mark poulson

Start with bigger baits. One piece gliders are easier to shape, weight, and paint.

Dampeoples is right. You need to sand to provide a mechanical bond of the paint to the lure. If you use a paint with solvent that "melts" into the lure, you have to be careful that all the solvent is gone before you continue painting. For me, that's too much trouble. I use water based paints, with an Envirtex Lite clear coat, and never have any problems with paint bond failing. I sand, then, if I'm using solid colors, I coat with Createx opaque white as an under coat, and then paint. If I have a lure that's transparent with painted areas that I want to repaint, I sand the painted areas, and then repaint over them. I don't worry too much about accidentally scuffing the clear areas. The topcoat will make them clear again. I've actually removed the paint from painted/clear lures with a scale-scored surface, so only the paint in the score lines remains, and then used that as a base and painted over them with transparent colors. Makes for some neat lures.

Bruce, Take the plunge. If I can do it.......

Muskyman, You have a PM.

Barlow's, Stimina, and Jann's should have them. They're called Hitch Hikers.

Here's my drying wheel. It's made from a rotisserie kit I got at the local hardware store. My wheels are 14" diameter and, although I put in enough screw eyes for 8 lures at a time, I have only done 4 at a time so far. If you're doing 10, I'd make the wheels at least 18" in diameter, to give you enought space between lures. You can draw an 18" circle on a piece of plywood, lay out the lure eyes, and see the kind of spacing you'll have. Then you can adjust the spacing, or the wheel size, or both, without actually cutting the plywood. http://thumbp2.mail.mud.yahoo.com/tn?sid=2101622168&mid=ADHPjkQAAP1mR46u4gjnlBiguek&partid=4&f=818&fid=Inbox http://thumbp2.mail.mud.yahoo.com/tn?sid=2101622168&mid=ADHPjkQAAP1mR46u4gjnlBiguek&partid=2&f=818&fid=Inbox It's really easy to make. I made the plywood box with a front and back to make it more rigid. The sides only need to be 1" higher that the radius of your wheels, but be sure your lures aren't so close to the edge of the wheel that they drag. You might want to make the sides a little higher to accomodate bigger lures. The rotisserie motor came with mounting brackets, which I screwed onto the sides. My kit's motor is 1 rpm, which is plenty. Remember, a larger wheel will have greater speed toward the outside edge, which is where your lures will be mounted. I use large paper clips through the eye tie and tail hook hanger to attach the lures, bending them as I need to for different lengths. I mount the longest one first, and set the wheel spacing to that. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Couldn't you retrofit a large ice chest? It's already insulated, and the plastic ones are cheap.

John, Do you use a through wire? And, if so, do you orient it at an angle in the beveled face baits to keep the hook low and make the bait float correctly? It looks that way in the picture, but, at my age, I don't trust my glasses any more. )

Using a hair dryer on your lures after they're on the drying wheel helps it flow out, and removes any last bubbles that might still be in the epoxy. This works for Envirotex. I don't know about 2T Devcon or F/C. And the heat does decrease the pot life of the epoxy, making it stiffen more quickly, even though it makes it flow initially. I'm curious about why you would want to use a mixer instead of just mixing by hand? Unless you're mixing a quart of epoxy, it's not that hard to mix by hand. Stir for two minutes if it's a large quantity, and you're good to go. I mix four teaspoons at the most, using a small plastic cup and an ice cream stick that I cut square on the bottom, and mix for fifteen seconds at the most. Brushing on the epoxy removes an air bubbles in it, and the hair dryer makes it flow and cover everything. I blow the hair dryer into the mixing cup to soften the mix before I brush it on, and that gets rid of most of the big bubbles before I brush it on. And hitting the lures on the wheel with the hair dryer after they're coated, while the wheel is turning, gives me a second chance to look for dry spots, buggers, or other flaws that I can fix before it's too late.

I haven't made molds, but I've seen them made on the job for plaster mouldings. The mold makers backed the RTV with casting plaster and fiber, to provide a solid cradle for the soft mold. If you're doing a two part mold, you could build shallow wooden trays from plywood and 1X, fill them with casting plaster or plaster of paris, and set one half of the RTV mold into it while it's wet to make a solid support. The mechanics of making the two halves mate correctly, and how to align and attach the two halves is up to you. If you have already cast a bait, you could use it to line up the two halves before you seat the second half, and then attach hinges to the two mold halves so they align perfectly every time. That's the advantage of using wood to make the support frame.

Make sure your airbrush has seals that are rated for solvent based paints, or plan on only shooting water based paints. For me, water based are easier, since you don't need a spray booth and breathing apparatus, just good ventilation.

