diemai

Hi , folks , Spent the late evening at the computer again to jam together some older pictures , that I had saved on a disc long time ago , .............hope , that they might still come in useful for TU users , ........any further questions welcome , ......please also read YouTube describtions . cheers , diemai

Hi , folks , Spent some time on the computer again tonite putting together some older pictures to another little "How-To" . Probably I'd be able to provide some input for one or another tinkerer in here . Please also read my describtions on YouTube , ........off course all upcoming question will be gladly answered ! Good luck , diemai

@ Coley Thanks a lot , .....and the best thing is , that they really do catch fish ! greetz , diemai

Thanks a lot for you kind words , folks , ....much appreciated ! @ Coley What a nice compliment , ....in this case , ....mission accomplished ! @ RayburnGuy Ben , there are other ways to furnish rattles for homemade baits , but most of these methods require a higher working effort in my opinion Many folks furnish the crosswise bore with some kinda lining(for better roll of the inserted BB's) , may this be a straw , an empty pen or also some metal tubing , etc , .......BUT they would need to glue in some kind of closure lids on either end of the bore , which requres to furnish a countersunk on either end of the bore , ......most likely the lures shape should be completed at this stage , I guess , ..........for my own rattles I can drill the hole 8,0mm dia when the blank is still square , ....and no countersunks required . Also these glued on lids can cause failures of the rattle , if one does not watch out and glue remainders flow into the rattle chamber . On German forums I had seen one guy using the coins of the former German Democratic Republic for this purpose , as they were pretty light made of an aluminium alloy , another guy used the flat disc-shaped heads of paper tacks . I just wanted to get around this added effort , ....just create a closed rattle casing , assemble it and close the bore with putty , ...done , ........and making these rattles shown comes in quite easy and fast , once you'd get the hang on it , anyway , This rattle is too large for smaller and lighter lures , ........for such I'm using so-called "jig-rattles" of plastic , just snip off the mushroom-shaped extension meant to be attached to a jigheads skirt collar and it's ready to be inserted into a timber blank . @ littleriver I haven't yet tried glassbeads for rattles(apart from worm rigs) , ......I just think that they are too light , thus would not have as much power on impact as rolling back and forth inside of the rattle chamber , ........thus won't generate as much noise as BB's fof steel . .........though I may be wrong about it , .....just haven't tried it ! That fiddle music is traditional Cajun Music from Louisana , I've come across many years ago watching an America movie on TV and since I liked these tunes with their disctinctive fiddle play and backing triangle , ......the band(the Balfa Brothers)in the movie is also playing that little tune I've used for my video(not banned on German YouTube , either ), .........guess , that the melody in the movie is their most famous ? Even electric guitar superstar Mark Knopfler adapted the Cajun style in a song on one of his former albums : That coin is a European 50 cent coin , .......it's diameter is 24,25 mms , .......so about .96 inch , ..........don't have any American coins at hand , sorry ! Thanks again , greetz , Dieter

Ok , .....I had put this video up in the hardbait forums some days ago , ..........just thought of that I should better have placed it in here , sorry ! greetz , diemai

Hi there , folks , This time I'm smarter , ....thought of uploading this little picture compilation here in the tutorial section straightaway . I have uploaded these pictures in the forums quite a while ago , but these days I just got smarter with the computer(with the help of my dear daughter Andrea) , ....so I was able to put them out on video even together with a music track . Of course any upcoming questions will be answered , ..........greetz , diemai

Thanks a lot , fellas , ........these are just some humble attempts to make some good spoon lures , .........but these do work out and they catch ! I've put this video up on German site as well , ..........one pretty much experienced guy there(he built his own CNC router to make hardbait blanks or casting molds) told me , that instead of a wooden beating template one could also use a thicker plate of lead for making the initial cupping of the spoon blank , ........the soft lead would indent under the hits of the plastic hammer . I haven't tried this before , but I imagine , that one would get a more even surface this way , so that not so many fine-shaping with a ball peen hammer on a steelplate or an anvil might be neccessary after that initial cupping ? But on ther other hand there would be the usual health concerns about lead ! greetz , Dieter

