SW Lures

Wow...a lot has happen since this morning. One of the questions you ask was type of wood to use. Others has said PVC, ok I'll agree with that because you do not have to learn how to seal it which helps with water intrusion. Just for chuckles, a good cheap wood but easily obtained in the US is poplar. Easy to work with other then balsa, basswood etc. Make sure you watch the grains and drying quality in any of the woods. Whether is the heart of the tree or sap wood is important. A small book can be wrote about the woods that we use. SAETY, let somebody show you how to use them. Mark is absolutely right! I've seen mistakes that made tough people throw up from seeing what happen. I'm blunt and straight forward about this. Dale

Well, I jumped from just painting right into the middle of the lake and I found I could dog paddle then I learn to swim normal, now I'm starting to race. The point is jump, read and find what works for you. You can look at all the video's you want, but when it comes to doing what we would tell you will work...it's a new world. Your learning curve is just that. Start doing the designing and then you can ask a more detail question. When I started I had an idea. I started working on my idea. Then I would ask a question (detailed), then I did what I thought was best. These people will answer a detail question, trust me on that one. They can't tell you everything from there 1-50+ years of baits and fishing knowledge all at once. It doesn't come that easy, nothing for that matter. Doing + Time + Failures= Experience. By the way that is how I learnt to swim...thrown in. I guess I'm use to it. It works Take care, Dale

Try YouTube for videos. Nathan is right about the search and how to threads. I've been here over a year and wish I knew how to find post like I do now. Great amount of knowledge. I make original designs mainly. Don't get to wound up thinking you can do what some of these people do right from the get go. Be stubborn and you'll get there. TU has a gallery and at the top of the page there is a cookbook on painting. Good luck, Dale

Shame on you Mark. After he talked about you like that.

If you were Gone2long, your up the proverbial creek without a paddle. That hallo ain't gonna help you for that one.

Sense the first bad butt cold front has blew me off the water yesterday and a good football games not on yet, I have some time to pick at this pad. I'm so down in the dumps, I've been put on a moratorium on purchasing any material by the family. This came from the top all the way down to the smallest one. I have enough to do until the holidays, but come on man!!!! I'm a team player so I'll go a long with it. Really don't have much choice, I could get hurt......badly! I'm just wondering if anybody is in the same boat or am I floating a lone in the Lake of Tears. I know those business people out there can keep on keeping on, this for us unfortunate ones. Anonymous??, LOL Dale

Welcome to TU, well evidently not totally new. Dale

I understand why you are using tungsten. That steel I believe is reluctant in excepting some paints. I'm not familiar with paint being used on it. I've been waiting for someone to post to your questions. I paint powder by using fluid bed, dipping and airbrushing. To give you details like a tiger pattern and you having an relatively small body I don't think airbrushing powders would do, never tried it before. Maybe someone who has will help you. This group here mainly uses water base, vinyl, acrylics (I think) & lacquer, again I think. I wonder if you can get a base coat to adhere to the steel you may be able to use water base with a fine tip airbrush. Then put a clear coat over it with a MCU, lacquer or something similar. I wanted you to get a answer, this may be not be a good one but someone will come along and give you a better one. I'll be reading, Dale I forgot about epoxy's, I've used these in and industrial conditions. It has a strong vapor also.

I wonder if it's more worthwhile to sand the imperfections out and use just one dip in a lacquer primer. At mass production level time is important just behind quality. A happy customer is a future customer. A trial of doing this both ways of about 5-10 baits should tell you what's best. Just a thought, Dale

I feel your pretty much dead on Ben. At the beginning of this thread I made that statement. However I'm very much reading what others think and respect their thoughts. Travis made a comment in his post, that as he gets older color is not so important. I feel the same way and your thoughts about color and a fish knowing that the bait is in the water. Action makes a soundwave in the water. A rattle changes that sound and color completes the strike if I don't think I'm so smart and change the speed. Dale

That's some nice work. I'm a addict to. There I said it! I love floating down rivers in the region, some times for days. I'm getting close to finishing a small version of a broke back Thunderstick and starting on a newt bait. There's nothing like a strike near the surface by a smallie. I would be a lot further if it wasn't for some jigs I have to finish. I like the black dusting around the eyes on two in the middle picture. I have a 2" bait which would look good with a scheme like the first pic in the middle, spotted belly. I call it Stumpy. Lol Keep throwin um, Dale ps, for that matter any of the larger species near the surface. Gets the old heart thumping!

I've read about a few here that has tinkered with 3D printers. Vodkaman was one I remember that was in some threads about this. Best I can remember no one ever showed any work, so I don't know how it turned out. Dale

I don't know how much you know. So bare with me on what I'll write. To start with a mold for resins you need a master (to make the negative). Some people design a simple shape and use a router to round the edges. If you want to get more complex then maybe a profile gauge can help. I use files so I don't get crazy on removing and I can see the shape start to form into what I want. I mainly use a pencil and my eyes, that just what I do. You'll be surprised how you can do it. Yeah practice makes perfect. I'm going to say what you really don't want but I believe a lot of these people do this or something similar. I make a design on paper. These are of two sides of the bait (diminsion). These have center lines on the drawing. My wood has a center lines on the two sides. I then glue the drawings to each side. I use wood glue because it's strong enough to stay until I want it off. The end result is in my mind (such as it is). I start to shape the bait and keeping in mind what will work and/or what I want. Yeah... I use my eyes down the lines. I'll turn the blank around and around as I bring the symmetry in. Any new piece being created starts like this IMO. There is much more but not very time consuming. Then you can use it to make your mold or put in a duplicator. OR you can take a manufacturer bait and make a mold. For me, I enjoy shaping/creating originals by hand. Dale

