EdL

If I remember right Createx and Auto-air are water bourne type paints. That is they can be thinned with water not hydrocarbon based thinners. Createx is used by T-shirt painting guys and heat set. Auto-air is made for painting metallic surfaces. But for painting lure either will work. Whats good about either one is they can be covered with E-tex or Devcon when the paint is heat set. Createx comes in opaque, transparent and pearlized. Opaque has more pigment and therefore covers more. Transparent has less pigment so the paint or color underneath shows through. The auto and motorcycle custom painters use both opague and transparent to get color blends and shades to get those wild fires, ghost, and skull finishes . Pearlized has the pearl already mixed in. I took an beginners airbrush class and the instructor emphasized over and over - it easier to add paint than to remove it so blow on a light coat, dry it and blow on another coat if you want the tone to be darker. It really doesn't take very much time to heat set a coat on a lure before adding a second or third coat with the Createx or Auto-air. Just don't overheat with the heat set. I use a small hand held heater I got from an electronics store to shrink that heatshrink tubing on wiring. A hair dryer would work. Just don't use the war department's hairdryer without permission. It just might mess up your lure painting. Guys who have airbrushed for a while have learned thru experience how much to thin, how far away to hold the airbrush, needle sizes and air pressures to get the paint jobs mastered. I'm still learning.

Google : paasche 62 sprayer and you will get info. Not exactly a double acting airbrush but a small paint sprayer.

Internet search is your friend. Google, Bing or whatever seach "fishing lure mold". There are you-tube videos, and other forums that will have instructions on POP mold making, coating as well as RTV and Bondo. They each have their advantages and disadvantages. My opinion is to pick one and work at it 'till you get the results you are satisfied with. But two things I know for sure= 1. Fish really don't care how pretty the bait is or how perfect. I've caught fish on some pretty scrappy lookinb baits. 2. Lure building can be additive so beware. It can cut into your fishing time if you let it. good luck.

At the top of the hardbait forum page is a "Search" box. Type in Airbrush and click on the mag glass. You will get 3 pages of postings about airbrushing baits. What is best is relative to what you are intererested in doing, how much money you want to spend, what is available, what paints you plan to use, what air supply you have available and the ambient temperature conditions. Like fishing lures - there are many kinds and many colors - so too are airbrushes. So search out the many answers and make your decision. I have 3 airbrushes - Iwata HP-CS, Paache VL and Harder & Steenbeck Ultra One. All three are good airbrushes. Each had different needle and line sizes and used for different purposes. You can also internet search airbrush and find 'tons' of information. Buying airbrushes is like buying a car- many, many kinds. Which one is "best" depends on the driver and what he wants to do. My opinion is buy one and practice, practice and do more practice. Soon you will learn and feel the airbrush and get results you want.

Big Bass Man describes a good method of doing a lateral line. IMHO fish don't really need to have both side of the bait to be identical. With the bait wobbling they probably won't notice a difference. I don't see that in nature every line or shape is exact. For grins look carefully in a mirror. Likely your ears are not at the same position on each side. I looked at my dumbo ears and nearly freaked out. lol. Now I walk around with my head tilted. For my last sexy shad build I used createx pearl pineapple: http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee462/Ed_H1946/1st%20PVC%20Crankbaits/4.jpg

You can use any brand of longer curing time epoxy but check out the label or decription- look to see if dries clear. Devcon does but others will say dry transparent amber. If you dont' mind color shift to yellow or ambe it should work but if you want a true clear finish Devcon is preferred.

Just let the hairs grow out and trim it off. Holloween is just around the corner so tell everyone your getting your costume ready early if they start asking or run away grossed out. Sorry everybody to side track this thread. Had a brain phart and couldn't keep my fingers from typing something stupid.

Then watch what you do next with that wet finger. lol

Thanks Vodkaman for correcting my bad assumption. Apologies to Hazmail for the mix up. Both of you guys do such great builds and offer so much help to everyone my head spins.

On the ones you built try eyeballing the bill and mark with a pencil and trim the excess side with a file. For your new ones considder makeing a jig holder. I seem to remember that vodkman came up with jig or tool to hold the bill in place while the epoxy sets up. Try doing a search on this forum. I'm thinking maybe a piece of 1 x 4 with a bunch of finishing nails to hold the bait up and hold the bill aligned. This is something I will try on my next bill. I too had some bills misaligned on the last batch so the lures don't run true. They didn't turn sideways but ran to one side. I'm still on the learning curve myself. As far as the paint job don't worry. I don't think the fish will critique it as much as you. I have some baits that have the paint job scratched and scraped up quite a bit and still catch some on them while I have some nice "pretty ones" that have yet to get a bite. Just keep practicing and you will get it down.

Try looking at the photos from a few feet away and visualize the amount of bill surface is on the left and right side of the lure center line and line tie.. It may be that more of the bill surface is on one side. In the last photo it looks to me like there's more bill on one side which will make the lure turn sideways.It maybe just the way the pic was taken but if there is more bill grab of water on one side than the other side it will turn the lure.

Denatured alcohol should work. If I remember right rubbing alcohol had some water in it. There are different percentages too. I would look for the highest percentage rubbing alcohol if I couldn't get denatured. A tip I learned from a mentor: If you haven't tried a technique before, learn and practice on a scrap piece. If it gets screwed up its now big deal. At least you haven't ruined you masterpiece. When you get the technique down then do the real piece. Less frustration that way.

