Vodkaman

Great article Del, it needed saying. If I was asked to model a complex shape like a frog or a craw, I could see it taking et least ten hours to model on CAD and It would cost a lot more than $175!!!

It seems to me that the most likely place for a water breach would be the eyelets. The breach would not be visible to the human eye, but it is the part of the lure that undergoes the most stress under load. The surface of the metal is generally very smooth and polished. Although in many posts we have established that the lure is best not handled for good paint adhesion, I suspect that the same attention may not be given to the metalwork. The metal should be degreased in acetone to remove finger grease. The metal that comes into contact with the top coat could be scraped with a craft knife or similar. This would give the top coat something to bind to. Great care should be taken when cleaning excess epoxy from the eyes. This process should be done well after the epoxy has cured, even though it is easier while the epoxy is still soft. It is also easy to disturb the seal around the smooth metal. These are just my thoughts on the subject, would be interested to hear more opinions on the subject of leakage, as it seems to affect many builders judging on the number of related sealing posts.

INCULCATE!!! Nice one, I had to look that one up.

B75' I just checked out the gallery for your work. This scale technique, was it used on the 'newest redbreast' lure? It looks very good, in fact all your work looks excellent. Thank's for sharing.

Has anyone built an agitator for PoP moulding. I had in mind a small cheap battery operated motor with a piece of wood epoxied to the spindle, slightly offset. The motor is firmly fixed to the tray. The offset load will set off a vibration strong enough to free the bubbles and leave you hands free.

Lumpy and bitter!!!?

Best cancel the golf club membership, you won't have time. Welcome and enjoy.

I think it is great. The general rule of steep angle for shallow swim and shallow angle for deep swimmers is a good guide, but not the whole story. It's all about balance. Your solution will certainly help when it comes to casting and the good width of the lip will really shift the water for a wide action. Congratulations on a beautiful job Hoosie.

It still could be true. The same physics that apply to the water are applied to the plastic. The changes in density for diferent materials vary like metals expanding at diferent rates, so there could be an overlap. There are lots of density tables available on the WWW for water, but may need a bit of research to find the equivalent for the plastic that you are using. Do some experiments and post the results. The results will be interesting and valid for this site.

Heavy subject!!

Don't feel bad BobP, I nearly backed the whole thing up with calculations, no wonder I couldn't get them to work!

That thing must weigh half a pound by now. Glad you got it sorted.

Smirkplug and Rofish. Very sorry but I have not been able to view your video's. Rofish, yours asks for software to be down loaded, I tried twice but still no success. This is very frustrating. Interesting trade offer but it does not seem fair as the mermaids are free (generally), I don't want to rip you off. It is hardly re-inventing the wheel, as no one on TU has been able to explain or consistently reproduce the action, according to everything that I have read. But it does not surprise me that a few have found it. Personally, I considered it a challenge to solve the enigma and I am feeling very pleased with myself. Longball. This one has a 60 deg lip and therefore is a top water bait. On a long cast it would probably achieve 3 - 4 feet depth. But there is no reason why the principles cannot be applied to deeper lips. It is my intention to develope 60, 45, 30 & 15 degree lips in various body lengths. Unless there is already a mass produced hunter out there, then I think that this project could be worth persuing. If you can suggest a solution to my video viewing problems I would appreciate it.

Does the hook getting snagged or twisted up on the eye without a split ring, become a problem, a bit like keys on a keyring (god this is hard to explain!!!!).

Ask as many questions as you like, probably many people out there thinking the same questions. No thinning required. Tap the mould container to release any air bubbles as for any moulding process.

Yes, the trailing edge sharpened should help it cut through the water easier and thus help with the depth. But, a sharp edge down the sides will help promote a stronger vortex, which will apply more pull down force and inevitably more action.

Like I said, I haven't tried it. If you already have the materials, try it on a test piece first. But from my very limited experience of resin, I would guess that it would be no problem. Remove it after about half an hour. The stuff I used, the instructions were 15 drops per 25grm and it hardened after about 20 mins. After 30 mins I removed it from the latex mould. The surface was kind of greasy, like the surface layer had not gone off, but the definition was first class. This greasy layer leads me to the conclusion that the master will not bond to the resin and give you 'withdrawal symptoms'. Also, the stuff does not smell too healthy, I would wear kitchen gloves as it tends to get everywhere. Please try it and report back.

Sounds like a bad batch, but I presume it worked on the previous project. I have used it upto three months after opening the tubes without any problem, but I considered that as a bonus as I know it does go off by itself in time.

Sorry about that, it's engineering talk. The pattern has to be a shape that can be withdrawn from the mould without 'hanging up' or 'catching' on the mould. For example, if you sank your pattern into the resin passed half way, the 'die locked' condition would be present as you could not remove the pattern from the mould. If the mould material was soft plastic, this would not be a problem, as the mould would deform over the die locked casting, allowing it to be withdrawn. Resin is a hard material and die lock has to be considered. Not so easy to explain as I thought it would be, not my best skill.

As long as the pattern is not die locked and it is sealed to prevent the resin soaking in, it should be OK. I would apply a light smear of petrolium gelly, just to be safe.

If the edge of the lip is sharp, this could also grab you an extra half a foot. This would also give extra action to the lure. It's that vortex thing again.

I took plenty of pictures!

Dmay4. I doubt that you will find an answer to your question here, other than the answer that you have already received. This site is all about building your own. You should have a go yourself, it is not dificult, nor expensive to get to the point at which you would have bought. The self satisfaction of catching a fish on your own creation will more than pay for the time that you spent. All the help and how-to information is here on this site. If you cannot find what you are looking for with the search engine, just ask and the responces will flow. Good luck and get stuck in.

I have not tried either. But what I have done is a latex splash of my thumb and cast it in resin (for a keyring). The resin thumb picked up every single mark, including the finger print. So my guess is that it would work well. There is a significant shrinkage problem, but this can be eliminated by having the master at the bottom of the pour, the resin will shrink down from the top. Confused? Husky covered the mould thing very well. After pouring, the resin is a bit tacky, it is best to let it cure for a couple of days at least before putting it to work. I would be interested to hear if it can be used for casting foam instead of RTV. I cannot source RTV in Malaysia and the resin is very cheap.

Longball, yes, last week I caught a Philipino mermaid, about 45Kg. It was tempting to keep her but I did return her to the water as I firmly believe in catch and release. Pikeman, the action starts at about 0.5 m/s, the same speed as for normal action (waggle, wobble) as it is the same forces causing the hunt. Fatfingers, too soon. I want the chance to get some production out there before everyone else.