mark poulson

Can I use a polyester resin, like Solarez or surfboard fiberglass resin, to make molds for lead? I know it works really well for molds for soft plastics, but the temps in pouring lead are much higher, so I thought I'd ask first, before winding up with molten lead all over the place.

I keep waiting for someone to post that they have made it as a small lure maker, and how they did it..... Seriously, the common thread in all these posts, from guys here on TU who've doing this a long time, seems to be "don't quit your day job". I don't think this is meant to discourage you, just to help you avoid having your heart broken, and your bank account drained.

Barry, With wood baits it is critical that the wood be sealed before you paint, so any penetration of the top coat and paint doesn't allow water to reach the wood itself, or it will cause the wood to expand and ruin your paint job. The runny super glue will penetrate to give you a more penetrating seal to start with. I use two coats, applied by dripping it onto the bait and spreading it with my plastic-covered finger. Move fast, because that stuff likes to bond quickly. Acetone is a solvent if you err. I would suggest a dip in Solarez as the next coat, to give you a really hard, strong, smooth surface to paint over. It is a polyester resin, and designed to expand and contract when exposed to the sun on a surfboard. Scuff it with a scotchbrite pad or 400 grit wet and dry sandpaper before you begin painting, to give your paint something to bite into. After that, you can paint your lure and top coat it with a decoupage epoxy, like Etex, which is also designed to move with the wood's expansion and contraction. D2T is a glue, first and foremost. The thing it is designed to do gives it limitations when we use it on wood baits. It is designed to be strong and rigid when it fills a small void between two surfaces, not to be applied as a film over large areas. I've found it works great on small wood cranks, but, as the bait gets bigger, the expansion and contraction of the wood gets larger and D2T will crack just from thermal expansion. Plus it will crack if it is spread over a large surface, like the face of a swimbait, when it hits a rock, because it is so rigid it becomes brittle. Etex will dent, but not crack. I'm no epoxy chemist, so what I know is just from my own experience. I'm a carpenter with his brains kicked in, but I did sleep in a Motel 6 last night.

Building lures for a living takes the fun out of it.

Can you post a picture?

I haven't had time to pour again since I got the injector. It's sitting on my desk, trying to will me out into that hot garage. Hahaha

But then we'd have to deal with the whole rust issue....

Solarez doesn't crack, but it chips, so you have to do repairs to it as well.

Well done. I like how you used a swivel for your live center. Simple and clean build.

A deeper bite would definitely help.

I use the excess D2T from when I seat my bills to seal the PVC and make it a little smoother. I dip my finger in clean alcohol, and spread the squeeze out from when the bill is pushed into place over the rest of the bait. And I use whatever's left on my mixing tape to finish the job. The alcohol thins the epoxy, and it soaks into the PVC. Once it's hardened, I can sand it if I want to, or just begin painting with my base coat. An imperfections that are left are filled with by paint, and/or by the top coat.

If I were going to make resin baits, I'd first cut some blocks of the wood whose buoyancy I wanted to match, and then make several molds the size of those blocks. I could then add resin and microballoons until I achieved the same weight for the mixture as the original wood block weighed. Once I had the proper ratio, by weight, for the two parts, I'd mark it on the wood block sample, so I could duplicate that buoyancy when I made a bait, no matter what it's shape or size, by simply duplicating the mixture again, by weight. If you have several different woods you use, you can do multiple samples, so you'll know what mixture to use when you're ready to pour.

If dipping is too strong and affects the foil, you might try shooting some clean acetone with an air brush onto the baits to clean them instead of dipping, so you can really control how much goes on. All you're trying to do is freshen the surface so paint will stick.

John, I hate to make you go through that much work on my behalf. Obviously, my computer skills, shall we say, limited. I get the idea from the photos you posted.

That is neat, and should be a great tool if you're designing cranks. To be able to see how small tweaks affect a lure without having to pond test it would sure save a lot of time.

Thanks John, but none of the videos work for me there. The site, pictures, and even the boxing ad video load and run fine, but I just get the rotating loading wheel in the center of the video screen.

My injector came with a black O ring on the nozzle, and an orange O ring on the piston. I asked Sarah at Bass Tackle if I could use spray Pam. She told me to give the spray Pam a try, and she would send me another O ring if the first one failed. Great customer service.

I saw that, too, but I figured it was open to show the gearing for the video. A neat way to redesign a spinning reel. Better, I don't know, but neat anyway.

Have you guys seen this: http://www.bassfan.com/docktalk.asp?id=12022#12022 The engineering is slick.

I would do test with a fog coat, to see how those paints look thinly applied. If you have to thin them to make them "transparent', use their reducer, so you don't lose film strength. If you clean the baits by dipping them quickly in clean acetone, you won't need a primer, but you have to be quick, so you don't remove the holographic film. Good luck, and post your results in the Hard Baits Gallery.

That's what I've used in the past. I just wondered if there was something different I should be using.

I hope they're not made by Morton Thiokol.

The site came up, but the video wouldn't load for me.

The larger frog hooks I've found are also longer, and don't really have that much more gap. I'll play around with them, though. I drilled a through hole side to side, just above the channel the hook shanks lay in when the hooks are in the up position, and then used a wire with a hooked end to draw the skirt through.

You can use one longer strip of 1 1/2" blue masking tape to cover the main part of the bill, right up to the nose, and then a thinner strip on each side to cover the little triangles of uncovered bill that are left. Once you've done it a few time, it takes about a minute and a half. Don't be afraid to reset the tape if it doesn't go on right the first few times, and you can use a pair of scissors to trim any excess after it's applied, so it doesn't get in the way of your painting.