pizza

getting back to the original ?, the material property that you are looking for is basically toughness. But toughness depends on many things like loading conditions(how quickly specimen is loaded, etc). The types of tougness data you would find would not be a good representaion of a crank banging off a rock. Typically toughness is measured by taking the area underneath the curve of a "stress vs strain" plot prior to catastrophic failure when a specimen (of one of various types of standard "dog bone" dimensions) is pulled on a tensile tester (like an Instron). Any #'/data s you will be able to find regarding tougness (probably very little, unless you really bug the manufacturers) will basically be meaningless since they aren't simulating the sudden impact of a crank hitting a rock. Even if you could find toughness data from different manufacturers that were tested under the same condtions, the fact that the coatings are different thickness, essentially voids out any comparisons you may make(etex goes on thinner than D2T,etc). Your best bet is actually a simple old "trial and error" of difn't epoxies/clear coats. Not sure about Izod, just remember it is an impact test. But even data on this is basically meaningless for the same reasons given above (it isn't a good simulation of a crank hitting a rock, and different coatings are different thicknesses and data is dependent on thicknesses, etc) Not a fan of the #6 triple grips(too small a distance bw the points and the main shaft of the treble, not good in intitial hook up %). I hear the long shank triple grip hooks work better in the #6 size. Haven't used the standard #4 triple grips but here they are better than the standard #6 triple grips. I actually just started a thread on riversmallies about #6 triple grips (lost one too many pig smallies a few days ago on a bandit footloose with #6 triple grips) and this is what people said.

amazing work. I'm a rattle canner myself and that there is some inspiration!

looks great - nice and smooth. I also like the style of those.

you probably don't want to see the floor of my bedroom lol.

Nice ones guys! The teeny tot is amazing whittler! I'm burnt out on the lil guys right now but I'll probably try a (sub)dime sized in the future. I'll definately be checking out single octopus hooks the next time I am at the store. Thus far I've been using a single #8 treble. Thanks for all the advice everyone.

great action - looking forward to the finished product!

those heddon pumpkinseeds look sweet! How do they fish/how is their action? Perhaps the white is caused by outgassing of something else in the tacklebox? Maybe soft plastics? Just an idea.

Great thread and way to think outside the box DSV. You are running into the exact problem I did when I tried to make a tri-segment flatsided bait (see my gallery pics). Especially with baits whose height/width ratio is large, keeping them upright is tricky. Keep at it and add more weight as low as possible. Perhaps maybe consider lead plumbing tape(I've never seen it, only heard of it). This way your weight would be at the very bottom of the segments which will best help it stay in an upright position. You may need to add some epoxy and sand the area of the plumbing tape afterwords (and make longer hook hangers)to get that "seamless/smooth" look though. Best of luck and thanks for the thread.

Thanks Benton & I really like your fat bodied single trebled too! That will be one of my next ventures, haven't really tried any fat bodies yet. I also want to get into the 3/16-1/4 maybe even 5/16 oz single treble cranks. Dual trebles and river smallies often don't jive even when mostly debarbed (and LC designs their slender pointer with 3 trebles specifically for (river) smallies WTF?!?!). I hear ya and still think I would go with the 40 over the 30 for the slightly extra weight it provides towards the front of the bait. I haven't experimented with the circuit board but plan too. I've gotten my 60 mil and 40 mil at a local hobby shop- 8"x9" for about $4.50. BUt I do want to get into the circuit board thinner lip material too.

another pic showing the 2nd and 3rd smallest. and another pic showing smallest (unfinished) and 2nd smallest next to some commercially available ultralights for comparison. Yo zuri aille goby, repainted strike king bitsy minnow, rapala mini fat rap, bomber fat a 3, rapala countdown 5 (they do make a countdown 3, I just don't own one) Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever be making cranks similar in size to a mini fat rap!!! Keeping my fingers crossed that they swim well!!! These are fun to fish, not so much to sand lol. and I see no reason why 30 mil (0.030")lexan wouldn't work for cranks this small. These were all made with 0.040" though which seems to work well.

