birdy

Eastenlu no worries i know what you're on about indexable inserts are cemented carbide inserts which is different to tungsten carbide, The way brian's post read sounded like you had to make the cutting tool though rather than just index, or is brian refering to the toolholder that he got made? why not just buy one? I've got a heap of different form tools ground up from tool steel to make a particular shape instead of using a duplicating attachment, i just plunge in with the right shape form tool and the profile is done providing the tool has been ground to the right shape.

Brian like i said i'm a fitter and turner as well, I don't claim to be the worlds greatest machinist nor did i claim that you would get 5X the life out of HSS V's tungsten. There's an upside and a downside to everything when you put something up against another and the carbide tool is the go for ripping down and tough turning. For all the lumber sculpters out there that may be wondering which tooling to use. *tungsten carbide is harder and will last longer than hss. *tungsten carbide has to be silver souldered onto the tool first, cooled slowly (otherwise it can crack) then ground to shape. *Tungsten carbide is a lot harder to grind to shape than hss *tungsten carbide is more expensive than hss cheers birdy

Bester. sounds like you're making timber lures and i'm stuffed as to know what a craftsman lathe is. The craftsman is the bloke in charge of the tools after all. I'm still not quite in touch with the lingo you fellas use but i'd imagine a crank to be round in shape like what us aussies would call a popper. I'm a fitter and turner by trade in case you think i'm leading you down the garden path. I make all my form tools from hss and machine ally with it so i can't see you needing carbide unless the timber you use is harder than steel! cheers birdy

Dave. great to give a bit back for a change, you want to check out "The craft warehouse" joggle eyes, if you have any problems i'll get them for you and send them your way, just give me a size and i'll put them on a plane.

Ah there you go. surgical tube is one avenue i would never even thaught of, and it just so happens i have a mate that works in a surgical supply company, time to call in for a favour. Reidy by the way your last post sounds, you might live in the north island? The paua shell looks awesome and i've seen it used in the heads before i'd love to give it a go to add a bit of "bling", the biggest head is about 32mm by 32mm or 1 1/4" by 1 1/4" how is it to work with? If you or your mate chase the odd sticknose (billfish) i'm sure we can work something out. Round 3 should be a heap of fun now that i'm over the earlier mistakes, Thanks for the great tips and how to find what i need and where, now i can spend more time where i'd rather be. ON THE WATER! cheers birdy

Dave i polished the masters with 800grit then onto the polishing wheel. not a problem with clarity now, I left the skirt notches rough to get a better bond when you glue on the skirts, the photo's aren't the best the masters have been rolling about and everyone's had there hands over them and the heads and i think the long barrel has copped a double shine onto it from the flash which look like machine marks. I wish i'd gone a bit smaller with the tube as well to be honest and had to with the realy small ones. it was a pain to try and get a thin wall tube with a 3mm id if i went down to 2.5 i could of got red blue black yellow green clear natural and white the only colours they do in 3mm id 4.2mm od are blue black or natural. any pneumatics supplyer should have it i.e festo, smc, norgren. Yeah i know the shell you're talking about it looks great, that would look hot! I havn't done any long ones yet (waiting for the tube) I'll have to put something in the heads of those to fill the void otherwise they will look silly. I was thinking of getting a sheet of holographic paper and going to a sticker mob to see if it can be cut to size and shape on a printer to save the painfull task of having to cut the right shape by hand. Thanks dave.

Hi Tech, come on fingures. stir and pour how hard is that? The finishes that you guys put on look flasher than a airbrushed harley. I checked out the flashabou i liked the flashabou holographic and the fly fibres holographic, No never seen it and it looks great, Thanks for that, are these in a sheet form though? i don't want a join is the only thing. Tinman. Yeah you guessed right, saltwater trolling. I had to start making my own, it was getting to expensive to keep replacing them, when the razor gang turn up you loose a few. I reckon a couple of the smaller sizes on the lakes. I've got to do a few reverse tapers which have more action at lower speeds, they might be the shot. Clemmy. Yeah it'd be great to get onto quality skirts, that seems to be harder than making the lure itself There isn't anything realy wrong with the yo-zuri skirts apart from the price, the glc skirts look pretty good i wouldn't mind getting hold of one to have a look at, that's the sort of thing i'm after. Can you deal direct with glc? I'd want a fer hundred in asorted colours and sizes. might not be a big enough order. I havn't heard of the line cutting into any heads, i'll get a pic of a rigged one, There is a rubber stopper that the head sits down on. Thanks for all the ideas keep em comeing

Yeah i like it, plenty of detail! Is it just paint over a lead body for a bit of weight and casting purposes? What type of fish are you going to target? Just a thaught you could possibly do away with the wraps around the treble if you're doing a fast retreive as i don't think it will matter all that much and you'll probably get a better hookup rate. cheers birdy.

Just one more thing! how do you get pictures up instantly without having to click the prompt thingy? Perfection is a pain in the arse and so are computers.

After the heads are out of the mould even after 6hrs they are still a bit tacky and need a couple of days to harden. Then all is needed is a couple of skirts we're using yo-zuri but would love to find some better ones if anyone can think of any to give a go, and this is just about the finished product apart from rigging. cheers birdy.

Now all you have to do is slide the insert over the pice of rod retained by the mould to keep everything central do a mix and pour into the mould wait about 6hrs and remove to see weather or not it worked or was a flop.

After you've made the mould off the master that's when you can get creative and jam whatever you want into the head (This is where i reckon you fellas can help) At the moment i'm using a pice of ally that's the same outside diameter as the eye with a hole through the centre to take the pice of brass tube that the line runs through, Not quite ideal as far as cost goes but it was the only thing i could think of. From now on we're going to use polyethelene tube 3mm id and 4.2mm od that way there are no sharp edges and the line can't get cut.

I'm not sure as where to put this thread on this site as the heads aren't hard or soft they fall somewhere in between the material we are using is a soft polyurethane. The pic above is of the masters that i've made on the lathe from ally then polished to get the scratch marks out of the surface so we can make a mould from them, the first moulds we made from these heads had fine machine marks in them and duplicated themselves on the moulds which caused the heads to come out a little scratchy looking and dull so i had to polish the masters up and have another go at making the moulds.

since i've joined the site i've picked up so much and i bet there's still so much more to learn so be critical and let me know how i can tidy up these heads further.

Thanks dave and dave I'm from queensland and live in brisbane. I just poped some of the lure heads out of the moulds to find them a bit hazey. The masters were made from ally on the lathe and it seems that they aren't polished up enough and the surface has duplicated itself in the moulds Ah you get that when you're learning i guess. I'll get some pic's together and throw up so you all can see what we're up to.

Gday a couple of mates and i are starting to make a few lures of our own, so i was digging for some info when i found this site and have to admit you fellas seem to know your lures and luremaking. I'm from Australia and a fitter and turner by trade and i'm mad about fishing so i spend a bit of the bosses time tinkering with new ideas and different shaped heads and moulds that i make from ally. The fish I mainly chase offshore downunder are mainly black marlin and sailfish on lures in summer and reefies such as snapper and pearlies in winter that don't mind a bit of plastic thrown their way from 60mtrs either. It's a bit hard at first to understand what you refer to as crank baits, stick baits and worms and all that but here we've got poppers, pushers, teasers and hardbodies. You guys seem to have all the resources at hand that you need as far as luremaking goes, so give me all the help you can to find those bits and pices that add those finishing touches.