mark poulson

You can use any water-proof epoxy. I used cotter keys pushed through egg sinkers for my belly weights for years, and never had one fail. If you're just putting ballast in without a hook hanger, there is no strain on it, so you can add a couple of drops of crazy glue to hold it in, and fill the left-over hole with bondo, which sands easily. You can reduce hook rash by turning your belly hook hanger cross-ways, so the tines of your treble hooks straddle the belly.

Rapala offered a DT20 for a while that was just a DT16 a weight in the bill. I don't know if they still make it.

I do, for several reasons. First, it is thinner, so it doesn't add much weight to a lure. Second, it is crystal clear, so what I paint is what I get. Third, it is strong, and bonds well. I dipped some Predator Baits wiggle wart's that I had painted, including the bills. I've fished several of them really hard, so the plastic on the edge of the bill is scuffed and worn, but the coating the rest of the bill is still bonded well, and the paint on the bill is fine. It does have fumes, which I don't like, but it flashes off really fast (the solvent leaves), and dries hard enough to handle in an hour, if I help the curing with my hair dryer. I do my dipping outside, with good ventilation. If I had to dip and cure inside, I would do in under a kitchen hood (they have explosion-proof motors) that was vented to the outside, to get the fumes out completely. But I would not use the hood in my kitchen!!! I still like Solarez for really quick builds, since I can dip it and cure it in 5 minutes, total, and be ready to fish as soon as it's out of the UV light box. I used Solarez to clear some Poe's deep divers I redid for a friend. Their bills were installed crooked, so I heated the bills and twisted them straight, and then reweighted them (he wanted suspend/slow rise), repainted them, and dipped them in the Solarez because I wanted the resin to reinforce the bills that had been heated and twisted. So far they've held up fine.

Ichthus, That was a great video!

Welcome! I hope you learn as much as I have from TU, and have fun along the way.

I generally make it 1/2" wider than the lure body, so it is 1/4" past on each side. It is a lot easier to narrow a too-wide lip than to widen it after it's installed.

Crab05, There are people here who do it well, but I don't know who. Try typing photo finish in the search bar at the top right. It will give you a good start. There may even be something in the tutorials, but you'll have to search them, too. Another idea would be to check the Hard Baits Gallery for photo finished bait photos, and contact the makers with a personal message to see if they can help you.

I had a friend who did specialized finishes on high end kitchen hoods for a sheet metal shop. He sprayed auto paints. He died of leukemia.

Maybe spray the mold with PAM, or some other release agent.

Ted, When I dip, it stops dripping in 30 seconds, and I can hit it with a hair dryer to speed up the cure as soon as it stops dripping. I dip outside, bring the lure into my open garage, with fan blowing from back to front, and hit it with the hair dryer on low, then back outside for an hour. I can handle it then. If I need to dip inside, I make sure the back door is open and the fan is blowing from behind me, so the fumes are pushed out. I do the same if I dip outside, but have to bring it inside to cure. The fumes are nasty, but they are short lived, and it skins over pretty quickly. When I got lazy and dipped inside without the fan going, I felt the fumes in my eyes when I came back into the house. A full face respirator would be a smart idea. I haven't had a lure collect dust, but I don't machine or sand around wet lures. They "set" so quickly it really hasn't been an issue for me.

I posted this in another thread, but I wanted it to be considered on it's own. Guys, I don't paint wire baits, except to powder coat my jigs in basic colors. But I do make and paint swimbaits and crankbaits, and I've tried just about every type of clear coat to protect my paint jobs. I've found something that is easy to use, goes over water based air brush paints with no problems, and holds up really well. I got some Wiggle Wart knockoff from Predator. and decided to add the same claw paint on the bills as the original. I dipped the painted baits in AC1315, a concrete sealer, and it has held up great to grinding across rocky banks. I'm sure, if I made and painted spinnerbaits, it would let me paint spinnerbaits with my airbrush and Createx paints, if I brushed it onto them, after they were heat set/dried. It is solvent based, so I do my lure dipping outside, but it flashes off really fast, is high in solids so it sets quickly, I use a hair dryer to help it set faster, and I can handle a lure an hour after it's dipped. Just an option to consider. I have no connection to these folks. Someone here at TU suggested trying it, and I've never looked back. http://www.directcolors.com/product/ac-1315-high-gloss-concrete-sealer/

