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Here are some of my recent cranks. The bolt could be used to do the background for a nice white bass pattern/paintjob. I used aluminum HVAC tape on all. The other patterns were done with a bastard file. I'm still a rattle canner so I'm all about the foil!

hey DUCBOS can you be specific about what you bought (brand, what exactly it is called, size, and cost). Does anyone see any reason why it wouldn't work with rattle can paint? thanks!

I haven't been able to reproduce the crackle. I'm getting only a very small amount now.

I agree with those who said rapalas are known for breaking bills. I like their lures but they are not durable. I've broken lips on DT's, Xraps, long-cast minnow, floaters, countdowns. I only very rarely (once or twice ever ) have broken bills on non-rapalas.

thank you too diemai. You have many great and unique designs as well as excellent advice. I would like to get into thru-wire designs also. I haven't tried one yet.

nice shape. It's similar to my favorite and most successful crank - the one on the right (my first 3 cranks) I've made about 10 so far.

on mine it happened before any clear coats. I used cheap flat off white spray paint from odd lots on top of krylon brushed metallic spray paint. Got to watch it crackle which was pretty cool. Looking forward to experimenting. you could also probably get a crackle(or other cool) effect by using different types of paints on top of each other before they are dry. The flat paint I used was enamel, not sure about the krylon. Are most spray paints enamels? Or some acrylics?

I just found this out by accident on the bottom of a foiled crank and it turned out quite good. I'm looking forward to playing around with this technique.

thanks for the responses and pics - good stuff! I'll post pics of my small crankbaits and report my findings when they are done(haven't started and got busy with school so it may be a month or so). And keep the ideas and pics coming. I had posted earlier about using 0.030" and 0.040" thick Lexan for lips and it didn't seem many here had experience with either. I've made a few cranks with the 0.040" and (while I haven't fished them yet) it seems like it will be fine. I'm thinking in the future for any crank that's about 5/16 oz or less I will use the 0.040" and not the 0.060" thick. For really small cranks the 0.030" would probably be even better.

A pic diemai posted (partially shown here)has me wanting to try making a small single treble crankbait. Something in size between a bomber Fat A 03 (1 1/4", 1/8 oz) and a bomber Fat A 04 (1 1/2" 1/5 oz). Something a little bit smaller than a lucky craft bevy crank, but bigger than a strike king bitsy minnow. Ultimately I would love to be able to make a crank the size of the bitsy minnow, but realize that will be a total pain in the butt, especially getting it to be balanced, float upright(or just float period), swim straight, and have good action ?'s 1. While making something like this with a single treble would be easier, I'm not sure it would be conducive to providing better action. Comments? I'm thinking the weight of a 2nd rear hook will help provide better action. But I also know there are commercially available microcranks with a single treble hook that have good action (yo zuri aille goby, and yo zuri snap beans). 2. If you did go with a single treble where would you locate it? In the very back? About where diemai did? Or on the belly? I realize this isn't exactly answerable without knowing the exact shape, but answer as best you can. 3. Where (and how) would you weight it/if at all? (this depends on answer to #2). 4. Would you even bother with a treble? Or just go with a single hook? Or go with two single hooks? What kind of hook? 5. Would you go with basswood or balsa? If balsa you could add more weight towards the bottom which would help it balance/sit upright better. With basswood, you may be able to get by without adding any additional ballast at all. Sorry for all the ?'s but I know how difficult this is gonna be and figured I'd pick your brains first. I'll be using 0.040" lexan for bill. And lastly, I would love to see pics of any small/ultralight cranks you have made, especially those with a single treble. Thanks!

maybe someone should try to make them using lexan as a lip. It would give a more pronounced action than the current material they are using. I would think this would be better for many trailers, especially those that don't have a whole lot of "action" to begin with. For example, a zoom super fluke on a scrounger type head with lexan bill seems like it would work nicely.

nice looking bait. I mostly make smaller cranks out of basswood and have found that it really takes minimal weighting, which combined with a few layers of paint, and a single thick coat of D2T turns them into either very slow risers, suspenders (if you are lucky enough to get the weighting just right), or (slow) sinkers. The smaller the baits you make, the harder it is to keep them floaters (and cast well, be balanced, have good action, etc). Lake Perris - the memories of climbing at Big Rock lol....

got out for about 5 minutes today to take a few test casts. I am happy with the action of the single jointed. It swims straight, in an overall vertical postion (when viewed head-on), and has good wiggle. Although I would like to have a more pronounced wiggle, I am happy with the results(looks pretty fluid when viewed from above). The double jointed don't swim as well. The biggest problem is that they don't appear to be balanced. I think they need more weight at the bottom (but concentrated towards the side that needs it to better balance them)of all three segments (but especially the front segment I'm thinking). I only had a few minutes and didn't try to tune them by bending the tie in or filing the lip so hopefully they can be made to swim better. All in all for as much time as I put into these, it is kind of disapointing as I thought they would swim better. Hopefully I can tinker with them and get them to swim reasonably. I also think I should have made the joints bigger. One of my design goals was to make the joint area as small as possible (for aesthetic reasons, I didn't want them looking like jointed rapalas) but I'm not so sure that this is the best idea. Smaller joint areas probably work better when the segments are "V'ed" (when viewed from above). I'm determined to get them to swim properly, the ? is can I do it without having to completely strip/sand(they've got 2 layers of D2T)/repaint/refoil/drill holes to add more weight them. Probably not....

I recently got a shallot plastic netting bag that looks like it will work nicely.

haven't tested them out yet. I river fish mostly and we have gotten a bunch of rain lately so they are waaay up. As far as the shape, I started with 2.5" x 3/8" basswood blanks that I got from Kelly at Mimic. I took a handsaw to them and went from there....like Rookie says just start making. I tested them before I put the lips in to see by chance if they'd work as a (topwater) swimbait and they didn't float in a vertical postition so I added about 7 layers of HVAC aluminum tape to the bottoms of all of them. Didn't test them after that. So far I've made about 10 cranks. In 5 of them, I am completely happy with the action. 3 swim straight but in a "slightly off vertical" position, and 2 I need to tinker with. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on these as they took a while to make. Seems like with smaller cranks (these are actually the biggest I've made thus far) you must be real precise to get "perfect" action. Here's a close up of the last one that includes some holographic scale tape.

Here are some jointed bass cranks I just finished. They are my first jointed cranks so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they swim straight and have good action. One of the triple segmented is weighted solely with aluminum HVAC tape on the bottom while the others also have split shots for ballast.

I use the D2T to coat about 1 bass crank at a time(sometimes 2). I get maybe 7 or so out of a tube. The smaller the batches you mix, the lower the probability of mixing a 50:50 ratio becomes. Air bubbles can get in there, plus it's not that accurate of a system to begin with for mixing small amounts of viscous materials.

sorry about that, never seen one in person. I do like the idea of turning a soft plastic into a crankbait type lure though.