diemai

@ akjohno Certainly you'd have to rig your lureblank with eyelets and hooks for testing it prior to painting and to determine about amount and location of eventually required ballast weight . I would also advise you to first apply a protective topcoat to protect the blank from water sepage whilst testing , as this would probably render the wood heavier after a time and make up for inaccurate balancing of the lure . Also the wood grain would rise up and you'd have to sand it smooth again before painting , which also could not be done straight away , since the bare wood must dry thorougly prior to further painting after the first test . One or two topcoats of simple clear laquer are enough for the purpose(I prefer acrylic paint) , you might later buff it a bit for better adhesion of the first primer coats . To determine about the weighting , I stick on some leadshot onto the lures belly with plastic tape , so I can quickly change amount and location for each test run in the pool or bath tub , I'd quickly find out about the best position that way . After the test I'd permanently glue in the weights into holes drilled into the belly of the lureblank , close them and work flush to body outline . Usually on crankbaits like your lure's shape the weights would be located between belly hook and diving lip , or just behind belly hook or both . As a rule of thumb the more forward the weight is placed the deeper the lure would run , the more to the rear , the better it would cast . But most likely a weight more behind would cause the lure to wiggle less ! So you see , it's a matter of trial and error , most likely ! Sorry , I can't think of any thread in particular to provide more basic info for you , but I'd recommend utilizing the search function on top right column of the page . Type in a keyword like for example "ballast weights" , "thru wire" , "lip shape" , "diving lips" , "new to luremaking" , " , "lure shape" ,.........etc. , you'll definately get some results , but you'd have to browse your way through , you WILL find something useful to you ! I remember , that some time ago I have opened a few threads in here containing some step-by-step pictures , search for "banana lures" and "superbug" , maybe you would find something useful in there as well ? Some brief describtions you will also find on Lurebuilding 101 ! Should be the English version of that Dutch site . good luck , diemai

I cast lead disc sinkers in aluminium casings of tea warmer candles , no problems about it , even though these casings are quite thin . The lead is not hot enough to harm it ! greetz:yay: , diemai

@ jameso321 I am in Europe , kingsmen44 , the starter of this thread is obviously in Rockport/NY . I just meant to say , if smaller packs of E-Tex are exported to Europe , they should be available in the United States as well ! Sorry about this little confusion . greetz , diemai

@ allstate48 There are also small packs available , at least here in Europe , but since it is an US product , you should find those over there as well . good luck:yay: , diemai

@ hazmail Very nice read , especially all the scientific terms in English language are useful to me , since you hardly find many of these in dictionaries . I must admit , that some of these I don't even know in German , lol ! Thanks for providing that link , greetz , diemai

@ hazmail Truly those Barramundi and Nile Perch look quite alike , but the Africans get bigger , I guess . Thanks about your describtions , very interesting ! @ akjohno Sorry about hijacking your thread a bit , but it was just about lures for those Mangrove Jack's ! greetz:yay: , diemai

@ hazmail Really looks like a lure shredder , how big do they get ? Once saw a vid somewhere of a "Rapala Super Shad Rap" messing with a 150+ lbs Nile Perch , the tail of the lure has aready been missing and the internal harness stuck out of the belly of the bait ! greetz:yay: , diemai

@ BobP Pop rivets sound good , too ! @ Smokey J Mission accomplished , opened new thread on making bearings ! Bought some "old time props" from Moores Lures years ago , these were of unplated brass , never came across different unplated ones ! greetz:yay: , diemai

OK , the prop blade with bearing is done now , off course such bearings can be made for homemade props as well , but the smaller , the more finacky it gets . But all in all , they let those flat props perform a lot better , since they provide more guidance of the prop on its shaft . Hope , all is understandable , if not , just post ! greetz:yay: , diemai

After perfect fit , diameter and length of bearing is done , take a triangular file and make a groove at where you want to separate your finished bearing from the dowel . After take a metal saw blade and cut it off . It is better not to cut all way through since you might loose the tiny bearing in all the dirt and debris in your shop(at least in mine , lol:huh:) as it falls down , better cut halfway only and break off by hand ! Break all edges of the bearing and stick it into prop blade in desired direction(the thicker part should always point to the rear of your lure) . Now place the bearing on a steel surface , here I utulize my vise , and use a hammer to hit the thinner diameter a couple of times to comprime it just like a rivet's head . Take care not to hit and/or bend the props blade . This proccess would most likely also deform the bearings hole , so it must be redrilled briefly with same diameter as before .

Now chuck the dowel piece firmly and take a bigger coarse file to work down the dowel to desired bearing OUTER diameter and bearing length , smoothen with a smaller fine file . The files teeth would get smeared with brass chips after a while , clean the up with a steel bristle brush or a special file brush to retain sharpness again . After that you need to furnish the smaller bearing diameter , that must SNUGLY fit into the prop blades center bore , it should only potrude only about 1/10" in it's length over the blade's thickness when assembled . This part requires some accuracy , but its not that hard to do , remember to take fine files for the finishing touch .

