Vodkaman

Jim. Most cameras have a setting for artificial light. If you don't change this, all your light box photo's will be tinted yellow.

Welcome to TU Sizoua.

OK cupcakes! It has to be a character with lots of cunning and guile. A devious character that can take the failures and never give up, but will keep coming back with a better fish trap. I agree with fish_rman2000, Wiley Coyote would be my number one proposal. Occasionally he does have success. Sylvester cat would be a close second choice.

I'm still trying to figure out which part of the badger do you use to make the airbrush.

That is an English address, so the number will be: +44 1843 583595 Replace the (+) sign with your international dialing code.

I was having the same supply problem, but finally found a store for both lead and the soft SS wire. The shop was a metal suppliers, selling stock bars of just about everything. 3" dia brass bar caught my eye. A stack of lead ingots, anything metal, they had it, including 8Kg roll of 0.8mm SS wire, of which I bought 3Kg. Won't need to shop for wire again for a few years! Try looking for locking wire also, I think it is soft SS. Check out motor cycle repair shops. Locking wire is used a fair bit on bikes. Good luck with the search, I feel your pain!

Like Cheesehead said. I've been caught out with this one. Hooks and eyes need to be fitted to proto's also. Sorry for the diversion, but this is important.

Birthday greetings to you both. Dave

Tyjack. My link was to a search result for

Rsinyard. When you calculate the cost of your new hobby, you also have to factor in the occasional box of chocolates, bunch of flowers, cinema tickets, new pair of shoes and salon expenses.

Tyjack I'm not so sure if you will have access to the tutorials, as you are not a 'club member' yet. But, as applying the top coat with a brush, should not take more than 3 minutes, I assume the rest of the time is spent rotating the lure manually, in order to keep the top coat level. This is good technique but I agree, rather tedious. http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/search.php?searchid=364068&photoplog_searchinfo=1&photoplog_searchquery=drying+wheel+motor Above is a link to a search on “drying wheel motor”. Read the threads that refer to drying wheel or lure turner, for a variety of ways to construct this magical piece of equipment. Well worth the effort if you plan on making hard baits a hobby. This piece of kit will release your hands to coat ten more lures in the same time.

Thanks LBH, I will try that.

Seconded. I wish everyone an easy ride, thro' the storms. Dave

Haulinbass posted something on this subject not long ago. Here is the thread if you haven't seen it. http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/fishing-tips/14561-question-about-tweaking-spinner-bait-blades.html#post106809 Did something about offset holes. Give him a PM and tell him to post a pic! Dave

One Sock, great idea! You have taken a problem and turned it into a solution. Lots of possibilities with this idea. Laying down stripes for example. Scales - pour the plastic over netting (glued down). Turn the plastic over and lay the baits. Color transfer only on contact. I'm sure lots more ideas will occur to you. Good share. Dave

http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/soft-plastics/14579-mold-weighting-swimbait-hooks.html#post106880 ref post No2, by Rottweiler., in soft plastics forum. He used bondo to mold lead. Might be worth a PM to Rottweiler to find out more information. Invite him to post in this thread with his experiences. Dave

I think what is required, is a purpose built box, specifically for lures. Hanging a lure in front of an open lamp is not a good solution, purely from a safety point of view. But also from the point of using the light efficiently. A purpose built, small box, will greatly reduce the power requirements of the UV tube. I picture a box with the light mounted in the base, with an acrylic sheet to protect from drips. The lid has a micro switch, preventing the light being operated with the lid open. The box is lined with mirrors or some other reflective material, so the light reaches all parts of the lure. The bait would be held in a removable frame, with a built in turner. The box really only need mount one lure, but could be designed for three lures and two light tubes. I

Minesapint. I missed the smoke unfortunately, probably didn't reach Indonesia, where I am living at the moment. Great pic, looks like a haven for sea bass. I used to play in brass bands, so spent a lot of time in north Yorkshire. Beautiful part of the country, pity I can't understand a word the locals are talkin'. We have another TU member residing in Yorkshire, PhilB. Very experienced lure designer and a nice guy too. Dave

Sorry your first RTV try did not work out so good. Sounds to me like you either did not mix thoroughly enough or did not get the proportions absolutely correct. Read the instructions for the proportions for your product. Mine was 50:50 by volume. BUT, also had a sticker giving the proportions by weight. This was 100:118. If you have an accurate digital gram scale, this is a much more accurate way of measuring out the proportions. But, use the figures provided, NOT mine! If you have to measure by volume, tall, narrow measuring containers are better than wide, shallow containers. For mixing, I use clear plastic disposable cups. So when mixing, I can visually examine the mix at the bottom of the cup, to make sure there are no streaks of unmixed components. After mixing, the result should be smooth and constant in color. Try to work the air bubbles out before pouring. A vacuum will greatly assist this, but I don't own one. Be thorough and fussy about measuring and mixing. Mistakes with this stuff are expensive, as you have discovered. All part of the learning curve. Good luck with your next try.

