Hillbilly voodoo

I mentioned KBS in the post about the paper towel trick but I definitely don’t want someone to ruin lures by misunderstanding my post. that is the worst thing about a clear coat going wrong you put in a bunch of work before reaching that stage.

Paper towel trick is for KBS and works because it’s a moisture cure true coats will not benefit from it and would more likely have a negative impact

I live in a drier area so it helps with curing and find it takes longer without it

Oh if you choose to use KBS doing multiple coats don’t follow the instructions on the cam you will get bubbles. You can only do one coat a day. Drying in a closed container with wet paper towel in the bottom to raise humidity makes a big difference too Every clear coat has its quirks

The one you can apply multiple coats with and not have complications I have used Etex, a couple different uv resins and KBS. I have lost large batches do to diss functional spinners(or power outages)and I am done with it. Calling up customers after $2000 order went to crap because of it is not fun. UV resin doesn’t hold up and is a pain between coats. Even 4 layers it lifts and wrinkles after they have been chewed I personally use 5 coats of KBS and it holds up well. I have fed lots of lures to pike and to musky on a lesser extent without issue. Yes you still get hook rash but it’s on the surface. The only chipping I have had is from casting into rocks and often it’s fine. Personally if I increase the number of lures I make I will likely look into auto clear But I can tell you epoxy like Etex and truecoat are most popular with guys building musky lures. Also a nice thick epoxy coat does look awesome

Hey you had fun making and odds are you will catch fish on them so it’s a win in my opinion

I bet the fish won’t notice the difference

At present my mold are aluminum but have done a few silicone. Aluminum actually holds heat fairly well too. I also heat up my molds for better results All depends on how hot my molds are, how many rounds of lures I have shot. how big of a soft plastic I am shooting, and when I heat my open pour mold laminating it can take a while. if it’s first shot my grub mold maybe 5min. If it’s one of the big tails for my hybrid bait it takes even longer and often the center is still liquid when I throw it in the bucket of water to finish cooling Basically it can vary

Sounds like an interesting project that you could develop into something different if you get creative with it good luck

Sorry but you are going to need to do some testing, failing, and adapting if you want to get good at this stuff There is a ton of generic information that can be found online and YouTube if but if you want to figure out something beyond what is everywhere you need to try things out and experiment

Remember my recipe has no added weight and uses resin as a ballast. It is also a slow rising bait not a crankbait This example was given to help you estimate cost like you were first trying to figure out. It would not be a good recipe for a crankbait you are adding ballast to You will need a higher % of micro balloons for your bait. If you wish you can google search recipes to duplicate wood and add ballast. Personally I experiment with different mixes for each lure to achieve what I want The later option you involve trial and error

So for example one of my 6 1/2 inch baits that is solid no lead involves a mix of 70grams of resin and 6grams of micro balloons. This bait was designed to have a slow rise so less buoyant than most crankbaits

I know nothing about computer design and 3D printing lures I just know how to make materials do what I want to make a lure Only one way to figure out how the lip will hold up and that is try it. Almost everything I know is from trying ideas, failing, adjusting, and not giving up. No doubt I picked up some tips from the forum too There is a lot of different ways and materials you can use to make lips. Start looking into your options Do some searchs for past posts on this forum there is tons of info

Yes you would just need to make two molds one for either half of your lure You can suspend rattle chambers into a mold with light mono and pour them into the blank. Or drill a hole and use a metal plate on either side with a metal ball inside. There is options beyond what you are presently doing your hook hangers, joints and line ties would be way stronger poured into your blank vs glueing two halves together Something to consider is think about how to make your design using the attributes of resin pouring baits and develop a less complicated process vs just adding resin pour to your present process The way I am doing my lures I setup all the hardware/rattles into the mold pour it, sand to clean edges, paint, clear and done. With the exception of adding pins for soft tail or corkscrews for larger hybrid bait bodies and at times I drop in lead shot when pouring for extra weight with some lures The trend I often see with guys getting into resin pouring lures is they over complicate it by trying to substitute something in their lure building process instead of realizing resin provides completely different options to lure building I recommend doing some research before jumping into resin consider how to apply it to lure building to see if it’s the right fit what I can tell you for starters I use moldmax 30 for my silicone molds. You will need micro balloons(brand has not mattered). For resin I use Alumilite white as I find I get less bubbles and it’s less brittle I will try to give you an example on the amount of resign/micro balloons I use for a design of similar size to yours tonight when I am off work