Sorry again , here they are :

Now drill from either side just big enough for your chosen prop's shaft(screweye or wire shaft)to pass well without binding . The two holes do not to have to meet in the middle of the dowel piece , I work down ONE bearing from EITHER side of it , the remainder is waste . I fix the dowel piece on one side of the vise , this way I can eyeball the vises edge aligned with the dowel for a perfect vertical position . You must also extend the center hole of your prop blade according to your desired bearing diameter , in this case here I chose 3,5 millimetres , the center bore of the bearing is 2,0 mm . After break the edges of the hole in the prop . Sorry , forgot pics !

Hi , I'd like to post this little describtion in here , since in the thread "source for ccw prop blades" , opened by tc-lures , some interest in my homemade prop bearings came up . So I went down to my shop and made sucha bearing for this little essay , unfortunately not all of the pics , that I took , turned out well , I apologize for that , but I'm sure , that the working proccess is still understandable . Since I do not have a metal lathe in my shop , I have tried to make smaller round metal parts out of round brass dowels simply by chucking them in my drillpress and working on them by filing against the rotating workpiece , which worked out to my satisfaction . I have made these prop bearings that way , but also inline-spinner bodies , bullet weights for worm rigs and weights for weighted floats are possible to furnish in the same manner . Only by now I have wood lathe , that has a chuck as well , so I am nowadays doing such work in that one , since it is more powerful and it is also more convinient to work on a horizontally chucked workpiece . But for this describtion I did it in my drillpress for once more . Allright , here we go : First , cut off a piece of that brass dowel , approx. 1" long . In this case , the dowel is 6mm in diameter . I can buy these brass rods in local tool marts , but also RC-model shops carry them . After file the two ends smooth and plane and slightly break the edges . This is only done for better eyeballing to mark the center hole position with a 90° center punch . If the indention should be out of center , one can "move" it a bit by setting the punch at about 45° and gently hammer it into proper direction , after make it a bit deeper with the punch . Mark either side of the workpiece this way .

Thanks once again , guys , very nice from you ! And , Swede , I really hope for that "Petri Heil"(in English you'd say "tight lines" , this German term refers to Saint Peter , the protective patron of all fishermen) in 2009, since last year was so darn slow ! greetz , diemai

@ akjohno Welcome to the club ! Luremaking definately is addictive:yes: ! I'd say , that at first you need to improve the symetry of your lures , I can figure out by the top view , that the tail end sides of especially the two painted ones are not equal . Second is , if you really intend to go for "pencil sharpener" toothy fish , you need to rig your lures thru wired , the fish might shred your lure to pieces , but would still hang on . I have posted some pictures showing , how I do the thru wiring , in your case I might probably even make closed eyes to the wire form . Well , I think that the main reason for the failure of your lures is , that the lips are a little too large and , I hazard a guess , that the lures do not have any internal ballast weights . All in all the general configuration of line tie and lip seems to be OK , on the darker green lure the line tie is placed a little too much towards the tip of bib , but normally this only results into less pronounced wiggle , not total failure . On the lighter green lure the base of the lip(lip slot side) is too wide , it should be much narrower there to transist to its greatest width at about the tow eye location . This has to do with leverage around the tow eye , the oncoming water pressure on retrieve tends to push on the lip . Because of that the lure should be forced downward and would also break out sideward . If now the lip is too wide on its base , the pressure below the tow eye equals the pressure above it and causes the lure to dig down only , but not break out sideward . This sideward breakout is limited , or better say counterforced , by the pull of the retrieved line , this force tracks the lure back for an instant , but just to break out to the other side , thus the lure wiggles ! If now the lure does not have sufficient sideward stability in the water to counterforce that leverage around the toweye , it would overturn and/or spin . In this case also a size reduction of lip , leading into less pressure on the lip and/or placing ballast weights into the deepest part of lurebody would cause the lure not to overturn anymore but wiggle . Its quite hard to explain and there are so many issues about crankbait dynamics corresponding one another, and I am sure that different guys would have different explanations , but this is how I see it . If you would specify about the problems , I could maybe give more detailed answers . keep on carvin' , diemai

@ BobP Oh , sorry , thought , that 4 1/2 was the length from tip to tip , thanks a lot for correcting me ! Live and learn;) ! But nevertheless it seems like the 1 1/4" size has also to be homemade then ? Could get quite finacky concerning the small size , but yet not impossible . @ tc-lures Just went down to my shop and took some pictures , these show the brass bearings on approx. 1 4/5" long props of aluminium sheet . Also two sets of counterrotating props without bearing and a single bladed prop that sport that bearing , that I have called "double folded" in my last post . I believe , that such unsymetrical props add more vibration and "quiver" to the lure . Last picture shows a crudely sketched suggestion of a homemade prop , but now , that I know , that your props should only be 1 1/4" in size , this style would be very tricky to cut out from sheet metal . In this case I'd rather go for the flat sheet style , possibly with an added bearing . If you should be interested(or anyone else) , just post , and I'll explain , how you can make these small bearings in a drillpress and fix them to the prop blades , it's not that hard to do . greetz:yay: , diemai

