Vodkaman

Good post SlowFISH. Yes, CAD skills are transferable. Just looking at a short vid of the Fusion, I see some similarities with Catia V5. The skills are about understanding how one element is used to create another and how all the elements link together (on a decent system) so that if you change one element, the rest follow the change. Each CAD system has a 'style' of construction and it (should) maintains that style throughout the whole package. Once you have the style, it is very easy to learn a function that you have not used before, because it works the same as everything else. If you are forced to learn a NEW CAD system, by the time you have figured out the basic elements of points, lines and planes, you will already be 'seeing' the style. A new CAD package always seems so complicated, and IT IS. BUT, with a basic understanding about CAD, you already know what to look for. If you have never used CAD, then you are in for a tough time. New CAD users - a beginners course is the quickest and easiest way in. You are sure to know someone who knows CAD and could give you a couple of hours introduction. Find an instruction manual download, preferably with exercises that can be followed. Every CAD system has a forum like TU, were you can ask daft questions, it is allowed. Dave

Muskie tamer - thanks for posting the pics. The eyes look great and there is nothing wrong with those pics either. Dave

JR nailed it, I don't know about all the other sites, but TU is about sharing. Welcome to TU. Dave

Bob - they use the same in British Aerospace. There was one guy with an apprentice whose sole job was to fix all the dents and bumps the fuselage suffers in manufacture. You may be horrified, but it is inevitable in a 'hand made' environment with hundreds of workers climbing all over the aircraft. This guy was an absolute genius with a planishing hammer and his leather beanbag. He saved my ass when I dropped an arm full of steel dollies in the tail of the aircraft, when the riveter went too fast for me to keep up. The skin looked like a bag of grapes. Learning from this experience, my first attempt at lures before I joined TU, was working brass with a ball peen hammer and a couple of pieces of leather. Dave

Pete - have an idea in your mind about how you want your bait to move in the water. Starting with no salt, pour a bait, then rig it like you were going to fish. Try it in a large bucket of water. Repeat with various amounts of salt, until you find what you want. Keep notes. Dave

If you haven't already, read the recent Senko posts over the last month. There may be stuff there that will help you. Dave

This is a tough one, as even those durable topcoats that have matte properties are not truly matte. Ironically, matte or gloss, both look the same under water, so other than satisfying a customer's request, it is pointless. Give a gloss bait the treatment with a very fine emery, to make it as matte as possible. Hold it under water alongside a gloss bait for comparison. If I am right, show the comparison to the customer and change his mind. Dave

That is just shameful. Glad he was caught. Dave

RS - I really liked your post Sounds like a solid plan. I know nothing about Fusion360, but looking through the Google images for Fusion360, it does seem to have good shaping capability. To master shaping is always difficult, so stick with it and join a Fusion360 forum for help. Dave

Yes, I have spam filters and folders, they help but don't solve the problem. Some spam beats the filters and some regular mail gets filtered. You still have to check everything before deleting. Dave

Stretcher66 - The object here is to stay off the spam email lists, there is no other reason that I can think of for not signing. Once you are on the list, you are going to receive spam for a couple of years at least, as the list gets sold to every underworld scumbag on the globe. Fortunately, I think I am only on one list, as my spam comes on short waves on 2 or 3 spams per day for a few days and then it goes quiet, until the list is sold again. This is after three years of being on a list. I am hoping the list becomes old and no longer gets sold, or the list may get split up onto other lists and it will all start again with 10 to 20 spams per day. I have several emails that I use for different things, but I only sign up for things from this one email, and I only receive spam to this email. If I was starting again, I would have one email account purely for public use, but I missed that boat. If I am going to sign for something, it has to be something that I really want or need, not something that is mildly interesting. It is a question of risk. Yes in this case I would say the risk is low, but so is my want and need. Dave

The PDF works great on my desktop. Dave

It makes no difference. As long as the rotation speed is slow, then the only force in play is gravity. My last turner was parallel and 5 or 6 rpm. I did a lot of research on the speeds; the result was slower is better. Dave

I found them on Ebay, they look very nice. There is another company using the same name based in Sweden, probably the same guy. Dave

Good job. Dave

This may not be directly applicable. I always paint my workshop walls white. This does help a lot. Dave

Mr.T - you may have to give up on the perfectly round pupil or make them yourself. The eye retailers are giving the customers what they want which is realism. Eye pupils are rarely round in the real world. Dave

LimpNoodle - I really like the threaded rod solution - clever. Dave

It doesn't need to be direct sunlight, a cloudy day will work, just expose longer (the lure). Dave

I only use a desk top/laptop and I find the site unuseable. I can zoom the page to a level that is readable, but then I cannot turn the pages. It is all just too slow and inconvenient. The idea is really good and I like the content, it just needs a better vehicle to carry it. Dave

Jonister - Questioning the UV light, obvious but I never thought of that. An easy one to test; Double the distance to the lamp and also cook one outdoors using natural UV. Compare all three. Dave

I have never had this problem because I drill all my holes before I even carve the shapes. If I had to drill with this problem, here is a couple of ideas that I would be trying: 1 - A little local heat might soften the coating enough to allow it to cut. 2 - same idea as (1), by heating the drill bit, but not enough to affect the temper. 3 - drill a smaller hole and use a narrow drum sander bit or end mill bit to open up the surface hole until I can get the full size bit in there. Obviously, such ideas need to be tested on scrap or rejects. Dave

That looks like a very fancy mold box. A frame for pouring your own molds, as you have. Some people use Lego bricks, sheets of plastic taped together, polythene food boxes, wooden frames screwed together. It is a very nice tool to have, but I prefer to have the flexibility to vary my mold size as required. Dave

It must have been a real tough decision to step back. Mike put so much effort into this venture, and I am sure that in a better fiscal climate, the business would have been a huge success. Dave

Jonister - There is definitely something wrong going on here, because there is no way that Mark could be so far out in his assessment, AND I DO have confidence in your assessment too. The best that we can hope for is that yours is a bad batch and the product is inherently a good one. Definitely contact Solarez and link this discussion for reference to other peoples thoughts and opinions. Dave