I buy in large quantities and I am Canadian so my cost is likely going to be different than what you will experience I can give you the brand/products I use and roughly what goes into one of my blanks. This will help you calculate a rough idea on your personal costs right now I am at work so I will have to check my recipe book when I get home to give you a rough idea on the mix used for one of my baits. Warning I do strange things and develop different recipes for each bait to achieve what I want. A lot of my lures have no lead and rely on different resin layers. So what I provide may vary from what others do If you’re interested let me know. Also let me know the rough size of baits you intend to make because over the years I have made all kinds of lures including smaller stuff

Closest I have done is if you google a lure called a believer I have made variations of those out style of lure I have poured lexan lips into the resin body in the past I quit working with crankbaits personally so I stopped exploring options here

On my musky trip to Ontario last month I bounced my baits off of rocks many times trying to get inches off of shield rock walls and reefs. It pays to be brave but it comes at a cost lol No issues except for a small chip in the clear coat on one dive & rise jerk bait. But I was also deflecting that lure off of the rocks under the water for a week as well

Oh and if it’s strength what you are describing would fall short compared to poured resin or foam lures with hardware molded right into the blank I have had hollow commercial style baits cracked on the first strike many times But the species I target are hard on lures

Outside of prototyping till I achieve exactly what I want the blanks are fast once I am set up. I probably assemble my resin poured baits faster than you might think. It takes me max 5 min to pour a blank with all the hardware molded in paint and clear coat are my time consuming part but I also run 5 layers of clear coat. If I was not building for toothy critters it would be way faster I think you just need to look at all the options out there and find the right fit

Don’t assume commercially made baits are what to strive for when you are talking quality. There are many smaller builders producing far better quality baits that command a much higher dollar for good reason Commercially made just means mass produced at a low cost. Many lack any creativity and have flaws One of the main reasons I build baits is I am disappointed in the quality of most store bought baits. Even when I find commercial baits I like I find flaws in durability, fowling hooks or missing things action wise. I find myself designing a variant that doesn’t have the flaws There is more garbage on tackle shop walls than good lures recently I have made the choice to turn out less lures and design to pursue only what I am 100% happy with. I am building less baits but they command a higher $ too Just something to consider before you go to far down that rabbit hole

There is a number of 2 part foam options that can be poured into a mold. It’s also fairly easy to make a silicone mold yourself

That is buying already made baits not making them. There is a reason I fish 90% of the time with baits I make and sell the baits I make Like I said I am not bass fishing or making bass lures lol now if we talk about the money I have invested into prototypes that is scary

Yeah my first thought with a bait like that is 1/2 once of lead if it doesn’t have any to start with. Low close to where the gills would be For my style of fishing that is a cheap bait. When I buy baits they are often $30-$40 plus

I have not held one in my hand even so can’t say what to do for sure but from the pic of the mag draft a external rig like I mentioned should work I just make a bastardized version of the ones they use in Europe for pike I can actually get those magdrafts for $16.99cad so I may order one for amusement. It’s is crazy because most stuff is cheaper in the US

I prefer swimbait between 5-12inches because of the species I target smaller (to me at least) swimbaits I run owner beast hooks up to 8/0. They are similar to the pic posted. I also use the weedless freedom jig heads on small baits. On the big baits I am using and external two treble rig made with fluorocarbon, corckscrew, egg sinker. I have played with a few configurations mounting the hooks in different locations The only non custom open pour I own is an epic bait molds ribbon swim bait but it’s really a hybrid open pour/injection. It catches fish no bass in my area so my choices are going to be different than most