Chuck Young

You are very welcome. I am sire you will find success however you approach this project.

Don't be bashful, Mark. You da man!

The wood was cut to 5/8". But with face prosthetics and epoxy, it is a little more. That thickness runs pretty much the whole length of the first section. There is just a slight taper by the lips. I guess that makes it a hybrid between lipless and swimbait. All I know is it works really well!

You could just grind the eye surface flat and part way down then glue another eye on top. Sounds barbaric, but it should work. At times I have glued a new eye over the old ones They bug out a little, but so do fish eyes - just saying. If it is for a customer, I would take more care.

Eyeballing the two pools of epoxy works well enough for me; It is pretty forgiving. I mix it in cold medicine cups (#5 plastic does not bond with epoxy) and thin it a little with denatured alcohol. For mixing I save the handles from my disposable paint brushes once they are used up. Cut off the bristle end, rotate the stirrer against the edge of the cup. Stir like crazy. The diameter of the brush handle does not seem to introduce tiny bubbles as much as some stirrers. a razor knife cleans off dried epoxy, so they can be reused. (Because you really need to get your moneys worth out of a brush that costs less than 4 cents!) On crankbaits I apply epoxy with a wide, soft bristle brush. If you get bubbles, a hair dryer will remove them quickly. But you can't go back and stir the epoxy more. Bubbles are the lesser of two evils.

Kevlar thread is strong and flat, but over-tightening can cut material.. Thread for tying deer hair is round and designed not to cut, but builds up fast. There is always some compromise when it comes to thread.

Michael's or any craft shop sells this in sheets and rolls. The price is reasonable and I have exposed it to a heat gun and hot epoxy. Just make sure there is no paper backing. It doesn't look like much when you look at a single sheet. But don't let that stop you. White and silver look very good underneath it. Apply it with epoxy and coat it with epoxy.

They get $20 for factory painted, mass produced, 3" long lures. It can't cost them more than a $3 in materials to produce them. You have invested in paint, compressors, practice, etc to develop your own patterns. If your customer wants something different, you have to develop that too. $17 does not seem too much from this perspective. Checking out prices of other custom lures $15 is common. Cost of materials is around $3. What you make is probably much prettier, more origional, and with a more durable finish.

I have designed a very flexible lure turner and lure holders system. Mine is about 2 ft long; but it has enough power to turn one 6 ft long. I mark the holes in the foam and have been using the same holes for over a year with no lures slipping out. If you needed to, changing the foam only takes 25 minutes - most of it drying time for the glue. The only problem with this design is that you need an engineering design from Bubble Gum And Duct Tape University to build it. http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/topic/31513-high-volume-cheap-lure-turner-lure-holders/?hl=%2Blure+%2Bturner

I like this design much better than the ones with a magnet, because the weight rattles.

I don't have a problem with bubbles. It holds quite a bit, epoxy flows well. One swipe covers about one side of a 4-1/2" slim minnow. I use stencil material to scrape most of the epoxy out of the brush before cleanup.

Some have mixed pearl powders (available on ebay) to transparent base.

Nice design. I assume that gravity moves the weight back forward.

I have a 3-1/2" crappie that has terrific action and starts right away. When I designed it I had no idea about proportions on a swimbait. When measured front to back the ratio is .154 : 1 : 1 : 1.54. I moved the attachment points up on the forehead. Now the flat top acts like a lip and gets the action going. You might want to try that next.

Salty's is a good source for wood bodies of that length.

I sent a reply to your last post. Here is a repeat: The only supplier I know who does blanks that size is Nitro lures. The lures are mostly discontinued models from W Lure, a Chinese supplier. The last three digits of the Nitro part # and the W Lure # are the same. Prices are very reasonable, but practically no info is given about the lure. If you know someone who has used those suppliers in the past, you can get the info you need from them. You have to buy 250 at a time; there may be a possibility of sharing an order with someone. I have had good success with 2 large blanks: 103 eye up to 9mm body length 7" OAL 8" with glue on stainless lip weight 1-1/4 oz depth 5-7 ft Notes: apparently through wired, bone color, no scale detail 052 eye 7mm length 7" weight 1-1/2 depth 2-4 feet Notes: through wired, clear body, shallow scale and full gill detail p.s. On the green mackerel I have applied addition scale detail. Attached Thumbnails

Mark would know. He is the pvc king.

Not me. My welding customers use to ask me if I was a certified welder. I would tell them that I was not certified, but I am definitely certifiable.

Get a smoother finish and coat more baits faster with this epoxy brush. Get a cheap set of bristle brushed (Walmart is one source). Use a pointed pair of scissors to remove 3/4 to 7/8 of the bristles. Clean with denatured alcohol or acetone and wrap with paper towel. Reuse it for months or years.

Devcon 2 ton 30 min epoxy thinned with denatured alcohol is the way to go. Either 1 oz double syringe ($5-7) OR 8-1/2 oz 2 bottle set ($14-18) should be plenty. I apply it with a 5/8" to 3/4" wide bristle brush (craft section of Walmart) with about 3/4 - 7/8 of the bristles thinned out with a pointed pair of scissors. It can be cleaned with the denatured alcohol, wrapped with paper towel, and reused. Epoxy goes on fast and smooth Jointed baits can be "stretched out" between two wires or hooks. Keep epoxy away from hinges ( the wood is already sealed with superglue). For a little flash, you can add fine glitter to the epoxy The 12 pack of salt shaker type dispensers at Walmart are great. There are two ways to do this. 1) Sprinkle onto the first coat of epoxy immediately after coating. This allows you to sprinkle a few different colors on different parts of the bait. 2) Mix one color directly into the first coat of epoxy. My favorite colors are (in order): pearl, gold, silver, black. http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/topic/31822-a-better-epoxy-brush/

The only supplier I know who does blanks that size is Nitro lures. The lures are mostly discontinued models from W Lure, a Chinese supplier. The last three digits of the Nitro part # and the W Lure # are the same. Prices are very reasonable, but practically no info is given about the lure. If you know someone who has used those suppliers in the past, you can get the info you need from them. You have to buy 250 at a time; there may be a possibility of sharing an order with someone. I have had good success with 2 large blanks: 103 eye up to 9mm body length 7" OAL 8" with glue on stainless lip weight 1-1/4 oz depth 5-7 ft Notes: apparently through wired, bone color, no scale detail 052 eye 7mm length 7" weight 1-1/2 depth 2-4 feet Notes: through wired, clear body, shallow scale and full gill detail p.s. On the green mackerel I have applied addition scale detail.

Why do they call them "C" clips? Once they fly off you can never "see" them.

It hasn't been a problem so far. But a bushing is helpful for alignment. As for the resin fibre sanding disc itself - it is rated for a higher speed than the table saw.

That is another good point. Screw eyes are so much more robust than the wire loops on most lures (.023 to .041)