Check the epoxy lables carefully. Some epoxies will cure out with yellow tint. IF you want a clear finish make sure the epoxy says CLEAR not just transparent or amber.

I agree with BobP about the 85% artist/ user. It just takes practice, practice and more practice. I once worked with a guy who had an old worn out metal lathe. Even though the machine was old and wore out, Pete could turn out some precision pieces on that ole machine. Pete just used that machine so much he got to where he got to know the 'feel' and bumps of that machine. And that was before the era of CNC machine. He said just work with the machine until it become second nature. I've got a long way to go with the airbrush thing but as I use airbrushing more and more I'm learning how the ones I've got behave. I don't get splats and runs as often as I use to. Besides the fish really don't care how pretty the lines are anyway.

The link page says this product is a laquer. The other products mentioned as 2 part are likely urethane products. So results( finish and durability) will vary with application and use. Its up to the user to decide. Everyone will have opinions and likely will be all over the place. Some will have cost and availability concerns and others won't. If you just build a few baits for yourself and friends one might make the most sense to you. If you are in more of a production mode then another finish. In other words its really up to you and what you're willing to try. Kind of like buying a pickup truck. All kinds and all sizes. Pick the one thats best for you.

All my airbrushes are new as I am just starting out. Based on all the research (scanning the internet for article) i have this conclusion. There is some info saying that ammonia can corrode the chrome plating. For me that says if you use a cleaning agent with ammonia it must be washed out with clean water afterwards to flush out any ammonia residue. A cheap airbrush will likely have a thin layer of chrome than a more expensive one. Will it corrode right away- probably not if the brush is used frequently but put it away for a bunch of month you will likely have problems. Also some brands of airbrushes have rubber o-rings. So using acetone, laquer thinner will be hard on the o-rings so they will eventually have problems. Read that there is an airbrush supplier that will replace rubber o-rings with teflon o-ring to make the brush tolerant for automotive type paints and cleaners. Bottom line for me is to use the brush often and do a proper cleaning with a multiple washing fluids folowed wiith an air dryout.

For those who want some information about Stainless Steel such as what the numbers are, annealling, etc: http://www.ssina.com/faq/index.html

Is this what your looking for http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/topic/22155-swimbait-inserts/page__p__165268__hl__longhorn__fromsearch__1#entry165268 If not do a search of the forum for Longhorn.

Hey Vodkaman - don't give up on the jig saw table just yet. I had a brain phart just now a thought 'what about using the jig saw tool but instead of a table just to hold the saw and blade convert the table to a 'scroll saw' type table. Use the motor as the drive for a homemade scross saw blade holder and pivot arm. That way any type of scroll saw blade could be used. Could use jewelery saw blades, blades for wood or even hacksaw blades for rods and thicker metal materials. I'm not as creative as you but I bet you could come up with something. Don't have to buy a whole scroll saw but just come up with some hardwood frames and some bolts, screws and brass bushing for a pivot point. The trick is coming up the with connection between the jig saw stem and the saw blade holder/rocker arm. Like I said an idea or concept. If you decide to try it I would like to see pictures. I already have a bandsaw, table saw and scroll saw for doing woodwork so I would not undertake this adventure myself.

Sound like its time to make a U shaped wooden jig to hold the bait. Make the jig so that the bait is held solid enough to run across a table saw blade that has a tilt feature to cut the slot. If not then the jig will have to hold the bait at the angle of cut. But head this warning- ANY JIG YOU BUILD MUST BE LARGE ENOUGH AND HAVE ENOUGH HOLDING STRENGTH SO YOU DON'T GET INJURED. If you don't think you can make one then don't do itm on a table saw. Use a hand saw instead. I almost got a BAD D D cut by trying to hand hold a small piece to just trim off a short piece. In less than a blink of the eye the saw blade grabbed the piece threw it up at my face and deep cut my finger. Taught me a few important lessons. 1. I was very lucky that day. 2. Don't have to explain being stupid by not using a jig or fixture. 3. Didn't have to listen to the guys telling me how more ugly I am with a wooden piece stuck in my face. 4. Always think about safety before using the table saw (or any power tool). So far I have all my fingers and can see with both eyes.

You might get someone to write a book on this subject if folks might be willing to put up some coin. From all my searching topcoats there are as many ways to do tops coats as there are many pain relievers at the drug store. It would take a book to cover top coats details. There are many variables to describe any single method of topcoat- your location, temperature, humidity for some coatings, e.g. environment. Sources of materials - not everyone has ready access to all the materials. Then there is personal techniques- mixing, application, curing. Oh yeah then there is costs. My take by searching this site as well as other lure building site ( and following custom rod building sites with top coating threads) is that one should try different methods till they find one that works for them. Kind of like cooking food. Give the same ingredients to 10 cooks and you'll likely get 10 different flavors. Sure hope someone is willing to try put in the effort to really detail out their favorite method. It will cut into their lure building time for sure. Some guys have likely learned tricks that they would holod to them selfs especially if they sell their lure. Maybe pick one typeof top coating your interested in learning more and someone could put a tutorial together or point to a site that covers it. I personally kick my self in that I spend more time internet searching subjects then practicing and get past the mistakes and learning curve. Just my 2 cents. Take it for what its worth. Maybe some others have a different take and that's what make this craft interesting and challenging.