A-Mac

whoa! neat! congrats on making a crankbaits action original again!

This stuff sounds perfect. Heck, I haven't even had the time to test the ACC. Looking forward to hearing more about this magical "no hassle" just-add-light clear coat. FYI Nathan, I've always appreciated your sunfish lure. I remember reading about it in tackle tour if I'm not mistaken.

Ive got the same compressor. I havent had the problem you've mentioned; however, mine did nearly catch on fire the other day. my moisture trap was stuck open and i didnt know it. I left the room for about 20min to come back to a garage full of smoke... that baby was hot! To get back to.the point, they arent the greatest compressor but are great for the price and perfect for airbrushing. It wouldnt surprise me if there was an o-ring clogging you up somewhere. If you have pressure, im betting regulator. I take it you purchased from harbor freight? If you got the extended warranty (which is always worth it with HB's electric power tools) I would swap it. Good luck.

Anybody noticed if this clear will yellow over time?

Haha... good call. For some reason, I don't mind screwing up one of my a-rigs in a trial.

hooray! I might have to get some myself. I'm curious, is the conditions you are dipping in humid? Reason I ask, I have to leave the dehumidifier running for a few hours before I dip with DN (seemed to eliminate bubbles for me). Thanks.

been very happy with my badger 360. the 360 part really isn't necessary (the bowl can rotate around so you can make it siphon feed) for lures, but the airbrush works great and the only time I needed a repair to the airbrush (which was my fault) Badger took care of it without any problems. Nice thing is, I can get more needles from Michael's.

shoot, forgot to actually mention the benefit! NO FUMES! Just don't crimp the split shots with you teeth I figure that pouring is much cheaper, but I've played with lead fumes enough in my life.

for those of you that make your own (melt lead). I suggest you try using large split shots (that do not have the wings). I take my twisted wire and clamp the split shot on with pliers. I've tried this with the egg sinkers before too, but I feel this is much easier. I normally spread the split shot open with a pair of diagonals, then lay the twisted wire in the gap, then crimp the split shot on. The thing that I like most about crimping the split shot is that it "threads" the split shot. The benefit of this is that you can actually adjust exactly were you want the weight (since not all of my baits are identical, this helps to adjust for inconsistencies). Also, its much easier to find a wide variety of split shots than it is egg sinkers. Keep in mind, the #s on the sinkers vary depending on manufacturer. I use South Bend, and I stay consistent with using the brand to ensure my #s on the weights are always the same. Hope this helps. Live2Fish~Fish2Live

thanks guys. The large silver flakes probably would look good. However, if there is a stick on scale pattern, I would love to know where you guys found these. I kept eyeballing my foil and just kept thinking, no way would whatever I typically use to apply foil would create such a fine and clean looking pattern. So yeah, If you guys don't mind sharing, I'd like the site where you found these sticker scales. THANKS!

Anybody tried to do a foil finish like this yet? If so, were you successful? I've been pondering two important points on making this. A) How do you cut out foil like this? B )How do you glue it on the painted lure without ruining the paint, foil, everything else. Any suggestions would be cool. I have attempted to make one yet, simply because I haven't thought up a process that I'm confident would actually be successful.

one of my professors wants me to make a platypus lure. why? hell if I know. i'm just going to go on and say that it will be the hardest, and ugliest lure I've ever made...

Everyone seems to say the show is really kick @$$! I might have to check it out.

+1 on the jerkbaits. Even if I were to make one out of wood and it be successful, the weights vary considerably on a board of wood... even on some of my special ordered planks. The hardest thing I've encountered with lures is consistency among them. Have 100% success out of 100 lures is the goal, but I have about a 3-4% failure that get thrown out. This number has improved by about 10% in the last couple years just by acquiring better tools and standardizing my processes. I think replacing my current bandsaw with a little better quality should get me to 99%. But yeah, consistency has always seemed to be my issue, not really any individual lure design. I've run into similar issues with my swimbaits having consistent resin densities too. Nothing ticks me off more than spending 10hrs making a (at least in my own mind) gorgeous swimbait and having a 50% success... from a MOLD! Sorry, a little off subject.

thats a wicked video. I pulled the computer screen up as close to my face as possible to try and see all the details.

