A-Mac

I know the little bubbles you are referring to Rookie. They can definately torque you off as you paint... Its weird, you'd think such small holes would either: A) fill in with paint or B ) Just simply get covered by paint. Apparently, the holes are the perfectly wrong size and seem to never cover unless you do like 8 coats on it. I don't know the answer to this one. I mostly paint more natural colors if I'm painting resin and, to be quite honest, I've come to like SOME of the bubbles. I've gotten the, "holy ! How'd you do that!, response from several people because they think its super fine detail... Heck, why argue! If I were doing more solid colors (instead of blends) I wouldn't be happy either.

pretty sweet strike on wopper plopper 2 video! However, it doesn't show the real big guy with the bait in his mouth (they just kinda insinuate it was caught on it). Either way, neat vids and a hoss fish!

you could try warming the clear coat u use. I will warm up my etex or devcon on my oil heater (NOT TOO MUCH) and it definitely will make the liquid more fluid. I would suggest trying this before putting in additives... but thats just my opinion.

I normally use the oil heater to bump the temp up to 75-80F in the small room I do this stuff in. This temp range seems to work best for both my clear coat and my resin to cure at as quickly as possible (the classic way). As for the plastic resin, after I pop the lure from the mold I will put it on foil over the oil heater. This seems to work very well and hardens the resin quickly. I've been able to paint after 24hrs without blistering from gas release by doing this. As for the etex, what I had left from the 2nd batch (which I didn't cook to a gel) is still tacky and being like normal etex. The stuff that I cooked to a gel is hard as a rock now (after 3 hrs) and isn't tacky at all. However, the lure that I put the etex on (from the first batch) is still tacky. What I can conclude from this is that warming the etex mix doesn't seem to alter the curing speed once its put on the lure. However, there must be a temperature that once the etex hits actually alters the chemical compound... which is what I believe happened when the etex started to gel. Basically, as soon as the gel cooled it was hard. So could you heat the outside of the lure fast enough to cause this chemical change w/out damaging the lure? Hmmm... something tells me vodkaman would have the formula for this.

I was etex some cranks today and was setting the cup of mixed epoxy on top of an oil heater unit (to make the epoxy more fluid). At a certain point I noticed the stuff to start to gel up. Instead of continuing on (and potentially ruining more baits) I made up a new batch. After 15min the old epoxy was hard (after being removed from the heater). I have not seen the outcome on the lures yet (since it happened like 40mins ago). So heres what I'm thinking. Can you heat the lures up while they turn to reduce cure time? I'm very tempted to try this... but I figured I'd see if someone has had success first.

Thanks rookie! The fin actually plays a significant part in the action... I would consider most round bodied cranks (especially balsa) to have a wide wobble. The dorsal on these slightly restricts the wobble (but not in a bad way). Instead, I have a medium wobble. I haven't tested this theory, but I think when the wobble was restricted I actually got more wobbles for the distance. For example, say I was getting 2 complete wide wobbles w/out the fin, but with I get 3-4 medium wobbles. Like I said, I haven't proved this... it feels like it when I crank it though. I made about 8 different sized fins till I found one that gave me the best action. Obviously, the larger the fin the more restricted movement... and at a certain size the lure stopped wobbling.

That may have read wrong... pbr at midnight makes u say things u don't intend to sayc I normally clear after I foil... then paint... then put the lip in (wearing latex gloves!)... then a final clear... make sense? if not, ill wait til morning to reply

I normally do 2 clear coats of either devcon 2 ton or enviro-tex. If its a crank Ill use devcon more often. I typically will put the lip in the lure in between the first a second coat. This way, I don't mess up the paint when handling the lure (still where latex gloves!!!!!!!). After I super glue the lip in, I put my 2nd coat on to reinforce and seal the edges of the lure.

gunnie is right. If you plan to put mesh around a bait it is best to heat set whatever paint was sprayed prior. I typically hit the paint with the drier as I go and just do a good heating once its complete.