I use a trick from work. When we epoxy set all thread for hold downs in concrete, we turn the bolt counter clockwise, as though we were unscrewing it, as we force it into the hole that's already filled with epoxy. That way, we avoid the possibility of the screw threads pulling the epoxy back out of the hole as it's pushed in, and kind of forces the epoxy down and into the hole. I use the same method with twist wired, using 5 minute epoxy. I mix the epoxy, coat the wire, push the wire all the way into the hole, unscrew it back out, re coat it, and screw it back in, but in a rotation opposite to the way it's twisted, so it forces the epoxy down. I typically have a decent amount of squeeze out afterward, which I smooth out with a flat screwdriver dipped in alcohol. If I don't have squeeze out, I immediately pull the wire out and re coat it and do it again. A tip. Don't try to do too many at once with 5 minute epoxy. If you have more than one lure to do, use 30 minute epoxy. More working time.

I also mix in a small plastic cup that I clean out afterward with alcohol, which I have poured into a 3X6 tupperwear container before I start. A half an inch in the bottom of the tupperware is enough to clean out the measuring cups, the mixing cup, the stir stick, the epoxy spreading brush, and my hands. I use a hair dryer on the epoxy after it's mixed to make it softer, more runny, before I brush it on, and that usually gets rid of most of the bubbles. Brushing it on takes care of the rest. I brush it out, and then, just to be sure, I use the hair dryer on the lures as they rotate on the drying wheel for a couple of revolutions. My wheel is 1 rpm, so it only takes a couple of extra minutes, and it gives me a chance to check for dry spots with no epoxy at the same time.

I think it's time to move past the "is balsa okay" question. Sharing information so others can learn from our own personal experiences, either successes or disasters, is what makes this site special. What we all choose to do with what we learn here is our own choice. Period. No need to make it more than that.

I mix 4 teaspoons of epoxy for four large lures, and have some left over. If I'm guessing, I'd say 1 teaspoon for a large lure, and 1/2 tsp per small lure. It's not exact. I've thrown away more epoxy than I care to think about.

Robert, In my experience, it's always better to lightly sand with as fine a grit as you can, to promote a good mechanical bond of old paint to new, as opposed to a chemical bond like you can get with lacquer. I don't make baits out of either plastic or balsa, so I can't really comment on the new bait process for them, but I've repainted some plastic baits using Createx water based paint and Envirotex Lite epoxy top coat. I sand the plastic, blow off the dust with my compressor, wipe with alcohol, blow off again to be sure all the alcohol is gone, and then I base coat with a opaque white. I've painted new wood baits with rattle cans, and the process I used is prime with something that will seal the wood, and that's easy to sand. With rattle cans, I used a flat white primer. I would spray a coat that completely covered the wood, let it dry per the can's instructions, sand with 220 grit, and then recoat with the primer. Then, if the bait was smooth, I'd start with my colors. If not, I'd sand the rough spots, and reprime. My baits were big, so an extra coat of primer or two wasn't an issue. I used a primer instead of a regular paint because I thought it would give me a better bond to the finished paints. I figured that the bond would be really important, because the rattle can clear I used as a top coat was thin, even with multiple coats. But the good part was the rattle can paints seemed to bond to themselves really well, even in gloss color coats.

Is the clear really crystal clear? I like the way clear epoxy, like Envirotex, seems to amplify the intensity of my paint schemes. Does the clear plastidip do the same?

Beautiful lure. Good job.

Someone posted Harbor Freight as a source for inexpensive (cheap) airbrush compressors. You should probably go there and replace your compressor. As far as an air reservoir, has anyone tried an old propane tank, like the ones used for BBQs?

Bruce, I posted it the same way I did on the other thread, which I think you were able to open. I think I must have left part of the address off of the first attempt in this thread. When I click on it I can open it. Maybe it's because my computer recognizes that it's me....I'm totally lost as to why. Vodkaman, Good advice. Seabasshunter3, watch the motor run for ten minutes, and keep a hand on it to see if the lower voltage is causing it to overheat. If it's uncomfortable to touch, turn it off. In motors with brushes and windings, low voltage can cause overheating, too. Don't ask me why it happens, that's for smarter folks than me. I just know from experience it happens.

Dean, That post was just a thinly veiled attempt to stop the use of balsa for lures in order to stop the deforestation of the Amazon Basin. Oliver Stone was in production of the movie, until the writer's strike shut him down.

I guess that would depend on how dense/strong the foam is. I've never made a foam lure, so I really can't comment specifically. If I were you, and made foam lures, I'd make a test piece and see how strongly a twist wire would hold in it. I would also experiment to see if I could melt a heated wire into the foam instead of epoxy (thank JR) to see if that would work.

I'll try again. Probably pilot error....me. http://thumbp2.mail.mud.yahoo.com/tn?sid=2101622168&mid=AK3PjkQAABd2R4YnPAxx5QwdHqU&partid=2&f=818&fid=Inbox

I'll have to wait until tomorrow. She's at school, and I won't be home until late tonight. Bruce, I've tried to download from Photobucket, but the Gallery won't accept the pictures. I don't know why. Maybe it knows me. ) In any event, I'll try again tomorrow.

I have bought some already twisted sst. wire for eye ties and hook hangers, but the heaviest gauge I could get is .41. Does anyone know where I can get some heavier gauge, not spring tempered sst wire so I can twist my own?