I've been making some ultralight crankbaits lately. Here are my 3 smallest - all mohogany. The 2nd smallest is the only one with a dedicated ballast (a single water gremlin 735-BB round split shot). It is the only one I've fished with thus far and I've done real well with it. I ended up cutting off about 3 mm of the lip on it since these pics were taken, made for better action. The smallest and 3rd smallest don't have any dedicated ballast so I'm hoping the weight of the hooks are enough weight to give it good action and help it swim in an upright position. pic 1. The unfinished 2nd smallest showing ballast. pic 2. 3 smallest in a plano 2-3601 box. pic 3. Smallest

Love to read your posts diemai. You have put in your time and then some. I'm not worried about my superglued eyelets as fishing poles are flexible and the largest forces those eyelets is gonna see ain't squat(and I fish with mono which is forgiving/stretchy). The super glue absorbs extremely well and I bet there is a large volume in there that has superglue. If it breaks it will probably break at the superglue/wood interface or just in the wood part which will mean the lure will end up snapping in two rather than the eyelet pulling out. Plus you've then got your epoxy clearcoat(s) adding yet even more strength/structural integrity. Works for me and as the saying goes "if it ain't broken don't fix it". With balsa I would do the dowell rod thing for sure. I did buy some balsa 1/4" X 1" X 36" and do plan to do thru wire with that since I'll be putting two pieces together anyways. cheers. The joint on this bait was made using a modified dowell rod technique. Instead of using screw eyes I used wire and cut slits opposite each other in each of the two dowell rods. I had no idea that people were using dowells in commercially available baits, glad to know my idea wasn't completely off the wall.

I was super close to tossing those pliers and only ended up keeping them bc I thought they could come in handy when working with electricity some day (they were given to me). Never thought I'd end up using them for this. But when it came time to making eyelets I didn't want to use anything metal that would nick up the wire. At any rate, I'm a newbie myself, but all I fish are my baits (well 98+% of the time) and have done extremely well on them. I feel they are as good as anything I could buy and have complete confidence in them. I've seen some of your postings on TT (I'm not a member) and jeeebus I can not believe how well some of the guys on there (yourself included) know their cranks! Good lord?!?!?!!! (that's a good thing, I'm a crankbait nut myself) I'm sure you will do well with this new hobby! Welcome to the addiction.....

Great idea but not always practical. For example if your finished shape ends up being significantly different in shape than your rough blank (sometimes its nice to just shape away and not be restricted by any design constraints like a pre-cut lip slot) it can be difficult to envision where to cut the lip slot. I just sand/file/shape away until I get the shape I want. I eye up "eyeballing" my final lip cut with a hand saw. Thus far I've made perhaps 30 baits. Some of my first baits needed tuning (mostly lip filing) to swim straight but I just tested my latest 7 baits and none needed any tuning. So it can be done fine with practice. Don't get me wrong though, in general that would be the way to go. I don't even have the tools to do that if I wanted to. The only saw I own is a $4 stanley hand saw (whose blade just happens to be the same width as 0.040" thick lexan---if I use 0.060" lexan I just sand the slot wider)

and to make my hook hangers/tie in I just use those plastic Xtools pliers that are completely useless for fishing. The key might be getting really thin (low viscosity) super glue so that it absorbs well (not the gel stuff). The stuff I use is 6 tubes for 97 cents and it works great for this.

has anyone ever tried out the following as an alternative to thru wiring when working with balsa? 1. Get a small diameter dowell rod (maybe 7 mm diameter or so and cut it to about 1.5 cm long). 2. Drill small hole in middle where screw eye will go. 3. Screw in screw eye (perhaps with a drop of superglue). 4. Drill holes that are the diameter of the dowell into bait where the hooks and tie in will go. 5. Super glue in dowells to bait. 6. Make surfaces "flush with rest of bait" by adding super glue and/or epoxy and sanding. I've been making my lures mostly out of basswood and my hook hangers/tie in are all held in with super glue and super glue only (sometimes I seal the wood with super glue too). It absorbs real well into the wood and I've never had a hook pull out (smallmouth up to 18.5"). Heres a pic of how I do mine out of basswood. I usually cut the hangers shorter than they look in the pic (to about 1.5 cm length or so). It takes a couple days as I keep having to add super glue since it absorbs so well into the wood (and it would absorb even better into balsa as it is less dense), but as far as I'm concerned these these are bomber!

