Vodkaman

I am encouraged that so many of you are getting good service. I bought a new MW two weeks ago, I only use it for making coffee for now. Hoping to have more use for it later. DAve

Ben - a bit harsh on yourself, no need. Just straightening out the facts. It was some interesting reading too. DAve

In an interview, Kurita does talk about catching an 18Lb bass on the Roman, but states that the joint world record was caught on live bluegill. He is officially tied for the record. You have to beat the record by 2 ounces to qualify for a clear record. Seems a bit strange to me. If you catch a bass 2 ounces under, does that count also, it should. Dave

Not sure what you mean by puffy stuff, the 26Lb foam expands 2:1. For a 1.9Lb pak costs around $30 (Google 'foam-it')and will deliver 130cu-ins of foam. For a 6" trout lure, that should deliver 25 - 30 bodies, so around $1 per lure. Foam problems - you have to judge the amount, to account for the expansion. Too much and you may have pressure build up if your venting is not good enough. You will probably need to experiment with the venting to get it right or ask for advice. Mixing is critical. For consistency, you have to mix the same each time. I would suggest counting the stirring strokes. Temperature affects things too, so best try and keep this consistent, or make notes of the temperature and effect for future reference, in fact, keep notes of the whole process at least until you have it all sorted out. There is a learning curve when using foam for the first time. Lots of reading, try to anticipate the problems and don't give up too soon. Dave

I have seen foam advertised as 26Lb. Even this density is only SG 0.41 which is compatible with cedar and slightly lighter than pine. The hardness of 26Lb must be amazing. My choice would be the same as Travis, 16Lb foam. This is an SG 0.25 which is between a heavy balsa and a basswood. Perhaps a bit light for a swimbait, requiring rather a lot of ballast, but still my choice, I can live with all that lovely stability. Dave

You have two choices of materials; resin with micro-balloons or foam. The resin, even with micro-balloons to lighten it, still has a specific gravity of at least 0.7 which leaves you very little ballast room. Without sufficient ballast, stability will be a problem. The heaviest expanding foam that you can find will give you rock hard material and still be light enough for plenty of ballast, but it is harder to work with. The mold will need to be RTV. You will also have to figure out the ballast all over again. Dave

I started in this lure design game because I begrudged paying $8 for spoon lure, so there is no chance of finding a Roman in my tackle box and I am sure that most of you feel the same. But, to build and finish a quality swimbait is a lengthy process requiring many craftsman standard skills, knowledge and experience. What is the going rate for these skills, $25ph $50ph. To this has to be added the cost of tools, electricity, housing, tax and all the other overheads. You should work back from how much you sell your quality swimbait lure and find out what you are charging per hour. Most will discover that they are selling themselves short, EXTREMELY short. We are craftsmen trying to compete with cheap mass produced plastic moldings. There are plenty of customers out there who earn a decent wage and would not have a problem shelling out the right money for a quality product - just not me. Let the Chinese cater for the masses, we should be looking after the niche markets, just like Roman is doing. Dave

The duplicator that I built left ridges that needed dealing with. I reduced them with a flapwheel attachment on a drill press. I did not find it necessary to go for a perfectly smooth finish, as the seal and base coats take care of any irregularities. Dave

Roman Swimbait Lure Although a very interesting article, there was lots of critical information that was not gathered, or given that the authors are professional, not published: Wood type/ density of the main body and the cores. The weight of the individual weights or even total ballast weight. Wire diameter and material. Of course, this information could be construed as industrial sabotage, giving too much information to the copyist. If I were hired to do a full analysis of such a bait, I would first make close up video of its action at different speeds, jerks and all the rest. Also I would determine the fall rate and the resting attitude on the video. In the lab, I would calculate the specific gravity (SG) of the lure. This would be all the information that I would require to reproduce the lure. To satisfy the paid autopsy, after a full dimensional analysis, I would then cut the hinge and measure the individual SG of each section, only then would I start cutting into the lure to determine the internals. I would measure the SG of the timbers and determine all the materials. To complete the investigation, I would create a CAD model, which would allow me to modify the ballast geometry to see the effect on the overall balance. This would give me a clue to the design process that arrived at the final solution. Of course, if you were to hire me for such an exercise, the cost of the bait would be insignificant compared with my fee. My thoughts on the bait's construction - a simple design, well balanced, but nothing special compared with what bait designers are doing on TU. The body is probably CNC machined in two halves. This is a slow and expensive process which pushes the price of the product up. Without multiple machines, the production rate is going to be low and so to be able to pay the small work force and make a profit, I would say that the price is about right. I stated in the fourth paragraph all the information that I would need; the material that I made the lure from would not matter. All I would have to achieve would be the overall SG, this would give me the sink rate. The distribution of lead would give me the float angle and this I can determine myself. From the work that I have done on swimbait prototypes, the lead has to be distributed throughout all the sections, such that all have the same SG with hardware fitted and all float level. The ballast is fitted evenly, but my findings, as to the actual distribution of the lead; is that it is not critical. The ballast is fitted low for stability. The shape of the head I believe to be critical, as this is the part that sets up the vortices that power the action of the lure. I design mine with a low tow eye and a blocky forehead to achieve the action. A high eye position with blocky throat design would likely achieve the same, but I need to do a lot more testing. I made a good start with my swimbait investigations but realize that I have a lot more to do. The Roman design has an open mouth. This is a terrific vortex generator solution, but nothing new. Dave

