EdL

How about taking digital photos of the fish next to a ruler or scale to capture dimensions. Take photos of each side, front, top and bottom. Then you can take the photos and dimensions and carve a replica from whatever material that suits your mold making process. This way you don't mangle the fish and have a model replica of the fish to make multiple molds. Might be tricky finding materials to model the fins and tail but if your going to be adventurous and created you can come up with some ideas. Besides thin materials for fins and such will be more durable I would think for the mold making. Just an idea to consider.

Do an internet search on Spray Booth Design And Fan Selection Several article on design considerations for setting up spray booth - fan size, air velocity, duct size and lengths. Should help you with a setup.

John -sounds like you did the right thing and checked things out before naming your bait. Something similiar happened to a custom rod builder. Some lady got in face about naming or trademarks. Turns out her trademake expired a long time ago. Long story short she got so much bad reputationon htat forum that whatever she was trying to sell, there were a lot of guys who would not buy anything from her. So all she ended up accomplishing is getting a bad reputation and loss of potential sales.

First of all I am not a lawyer so what I say and think ain't worth nothing in court action. Yeah there is a Black Mamba Fishing System company and a web site. He has some baits that didn't look like a snake and uses the Black Mamba name in each of the lure names. So he may have a point. But its kind of lame I think. Just how many company's use Eagle in their name. Do they send C&D letters to everyone who uses the name Eagle in their name. And his baits are more like soft stick baits he calls willy's (slick, ribbed, wild, and atomic wedgie). If you want to avoid any hassle why not change your lure name to something like "The Mamba Snake - like the black mamba". You offer several colors besides black. If he comes up with a snake lure and calls it The Black Mamba send him a C&D letteras you already have one and stick to playing with his willy. I think its where if a company does not do anything about Registered trademarks or Copyrights then they have no grounds of legal action in case they loose alot of money. This way if they send out C&D letters they may have a claim. But its all about the money after all. So if he can affort to hire lawyers and pay them to go after someone then it's probably his right. Will he actually take legal action? Who knows. Sending a letter is cheap. Getting lawyers involved well thats a whole another story. I never heard of Black Mamba Fishing Systems. Now I have. (and don't intend to buy any of his stuff even if it is the best fish catchin system every.) Bullies don't win in my fishing world. If he would have tried to man up and just communicated that he already is using Black Mamba and would you use another name then that would be one thing. But hollering lawyer lawyer lawsuit is lame. Just my 2 cents. I feel better venting. Hope you do too.

http://www.ehow.com/list_7160877_pledge-products-floor-care.html According to this web page there are two versions of Pledge Vinyl and Tile Floor products. The Pledge with Future Shine has the acrylic added. The Pledge with Future Shine is the one that airbrush users add to their paints. Hope this helps. I found some at wally world in the cleaning supply section.

Be aware that some airbrushes have small o-rings that may degrade over time. I didn't find out what the o-ring material is but I did see on a airbrush supplier web page offer solvent resistant o-rings. I took an airbrush class and the instructor said he changed his Iwahta airbrushed from rubber o-nng to teflon. He does all kinds of airbrush work- art work to automobile and use solvent based paints. My take away is that if a brush starts acting up maybe replace the packing o-ring.

I took a begineers airbrush class a while back to get a jump start. One thing the instructor told us was that he sees it takes beginners on average about 40 hours of painting to get the hang of airbrush painting. Like the others have said there is a lot of information on this site to read and absorb. But I think learning to airbrush successfully is kind of like learning to ride a bicycle or learn to ice skate. You can buy the bike or skates (cheap to expensive), read about it, watch video but you're gonna have to bust your butt a few times before you get the hang of it.

RayburnGuy is right on with the history of Rayburn Red. Back in the 80's I use to fish Sam Rayburn alot. Had a working buddy whose Dad wrote sports for the paper in Woodville. He had the latest info and techniques. On one adventure we loaded up on LMB using anything red. One of the guys didn't have any red baits so we went to Jasper that evening and hit the Gibson store (now out of business). Larry bought just about all they had in red - cranks, spinners, topwaters. Spent a bundle. We'll as fishin goes the next day the bass would not hit any thing red. They turned on to june bug worms. Weather front came through the night before. Larry got a lot of cheap offers to buy some of his red baits but he held on to them for the next time. Back then anything of a deep red color would work -cranks, traps, even spinnerbaits with red skits. Haven't made it Rayburn in a long time but when I do get there I will try something red even for old times sake and I bet that Larry still has a large stash of red baits for Rayburn.

