DeHeron

Thanks everybody for all the cool info.I have been very interested in "crank" history lately.I have a question..I am trying to figure out the Big B. Is this basicly a BB3 ? the way it was first made? It also seems that there were different tail diameters thru the years making it somewhat confusing . I am also thinking that the older ones were not labeled. A skinny tail on a BB3 can look similiar to a KB3. I have seen one Bagley cut thru were the tail wire ran to the back of the lip with a "J" bend for the lip to snap lock into. On todays terms they definetly were not made well..but the fish liked em. There is something about them even today that the big fish love. They were under weighted becoming unstable at high speed but this high bouancy made it come thru timber so well. With the older rods and reels back then they were hard to cast in the wind and the plastic cranks became the rage. I am glad to see Bagley finally getting some recognition. This time frame is really when bass fishing as we know it began. I have met the man that gave Omori the Bagley baits but I was not in the boat the day of the Classic.

I don't think it would cause it to hunt. It would just make it easier to start cranking. Just wondering if it was ever anybodys intent to purposely tilt the lip. Can it be advantagious? Or is it or was it allways just poor quality.Maybe you can get more of a shake. If you don't move the weight forward on a zero degree lip the lip acts like a surfboard. The ones I have made with the weight forward got way to tite for my taste. Not a big fan of the 0 degree lip. But Mark I see what you are saying,that's not a bad idea and it would be easy to do. I'll try anything once and sometimes twice.

:?Hmm...On an old diver with 0 degree lip angle.. and you wanted the weight to stay rearward. Would it have been advantagious to tilt the lip to one side so there is allways a leading edge in the water for takeoff. I have a few were you have to shake your line to get the lip down.

I don't know... but I would think it was never any bait manufactures intent to install the lip crooked. Brass line ties allowed for easy tuning. Bass Tackle was just taking off and we were not so anal about everything being straight.But if you can't build a new one, improve the old one. However there may actually be something to this. Take a car with a front end allignment problem and correct it by just using the steering wheel...now throw in a rear flat tire and you really have something! I hope this isn't true.Think of all the time I wasted eye balling my lips! While I am rambling on..somebody mentioned hunting. I get those every now and then but I get more that I would say just wander. I think I know what causes it but what I don't know is what is causing the bait that every now and then "skips". It's like about every 3 or 4 ft. the bait will just skip a beat. Has anybody seen this? I am thinking it has something to do with bill width and angle...maybe just a little too much resistence from the lip? Borderline weight..Borderline Lip? Maybe I just need a timing light!

I have forgotten everything about color but you can ponder a few things. First..get a color wheel. Browns can be made by using the opposite color. This can be good for darkening. A brown on the yellow side will be warm and from the red side will look cold or harder. This I think would be better than say..using black. So I guess I am saying you can fade with color, transparent paint,multiple strokes. My first baits were white with a grey back and black top. I don't know how long I cursed but it was a long time. I got the feel for overspray and how to get a nice blend. You know what? My airbrushing still sucks.

Thanks McDano and Blades..that is some helpful imformation. Still trying to get my head around the chemical situation, I have spent so much time on size,shape,weight,lip,etc...I have been fooling around for some time now but it really did not all fall together until a couple of years ago..(slow learner). So now I am focussing more on finishing out my investment in time, properly! This can make the work all worth while!

I would definately like to try that Ceramiclear. I was wondering if the auto clear is a name brand or a reference to any two-part urethane used in auto painting. Lastly, can someone recomend a clear coat to go over laquer paint to protect it from the urethane top coat. I have not switched over to acrylic yet and have lots of laquer paint. And I would like to use up some air dry urethane. I am guessing just any acrylic clear?

Nice paint job!.. OK..I am a little weird but the cb50 has a hole in the lip? I have seen this a while back in Japanese Re-do's but I think everybody came to the concensus that it did not make any difference. Hard to beleive LC would have a mould like that.

Wow..thanks! That is pretty cool. I had no idea that was going on. I might actually try it. Repaints are not high on my list but I am allways corking off on something!

Coke or Arm&Hammer? I thought you mite know the secret solution? I have seen pictures of a clear... yellowy substance but still know not thou name. Come to think of it..It looked more like a Corona. Maybe it was..no I won't go there.