Guys, I don't paint wire baits, except to powder coat my jigs in basic colors. But I do paint crankbaits, and I've found something that is easy to use, goes over water based air brush paints with no problems, and holds up really well. I got some Wiggle Wart knockoff from Predator. and decided to add the same claw paint on the bills as the original. I dipped the painted baits in AC1315, a concrete sealer, and it has held up great to grinding across rocky banks. I'm sure it would let me paint spinnerbaits with my airbrush and Createx paints if I brushed it onto them, after they were heat set/dried. It is solvent based, so I do my lure dipping outside, but it flashes off really fast, is high in solids so it sets quickly, I use a hair dryer to help it set faster, and I can handle a lure an hour after it's dipped. Just an option to consider.

So far, it has not peeled. I fished some wiggle warts and DT16s that I had painted and dipped hard across the rocks for several trips, trying to get deflections, and the AC1315 on the lips has held up fine. I have had other coatings (urethanes) peel, so I have been pleasantly surprised.

Tony, I want one with the swivel coming out of the middle, like where the jig hook shank would normally come out of a football head jig. I want to put it on a jig rig, so it drags beneath the soft plastic that's on the EWG worm hook that is on the same split ring. I'm hoping the football shape will give the soft plastic even more action as I drag it across the bottom.

They are aluminum 8 cavity fat Ika body molds I bought from someone here in the TU classifieds. They don't have the manufs. name on them. i haven't found I need to preheat my molds. In fact, I want the belly color to cool enough to let me put the two halves together without it running. I pour less than half of one side with my contrasting belly color. If it's a two color belly, I pour one, then the other, let it sit for about 30 seconds, until it won't sag when I raise one side, and then put the two halves together and pour the last color. I heat my plastic in NorPro silicone cups, pinch the ends with a chip clip so I have a smaller pour spout, leave my metal coat hanger stirred in the cup once it's heated, so I can stir after three cavities, and the plastic, which starts out at 330 degrees, stays hot enough to pour two 8 cavity molds. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Norpro-Measure-Sir-amp-Pour-2-cup-Silicone-Measuring-NEW-/280625234787? It bonds well enough not to come apart. I found, from pouring three color open pour swimbaits, that it is critical to let the first pour cool enough that it won't just absorb the second color. Having the second color hot (330) creates the bond, at least for me. It probably also helps that the fat Ika is a lot of plastic, so the final pour doesn't cool before it bonds to the belly color. I'm sure every mold is different, but I've done the same type of laminating with my homemade 12 cavity Plaster of Paris Ika mold, and it works, too.

I usually hit both parts of my D2T with my hair dryer in cold weather, so they become more runny and easier to squeeze out and mix. The resin is always thicker than the hardener, at least for me. An associated question. Is there an epoxy that will prevent me from dropping a freshly coated lure onto my garage's carpet strip? Hahaha

Beautiful!

Does anyone pour a football head-shaped drop shot weight, or know of someone who sells them?

If you have a Deps with no soft coating, and want to add it after you've top coated, Performix sell what it calls Liquid Tape. It is a clear spray-on electrical insulation that cures out soft and tough. It makes the baits slightly opaque, just like the original Deps soft coat. It DOES NOT play well with soft bait plastisol, so keep any lures you coat with it away from any soft plastics, and soft plastic swimbaits.

Be forewarned! If coffee had been created on the first day, it would have only take four days to create the world. If bass fishing and lure making had been created on the first day, the rest of the world would never have been finished.

Maybe a good newbie question should include, "Can I find this through the search feature?" That way, we could help them narrow their search, so they don't wind up drowning in past stuff, trying to find their answer. Myself, I don't mind answering a question again that's been asked before. This site is about learning and sharing.

Find a concrete sealer that you can brush on, like AC1315. Do one section at a time. If you have one with the soft coating, I don't know how to deal with that.

I let my injector tip sit in the hot plastic for 20+- seconds to preheat it, then draw and expel some plastic, before refilling the injector and shooting. I do not shoot a lot of big molds at once, so I don't know if that will work for multiple molds, but I works for the six single cavity skirt molds I shoot at the same time, and for the five cavity wooly hawg craw injection mold I made.