I think you are referring to the David Fritts/VMC "sure set" trebles(I've never heard of Fritts Stingers)? The instructions say to have the larger point point up on the back hook and down on the front hook. Although I'm not sold on the sure set design, I do occasionally use them to fine tune the "front/rear balance" on smaller cranks. I'm starting to get sick of trebles as they can really tear up smallmouths' mouths sometimes. I may try cutting off one of the barbs and seeing if it significantly lowers my hookup %.

not sure if your baits are single or double jointed but if they are single jointed the following worked for me (on small jointed baits, like 3/8 oz range). I just took a (cut) narrow rubber band and wrapped it around the joint really tight. This made my baits more or less rigid so that I could paint/epoxy them. Note, I did not epoxy all the way to the middle as my "gaps bw segments" were very small (plus the rubber band takes up a small amount of space right around the joint). Then when I was done, I was able to just poke around at the rubber band with an exacto/paper clip and bc the rubber band was wrapped so tightly, it was able to "spring loose". Probably not the best method but it worked for me and was the only way I could think of. If you want to see the baits this worked for, they are the only baits pictured in my gallery. It would work fine for any of the rapala jointed baits or similar style.

do most here believe that two points up and one down on the rear treble makes for better hookups? I've never seen a store bought bait come that way, and everything I've read (like the instructions that come with some hooks) say otherwise. Nice detailed reply, would have never thought about some of those considerations.

looks great - awesome for your first bait! Kinda like a poes but with a better lip. Did you just press gently on the rattle can to get the splatterback/speckled look? Was the can fully shaken and how far did you hold the rattlecan from the bait? Another technique (which I have yet to try) to get that look is to use a toothbrush and some (thinned with laquer thinner to a milk consistency) model paint like testors brand. That tip courtesy of fatfingers.

for all you rattle canners, the krylon "stained glass" paint works great when looking to get a transparent finish. It comes in a smaller can, maybe 8 oz or so.

Although the Lucky Craft MS series of colors (MS stands for magic scale) are my favorite colors and the most realistic finishes I have ever seen, that sounds like a royal pain in the butt! I just may have to try it sometime.....for larger muskie sized baits one might be able to glue down sequins or some of the other goodies places like hobby lobby sells. I know when I was walking through the isles of that place, I got all kinds of crazy ideas.... Good stuff!

shallot "bags" (shallots are kinda like small onions). Onion "bags". I'm looking for a source of mesh like that found on the back section/side pockets of certain backpacks and other outdoor gear like some climbing rope bags. This has more and thicker material and thus lets less paint through (unlike shallot bags, onion bags, and some of the webbing I found at hobby lobby).

Discovered this works great and offers many sized holes that are smaller than a standard paper hole punch. I think the punches are for making holes in leather. Just find some glossy "cardstock type ad" from the sunday paper or wherever and tape some electrical tape to it. Then use the punch. Finally use an exacto knife to start the separating and then just pull apart with fingers. The smaller size works great for smaller sized baits. The other two are a couple others I just finished. All used a large bolt to get the foil pattern. The first 2 shad shaped are fairly thin and completely contoured (sanding, sanding, and more sanding). The larger of the two measures 0.3505" thick at its thickest point. I'm starting to completely cover my baits with foil then and use thinner layers of paint to get a more refective/metallized look.

Just wondering which style you prefer and why. I prefer the vertical since I mostly make smaller (1/4 oz range, working on smaller)flatsided cranks and my biggest issue is balance (i.e. the lures swimming in an average vertical position and not 5 or 8 degrees off vertical). I like the vertical hangers because it lowers the weight of the rear hook by about 3 mm. By having the weight of the rear hook at a lower position, I think it increases the odds of my baits swimming in an "average vertical position". So which style do you prefer and why?