Very nice video , ......you make it look so easy ! greetz , diemai

Thanks , folks , .................sadly I had to change the soundtrack , 'cause ol' Jimi Hendrix must not be used on German Youtube , ........there have been lawsuits opened by the local music industry against certain websites forbidding them to publish certain music tunes . As a result this video was not accessible to German viewers , so I had to kick Jimi out to be replaced with a tune offered by YouTube , ...now it should be not banned over here anymore . @ sammy01007 Commercial spoons might have become that expensive , because prices for brass and especially copper have drastically increased on world's markets , .........over here we frequently hear about some hoodlums disassembling copper drainpipes , copper roofing or even electric wiring from railroad tracks to sell these to scrapyards . Scrapyards should be your source of material as well , ........unless you know someone working in a place , where he might get some scrap pieces for free or little money . I'm making most of my spoons out of stainless steel sheet(getting it free at my work) , but this tuff stuff requires industrial grade power tools to be cut to outer shape , ........I only utilize same methods as shown to furnish the cupping (still comes harder compared to brass or copper) . @ littleriver I've used 20mm thick beechwood , ........so I guess , any 1" hardwood board would do , .......maple and oak would surely work . Once I've cracked up such a template , it was deeper cupped and I've bee working on a bigger stainless steel blank , so that wood block received a lot of punishment and finally did not hold up , just split lengthwise in a clean cut . I've glued it together again and reinforced it with some square hardwood pieces , glued and screwed crosswise against the bottom of the mended template , .......no problems occured anymore with that one so far . With brass and copper such won't happen(average sized spoons of SST are also OK in that way) , as the metal is softer and bends easier , ........in fact especially with copper sheet ones has to care to to be carried away and furnish the cupping too deep , causing the spoon to flip over onto it's reverse side and only flutter up-and-down instead of nicely wobbling along . I'd strongly advise to test(with hooks assembled)every spoon prior to polishing , painting , applying decal foil or whatsoever souping-up one intends to do . These "Shoehorn" style spoons are quite "good-natured" in terms of getting them to swimm well , ....also the tradional German "EffZett"-spoon shape , wider symetric spoons with pointed ends or pointed tail ends in general are a bit harder to do . Material thickness can be 1,0 to 2,o millimetres , copper sheet even 2,5mm , .......2,0mm stainless requires a helluva beating to achieve the cupped shape , ......not impossible , but only for the passionate like me , I guess ! Once you have the beating tempate , you can also shape smaller sized spoons in it , you do not neccessarely need a template for each size , .......for all of my different spoons , that I've made through so many years(you may check my gallery on the last album pages) , I've only utilized three of these , ......and another shallower one for 0,5mm SST spinner blades . good luck , Dieter

Hi , folks , Bored at home , fooling around with the computer for hours , .........finally I've managed to put some older pictures from my files and ol' Jimi together , ......do not know , what I exactly did and why , .......but at some stage it was suddenly there ! Hope that it might come in helpful , off course any further questions will be answered ! greetz , diemai

I can only second to that , .......have turned down some lures recently , using similar material to Azek boards , .....so called PUR hardfoam . Generally it is not quite as porous as Azek trim board(I've seen samples sent to me from the USA) , but occassionally has bigger airbubbles enclosed . It turns down easier than the usual timbers , maybe a bit like balsa , .........one really has to take care of not applying too much pressure with chisels and afterwards sandpaper , ...one might easily take off too much material as intended , ......also not to forget the possibility of easier breakage due to increased porousity(though not as much with my PUR stuff) . good luck , diemai

G'day , mate , .........surely looking forward to pictures of your baits and yellas ! Welcome aboard , ...cheers , diemai