'Sinks like a rock' is the first clue. What material are you making the body from? Obviously too much ballast weight. Do a Google search on 'Cutting open the 400 dollar Roman'. This is a TackleTour autopsie of the bait. It will help you with the positioning of the ballast. An even spread and low down is what I see. As for the amount of ballast weight, there are a number of methods; from taping pieces of lead to the body and doing float tests, to calculating the ballast which is my preferred method (TU search Archimedes dunk test). Dave

For hand carving, as Travis stated, drill the square blanks. Using a pin alignment method on a drill press, the hole alignment will be perfect every time. For machine carved blanks, pre-drilling is not possible. But, every blank is the same size and you can use this fact. I make a Bondo mold for each end, using PVC pipe as a mold housing and back drilling the hole guides. If the holes are not perfect, you can sand the base to correct the angle. The mold jigs last well, but if the holes start to get sloppy, you can drill out and fit SS tubes as guides. I have never felt the need to do this, but it is always good to have a plan B. Dave

Actually 18 months is pretty good in my experience. Microwaves over here have not lasted much more than 6 months. What really kills the microwave, is leaving it running empty, it literally cooks itself. When I got married first time, we bought a microwave, it was actually digital, even in those early days. Wife retired the micro after 30 years of service, not because it was broke, but she was sick of the sight of it. Modern microwaves are designed to break, just like the indestructible CD's, that now are more sensitive than the vinyl discs that they replaced. Dave

So real. Thanks for posting. Dave

Even back in the 80's, a pre-season game was always played in London Wembley stadium. Yes, there has always been talk of a franchise. But, that team would have to be formed of US players because until a high percentage of schools take on the game, we will never have a big enough platform of players to choose the best from. You have proved that a game can be introduced to a professional level, with soccer, but the game grew from school level, giving a good ground base. A sprinkling of retired UK professionals to raise the quality and the game is thriving. Dave

Plumber's tape might solve this leaky problem.Dave

I would not recognize any NFL names of today, but I used to follow the game back in the 80's and 90's. The obvious names that spring to mind are Joe Montana and Jerry Rice at the 49ers. Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith of the Cowboys. Dan Marino was a joy to watch, John Elway too. UK didn't show that much NFL, and it tended to be the showcase stuff, so there are a lot of stars of that era that I probably never saw. UK sports fans tend to scoff at NFL, with all the padding and the stopping and starting. But this is because they never took time out to look at the game properly. This from the people that brought the world test cricket, Pfft! I like Australian rules too. Dave

Lilo - my thoughts are; hard baits are made out of all kinds of materials, from broom handles to plastic cladding, cigarette lighters and wine corks. There should be no limit to the material or what it was originally intended. This is just my opinion. This is Kurt's game and his opinion is what counts. Dave

Very good idea. This idea actually opens up more ideas; from modifying the original finger lengths. Even cutting off the original fingers and fitting some kind of clip, to fit custom made finger plates. The next step would be to make the spring hinge from folded strip of polycarbonate, with clip on finger plates, or forget the clip-on thing and make one piece for each pattern. Also eyes, gill plates etc. Dave

I am interested in the bait, because in my teens I did a lot of eel fishing in a pond next to the river Mersey. The pond was very soft mud and the worms (real) would get buried and the eel count was low. Mom (nurse) got me a hypodermic needle which I used to inject an air bubble one end of the worm. My catch rate increased dramatically. I will probably take on this project if I ever get some plastisol over here. I am thinking a blade insert, weld seal the plastic and inject air from the end. This will be self sealing. Dave

This would be a great prototyping exercise. If the swim is not right on proto1, you can determine the correct modification before creating the mold for proto2. Looking forward to the results and the pics. Dave

Dieter - do not let it bother you. We are happy that you are still around and will post when you are ready and feel the time is right. DAve

JR - I found 'Riverside Lures 6" Floating Air Worm'. It looks like it is discontinued though. It would be a nice challenge to make a plaster mold for this type of worm, with an insert to create the pocket. Leaving a rib of material around the pocket, to seal with a hot knife. Well worth a drill press. Dave

A lot was written on this subject in the past. I did a search on 'presto mixer motor' and came up with 11 results. Not all applicable, but lots of good information. A thread titled 'presto pot questions?' is a good place to start. Dave

I would be using 1/16" diameter twisted brass. Because the eye passes through the lip, there is no pull-out forces on the eye wire, so the wire does not need to insert any deeper than the lip. All the eye forces are taken by the glued contact of the lip to the body. This is going to be an interesting study on proportions. You have accurately re-sized everything in proportion, but not everything is directly proportional. For example, everything that relates to volume, such as the final weight, ballast weight etc. The ratio will increase by the length proportion cubed. In this case the length proportion is from 8" to 16" = 2. The ballast = original x 2 cubed = 8x. Anything to do with area, the ratio is squared, so the amount of paint and top coat required will be 4x the original. The big question is, what about the lip, is it an area thing or is it a length thing. If it is area, then you have increased the area by 4x instead of the required 2x. Personally, I believe it is a lip length thing so you are good to go. Dave

I would love to see some pics posted here, also maybe a sketch of what you have in mind. Dave