As you stated Glider about certain colors changing in the appearance, I agree. Being at best a layman I think as light is filtered this can changes the color. Now how this affectss a fish or specifically a species I don't know. I think Doc Vinall brought this up in his article. I wonder what a fish truly see? You can throw a certain bait and present it in every way you can, no strikes. Then bring another out of the same type of bait but a different scheme and you can't keep the fish off of it. This is like a bait that I have just finish with some help, it looks orange straight on. But if you look at a angle it's olive. Dale

That's interesting Woodie, I've notice that some of y'all's baits have the dots on dark body baits (purple, etc). Just to let you know, that's why I started working on a newt body. The scheme that I'm going to use is a light purple body with yellow or white spots. This is a natural color of some newts/salamanders in my region. I believe that pattern has a chance of doing something. I mainly fish rivers, but will fish small lakes or back waters of large lakes (TVA) unlike the Great Lakes. Smaller lakes are like Briery Creek Lake, central Va. After the state record for LB. The point I'm making is that water color, forage baits of the area, water depth, etc all changes what works for each of us. That's why this thread is interesting to me, reading the differences. Dale

"I am adamant that one of the primary mistakes we as anglers make is becoming dogmatic. Keeping an open mind is a tremendous asset". I agree with you about this Jigginpig. The ones around here when I start making cranks know that I mainly paint in natural colors of forage baits. I even have been playing around with natural shapes like craws, newts. Every so often I'll go abstract like tigers. I like natural colors and they have done well for me. I feel light blues in a minnow in clear water is a killer. In little stain the tigers do well. Craw done in darker colors do well in more stained water if I can keep the bait just off bottom. Then I've said some choice words while I just kept cranking, getting nothing. I do believe what the colors do in different water conditions after I read Doc's article several years ago. This thread has been interesting and a good read. Dale

I'll now say that I did the same thing as Pete and Dave, when I first started making blanks. I did this inside with lead bars. I did stress test with pine and only a 3/4" drill hole in the wood. I did this because I could get superglues quick and easier then D2T 30 minute. Everyone here used D2T I needed to use what was available to me. I needed to know. As I stated in my first post, trust me no problems using the epoxy glues. Dale

I stated the last post to see what people really thought. I'm surprise you were the only one Woodie so far. I think there are so many conditions that changes the strike. Water temp., water colour, cloud cover, speed of retrieval, etc, etc. Being straight forward I do pick certain colours/scheme for certain areas. I do think it's a BIG part in getting a strike if you think this way. What is the forage bait that you are after and mimicking that prey? Basically the same size that is normal in the water that you are in. I've seen pink bucktail spinner works really well in an area and go 400 miles away and a chartreuse crank does better for the same species. Presentation, geezzzz I'm still learning this and having fun doing it. Take care, Dale

Another good read on this subject is Doc Vinall's. Being a marine biologist I can't dispute his facts. Actually in laimen's knowledge I've see it. This is like Travis stated, it's another part of the equation. I personally believe in the action and the correct presentation, size, then the scheme. Have you ever seen a bait maker throw a blank and get a strike? I've have seen it before, quiet a few times. On video's and in person. JMO...take care, Dale

Ok I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I consider cranks now as designing them also, making them do as I want or for that matter what someone else wants. I do know this many here have made me better at doing this. My apologies, I'll now go to the corner for 10 minutes or so. Dale

Then that group is not like this TU group. I've find help here, I don't believe there is jealously here or false praising for good work or an idea. Last thing that this brings to thought for me, I don't have to impress anybody or anything except for the fish. Painting is just a part of the whole. JMO, Dale

I heard, now I wonder will LPO will carry this to. I would say that it has to show the use of the product. I'll say this to LPO. I deal with them on a lot of their products like many of us do and there is a few that LPO doesn't carry. It would be nice for them to do this, it's much nicer to deal with one vendor then many. Example, water base paints (Wicked or Createx), now aerosol KBS. This is just a few that I believe would be big sellers at a right price. I also understand that some times the two companies can't come to a understanding. Just my two, Dale

Yep, it is stronger then the normal hanger material that you get from suppliers. The wood will hold also. I don't use balsa much, but it will do it.

X2, to Mark statement!! Just believe/trust me don't worry at all. Just make sure you get the glue in there properly. Dale

I've been following this thread and have been working on soming close. I think it's a technique I'll throw out there. I put luffa over a sealed blank then over spray a base coat, then I remove the luffa. This leaves a raised scale look. I pat the paint down lightly to just make the scales semi even/smooth. Heat set it and let the paint completely dry. Then I attached leaf (copper) and take a cotton ball and get the leaf to form to the scale pattern. I've been doing this raised scale for awhile now. To me it gives the bait a texture/depth, not just a smooth surface. This is where I have stop, I'm waiting on some candy paint. The scales look pretty good and I think the candy paint or ink could give that look. Just throwing it out there, Dale