop comes in two types, a plain rubber or a woven material. The woven material would be better to push the wire hook through, as the elastic would not tear. Dave

Springs are a good idea. I've been keeping my eyes open for some, but not easy to find exactly what you want. Also the price can get out of hand. I intend to use the same idea, but using Knicker elastic as the spring, from a dress making store. Attaching to the wheel is very simple. It could be simply stapled or cut slots and knot one end, to stop it pulling through. A dab of soft glue to hold it in place. Attach a short length of wire to form a hook. Dave

Mark is absolutely right in his theory. To get a feel for what is happening, imagine a wheel much larger, say 50m diameter! At that size, at 4 rpm, it would suck the skin off a lemon. The idea is to turn the lure over fast enough so that gravity does not have time to pull the top coat down or sag, but not so fast that the centrifugal force causes the top coat to be thrown outwards. Even a 1 meter diameter wheel at 4 rpm should be fine. I looked up the subject, with a view to doing some calculations, to see what the limiting speed would be, as this question often comes up. The maths was a little more involved than I thought it would be, so I bottled out. Dave

This was discussed not too long ago, back in June. Funny, the question is almost word for word the same. Here's a link. It should help. http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/hard-baits/13874-cleaning-old-plugs.html Dave

Post a pic and mark where you are putting the weight, or tell us at least. Dave

Well, Gday cobber and welcome to TU. Thanks. Dave

I would say that if the lures are for your own use only, then go ahead. I think it makes an excellent sealer. Plus, you don't have to wait days to continue the process of finishing. If you are considering selling your lures, then further testing will have to be done. The big problem is that polyester resin is brittle. Drop a small ball end hammer from 2" and you will see the damage. You would have to build a couple, complete. No paint but with top coat and go cast them into rocks a dozen times. Then I would soak test them, in water with a few drops of dish soap, for 24 hours. Weigh them before and after. If the lure fails and gains weight, then you have breached the top coat. Now you have to carefully peal the top coat off, to find out if the seal coat is still intact. This might not be necessary, as any damage should be visible through the top coat. I really hope it does survive this test, as I would love to use it as a seal coat. Even if it fails, I am going to use it for fixing twisted eyes in, as its pull strength, even in balsa, is way more than strong enough. I don't know of anyone else using it as a seal coat, this fact alone means it is not promising. So let me know how it pans out for you. Dave

Mad Eye. You are talking about your location, but I have no idea where "Here" is! Dave

A kit is a good idea. You get everything you need in one package. Also, if you then decide that you don't like it, then you haven't done too much damage to the wallet. This is just one mans opinion, from one that doesn't even do plastics. You should PM Drof99, He is about a week ahead of you and has just started with a kit. He is probably the best person to advise you at this time. Maybe Drof99 is reading this and would care to comment. A warning to you both. Bait building or pouring is highly addictive. There are ten step programs available, but none have proven successful so far. Even my shrink is now buiilding crank baits and is sueing me. So be warned. By the way, 'home' does not cut it as a location. It can be very helpful to know where you live. We don't need your address, just the county or country will do. Dave

Post gone! Strange. Thanks for re-posting here AND the information. Again nice job Jim. Dave

Kahawai, a BIG welcome back to TU and lure building. You had already left TU before I joined. But I recognised your name straight away, from a discussion of your work. This was a quote that stuck in my head. This was another quote that tickled me too, I see from your pic that it did not take long to retrieve your set of skills. Once again, welcome back.

A seriously impressive piece of kit, Kajan. Awesome job. Dave

Tim, I see now and stand corrected. Mr Bad, sorry if I mislead you. A fluid ounce is a measure of volume, not a weight. Calling it an ounce is very misleading, but that is what it is called, nothing we can do about that. Also, the USA fluid ounce is different to the rest of the worlds fluid ounce. On the face of it, this fact is also alarming, but when you think about it, this fact is irrelevant, as it is all about ratios. Ratios by volume. I think Bad Buoys statement, is good, I would just add "by volume", then everything is crystal clear.This thread was a good idea Bad Buoy, as I was definately on the wrong page. And wonder how many others were too. The only problem I see now, is that a fluid ounce of coarse salt is not the same as a fluid ounce of fine ground salt. But I expect the difference would not make much difference, or would it? Dave

An ounce is an ounce, be it liquid or solid. I know what is affecting your mind. Often liquids are quoted as fluid ounces. You should forget about this as far as mixing ingredients for lure making. Weigh the plastic and weigh the salt, by the same method. For me, it only gets tedious when people start talking about cups. I have three different size cups in my kitchen. Dave