$50 buck a quart plus gotta use their thinner? Wonder what is the shelf life is after opening can? But if it is clear and tough enough tthen may worth it. Maybe some that has tried it will comment.

I hadn't tried it but what about that press and seal food wrap for cover the bill. Also thinking about that package wrapping stuff shipping people use to wrap around all kinds of stuff- stacked boxes, around carpet rolls, etc. That stuff is stretchy, sticks to itself. When done painting just cut the edge with a sharp blade to remove. I just might try this on my next bait build. Maybe someone else has tried it???

vodkaman is correct. I believe Bloxygen is actually Argon gas. Its an inert gas that won't react with expoxies and urethane. So if you add a catalyst, hardener or water (even room air has some moisture in it) the mix will react. Bloxygen won't stop that from happening. Most guys use it to displace any air in a can or container.

RayburnGuy gives you one good way when using airbrushing baits. Some who use brushes will use different sized nail heads or drill bits (chuck end) and dip into paint and dab on the bait. Then clear coat.

I hope you didn't think I was trying to be a smart A. I didn't mean to be. There are multiple considerations and it depends on the look your after. If you want your bait to look more transparent or 'ghost' then don't paint white overall. Just clean the surface with denatured alcohol to remove any foreign substance like oils from you fingers, dust, or whatever before you paint. If you want brighter color saturation then prime with a white paint. Some guys prefer only one coat others may do two. But again if there are details like scales or giles painting/priming will cover up some of the details. But all said you will learn as you go. Some things will work and some will not. What one guys likes to use may not work for your style. What ever you come up with that works for you is what counts. As i've found on this site and some other sites there are more than one way guys found to skin a cat and many ways to finish cranbaits. Good luck with your builds! And may they land you many fish.

Do yourself a favor. Go to the top of this forum page and use the search on primer. This topic has 4 to 5 pages of inquiries and the replies covering everything you want to know and some stuff you may not have thought about. Read the replies even if not about clear KO's. Topics cover safety to topcoats.

Mark - like your method. If don't mind sharing- brand of water borne urethane do you use for topcoat? Thanks, Ed

Google is my friend. Type in 'crackle medium with elmers glue'. Found some DIY instructions from crafting type web sites.

I have a Paache VL (made in USA) with 3 needle and nozzle sizes I bought long ago. I also have an Iwata HP-CS (Japanese) with two needle and nozzle sizes. And for the third airbrush I have a Harder& Steenbeck (German made). I can get them to all work the same though the Iwata and Harder have a better trigger feel for me. Note for me. For someone else may have different experience. Since they are all gravity feed I will use all three to shoot mulitple colors. What BobP says at the end of his post is right on. Besides the brush your experience with any brush will be determined by what type of paint you use, how it is thinned and the air pressure setting for the paint and needle combination. Sorry there is no magic or silver bullet to airbrushing. It takes practice. I'm still practicing. I would say lean for a brush readily available to you in the $70 to $120 range. These will likely be more reliable and dependable than a cheap knockoff. A cheep knockoff may blow alot of paint but if your wanting fine details it may not cut it. Also you may want to get parts later on in case the needle gets damaged, or o-rings get damaged by solvent cleaning ( if the brush uses O rings.) So if you can buy local the shop may also have the parts for the brand they carry. I live in a big city and have several businesses and airbrush supply houses to handle what I need. You also have online ordering but I suspect you've looked there already. Look at Michaels and Hobby Lobby as they will run 25% and 40% offf coupon every now and then. I got the Iwata using the 40% off and save some money. Just my thoughts and opinions. Others probably have different opinions. Kind of like cars brands. Everyone has their personal favorite. And what works for them works.

Last week Hobby Lobby had a 40% off coupon. I used it to buy an Iwata HP-Cs kit. They had one in the local store listed at $189.99. This kit had the brush and 4 bottles of acrylic paint. I liked buying at 40% off. Made it reasonable price for me. I checked just now and HL only has 25% off. Might hold off till they do another 40% coupon or shop around e-bay. Also do internet search for airbrush suppliers. There are some places that offer lower prices on new ones than in stores. Looks like its kind of like fishin' -- should of been here last week and they were really bitin' Keep lookin and you'll find one.

