danthefisherman

Thanks for all your hard work, happy building!

I’m going bananas over that bait!

When in doubt, follow the instructions on the can. That said, I don’t remember what’s on the can and rarely read it I recoat as soon as the prior coat doesn’t look wet in the sun (maybe 5 minutes?). Then I will wait at least 24hrs before exposing the bait to water.

I use the spray KBS can all the time for personal baits. You need a good number of coats to achieve the same durability as an auto clear, but it does the job and will retain your detail work. Only downside is I have had it react to some plastics…not as often as with rustoleum clears, but it will turn soft if brought into contact with the wrong stuff. Also the KBS stinks pretty bad until it fully cures and you fish or air it out enough.

Yes, a sharp knife will do it. Trout and crappie dots are a huge pain to try cutting but larger patterns like perch stripes, crawdad shell, etc are perfectly doable.

I like using stainless steel finishing nails which are probably overkill but at least I don’t have to be afraid of failures. The only problem is they are heavy and a pain to cut (I snip them inside an old sock so that I don’t shoot my eye out haha). Otherwise I’ve heard of guys using weld rod or something equivalent.

I will often use scissors to cut my own pattern stencils out of lamination sheets. Not the most clean or user friendly but gets the job done in a pinch. My brother owns a laser engraver for leather work, so I picked up some mylar sheet to try laser cutting. I’m hoping this will allow me to make trout dot stencils customized and sized specifically for my baits.

@hazmail thanks for the input and nice setup! Sounds like I have a bit more researching that I need to do, but until then I already have a cheap box fan and MERV8 furnace filters on the way. I’m going to make a mock up cardboard spray hood to help catch overspray and direct it into the filter, and if I like it then I can remake another out of more robust material. I do want to eventually have a ducting system to exhaust everything outside, but anything is an improvement to what I have now (basically nothing). I use Createx airbrush paint which I think is water based and hopefully less of an explosion risk than solvent/oil based paints.

Hi TU, Trying to take steps to make the shop safer health-wise and am in the market for a paint booth filter for a 20"x20" box fan. I'm trying to determine what MERV rating will maximize flow & filtration with minimal cost. Obviously the finer the filter the higher the cost, but I'm not sure if a MERV 4 fiberglass filter will suffice for painting baits. Furthermore, my box fan may not be strong enough to pump enough air through a MERV 12 regardless (?). Maybe a MERV 8 is a good in-between option? Any recommendations would be much appreciated as this is all new to me. TIA! Linked below is an example of what I'm looking to make to catch air brush overspray. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vJk5BM8xUo

Hi TU, As my hard baits are getting more and more refined, it’s almost a shame to glue on cheap factory eyes at the very end of a build. I’ve been searching for realistic eyes that will compliment my baits better, but it’s difficult to find exactly what I’m looking for…so in true builder fashion: why not try to make them myself? I’ve done a bit of research and think that I’m going to try printing on waterslide decal paper, affixing to vinyl backing, and putting epoxy on top after punching the eyes out. I was wondering if anyone has tried this and run into issues (such as delamination of layers) that I should be aware of. Any other tips or tricks or better methods for making these would be greatly appreciated. Also if you have examples of your work I’d love to see it. Thanks guys! Dan