I agree entirely. I purchased a drill press not too long back with has dramatically improved my ballast drilling (I drill while the lure is still in block form to ensure a perpendicular drill relative to the centerlines). I wish I could get my drill press to function in reverse, because you are absolutely right, this makes the cleanest cut on balsa. Of course on a hardwood, this may not be as applicable.

I guess the other tip would be, WEAR A MASK! it doesn't come across as a real noxious fume, but keep in mind that plastic is burning away... 20 bucks for some respirator filters is the cheapest health insurance you can get. other than that, burn it up

Though my goal of making a vibrating tumbler be successful is still in the making, I've found a method that seems to work well for propionate users. A "hot knife" soldering iron (w/ blade attachment) is great for clearing out the lip slot. I wait until I'm done with all my prop coats and then slice right through. Quick trim on the edges with a sharp hobby knife and your slot is good to go... this is especially useful with g10 micarta lips (since the slot needs to be not much bigger than the width of the blade). Anyway, figured I'd pass my tip on.

24hrs between coats... no idea for saltwater. I normally do 1 dip for a finish and it looks great. sometimes i will do 2 coats, but that is normally if i'm adding a heavy flake.

I was playing in the lab at school one day when I decided to try this out. This is a stirring plate with a jar of partially dissolved propionate. I inserted a magnetic stirring bar (which is about 1" long) inside the jar. Pretty simple, the plate spins a magnet and therefor forces the stirring bar to rotate. I'm stirring the solution very quickly right now and it seems to be doing well. I'm hypothesizing a completely dissolved solution in a few hours. If I would have thought a little more in advance, I would have just gradually added pellets to the acetone. Nevertheless, it appears to be dissolving much much faster than just having it sit on a desk. Since I put the pellets in the solution last night, the pellets formed a "puck" at the bottom of the jar. Thus, when I put the stirring bar in I had to invert the jar so that the "puck" slowly dripped down toward the stirring bar... quite mesmerizing actually. Also, I'm trying another mixture as well. 1/3 acetone to 2/3 virgin thinner. The other day I combined what was left in an acetone jar with some from a virgin jar and it looked like the finish came less blemished. Eh, guess and test. For those of you that suspend your lure in a jar w/ a drop of acetone (to acquire the clear finish) how big of a jar are you using? I've tried this with normal mason jars and it seems to take a very very long time to dry. Also, It looks like half my coating drips off too. The finished lure does have a clear finish, but its a very timely process for one lure. Anybody have a set-up they would mind sharing for doing say 10 lures at a time?

cool vid!

I have a 9" bandsaw too. From what I've gathered, these are just low end band saws and there isn't much you can do. Mine vibrates like crazy when turning it on and off. I'm not real knowledgeable on bandsaws, but my neighbor is (he was into manufacturing). Based on everything he's told me, it sounds like I need to fork out closer to $300 and up for a more solid and quality band saw. Of course, I've been cutting baits for 6 years with mine and it's still kickin. But I notice that I do get lip slot angle imperfections too on occasion, which ultimately ruins your lure. If you have the cash, I would suggest getting a better quality one... it's on my wish list.

corn cob eh? you think it would be strong enough to eat at the propionate? something else I was thinking about is using the finer grain (glass) to remove the white blush marks used with acetone. ya know, basically polishing the finish? I'm not sure what media to try (glass may be too fine)... but heck, if you can throw 15 lures in (5lb vibr. tumbler) and let it work, thats 15 lures worth of hand sanding time you can spend doing something enjoyable... like anything else power tool related!

yeah, I've heard of people using the rotating tumblers. That might be my next attempt. I saw how well the vibrating ones worked for cleaning up brass ammo casings and figured it may have potential for knocking off the burrs that occur on crankbaits after the 1st seal coat. I would like to find some course aluminum oxide grit to try, preferably without breaking the bank (these guys are really proud of their media!).

Well, I decided to get a vibrating tumbler from good ol harbor frieght. I've tried 2 types of media so far, one was fine glass beads and the other was straight up pea gravel. I decided to try and use this to knock off the hardened balsa splinters after the first seal coating of propionate (when all the bristles stick out). So far, absolutely nothing has happened! So disappointing. I read were someone had actually used sandpaper (2 halves glued together) and cut it into ~1/4 inch squares and used this as media. I can't think of how many crankbaits I could fine sand by hand before I chopped up enough 1/4" squares to fill my tumbler! Anybody else have an idea before I take this thing back?