I build my own fishing rods and do weavings and wraps to spruce them up. Many rod builder use expoxy finishes and there's tons of forum threads on the merits of this expoxy brand or that brand and how to apply, etc. Kindof like lure finishes. Everybody got their favs. Mostly I think its what you can get to work for you and you like the results. One of the issues with trying to mix epoxy in small quantities is getting the 50/50 part A to part B accurate. Thats where the syringes really help mix 3 ccs of A to 3 ccs of B and you got 6 ccs to coat the guide wraps and any weave you might try to do. I tried the stoppers that fit on the bottles of rod wrapping expoxy and leaving each syringe inserted into the stoppers. Works great for me. One of the many rod building suppliers is Mudhole. There are other suppliers of these stoppers. Search the internet for rod building supplies. Some of the brand names for expoxy are FlexCoat, Thread Master, Bullard's Diamond II.

Rich -all airbrushes are not the same when considering how much air it takes. For example gravity feed type typically uses less air than a gravity feed airbrush. Then add how much pressure is needed to get the paint to flow. Consider checking the specs on the airbrush you will use. Then look at the air flow spec of the compressor. If the compressor has a tank like some of the pancake type then the compressor run cycle time may be less. Depends on how much air you use. Something else to consider is the noise level of the compressor. Some types will run you out of the shop. Other types are not bad. Seen shops where the compressor is outside the room and air line is piped to the paint bench. If your worried about how hot the compressor gets and the life of the compressor consider adding a fan to blow across the compressor. Should extend the life of the compressor with heat buidup reduction. Just some ideas to consider.

Wonder if the Bass Pro XPS series square bill would be a possibity. Cost less than LC RC's But they are not available mail order in clear blank. Still would have to do your own "art work". Haven't check pricing compared to Academy. Just thinkin out loud for someone not close to an Academy.

PID is a control system acronym for Proportional, Integral, Derivative. It is an engineering decription of a type of controller and what it deals with when trying to maintain a user setpoint. temperature. Before I retired from instrument engineering work I cared about this stuff and used expensive instrument and control system for the chemical industry. But now the question is how do you get one. Well I can only help explain what PID stands for. I suggest you just find out the brand name and model that DLAERY uses and see if it would work for you and your setup. ps for grins you might google PID Control. Be warned it might give you a headache though reading all about it.

Musky Glenn - I'm just starting to get into lure building. But I've built a few fishing rods. Part of the finishing of decorative wraps and guide foot wraps is to use 2 part epoxy finishes. There are several rod building web sites forums on using epoxy also had questions and answers about bubbles. Basically what people do is use 2 part expoxies that cures in several hours not minutes. The rods are put on a slow rotating lathe for the expoxy to level out for a smooth finish. When mixing the 2 part epoxy the advise is to stirr slowly but completly so not to introduce air into the mix. Use solid plastic or metal stirring sticks. Next some pour the expoxy onto a pieces of flat aluminum foil. This allows the expoxy to flow out flat which helps release bubbles that may have been introduced during mixing. Sometime when I see tiny bubbles in the epoxy that won't release due to surface tension I will take a soda straw and blow on the surface. The heat will often release the bubbles. Also make sure the brushing technique you use does not create bubbles. Going at it fast may introduce some timy bubbles. Then some guys will use some heat right after the application using alcohol lamps, (not cig lighters-can overheat and add smut on the finish), or air guns (not too close as too much air will circulate dust in the air onto the finish.) Granted the rod wrapping finishes are not as hard of finish as exposies used for lures. Rod finishes may be a bit flexibile to handle the bending of the rod during use. Also no two epoxy brands and cure times are not the same in my opinion. They may be close but reaction times, viscosities and bonding characteristics will vary. Why would they sell so many different types? Another issue that can introduce bubbles is incompatibility with whatever was used underneath. And that has been discussed here before. Part of the fun of lure building is experimenting and developing techniques that work for you. I had to try different rod finishes until I found one that I like and refine a technique to use that finish. Part of the learning curve. What I see is there is no one right or wrong way. Alot depends on where you live, the availability of materials, temperature, the shop or room you do the work. All this I think impacts the results. The big box lumber and home supply houses in my area don't carry the brands recommended by builders on this board. But I did find them at one independent hardware store. In rod building I seen posts that poops on one brand of finish and method of application while another post says it as great as having two pockets on a shirt. I find I can spend all my time trying to find THE answer when in reality its just dive in and lay down some epoxy then do some analysis and learn from it to find out what works for me. Hope some of the ideas from rod building help.

As JCampioni says from predator. Web search Predator Baits.

You might try to do a search on this forum for dryers. There are some that made their own version using slow rotation motors salvaged from microwave ovens or BBQ rotisories.