mark poulson

Nice job! Do you prime/paint your lead before you put it into your mold?

I've never tried it, so I can't say. I use lead wire, glued into drilled holes, for ballast.

Thanks.

Won't the fish notice that you bent the wire by hand? :O)

Can you use the Twistech to make R bend spinnerbait wire forms?

This is the bait, painted and top coated. I'm playing around with a pumpkinseed color scheme.

Check out the "Why PVC?" sticky at the top of the Hard Baits Forum. Yesterday, I carved, lipped, weighted, test swam, and primed a crankbait. Today I'll finish painting it, and tomorrow I hope to take it for a swim in the CA Delta.

Don't forget hand tools, like rasps, files, chisels, and sanding blocks. A sharp drywall knife is great for carving, emphasis on sharp. Sharp tools make work easier and safer, because you don't have to force the tool to get it to perform, so you are much more in control. Control equals safer.

I just saw it, and sent you a reply. Sorry for being so slow.

It looks like green pumpkin/black flake top, and chartreuse/black flake bottom to me.

See if you can get a free sample, or can buy a very small amount, so you can do a test, before you sink $80 for a gallon. You might also contact the manuf. and ask their tech people if it would be suitable for fishing lures.

Fingers crossed.

Dude, I am handy with wood. I would wind up going down a deep, dark rabbit hole if I started working with metal. Hahaha

Many years ago, Barlow's sold a 1 1/2" tall chatterbait blade. Then they got a cease and desist letter from Chatterbait, because the blade and connection were patented. They did allow Barlow's to sell their remaining stock, which was really decent of them. I bought ten blades, and I've used them all, so I'm looking for more, strictly for my personal use. Anyone have a source for a 1 1/2" tall blade?

In my limited experience, finding a hook that will match what you have is better than trying to use some kind of a wire with an open eye. The ones I tried never were strong enough. At APDriver's suggestion, I found a Mustad jig hook that works in my Do-It Arky mold, and I can open the eye with an awl to get the blade attached. Then a small pair of channel locks squeezes it closed again, and it never opens on a fish.

Yes, they can be remelted and poured again. I've found that adding some new, virgin plastisol with some heat stabilizer helps me to be able to reuse old plastics.

I think short strikes/blow ups with no hook up is small fish. Big fish commit, and pull it under.

Maybe I'm looking at them wrong, but one picture looks like they have a vertical eye, and the other they look horizontal. Assuming I'm just crazy, you could drill out a weed guard hole in your replica to reduce weight, and then maybe begin shortening the neck to see if you can get close to the same weight. Last, you could try filing some of the lead off of the two flats behind the nose. If you get close to the weight you want, you can alter your mold to match your changes. I don't know if that will help, but it is what I would try. And using a harder lead can't hurt, since the blade will be banging against the head on the retrieve. Good luck.

Do they come apart when you stretch them and cut them with scissors? When I do that, the individual strands snap back and separate themselves.

I just like the paint jobs and wire tied skirts too much to just toss them. Plus, they have a really good hook, so I reuse them instead of tossing them. It's really easy to put an eye bend in the wire close to the head, clamp that eye bend into a vise, and then use a pair of needle nose vise grips to do a couple of wraps with the tag end around the base of the eye. A dremel with a cut off wheel gets rid of excess wire, and, Wham (Deadpool reference), you're done.

I've made some of those, too, but I think the Arkie head jigs make a better head for those. The blade hits that head, but not the thin spinnerbait heads. That thin head helps the swim jig pass through grass and tules better, too.

I don't do 3D printing. I barely type. But I carve lures out of PVC, so I have some experience with trying to achieve a particular action. My rule of thumb is rounder lures have roll, flatter sided lures don't. Something to do with how the shape affects the water as it flows past (thank you Dave). If I were you, like Wayne said, I would make some wood mockups of different cross sectioned lures that were otherwise similar in size, length, lip, and attitude in the water, and begin to experiment until I got a shape that acts the way I want it to, and then do my 3D printing based on that lure.