Vodkaman

I am not sure what you mean by pressure casting. It seems to me that you only have a short working time, and so mixing such a volume for a pressure pot would require a lot of molds. My resin/Mbs experience was with regular resin, the kind used in fiberglass. This resin has a Specific Gravity (SG) of 1.2 (water SG=1.0). This means that the amount of MB's to get a body SG of 0.65 - 0.7 is huge, and the mix is more a paste about the consistency of English mustard. The effort to mix in the MB's means that there will be air, but the air cannot rise due to the thickness of the paste. I removed the larger air bubbles, by spreading the paste thin up the side of the mixing container with a knife. Obviously a paste cannot be poured. So I injected with a cheap ($1) cake icing syringe. This worked very well. With a good cleaning strategy, the syringe will perform hundreds of injections. The results were very good. There will be the occasional one or two bubbles at the surface, but you can fix a dozen lures at a time with a thumb size mix of bondo. As for your 'fisheye' epoxy problem. This is probably caused by contaminants from the resin. The casts should be kept for seven days to fully cure and then scrubbed in warm, soapy water. This should eliminate the problem. Dave

A thing of beauty. A trip to Paris to buy the shoes, I think. Dave

I agree with Travis; This thread is about the scale pattern method that you shared. The result should be posted in THIS thread. Dave

It gives us all confidence in the product when someone at the company actually reads the emails, understands the questions and gives a solid reply. Dave

JR - when I steal a day off, I am too tired to do anything. My best plan is to nail all the jobs and get some serious time off. I am easing my way back in with this bluegill project, as it does not require a workshop. If the mold works, this will provide enough incentive to go to the piranha ponds to try them out. Also a chance to break in my new Hero4 Black. Dave

Jr - just not possible: Currently designing a steering damping system for 3 & 5-seater. Next, an assembly/drill jig for the roof structure for 3-seater. Next, a roof inner panel for the new 5-seater. Sill panel for 5-seater. Folding spare seat assembly for 5-seater. Panel attachments for entire vehicle. Invent 4-bar hinge system for rear access door. The jobs just keep mounting up. After my immediate work list is completed, there will be a lot more jig design to be done, as we need to ramp up production from one-off prototyping, to 10,000 units per year, possibly more. And, after these two vehicles, there are three more in the pipeline. I will also be required to design a packaging system to maximize the container space, then design jigs for unit assembly in Philippines. It was probably a bad idea renting the workshop space, as I am not going to get to use it for at least another year. Still awaiting delivery of my mother mold from the rapid prototype printers. I found some plaster for 50c per kilogram and started doing mixing tests yesterday. I don't have a drying box, so I am also experimenting with microwave drying, seems to work quite well. Dave

R&L - you would have been better off not posting. So I am going to take my own advice and not spoil this thread with any more sour words. Congratulations and well done to all the winners. DAve

Travis - I guess the clue was in the title Dave

I stripped the bailarm assembly on my cheap real. I re-attached the arm without the bail and any other bits. the arm could rotate fairly easily even with the screw tightened. What I found was, that the springy bail wire was formed too wide, and was rotating the arm retainer off centre, which was causing the arm to rub and so the spring was unable to overcome this additional friction to close the bail. I stripped the arm once more and bent the spring bail wire by hand, until it aligned correctly with its mounting. Now the bail closes correctly, even with all the screws tightened. Dave

Dave - with lure resin, it is all about the density, as most lure designers pour solid bodies. The SG (Specific Gravity) of regular resin is around 1.2 so except for very fast sinking lures, it is not of much use. Regular resin can be lightened by the addition of silica micro-balloons, but this would not work with your new product, as the main point is that it is clear. Can you tell us the SG of the product. If it is below 0.8 I would be interested in testing the resin. If it is denser than 1.0 it may still have an application for pouring lips, but resin is brittle and this is not a good quality. Dave

This is how you make it work in the home. It is OK to think you are the boss, as long as deep down, you know the truth Dave

Bbob - I guess we didn't answer your question, which you patiently asked twice! The hinge on the Roman is a simple twisted 'eye-to-eye' affair. Nothing fancy here. The joint is a rear facing Vee, cut concave on the forward section and convex on the rear section, at a sharper Vee. The angular difference between the front and read Vee determines the angular movement of the lure. The reason for the concave Vee in the front section, is to hide the hinge from view, purely an aesthetic thing. I did some tests with forward and rear facing Vee joints; the rear facing Vee (like the Roman) produces a much more pronounced action. Here is a link to the article about the Roman Autopsy. Dave