My advice is to check the tutorials. That would be a good way to started.. I also advise checking out the hardbait cookbook. You'll soon realize that there are sooo many ways to make lures. Hey, ya gotta start somewhere and these are excellent sources.

Thanks guys. These are thru-wire balsa baits. All the baits weigh 10.6-10.8g. Body length is 2", total bait length w lip is 2.75". The fat baits are actually 4 planks of balsa wide. I got the foil from a candy shop 7yrs ago in Indiana (live in Oregon now). It took me a few years to figure out how to use it. Candy wrapper foil is thinner than normal foil. I picked up 3 colors: gold, red, and silver. I rarely use the gold. Luckily the packs came with a couple hundred sheets (4x4") so I haven't had to scavenge for anymore. In the pics provided I used red and silver foil. Foiling the fat baits is very difficult. I had to use 7 seperate pieces of foil... 3 for each side and one to go along the bottom. Plus, I added a couple slivers for touching up rips. Transulcent colors like yellows and oranges look really cool. I clear coat over the foil first, then paint, the final clear. You can also take thinner and wipe away the color from the lures. I used to do some "mistake" lures years back with gold backs fading to silver... fish weren't all that impressed though. The red one has been my favorite for big fish. I did have a red fattie but I let someone borrow it and, well thats the last I saw of it... going by the sounds of it, fish liked it too.

Amazing work! The paint work is fantastic! Your work definitely inspires me to think outside the box more!

Who ate all the pie! Crankbait munchies! http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/amcalexa/PB050526.jpg http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/amcalexa/PB050528.jpg http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/amcalexa/PB050529.jpg These aren't fat, their just big boned! http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/amcalexa/PB050523.jpg http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/amcalexa/PB050525.jpg Surprisingly, the fat baits have caught me quite a few fish. Hmmm... I was going to edit the title so that it had a few more symbols... oops.

I'm currently using aero marine products and adding microballoons. I like it way better than featherlite (which junk in my own opinion). I'm still messing around with getting the microballon:resin ratio right. I will say that its still not as good as I'd like it to be. All resin that I've used so far have been hard but very brittle (especially the featherlight). If only someone could figure out how to liquefy pvc decking material and put it in a cool squeezy ketchup style bottle. Of course, lure making was never meant to be easy. One thing I will point out from my guess and test, my baits seem to have better action using more balloons and counteracting with more weight. For some reason, having a more dense lure and little weight seems to require more work to swim in comparison to a bait with less density and more weight. I'm also testing this with swimbaits. It may be a different story on a one piece crank.

Yeah. I normally will put a light gold down, then dark green (in stencil), then fade green on back, then dark blue misted over green. I try to keep the belly as light as possible (aside from the orange). But I vary this all the time mainly because I hate painting the same thing twice.

the silicon making isn't hard... I reccomend that you do a 2 piece mold and have it set up so that all pieces are laid in (I'd use the search to find ways to do this). Be sure to put vent holes in the mold useing either cut nails or straws . This is the tricky part... which is more or less guess and test. You have to know which direction to align your pieces so that air bubble don't get trapped and vent out. As for the resin... everyone talks up featherlight and alumalite. In my own opinion, they both suck. They aren't as strong as I would like them to be (especially for swimbaits!) If anyone has found a descent plastic that is comparable to the strength and durability of pvc I am all ears.

jamie i bet the 2 liter bottle would work great! I'm sure you could melt down the milk jug, but the 2 liter has the shape you need! You could basically have a nice rectangle if you cut the mid section out of the 2 liter... and staple this to a frame that I have shown in attachments. RECYCLING is fun! Chromedog, your idea sounds pretty interesting too! http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/amcalexa/PB050513.jpg http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/amcalexa/PB050518.jpg http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/amcalexa/PB050519.jpg http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/amcalexa/PB050520.jpg

Very cool! Shew... looks like some time put in on that one!

