DGagner

I don't know, I make mine from holographic paper (hobby lobby) and paint them myself. But why not find pictures of fish eyes they sell online and drag them to a painting program where you can resize and duplicate them on paper.

Mounted them on the Surly Mermaid today.

Today I found, just about 30 minutes away from me on facebook's site two boat seats with stainless pedestals. $50 for the pair. Nothing wrong with them or broken except they'll need a good cleaning. I looked on Amazon and these particular seats and pedestals are so expensive. The seats, new, are $147 and the pedestals are $207 (each!) This was a score as far as I'm concerned and I'll be ble to put the lawn chairs back on the porch. Very adjustable, swivel, up, down, back and forward. NOTE: I just cleaned them up this afternoon. They are shown as I got them below. Cleaned up I got them back to maybe 90%. Good enough considering the cost. Now, to mount them on the boat.

I can see your point. The lead pot I have lets me put lead in very precisely. If I should put too much I can drill a bit out without having to cover it first.

Using wood it usually takes me about 3-4 hours to complete a bait from drawing to water unless it's segmented, then add another 30 minutes or so per segment. I was wondering how the pvc held up when you drop hot lead into the ballast hole drilled into the bottom. Does it melt or will it stay solid till the lead cools? That would be my only issue in giving pvc a try.

Lot's of choices but I use white pine or cedar (the deck boards are 1" thick) Both woods carve nicely. Hardwoods are denser so the buoyancy characteristics can be tricky and of course they carve harder. I think some woods are more regional. You guys have mentioned some woods I've never used or heard of. They just don't grow here. You can't turn around without running into a white pine tree here in Maine.

I let mine hange a couple of minutes to 'drain' then put it under the light. I've never had uneven coats.

If you're getting a belt sander and band saw you don't need the router. I have a fully equipped workshop and make furniture. I've never used a lure on my router table. Once you get used to it, it's about 15-20 minutes from drawing template on paper to bait ready to seal with a belt sander. Not that much longer with an exacto knife and sandpaper either. The router, with something that small is a creepy feeling. Feels like an accident waiting to happen. A must to make cabinet doors though...

I could see that making some nice waterfront or camp signs. That stylized fish on the left is cool. I'm not actually fond of painting. I've done about 5 portraits in my life. When I did the first one I just bought some paints and brushes and stuff. read a bit about how to do it, mixing, thinning, canvases, etc. and did the first one. I'm not really creative, more artistic. I see it and think, "I can do that". And it happens. I wish I liked it more, I'd paint a bit. As it is I do about one every 10 yrs at this rate.

I'm not sure what I am. I've always been very involved with the sciences and had them as a hobby since I was a kid.... What now would be called a nerd/geek. Involved in stuff not normal for a kid. Then I always loved the arts too, painting, music, etc. Maybe my left/right working together? Then again sometimes in conflict too..... As a teacher I saw it all. I'd see the micrometer crowd absolutely go crazy when working with the 'throw caution to the wind crowd'. And since the right brainers let it fall were it may it they would be dumb founded by the left brainers frustrations but really didn't care in the long run, so it would exacerbate things.. I used to think, "well at least they probably won't develop ulcers". I also do stuff like this, but interestingly it takes an artistic effort but also attention to extreme detail. Not sure where it falls on the left/right brain thing. It's my niece when she wast about 18. It's actually fairly big and looks better in person.

Older thread here but I'll chime in: I was a science teacher for 30 yrs. I love quantitative stuff. That being said, I'm also a portrait painter. I love the artsy stuff. My method of making something is to sketch it out on a legal pad then build it as I go along. I make hard baits out of wood. I began my measuring stuff using micrometers and marking before carving etc like I see on the youtube videos. That was then. Now I carve and sand freehand. It always comes out symmetrical and the stuff looks pretty good. A friend of mine and my son in law are engineers. Everything is done to the 64th of an inch. It drives me nuts the depths they will go to get something to match the CAD diagram they did of it on their computer. And it usually takes forever. And also usually works out good. I drive them nuts when I just jump into it and do a lot of things freehand or measure and build as I go along from what's in my head or rough sketched on paper. I adjust and change things on the fly till it works. left/right brain. I figure whatever works for you.