@ tc-lures I was to advise you to call in at Stamina's , since they have the largest "Woodchopper" style counterrotating sets of prop blades , as far as I'm concerned . But obviously these are still not large enough to meet your demands . Well 4 1/2" props are REAL big:yes: ! I guess , that you'd have to make them at home out of sheet metal , either brass , aluminium or stainless steel . I have done that just a very few times before , though not in such large sizes . The problem about this would be , that the larger the prop is , the more it would be subject to "untwisting" it's shape and/or pitch , since the thin sheet metal might not be rigid enough . The material of those ready made SSt props is just a lot more rigid than the SSt sheets , that you could possibly work on at home . I have also found , that aluminium sheet props don't seem to generate as much noise compared to brass or SSt ones , guess this is , because they are lighter and don't "shoulder" into the water as good . Also props of that large size surely do require a bearing , so that they won't have too much play on their shaft , which would result into improper spinning motion . Either this could be an inset homemade brass bearing(you can make such in a drillpress outta round brass dowel) or the prop is made in a way , that the sheet metal would be "double folded" somehow at the center bore , so it would have two bearing points on the shaft . greetz , diemai

@ dramone This "Ugly Duckling" is cool , really great design ! I like the paddle feet of wood , really help to retain the ducks buoancy . Also the outer shape with head down and tail up hits the sight of a fleeing duckling a lot better and obviously is also a lot more stable in swimming performance . Makes me think about trying once more................! Thanks for posting ! greetz ,diemai

@ justwannafish Many years ago during my early days of making wooden lures , I have seen a picture of sucha lure in an American musky tackle catalog . So I was curious about how such lure would act in the water and tried to make a knock-off , carved outta pinewood . If my memory serves me right , the original lure was from a company called "Gopher Baits" . Anyway , that lure turned out a little heavy with all the added hardware and hangs quite deep in the water at rest , only the very back and neck/head would stick out . The paddle wheels I have made out of aluminium square tubing , both of them turn free on the center axis . The lure only provides a reasonable , though not very perfect action at medium retrieve speed , and only with the rod tip pointing upward . Retrieved too slow , the wheels would not spin , on a fast pace the lure would overturn . Anyway , it was a great experience for me building it , so not in vain entirely . Years after having built that lure , an original lure like in that previously mentioned catalog got to my hands , it is made of hollow plastic material and plated with some stuff like silk . I couldn't find it anymore for pictures now , sorry , but I remember that it even performed worse than my knock-off , it would start to capsize and spin instantly on retrieve . I have later somehow fixed a keelweight to it , it swam upright than , but the paddle wheels still wouldn't spin . All this happened years ago , since I gave up upon such type of lures with paddle wheels , very tricky stuff ! But one might rig sucha duckling somehow with spinnerblades as well ! Forgot to mention , the lure is 3 2/5" long , from tip of pick and tail ! Greetz:yay: , diemai

@ benton B Lures made of a denser kinda wood wiggle more sluggish than lookalikes made of balsa or similar lighter material . Also heavily weighted lightwood lures act more sluggish , found out about this when I first purchased the "Rapala Super Shad Rap" sinking versions , which were new in maybe 2005 . These are exactly same shape and material(Balsa)like the famous floating "Super Shad Rap" , but are about 3/4's more in weight . Well , whereas the floating version starts to wiggle instantly as you start the retrieve , the sinking version needs a certain retrieve distance to "kick" to work , about 3 to 4 feet ! Also the wiggle is not as pronounced and of slightly lower frequency . @ hazmail Roughly the "Zalt" acts like a "Flatfish" , same kind of moves , but at a much lower frequency . When retrieving a "Flatfish" , the rod tip would almost vibrate , with a steady retieve of a "Zalt" it would only swing up and down a bit periodically . greetz , diemai

@ pikeman Allright , here is their link , English version should be available ! Start greetz , diemai

@ pikeman The "Zalt" is a famous Swedish lure , that obviously has quite a large fan community amongst European pike anglers . As far as I am concerned , they are available in just a few sizes and in floating and sinking versions . The "Zalt" does not wiggle at a high frequency , but comes lazily rolling and tailshaking back in . Best way fishing them is making twitches with the rod , the lure would then break out sideward , sending out a certain flash with its belly , almost corkscrewing , but thus not overturning . Watched this on a DVD before , for some reason I don't belong to the fans of this one , though I have 2 or 3 knock-offs:huh:! greetz , diemai