No I don't. But thanks for mentioning Seiji. I have been trying to come up with that name since I ran across that site a month ago, and then could not find it again. It has been driving me kookoo.

According to Ichiban Tackle..Daiwa TD Minnow early 80's. I would of never got this one right.

If I set a bill first I want to mask off just to keep my nasty fingers off of the bill especially when epoxying. I have two methods. The first is time consuming. Tape the outer portion of the lip first..this will stay on till the finish. Mask off the very small remaining portion. This area will be pulled and replaced after each time the area gets painted. Pull the tape when the paint is wet. Before clear coat place the small area of masking just outside the paint line so the clear comes out just over the paint. Peel the tape while the clear coat is wet. Wipe off the tape with a Q-tip before you pull the tape and hold the tail down while you do so. The second is a old modlers trick. Mask off starting at your paint line first then start wraping building up layers gradually working out away from your paint line. Gradually means about 1/64th of an inch. The more the better.It will look like a beehive when your done. This can stay on the whole time and even thou it sounds stupid it works great! It takes a lot of tape. I hope this helps . I hate doing it but sometimes it's necessary.

I have noticed the tendency for the bills to be about 1/8" less in width than the widest part of the body. I am going to put the bill closer to 30 degrees..I think this will get it rocking again. Not that the larger baits don't run but there just not crisp. This has been a typical complaint on the B3 that you had to crank down on them to get them going, wich has been contributed to them being under weighted. I guess my question in general was; Is there an inherent problem upscaling baits? If I had started with the larger version first then I could have done the smaller version with the same lip angle and tweaked out the weight. For some reason the bill angle on the smaller bait is not working as good on the upscaled bait. Not that both bill angles have to be the same..but it was my objective. I will try to get some pics.

I have been taking a break from flatsides and playing around with round rolly polly's and B3 types. I never used these as a kid(dont laugh) so I have also been getting a history lesson.The outcomes have been good on the smaller baits that are around 2". When I go up to a 3" bait the actions just stay slugish no matter what I do. Is it just relative..being the larger bait just looks slower?...Less ballast and you get a wake bait. Larger bills just hang the bait up and keep it from wobbling. It has to be the bill angle or weight placement. However the bills on the Bag. B2 and B3 are Identical. Allthou in theory I think the B3 lip should be a tad longer. The bill that is different is the B1 wich has less of an angle because I am guessing the 45 degree area was too much. Any light on the subject would be appreciated. One other thing.....What do you think the primary action should be on a square bill? Waggle,Roll,or both? To my eye the B3 looks like all roll with the roll inducing some waggle. Any baits prior to the B3? It looks like the most copied bait in the world.

Dang..what did you go and do that for? I'll never quit....yep..here comes the bait monkey.

Wow!...Thanks for the great replies. It is making more sense to me know. Thank You.

I have ben fooling around with square bills and fat wobblers. Upon scouring the internet looking at designs I came across the Megabass Z Crank; blue label and red label. After some e-mails to Japan I was told that the blue label was balsa and the red label was probably cedar. The size and weights on the finished cranks are the same. I have never made baits that were not balsa but I know the cedar has to be heavier. So the ballast is lighter in the cedar bait. I am concluding that I can take a balsa bait and duplicate it in cedar by subtracting the additional weight of the cedar from the original ballast,and achieve similiar results. What do you think? Heavier..less bouyant cedar takes less weight to stabilize. Lighter..more bouyant balsa takes more weight to stabilize. Where does a plastic bait fit in this weight,bouyancy thing?

After rough out with the Dremel drum sander, I finish all the cuves by hand. I have a series of pvc,copper and aluminum tubes that cover 1/4 to 2" radius. Rough sand paper and some spray adhesive. This has been a good option for those of us not manufacturing and not using power tools. The tubes can be split in half or quartered.

Do what Rollo said..use the Titebond Glue. Add some Gesso to your paint to help along the cracking. The amount of Gesso will control the crackle pattern.

I could use some help also. This was the first topwater I tried. I bumped the lenght of mine to 4 1/2 ". I beleive they have the wooden sammy at a weight of 9gms? I am allready up to about 16 gms. to get close to what I am looking for...wich I do not understand even thou I am a half inch longer. I am guessing it is a fine line on weight placement. Too far forward the bait glides forever on pause and with the weight too far back you can allmost get the bait to spin 360 deg. Any suggestions ?