It's clogged someplace. It happens to me sometimes. I use the wire from a wire brush, take the front end apart and using some cleaner flood the tiny holes and poke them through with the wire. Some of those holes are very tiny. If you have a small cone shaped brass item (the needle spindle or chuck) it needs cleaning.

I use UV resin but sometimes have the same problem. I put a drill in my drill press and drill through it then use the sides of the drill like a cutter to enlarge and clean out the hole. Drip wires don't seem to do much except get hardened in the hole. They come out easily enough but I still have to clean it out.

I've found that making any weight bowed that way make issues in orientation. Think about it. If you drop a feather that is bowed it will always turn so the bow is facing down (the middle is lowest). Do the same thing with something in the water and it's the same. I've found that even some of my hard swimbaits that have an arch to them have difficulty staying upright. I need to weight them more than I'd like to keep them stable. And the more it's arched the higher the weight usually is as it's in the highest point of the arch. Lures like this look really good but I've not been making them like this any longer for that reason. It is possible but boy it's not easy. Here's an example of one that I've had issues with, and it's not arched much either. They all tend to want to ride in the water like skis. Lemmee know if you find a solution.

I won't be much help with the hooks. I tried those boxes with the umpteen hooks in them. Often got sizes I wouldn't use and the quality was not good. The fish would bend them. I was constantly rebending them with pliers. I order the name brand in the smaller numbers but they ain't cheap. I haven't found an alternative. It would be nice if someone here pointed out a good place with decent hooks at a decent price. I use Createx paints in my brush. Acrylic and they are water base but I've never heard of or tried to thin them with water, only the thinner they sell so I'm not sure it would be satisfactory. I can say that I don't thin my paints much, I try to manage them full strength using trigger air pressure instead. But if I do thin them, the little bottle of thinner lasts a long, long time compared to the cleaner as it is used a couple of drops at a time. So, it's pretty cost effective.

Seal them with thin superglue. Then just before the glue dries clean the hole out with a small wire. Superglue actually permeates the wood and seals quite well from water. i.e. You can sand a superglue sealed lure and taking the surface glue off won't expose the wood.

After watching these responses after originally making this thread. Someone mentioned detergents. Tonight as I was painting a bait i put some simple green in a gallon container of water. Between paint colors I put my brush in the container and pulled the trigger. I did wipe the excess paint out of the cup though. The brush became clean. I was able to just spray out the excess in the brush and go on with my next color. I did put a small amount of fluid in the cup though to make sure there was no detergent residue in the brush. Simple green is a good cleaner and is supposed to be people safe and you can dump it on the lawn afterwards with no harm. So I don't think it would have any adverse effect on the brush.

I was wondering about that. Does windex contain ammonia? Online everyone says that ammonia is not good for the brush.

I tried that with just water with mixed results. The soap must make the difference. I'm going to give it a shot... thanks.

I got tired of buying and paying for air brush cleaner. Looking online there are various recipes for homemade cleaner. Most include alcohol and some type of detergent. Someone uses windshield washer fluid. It seems it has alcohol and detergents in it. I've been using it for awhile now. You know the $2.99 stuff. Mine is blue. I'm finding that in between color changes and at the end of a spray session it's been working well. Regular window cleaners often have ammonia in them which I guess will damage the chrome finish on the brush so they are not recommended. But the car stuff doesn't have ammonia and seems to work for me. three bucks for a gallon instead of fifteen bucks for several ounces was a great incentive to try it. Anyone else have any experience trying this?

Depends on the brush, paint (i.e. fluorescents are thinner for me). My iwata brush and createx paints It's between about 15 and 30. Higher for thicker paints and lower for thinner ones. Sometimes lower if I'm doing detail work like gills compared to full body coating. One thing I can say that is important for me. If you turn it down so that it makes things more controllable that's fine but there comes a point where it's better to turn the pressure up a bit and pull back more carefully on the trigger. Too little pressure can cause splattering, especially when the paint first exits the gun. I used to thin some types of my paints. Now though I find it better to just control it with pressure and trigger control. I find that the paint if used straight gives the most consistent coverage. My bottle of thinner is still mostly full.