Vodkaman

Ravenlures - If you are talking about the duplicator cutter then saw every time for me. Dave

I built my two duplicator machines with 18mm plywood box. I cut the sides using a 1/4" ply template and router to finish profile. Drilling the bearing holes through the clamped sides on a drill press should have been accurate enough, but I was disappointed to discover errors. I solved errors by mounting all bearings on one side on separate plates that can be fine adjusted. Alignment is everything on these machines. Dave

Something that was mentioned recently; analyze your own fishing situation and come up with a solution to your particular fish catching problem. Dave

I know exactly what you are thinking as I went through the exact same process. The idea is that if the master is larger then the duplicate will be more accurate, and yes this would be true, but only in the one axis. The main cause for concern for duplicators is the X-axis step which of course will not change. The problem that you are introducing is the carving of the master and getting it right first time. A 1:1 ration master will always be correct, the thing is in your hand and you can see it. If the master is oversize then you will always be guessing at the shape, you will never be in control of the final shape. Personally, I decided that it was a bad idea. You may want to try it once just to see, but to be able to compare results, you are still going to have to build a 1:1 master. Dave

Also remember, hunting is not an all or nothing thing. Hunting is speed related. Most shallow lures will hunt, the secret is achieving the hunt at a slow enough speed within your operating envelope. Dave

The lack of wiggle action could be down to the width of the lip, possibly too narrow. The speed of the wiggle is proportional to the width, but if the cadence is too fast then the long body can't move/change direction fast enough, leaving you with an action that is hardly visible. This is all part of the prototyping procedure. Try out different lips, soft glued in for easy exchange. Dave

It is never just one feature that makes a lure successful, but we all know that every lure has its day. One would have to say that in the hands of the right angler that any lure could be a magnet. If we can put something special into a lure then that would improve everyone's game including the master and the novice. To me, that special ingredient is hunting, the change of direction. It is 100M years of Darwinian science, a change of direction triggers the attack. Dave

That action sounds good to me. I would have expected people to pay double or more. I suggest that you make a few more and prove them with monster pics. Dave

Thanks Rich, most generous with your accolades. Not entirely selfless actions, the feedback is going to help me enormously in my own endeavours. I believe that technology is going to play a huge part in the future of lure building. Yes, I can appreciate the skills in carving a chunk of wood and ending up with a fish magnet masterpiece. What I do with CAD is fairly basic. Believe me, there are true CAD artists out there, they are called stylists for good reason. I hope the CAD library comes to reality, but it may be a few years too soon. I would like to put together some different style baits and sizes for the library and so will accept contributions of data by PM, whether you have 3D printing, CAD or not. Dave

Wayne - I have just done some preliminary work on a 9" lure for this project, and created a lure length of 230mm. Obviously the lure shape does not scale up the same otherwise you would need a bionic arm to throw it. So, I would like some numbers from you to be able to continue: Max thickness Max depth Weight of lure Does it have a lip, if so what thickness, what material. How many hooks. hook and split ring weight. Hanger wire diameter. A few pics would be useful, you can pm me with the information. Dave

I have completed the design. I will also provide a lip template but the lip is only a guess and will need prototyping to find the best size. The body is 65mm (2.5"), wall thickness 2.5mm. The ballast is 2x 1/4" steel balls. The balls are free moving and so the lure should throw well. Material is PLA, lip 2mm polycarbonate. I had to invent a new type of eye for this lure, to enable the sliding weight design. See what you think. Does it work, who knows. Someone will have to 3D print and test. STP file available, PM me email address for file. Dave

Good luck, it is a great project. Dave

I have just posted up a 3D design free offer. Please get involved. Dave

Acrylic is brittle compared to poly. Dave

I am thinking of starting the ball rolling with a basic hard-bait body design service for 3D printing, providing the file type necessary for a lure body to be printed to your design within my parameters. The ultimate aim is for the TU management to introduce a section were these files can be uploaded and downloaded free of charge. Other CAD designers can contribute their models to the library, again, free of charge. I have not spoken to the TU management (sorry) but at the start I am prepared to run this by email as I am already doing with my spreadsheet tools. NOTE – this service is of no use to me as I do not own a 3D printer. I am offering my services to those who own 3D printers but are challenged on the CAD side of things. I plan to offer a basic body shape, but there will be some 20+ parameters/dimensions that you can request changes to. I have produced the basic outer shape, now I want suggestions for what you want on the inside for mounting eyes and ballast. This image demonstrates all the numbers that can be modified, so within the basic shape, there is an infinite dimensional possibility. What I want from you now; what do you want on the inside, how do you want the eye provisions to be, ballast mounting, sliding ballast, and so on. Molded ballast, standard ball bearings, etc. Anything is possible at the start of this project. Now is the time to get involved. I plan on putting the design work in early and then it will simply be a case of modifying numbers. If you get involved now, you will have a hand in defining the body structure and even shape. You can provide me with photos of hand drawn sketches with a few dimensions. I am sure that we can come up with a useful product/service. I do not plan on spending thousands of hours on this, so if you want input, get it in early. Dave

I have built about 20 or more 4-piece swim-baits, purely for experimental and investigation purposes. I do not consider myself a swim-bait expert but I have learned a lot and all my baits swam. A swim-bait requires vortices to provide the snaking ‘S’ type motion. For a lipless bait this is achieved with a more bulbous nose, perhaps a flat-ish forehead. Your torpedo nose section is generating nothing but laminar flow and so I see your lure swimming like a stick. Swim-baits need to be slight float or slow sinking. Hinges MUST be totally resistance free, the slightest rub will kill your lure action. Each segment needs to be weighted to float or sink horizontal. Failure will add load friction to the hinges. The front section needs to be longer than the rest. This is flexible but I would start with a 5:3:3 ratio. If it looks right then it probably is right. Your body looks very pretty, but you are doing WAY too much work for a first prototype. Keep it simple, the last thing you need to be doing is carving detail like the tail, gills, scales or painting. Once you have a working prototype then you can start work on the aesthetics. If you want a tail, fit a piece of polycarbonate or Perspex. ALWAYS test with hooks fitted. This should be enough information to get you to a swimmer. Dave

Welcome to TU. I suggest that you keep your failures until you figure out what went wrong. It is the failures that we learn from Dave

No problem Jason. The problem for me is that I have been doing electronics as a hobby on and off for some 40 years and have never had to communicate with anyone on the subject before. Stuff that is plainly obvious to me can be VERY confusing to an electronic novice. I suggest that you and anyone else just keep badgering me until I manage to explain it to your satisfaction. A useful tool would be a testing meter, you will be able to physically test what is connected to what when the switch is operated. Dave

Here is the same wiring diagram but showing the pin connectiond for the DPDT rocker switch and the micro swithes. Dave

I am drawing you a new diagram. Wait 10 minutes Dave

Look at the DPDT switch diagram to see which pin is which. For the micro switch, the diagram is on the side. Use COM and NC. Dave

Fishordie79 - I do not paint, foil or finish lures. The most I would do is to paint the lures white to help video visibility. Dave

PWM pos and neg go to 3 & 4. The DPDT switch connects to 1 & 2 or 5 & 6 depending on switch position. Dave

I guess if I was in the lure business, mine would be labelled 'NOT made in USA'. Dave

I agree, I just wanted to point out what would be required should this project be taken commercial. You could not sell this product in USA other than in a kit form. To totally protect the novice user would take electronics. This is why you will never find anyone to publish plans for such a machine, the USA suit mentality makes such help way too risky. Here is the micro switch configuration for you. Dave