76 Gator is absolutely right. When I was working with the Fisheries Management in Indiana, we shocked up several thousand of bluegills over a summer of sampling different lakes. I bet just in Indiana alone you could paint a dozen different bluegill patterns. HOWEVER, one thing that seemed fairly consistent when we sampled was bluegill color saturation to the turbidity of the water. Basically, if the water is muddy the fish would be lighter in color. They would still have all the colors present, but they were dumbed down a bit and the fish appeared more white. In really clear lakes, the male bluegills would be almost black on their top half. So yeah, probably the best thing to do would be to go out and actually catch some gills and take some pics out of the lake you want to bass fish. I did this for a lake that had a unique gizzard shad hue (a little more pink iridescence)... man the bass flew in the boat after I tweaked the coloring a little bit! It will totally make a difference (at least in clearer lakes)! And yes, I've totally seen bluegills in both color scheme 76gator presented too... but the question is, does this scheme apply to your lake? One thing else I would like to point out, I just moved out to oregon from Indiana recently. I was showing some locals a few of my bluegill patterns and they acted like it wasn't even close... they might think bluegills are trout out here too

will do. headin to the lake (530am here) for now. But yeah, I'll post some pics when I get back.

Ok. Mines built. I designed mine almost exactly like the you tube video... with the pegboard style top. I use thin foam to seal the solid board to the bottom and the peg board to the top... with the foam glued in place on the 2x4, i then screwed down the peg board and solid bottom board. I think this may have helped seal it better. Also, I used hot glue to seal the corners versus duct tape. However, I did use duct tape to cover up unnecessary holes on the peg board just in case I ever need a larger surface area. I used .020 pteg plastic sheeting... which was kind of hard to find. I traveled almost 1.5hrs to spend $7 on 2 2x4 sheets. Anyways, this is probably the coolest machine I've built for lure making. My stencils came out looking exactly like Rayburns. Its so cool... I wish the experience lasted more than a few seconds! The nice thing is, its very easy to do. Just watch the video. You will need a heat gun to touch it up, but that doesn't take much time. Actually, the hardest part was convincing my girlfriend to let me stick a 2x4 frame with plastic in the oven. The process is so fast, I was done before she could quite bi 'in.

Haha! Yeah, I just bought a small shopvac tonight. Its a 1.75hp (which is more hp than my mercury w/ a blown powerhead is putting out!)... I don't imagine it will take much to make it all work. I'm planning on keeping mine probabbly 1'X1' to cut down on plastic (maybe smaller). I'm going to try the pegboard trick shown in the video... it just looked too easy. I'm picking my plastic up on monday. Bad thing is, I have to drive 1.5hrs to buy 2 2x4 sheets for $7 (planning on showing up when the store opens so I have the rest of the day to play!). Oww well, thats part of being addicted to this stuff. If everything works out well, I'll try to upload some pics. My goal is to have something like RayburnGuy. His stuff just came out amazing looking! So hard to settle for less than perfect on the first try.

I have a specified airbrush compressor. However, if/when mine kicks the bucket I will probably go with an inexpensive pancake style compressor from sears or menards and hook a pressure regulator up on it. The advantage of compressors like this is that they won't run all the time, unlike most airbrush compressors. As for the hoses, I'm assuming your airbrush came with a hose of some sorts. I recommend going to a real hardware store like an ace or true value and asking someone there to help you put some adapter fittings together. Aside from that you will need a clear coat. I recommend Devcon two ton epoxy (also at Ace). Check out some of the threads on other stuff to use too. Keep in mind that you will have to slowly rotate the lure as your clear coat dries. I use to use a drill gun and an adjustable clamp on the trigger to slowly turn the lure. Hope this helps

Just wanted to say that this was an incredible thread and that I've been dissecting all the information on it for a few days now. I can't wait to build my own vacuum former! Thanks a bunch guys for putting in the hard work... AND SHARING! You guys rock!

Sent LC an e-mail... which wasn't exactly easy to find. I'll let you guys know if I find something.