jonister

Ask them! They probably won't tell you but it is worth a try. I asked them if I could buy some in painted lures for my own use. They said no, but it is always worth a try.

First get a sewing machine, then some fabric..... All kidding aside, Welcome to TU! Swimbaits are very time consuming and challenging, but are great fun. Definitely a build to go for. I am with JRammit on this one though. Topwaters are a good first build. I made quite a few, along with some sinking pieces of wood with hooks, before I moved on to other stuff. That being said, don't let us hold you back. If you are focused on swimbaits then go for it!! You will find that there is a ton of great info here on swimbaits, and even more great members who can help you out! Good luck, and I warn you, This stuff is super addicting!

I just did my math to figure out how much lead I will need. I will go for the horizontal sink rate. Thanks again guys!

I see. I like the idea. They look easy to stow. Do you think those would work to get your bait out of a ball of line? I might have to experiment with something like that!

I'm thinking a good sealer and many coats of epoxy will thicken it at the hinge enough for it to hold up. Dave, I plan to weight it like that. I never thought about the twisting though! Mark I have tried the V shape but I never really caught onto it. I might revisit it though, especially if I don't get the right swing I want.

I think that was it! Some sanding is all that was needed. It is still trying to bind so I think I will work on it some more. Funny how such a simple fix would cause one so much trouble. These glide/swimbaits are addictive. I'm going to work on the hinge some more tomorrow, then go onto weighting. I'm thinking of weighting it nose up slightly but am not sure. I have never even fished a segmented glider before Thanks Mark!

Do you clip those onto your line directly or attach them to a knocker? Those look great by the way

I hate to start another Swimbait page but all my searches have come up empty in the past hour or so. I'm not saying I didn't get a million more ideas for more lures though! I'm having some difficulty with my hinge sticking on a large glide bait I have been working on. It is a wooden door frame hinge system. The kind built into the lure, with a pin running down the middle. It swings freely but when it swings as far to one side as it can, it sticks. It is still in the wooden stages so I can modify it however I want. I am not sure if sanding it smooth would help. Right now it has been filed. I might take it down to 2000 grit or something. Any help is welcome, I know there are some swim bait masters on here!

Right now it is still to cold really for fishing hard baits in my area but I did throw some of them and it held up great. I might bring them with me on my next saltwater outing. Maybe throw them for a bit and test how salt resistant they are.

X2 on the solder wire! I also found this guy online who was beating sinkers down to a flat shape and cutting out small spikes with some shears. I'm sure those would work too. They look like they held good. Just my 2cents

A while back I bought some cabelas banana walleye lure nockoffs and they didn't catch walleye but I caught a couple nice small mouth. You can definitely feel the difference in quality in the ones bought compared to the original but I caught some fish on it so money well spent! I will probably be paint them at some point. Make them look more bassy.

I think it would hold up to saltwater, but I don't know about bluefish. I don't have them here but have seen the damage on TV that they can do. Maybe quite a few coats would do it. The Art resin takes so long to cure that you can either heat it on a heater before or after you mix and it will be nice and thin for a minute or so. Also, the way I understand it, if your lures are leaking sealer than it has not had enough time to dry. Just my 2 cents! I'm sure someone who fishes the salt more than me will chime in. Good luck!

Make them! Haha I know it can be hard to perfectly match a store lure. Rapala told me the same thing. Maybe try eBay. I have noticed you can find just about any blank there. If it comes down to it, you can just make a good mold of the original and pour it out of some clear material like Alumalite or Smooth On.

KBS is awesome stuff. It is on the pricey side but it works great. I do not thin mine but it wouldn't hurt it. Thanks for all the help on the respirators. I got my hands on the right one. At least I can't smell it anymore so that is awesome! I looked at those air fed ones and they are quite a bit of cash. I understand that they are probably the best but for how much I would use it, it just would not be in my price range. I found some gloves too ;D I paint with water based pants so I don't worry too much about the fumes but I do use the fan when I spray. I have been concerned because I am planning on doing some resin baits and just want to be as safe as possible and prolong my life span.

OK so I know there is a ton of stuff on this, but I just thought I'd bring it up, in case this could benefit anyone else besides myself. I was dipping some KBS today and was thinking about respirators and such, as in which kind should I get?! I was thinking one of those Niosh approved chemical respirators. Oh and maybe a pair of gloves. I have one of those big vent hoods that I always turn on but I can still smell the stuff so I figure it isn't too good for me. The site says if you are not spraying it, all you need is good air circulation but sceptical. Also, I have read some stuff that said that 2 part resin is bad for you to breathe in and touch. Even when drilling or cutting into it cured? I'm asking this simply because I want to be able to have children and not get cancer in my life, and because I care about general safety. Anything on this, or other safety precautions that can be suggested are all good! Thanks guys!

Everything said here is great stuff! I guess I am a little lazy, or just like it this way, but I do everything freehand, starting with a block of wood, I come up with a shape in my head, and take notes/draft it up on paper, then transfer that to the wood and start to carve. I do add some guide lines sometimes and mark the bill slot and line ties/ballast. I have also started making templates of lures I make that I really like or that friends want. I transfer the design to some hard paper or a price of milk carton and cut it out. The milk carton or really any other flat plastic makes an awesome template that is washable and a little tougher than paper. I then freehand shape and sand and add hardware. I think the freehand carving has helped me greatly to be able to throw a shape out or copy another lure very well. Power tools are handy but I am happy with a basic exacto knife. The blades are easy to replace too. I also make laminate balsa cranks as Frog addict described, but I buy those 1/4 or 1/2 inch sheets pre-cut at the hardware store and use double sided tape to get the shape down and put it all back together with super glue. I might also add that If you use an even about of pieces in a lure, you can find the exact center and just split those 2 segments apart to add through wire and balsa where as with an odd number you would have to cut the balsa to get it perfectly centered. There is an intimate number of ways to go about all of this shaping and carving, so find the way you like it best and go with that. Also remember to take plenty of notes so you can go back for reference, and keep all your lures that you don't like, or especially the ones that don't run so you can look back and see what made them not work and correct that on future projects. I keep them separate in a box next to my desk and am always digging through them and messing around with them. Also remember, if you can't get a design right keep trying until you figure it out! Have fun!

A friend gave me an old bag of those! I could not find any more around for the life of me. They really catch fish. Same color too. I feel like I have seen them in other colors for sale at some place though. Hmm

KBS is quite glossy. I use it too. AC1315 did not work at all for me, 2 part epoxy is nice, but it adds too much weight to some lures, and Solarez isn't my favorite for tolerating. KBS dips nice, drys fast enough that I can dip in the morning, put in a heat box, and when I come home in the afternoon it is dry enough to handle. Nedyarb is right on with the dry time. It also has some, but very very little flexibility. The kind Vodkamen has talked about as being very strong. 2 coats of it for bass baits works just fine for me.

I have yet to really fish this stuff hard but I will say, it is strong, hard, and flexible, like envirotex. The one thing that is unlike any other epoxy or resin or whatever you use, that makes this stuff special, is it doesn't smell and has no VOC's. If you put your nose right up to the epoxy, it has a light smell, but other than that, I can't smell it. It also smells kinda pleasant. I should also note that I did this in my bed room and no one else in the house could tell!

Dale, I have been working toward that! I am starting to take notes on painting and have all my wood in separate bins. I used to be too lazy for this sort of stuff but it definitely pays off in the end when I can take a lure fishing and catch fish on it, then go home and make more just like it. I do not sell my lures so as far as ones concerned I have no need for this but really it does help. Thanks for the input Dale! And thanks to everybody for helping me out on this!