Vodkaman

I meat mincer might work. Dave

With Bondo, the idea is to slap it on and ram it in, hard and fast. Sure, scrape excess off if you have time, but it is not important. Bondo sands down so nicely and quickly with a Dremel and a drum sander bit. As long as you apply too much, you will be able to sand down to a perfect profile. If you try to be tidy, you may be a bit short in one or two spots and then have to either live with the blemish or apply more filler. Dave

The best search word is 'Bloxygen', because every post that mentions Bloxygen will be discussing the tap the can method. Dave

Indeed LimpNoodle, good thinking. I must agree with Smalljaw though, not a good idea. Bending a forged hook is going to make the metal very brittle and prone to snap. Dave

I remember in Chemistry class, we would use a fine glass tube in a regular yellow flame and blow. This would generate a high temperature blue flame with a very concentrated heat spot. This would be perfect for heating a hook locally from a candle flame. Just gotta find a suitable fine tube; brass or something like that, doesn't have to be glass. Dave

Here is a thread that I started on Hinge jigs, with a video of my jig. Slightly different, as it is a pin/eye rather than an eye/eye, but the principle is valid. Dave Edit - link added, thanks Mark

Definitely an epoxy. Dave

I think you can go either way. But rather than screwing into the resin, my plan would be to drill an over-sized diameter hole and glue the eye in. Maybe just tight enough to catch the threads and let the epoxy do the work. Dave

That would be a very easy mold to make by hand. Dave

Yes, China is a communist country and the government keeps a firm grip on the major industries, but not ALL industry. The feeling that I got when I was living there for 6 months, was that this is not what I expected a communist country to be like. It was pretty much like any other western city, with all the BIG name shopping/fashion brands that none of us can afford or would consider wasting money on. Of course, I only saw the city, not the villages. The scenario that Mark talks about, were standard of living in the low paid country, rises, and we have to look for another country to exploit, is coming. The standard of living and wages are rising in China. The day when cheap products are no more is coming. Perhaps not in our lifetime, but it IS coming. China is only just getting started. Every industry that we send over there for manufacture, teaches the Chinese the technology and manufacturing know-how. China now has a MASSIVE car industry. I would say half the worlds car design engineers are currently working in China for BIG money. I went to a bar in Shanghai on a Friday night, and bumped in to a dozen guys who I had worked with in the past. The day is coming when what is left of the USA car industry is going to get blown out of the water, and you won't be able to tell the difference, because the Chinese cars will be no different to the American cars, designed by the same teams. You are probably thinking, 'Damned greedy contractors sold us out'. That would be funny, because the contractors are thinking the western governments and their consumers sold US out. The situation as far as the west is going to deteriorate until all countries have the same standard of living, which is the point were all trade will be equal and no advantage gained by manufacturing overseas. This means that our cost of living must drop. The day might even come were China exports production to USA because of cheaper labor costs! Dave

He is a cool guy with a very good attitude. Jigs are going to be a terrific addition to his hobby for sure - good job Skimpy Dave

This flat/dead spot has been well documented over the years. I don't recall anyone coming up with a solution. Don't bother replacing with a new motor, it is a design fault that exists in them all. Probably all made by the same company. Dave

I don't buy the screws, I twist my own wire. Stay with what you are comfortable with, you can try other stuff out later. There are so many ways to skin this cat and none of them are wrong. Car body filler (Bondo) is good for filling slots, very easy to sand and shape compared to epoxy. Dave

I don't think there is going to be a lot to it. 1 - shape and size that customers want. 2 - consistency, so if I buy ten blanks, they will be identical. 3 - variety, plenty to choose from. 4 - custom shape service, with minimum order of course. How are you going to do the cross section shape? Dave

Glad to hear it. The injection mold design is a bit of a monster. Dave

I assume that you are talking about designing a split bodied hollow crank, to be injection molded by a company, probably in China. The basic shape CAD design is not difficult. The hard part is the details, like fins, scales, gills etc. CAD modeling the hollow is easy enough, BUT, how will it float when assembled with hooks and eyes. This is the skill of the designer. To get the float right will double the design time, as you have to adjust all the design parameters to get the CoG to align vertically underneath the CoB, with all the hooks, eyes and any other hardware accurately modeled in. Another major consideration is the buoyancy of the final assembled bait. Do you want it to float, by how much, sink, how fast. The plastic density and the wall thicknesses all come into play in controlling the final density. You also have to be aware of die locks, so that the part can easily be ejected from the die. If the die company is going to assemble the baits for you, make sure that the assembly line is top quality and that there is a system of quality control inspections. Quality assembly will take longer and so the cost will go up, but if you allow cheap assembly practices, you will just end up with the same dollar crap as everyone else, except custom. I strongly recommend a prototype build, to test the balance and swim of the lure before committing to a die manufacture and production. DAve

I would drill holes and make twisted wire eyes. Much simpler and plenty strong enough. The holes can be angled if you are concerned about the depth. Glue depth between 1" and 1.25" is what I would use. Dave

Yes, good job. I do mine exactly the same way. I design the shapes so that they suit my tools, mainly the belt sander with the disk. The only thing that I do extra, is add a centre line to the template. After shaping the profile, I scratch the faintest of lines on the end of the lip to represent the centreline. Dave

Great video. Definitely sold me on the glass additive. The clarity with the flake was shown and the pull test was dramatic. Dave

Mark - I have not built any wake or WTD baits, but I would agree with you. With lipped cranks, the lateral balance is critical and requires fine tuning. Nathan - in early prototypes, I make the eye horizontal and a few mm longer, so that I can explore the vertical eye position options. I always make a few extra bodies for this purpose. Dave

The ability to tune the swim of the plug is lost, as side adjustments are more difficult. You are more likely to crack the topcoat with the effort required for tuning. I mount my belly hooks laterally, as this allows me to mount the hooks in such a way to reduce hook rash. Dave

JR - lamps are very simple, crude items and easy to fault find if you have a meter. If you don't, you can make a resistance meter with a battery, torch bulb and a length of wire. Either you have a loose connection, check the plug, switch and lamp connections, or there is a break in the wire, which is were the meter comes in handy. Dave

Probably not worth the effort, just keep the pressure on. These ideas are not intended as final solutions, merely to verify that we have correctly identified the cause of the problem. If the horizontal pour works well, then you could design a jig/frame to simplify the operation and keep it safe. Dave

JR - on the lamp, the bit that makes contact with the bottom button of the bulb is probably corroded. *** UNPLUG *** from mains and have a look down there, you may be able to scrape it clean with a screwdriver or a blade. Dave

It looks like the air bubbles are getting trapped by the ridges. Once the plastic gets past the bubble, it cannot rise, due to the velocity of the plastic moving down the bait. Try a very slow injection. The mold and the plastic will need to be hot for this I guess. Also, the bubbles are rising, but there is not enough angle to drive the bubbles to the rim feature which would allow the bubbles to be driven out. Is it possible to try a horizontal injection with the rim feature uppermost, by clamping to the bench. Do not risk your safety. This will allow the bubbles to rise to the rim feature and be pushed out of the tail. Again, a slow injection would be better. Dave