Mark - the tow point, regardless of the clip, is where it joins the lip. Even so, the connection does seem rather forward for a deep dive. I think what makes the difference, is the step in the lip. I believe that this increases the power of the driving vortices, like a funnel for an analogy. In my early days, I prototyped lures made of balsa dowel, with the lip glued directly to a chamfered nose. I originally did this purely for simplicity as I was experimenting with various lip shapes. What I found was, that the action (X-ing) was weak. I then cut the lip slot in traditional style, cut about 1/2" back from the nose. The power was greatly increased. From this I concluded that the power comes from the funneling effect between the lip and the belly, similar to the bend in the lip shown above in post No48. On a normal deep diver, this funneling occurs on the wrong side of the tow eye. With the pikey style lip, the power is applied on the correct side of the tow eye, which means the lip can be shorter. Dave

DaleSW - It is a great learning process, so nothing is wasted. Moving the eye out should improve things. If you haven't thrown the 70 deg bait out, try trimming the lip shorter 1mm or 2mm at a time and observe the effects. It should be the same as moving the eye forward. Get the most out of baits that don't work before throwing them out. DAve

Jrav - good post. This over tightening thing has been the same on every reel that I can remember owning. None of them were even close to top of the range. This is not the way that I would have designed the operation. The connection at the other side of the bail arm is fine on my cheepo reel, free running with the screw tight. This should be how it is both sides. The designers are using the screw tension to dampen the close operation. I would have found an internal method to dampen the 'slam shut' of the bail; rubber block or leaf spring or any number of methods. Basically, every reel manufacturer has copied the existing market hardware, instead of tackling the problems and coming up with new and better solutions. Dave

That 3rd pic doesn't look right at all. It looks to me like the spring rod jams between the inner and outer, a prime candidate for wear, were the pin touches the outer. This would cause the pin to extend a little further on the close and also cause the pin to step out over the lip of the outer. whether this causes any problems, you will have to study the operation. This whole assembly could stand a tiny touch of graphite grease, including the pivot end under the cover plate (screw in pic). This looks like poor design to me. I think the original intention was for the end of the slot to limit the pin, NOT the inner and outer walls. Dave

I use floor tile wax as a release agent, only because I have a big tin of it. I apply with a rag and a quick blast with a blow torch to smooth it out. I never had a problem of splitting the parts, but if you forget the release agent, you will have to fight to get your masters back. Dave

Travis - I understand the issues that your afflicted family faces, but the inconvenience will become milder with age. The trick is to practice using your right hand. Eventually you will become fairly ambidextrous. I played cornet for thirty something years, all the fingering is right handed. This basically showed me what was possible. Precision operations, like using scissors gets done left handed. Scissors are right handed, so to cut to a line, you have to hold the scissors to your right and if the tool is molded then they feel funny. For lefties, it is what it is and we just get on with it. In post 25, I meant 'if I lost my left hand' of course. By the way, that exercise in the video was shown to me by a professional cathedral organist. I decided to learn it with my right hand and it took me two years or so. I actually cannot do it with my left. The only other person that I know can do it, is my eldest son, because he is as bloody minded as me and determined not to be out done by his Dad. As for reels, I would master the RH reel in perhaps a couple of trips. At the moment, I swap hands to cast, as it is one of those precision operations, so learning a RH real would be an advantage. Dave

Travis - It is all rather tongue in cheek, sorry about that. Being left handed gives you skills, as you have to adapt to a right hand world. If I ever lost my right hand, apart from scruffy writing for a few weeks, it would hardly make any difference to my life, compared to a right handed person losing their good hand. Here is a video of my bad hand dexterity. Try it. Dave

Reeling right handed, pfft, no way. I am a lefty and I remember that it took a long time to get used to and so I am not changing now Dave

Thanks Travis, good write-up. Dave

Steady now, don't push it! Dave

Sure doesn't look very professional. Dave

I agree, grind 'em out and then polish. Dave

I agree, manual close just causes problems eventually. Dave