RayburnGuy

Fish eyes are caused by contaminants, such as oil from your hands, on the surface of the bait. It has nothing to do with how thick the Etex is. Etex, or any other epoxy for that matter, doesn't CAUSE fish eyes. If you don't like wearing rubber gloves try washing your hands in hot water and Dawn dish washing liquid before handling your baits. Ben

Can't help you with resin as I've never used it. Ben

The eye sockets look completely different on the Megabass lure. Ben

Are you sure it was Etex they were thinning? It goes on pretty thin as it is. Most builders that use it apply multiple coats to get a thicker coating. Ben

That's got to be it Glenn. Ben

Wives get more new appliances that way. Maybe we aren't as sneaky as we think we are. Ben

You should give the folks at the link Gino provided a look Bob. They have their balsa broken down into a much narrower weight range that what you stated. You of course pay a higher price for hand picked balsa. Ben Extra Light Balsa at (6 or less pounds per cubic foot) is 100% extra. Light Balsa at (6-10 pounds per cubic foot) is 40% extra. Medium Balsa at (10-14 pounds per cubic foot) is 40% extra. Heavy Balsa at (14-19 pounds per cubic foot) is 40% extra. Extra Heavy Balsa at (19+ pounds per cubic foot) is 100% extra.

It depends mostly on the type of wood your using. The softer grades of balsa will usually need a wire through design. The species of fish your going after can also play a role in the choice. Toothy, more violent species, such as musky and pike, will put a lot more stress on a lure than bass or panfish so a wire through might be a better choice. Ben

Not sure what happened to his Toledo Bend store, but figured him shutting everything down was just a rumor. Ben

That's where I get my balsa Gino. As you say it can be a little confusing when trying to figure up a final cost, but they send an itemized invoice for your final approval before the order is filled. I've had nothing but good service from them and they fill/ship your order quickly after your final approval. Ben

Acetone flashes off so quickly I doubt it's leaving anything behind after cleaning. Denatured alcohol works better for me than acetone both to thin the epoxy and clean the brush. I do use acetone after cleaning the brush with denatured alcohol, but that's just to remove any alcohol that may be left in the brush. A tiny amount of epoxy can be left behind mixed in with the alcohol and the last rinse with acetone is just to remove that before storing the brush. Ben

Have you tried adding a transparent base to your airbrush paints? You can alter the opacity enough that you can barely tell there's any color at all when you spray the bait. What about candies or even dyes? Ben

No joke Al. A friend of mine swears he's put at least one of Gary's kids through college all by himself.

That's what I thought Mark. As successful as his business is it's hard to believe he'd just shut it down instead of selling it or having some of his family taking it over and running it.

Heard a rumor today that Gary Yamamoto was shutting down. Friend of mine said he had heard that and then when he was coming back from Toledo Bend the other day he saw Gary's shop over there closed and boarded up. Anyone else heard anything about this? thanks guys, Ben

I'd like to have seen the look on Flattie's face when he was fighting that big girl. Bet there was a lot more "oh crap" than smiling going on. lol Ben

I'm not a swim jig aficionado, but the color that has produced the best for me is a white skirt with some white/black bars mixed in on the back. This is usually fished with a 3" pearl swimbait trailer. Ben

I seem to remember reading some threads about using the mini blaster for powder paint. You might ask some of the wire baits guys or do a search in the archives. I don't do powder painting so can't really help on that subject. If you read the article I posted you will notice down close to the bottom where it says "Flake should not be applied with an Air Brush". A .5mm nozzle is a fairly large nozzle for an airbrush and you said you were already having trouble with that size nozzle. That's one of the reasons why the HVLP guns you see have nozzles upwards of 1mm with many of them in the 2mm to 2.5mm range. Ben

I know very little about the different types of respirators, but do remember reading a lot of what Travis says when I was researching a respirator for use with auto clears. Another thing I remember reading was to store your respirator in something like a Ziploc bag when not in use. The filters are designed to be replaced after a certain number of hours of exposure. Keeping them sealed in an airtight container will help extend their life. Ben

Buy an HVLP gun with a larger nozzle would indeed allow you to spray a clear/flake mix, but the only HVLP guns that I've seen have a rather large container capacity. This wouldn't be a problem if you were spraying a large number of baits, but the amount used to spray 1 or 2 baits might not be worth getting the gun dirty for. You would probably lose close to that amount just cleaning the spray gun. An alternative to spraying a clear/flake mix would be to first spray the bait with a clear coat and then spray the flake through a dry flake gun while the clear coat was still wet. This could be repeated as often as necessary until you got the coverage you wanted if it couldn't be done with one spraying. I sometimes use this method using a mini sand blaster to spray the flake. Doing it this way gives a truly random effect without the clumping and thick spots associated with trying to sprinkle the flake on by hand. Another dry sprayer is the Flake Buster. I've seen it advertised, but have no personal experience with it so can't offer an opinion one way or the other. This is one of those things that you will have to figure out what fits into your build scheme and whether or not the ends justify the means. good luck, Ben

Here's an article about the different sizes of flake and the suggested nozzle sizes needed to spray them. Ben http://www.onallcylinders.com/2015/02/23/monday-mailbag-tips-spraying-metal-flake-paint/

That is a beautiful fish. Big congrats. Ben

Dynamite is a lot quicker. If your going to throw something in the water might as well get a bang out of it. Ben

Chuck, Due to a problem with my computer a while back I've lost my bookmarks for the suppliers I've bought Paulownia from. I do remember that both times it was ordered from a different supplier. What I did the couple times I've ordered it was to just do a search for "paulownia supplier" without the quotation marks. I just did a search and below is the link to that supplier. Have not ordered from them before so I can't give a review of their services. You might even check Ebay. The paulownia I've received did have a few knots in the boards. I think this varies from one supplier to the next, but not sure. I can't remember what I paid for the paulownia I've ordered, but don't think it was unreasonable. Paulownia also has some grain you will have to get used to. If you try to take too big of a bite when carving it can splinter on you. These issues are no worse than other woods that have their own idiosyncrasies though. All in all it's my belief that paulownia is a good wood for building cranks that will hold up well and has good buoyancy while still being tough enough that through wire harnesses aren't required. I liked it well enough that I've planted 2 tress in my yard. They grow extremely fast (one of mine grew over 13 feet in one year) and are great shade trees since the leaves on them are huge. They also seem to tolerate drought really well. While some of the other trees in the yard were showing signs of drought the paulownia trees stayed nice and green. Be warned that they do have a VERY AGGRESSIVE root system and that the trees sprout from these roots. You'll have to keep them in check or you will be living in a paulownia forest before you know it. Hope this helps and good luck. Ben http://www.worldpaulownia.com/paulownia-wood/

The way I see it the more steps you add to the build the more chances there are to get something wrong and the more difficult it's going to be to duplicate the bait once you get it to do what you want it to. In small baits a little difference can have a huge effect. Balsa comes in something like 5 different densities. Anywhere from less than 6 lbs per cubic foot...........6 to 10 lbs.............10 to 14 lbs...................14 to 19 lbs.........and over 19 lbs per cubic foot. The heavier it is the more dense it is. The more dense it is the stronger it is. Yes you'll have to pay extra for hand picked balsa, but it takes a lot of the guesswork and added build time out of the equation. I agree with Bob and Chuck. When your having a problem with the buoyancy of a bait your trying to build and the tolerances are so close that you can't even add ballast without it sinking then your working too close to the edge and just making things harder on yourself. just my Ben