I find it is best to mark the centre line on before shaping. I glue a print out of my body to the wood blank. Cut out and sand to the line. I then cut the lip slot, which is also marked on the print out pattern, as are the eye locations. To mark the centre line, on a flat table, I hold a pencil on a suitably thick block of wood and slide the shaped blank along the pencil point, scribing a line. I then flip over the shaped blank and repeat. This leaves two parallel lines, the centre of which is the c/l of the blank. I then transfer the hole positions for drilling operations onto the shaped blank and peel off the paper template. The holes could be drilled at this stage rather than after shaping. I don

Jio. Sorry the answers to your problems have not arrived yet. The problem is that this is an unusually large bait and I suspect that only a few members will have the expertise and experience to be able to help you. So be patient and I am confident the answers will be forthcoming.

Minesapint (I like the name). welcome to TU from a scouser. As mentioned previously, there are few articles that take you through the entire process here on TU, but there are one or two. But all the individual steps are covered and discussed to death, so everything you need to know is within the pages of TU. Unfortunately, the learning process is one of trial and error. But narrowed down with the guidance of TU reading, you should not go too far wrong. Check out the gallery and look at the lips, shapes and sizes, some good lip threads to read too. Steep lip angles (70 deg to body axis) make shallow running baits, shallow angles (10

Snax. I have experimented a lot with the polyester resin (used in fiberglass). But I have not used the glass fibers in combination. Probably made around 200 bodies with it. There are two issues that will concern you: 1. Density, you already mentioned. Polyester resin by itself, has a specific gravity (SG) = 1.2 (water SG = 1.0). This means that it is heavier than water and will sink. To solve this problem, I added silicone micro spheres or micro balloons (MB). But in order to get down to a SG=0.7, I had to add a considerable amount of MB, This changed the once runny consistency of pure resin, to that of thick mustard. This introduced two new problems, air bubbles and pouring. I found that with creative stirring techniques, I could get rid of most of the air and filled the rest with a household filler, after casting, flash drying with a hair dryer. A better and quicker solution would be a vacuum. Secondly, pouring the mustard paste is impossible. I overcome this problem with a plastic cake icing syringe, using the long nozzle. It worked well. 2. The material, with or without MB is very brittle. I deliberately dropped a 3" body onto a tile floor, it snapped at the lip slot, the weakest part. The addition of the glass fibers might solve this problem for you, but only testing will reveal the answer. Also, I do not know what effect the fibers will have on the density. The problem I can see with the fibers, is mixing and pouring. Because of the mustard consistency, the resin may not penetrate the fibers. If you plan to place the fibers in the mold and then pour, the pour will probably just push the fibers to one side and not mix and permeate. Another solution would be to separate the fibers and cut into short lengths and mix into the resin prior to pouring. This seems to be the only workable solution, but the brittle test will reveal all. I abandoned the resin, mainly because of the density. My target SG was 0.5, the equivalent of pine wood, in order to keep my lipped cranks lively and give me room for maneuver with ballast. I quite liked working with the material, once I got my system of tools and procedures sorted out, can get messy if not organized, everything must be to hand. Used with RTV molds, it works well, looks like plaster. Another advantage is that it is ready for working in an hour. It was not necessary to through wire as it drilled very easily and tidily. Wear a mask when drilling and handling MB and good ventilation required for wet resin, gloves and mask required when handling the fibers. That

Always room for another hinge discussion. How did you do the pull test? Did you use fishing line or tie it to a tree and pull with nylon rope. It sounds to me that you may have over tested the joint. As long as the pull load exceeds the actual breaking strain of the line, then the test is a success, as the line will always break first. I only mention this because you stated that wood was stripped out with the fixing material. A simple, more controlled test would be to suspend a 5 gal bucket from the lure and gradually add a known quantity of water. Measuring in litres works well, because 1 litre weighs 2.2 pounds. This way, if it fails, you will know the exact load it took to break the joint and will be able to make a direct comparison with other fixing products or methods. If it takes all 5 gallons, you could leave it hanging for 24 hours and use it in your sales pitch. I know I get technical sometimes, but this is a very simple test to perform, using stuff you probably have laying around the garage anyway. I did a pull test using polyester resin. Not in wood, but a resin body. It took 24 pounds for 24 hours. It was the only bucket I had. But this should be more than strong enough for any bass lure. Regarding the joint. I don't see how you are going to get away from cutting slots and still keep the segments close together, but the slot will look tidier, as it will be cut into both segments. I am about to start a swimbait in the next week or two. I am going to use a nylon (or similar) thread as the joint, setting it into a slot, top and bottom. This method will allow me to get the segments very close without having to cut the large slots associated with the eye method. True, an extra filling operation will have to be done, but the clean appearance should compensate. I don't think it is any more labor intensive anyway. It will be tested for strength, but I am not anticipating any problems. Other than the usual, keeping the top coat off the joint.

Mad eye. I like your attitude, striving to design your own original lure rather than copying another designers work. Although HJS makes a valid point about starting simple and build up some experience, I would encourage you to stick with plan A. you will gain all the experience you need to produce impressive lures, much quicker. The down side is, that you will have to cope with a few disappointments on the journey. The last thing I want is for you to sling the bag of PoP and broken masters in the bin and march down to the local tackle shop to buy another bag of senkos. If you can handle a few problems, then plan A is best. Your question regarding professional looking lures with details, is all down to craftsmanship, which comes with great care and practice. The master that you make is going to produce hundreds or even many thousands of clones, so it is worth taking the time to get it right. Even if it means starting over a few times. To get a shiny finish, a coat of D2T epoxy or some similar product will do the job, as suggested by Hawghunterbaits. I suggest that you don