mark poulson

&DRE, If that's your drying wheel, I can't wait to see your lures! I can just picture an blown and injected topwater roaring across the lake! It would give a whole new meaning to getting a blow up on a topwater.

I haven't stripped a lure with Nu Lustre yet, but both D2T and Etex did seem to bond to paint. When I redid some lures I'd done before, the paint came off with the epoxy, down to the primer. I'm pretty sure Nu Lustre is the same.

Try this site: www.swingpaints.com

It would probably work, but I imagine it will be a lot of work to adapt it to a drying wheel and step the rpms down slow enough. Sounds like a really involved project.

I don't see why it would be a problem. But the D2T will be a raised area, and not smooth with the rest of the finish. Before you resort to D2T, try wiping your lure down with denatured alcohol before you put on the second coat of Etex and letting it dry. Sometimes solvent residue can rise to the surface of the paint, and interfere with the Etex coverage.

Seafoam, I had sunlight yellow several Etexed lures, and turn vibrant silver finishes into dull gold, which isn't what I wanted. That's why I switched to Nu Luster 55. It may have been that the silver glitter I used is what actually yellowed, but the bottom line is that the Etex didn't protect the underlying layers, and the Nu Lustre does. And someone (sorry, I can't remember who, but he's a saint) on this forum recommended using small syringes, set into tight fitting drilled holes in the tops of the epoxy and hardener bottles, as a way to get exactly the correct proportions, by volume as recommended by the manuf., for mixing my epoxy. I haven't had a problem since. Now I can mix just the amount I need, perfectly and quickly, every time, and not waste anything. I never go out to my drying wheel worried that the epoxy won't set up right, like I used to when I tried to eyeball the mix, or mix by weight.

Gary, That's great! And they're all made by the same manuf. in China, so it really doesn't make sense to pay more.

I think a quad hook would have too closed a space between hooks to allow good hook penetration. That's why round bend hooks work well, and the EWG trebles, because they have a big enough gap not to interfere with the adjacent hook's penetration.

Gary, I found my rotisserie motor and spit in a replacement kit from a hardware store. At the time, two years ago, it was in the $20-$30 range. I don't remember now how much exactly.

jamie, I use Nu Lustre 55, which is just like Etex except it has UV inhibitors, so it says clear forever. Snax turned me on to it. I coat the insides of my swimbait joints with D2T, lapping it onto the face of each section a little, so I get an overlap when I put the Nu Lustre 55 on the faces. I use at least 2 coats of the Nu Luster, and it doesn't like irregularities on the surface, like trout spots put on with a drill bit dipped in black paint, or a very raised scale pattern. Someone here mentioned that epoxy pulls away from sharp edges, or it draws/shrinks back on itself like concrete curing. Since it's not possible to put shrinkage joints in epoxy to control the shrinking/cracking like we do with concrete, I usually just watch the lure and re-brush the epoxy while it's still brush-able, and then pay attention when I re-coat, trying to make sure any thin spots get covered well. Sometimes I have to put on a third coat. I also found that putting a drop of the runny crazy glue, just a small drop with a piece of wire as an applicator to avoid putting too much on and having it run, onto the thin areas or fish eye spots, helps the next coat adhere. Probably the same thing the automotive clear does. I do know that if I spray pastel fixative on the entire lure before I epoxy it, the epoxy seems to go on better, with less problems.

Mine's already posted in the gallery. I have trouble trying to attach a picture here in the forum. It's on page 6.

That's an interesting design. I now own two identical Specialty Tackle jerkbaits that decided to bend, one to one side, and one to the other, while they were in my boat's locker. I'd repainted them as baby bass, and thought the paint job might have cause the bending. I can't wait to throw them to see if they're as erratic as yours.

I use all three, airbrush, hand brush, and rattle cans. Airbrush for the main paint scheme, including scales and high lights, hand brush for details and accents, and rattle cans for spray glitter, and to protect previous coats of water based paint from a newer experimental coat, in case I screw up. I also add glitter suspended in Minwax Polyacrylic (thank you Nathan) with a brush, so I can place it where I want it. I add spots with a drill bit dipped in paint, too. Whatever works.

That's great! It swims beautifully. I taper my baits, thin at the nose to full thickness at the back of the first section, and then back down to thin at the tail. I just copied what had worked for others. Now that Vodkaman's gotten into my head, I think the tapered head splits the water, creating higher pressure at the thickest point, and the reverse taper creates a low pressure area, like a wing shape, and the vortexes created at the thickest point pull on the tapered rear sections because they are in the low pressure area. Probably, too blunt a nose forces the vortexes too far out away from the body to initiate good swimming action. Can't wait to see the finished bait!

Figure out how much time it takes to make each lure, how much you want to make an hour, how much the materials for each lure are, how much profit you want to make per lure, and that's your price. Shipping and handling are extra. If you can't get enough to pay your costs and make a profit, don't do it. Why make something fun into slavery?

Word! Matt, I've been waiting years to be able to say that! I put up with my #3 son watching Dave Chappell's show before he went to college, and that's what I got out of it! Seriously, Matt's right. Even if your lure is hand made and unique, if it doesn't have a track record of catching fish, and big ones, you're fighting an up hill battle. The best pricing scheme is to look at what similar lures are going for, ask yourself if you can afford to make them and still make money at that price, and then use that price as a guide line. If your lures become more popular, you can probably charge a little more, but, unless you're JR Hopkins, don't price your lures as collectibles, or the only collection they'll wind up is your own. Even in the swim bait market, where there are some guys who'll pay big bucks for a unique bait, most are price conscious, and won't pay more for a new bait than what a similar, already proven bait is going for, even if it's PUUURDEEEE!

Has anyone tried this product? It's a two part automotive finish, and it comes in a spray can. Bad news, once mixed, 24 hour shelf life, and cost $20. Good news, can be recoated after 5 minutes, and a local here in SoCal says it holds up really well. SprayMax 2 Part Urethane Clear Coat SprayMax 2K Urethane Aerosol Clear Coat Hoping someone here has already had experience with it, so I don't have to go first.

Sounds to me like you didn't mix it well enough. I've found that, the more hardener I add, the more brittle it is. But, even with a lot of hardnener, there's not much shrinkage that I can see. There are solvent based wood fillers, like Famowood, that don't shrink and are water proof, but they will absorb water, so you have to seal them with crazy glue before you test swim your lure.