Outlaw4

when you are a person that does things. you make mistakes and learn. this is not consistent with being an idiot.

i like to start with a rectangle and centerline everything and place eyes, hook hangers, weight placement etc then build off of the centerline. you can build very accurate repeatable baits in your garage with basic tools this way. fancier tools will just make it faster

interesting, ill have to fire up the jig maker one day and see what's up. i get color blending like crazy once i stick my jigs in the oven when there is one color over another.

what temp do you guys heat the jigs to (before) spraying? when you do two colors do you heat set the first then spray the second?

bet those suckers would look good on a drop shot

i fiddled with this the other day, i pulled the nozzle out of an old master filled the hopper with dry glitter pulled the trigger and managed to get glitter literally everywhere lol. make sure to put the cap on the bowl. looked like i spent a long night at the club as covered in glitter as i was. as for getting glitter on the bait, yeah it kind of did that. but not efficient at all. and not controllable. Maybe one of those contraptions guys shoot power out of would work? custom helmet painters and motorcycle guys paint on all of their metal flake. It is mixed with clear base coat and sprayed. so this is totally doable. i'd imagine looking at a few of those videos would get a guy on track.

the picture of the globe i recently put in the gallery uses .062 wire, you can just kind of see the front wrap in the picture. its really easy to do with a round nose pliers to make the loop, then a punch (or broken drill bit i use lol) and a vice grip. Once you make the loop, put it around the punch that is secured in vice, grab the tab end with the vice grip, do half a wrap, then flip the loop on the punch, half a wrap etc to get two or three or whatever you like. Its super easy to do on both ends this way. Most people dont leave themselves long enough tag ends. Wire is cheap lol

if you are making short enough baits with long enough cotter pins run them all the way through the bait bend then ends so that they go out parallel with the bait then add a short 90 that pegs back into the bait. Lots of older lures used this method.

a cool way to make a thu wire pikie is too make the line tie run back to the joint, then use another through wire looped through the first for the tail section. use droppers off the main thru wire for the hook hangers, i like to use swivels as the droppers.

if your talking inline spinners just start them long, and finish the loop eye with one wrap. Cut off re-configure the loop and wrap. The length does not have much of a performance / action effect (at least on musky size stuff, but does have a vibration effect that changes the finished product. I do this ALOT. You can get several changes per wire. Its the best way i have found so far

not sure on comparison but the ecto craw will look nice coming out of the billet mold

im voting other...safety pin style, get the containment of twisted and the flex of r bend

i think your on a fine track. but as others have stated you will just need to do a lot of R&D work to figure out the densities / weighting required for the size and shape and desired actions. So think out a plan of how you can build test baits that you can control the variables well, with a mind always how you can build one repeatable if you plan on selling.

I'd actually be all for milled to exact specs (2"x2") kiln dried western red cedar in this case, but i have not found a place to get reasonably. So that leaves cutting down 4x4's myself or laminating 1x's. If you have a good recommendation im all ears.

Curious what guys were having the best luck with laminating wood. I need to laminate some cedar to make make some true 2x2's for some baits i need to turn. In the past i have always just epoxied them, but wondering if there is something easier, faster and better?

Not a perfect solution, but for personal Marabou stuff sometimes i just order Mepps premade Marabou tails and make my own spinner sections. IF you cant find black nickel, there are some automotive spray meant for tinting wheels that works good on silver blades. Its transparent but you can build in layers to get the desired effect. Another thing I've done is use window tinting on them, sounds odd but similar to the prism tape some builders are using makes for a unique sound and color.

I've not seen anything for spindle blanks. But there are plenty of CNC wood engravers that you could make half sides of crankbaits with to make mold masters. You could also probably make halves of any lure to though wire. I've contemplated this but never pulled the trigger and i just do low volume and like to carve lol.

I would start out with a Master airbrush, and a basic pack of Wicked primary colors and a big bottle of Wicked reducer. Learn how to battle tip dry, spraying pressure and smashing needles and how to reduce, mix and blend paint. Paint a whole bunch of boards to figure out what you like to paint / figure out you style. I paint with an Iwata Eclipse. It does detailed work better and easier as its more refined but i can paint anything I'd need to with a Master. If money is no object skip right to the Iwata or similar. They are great tools. I prefer to paint from a bigger air compressor. It runs less and i have one. make sure to run into a regulator with a water separator. All air compressors will get water in them and will always spit it out of your air brush exactly when you do not want it to. Keep whatever airbrush you get clean. Buy cleaner, make cleaner (lots of home brews you can look up), just keep it super clean.

another thing you might consider is you can isolate the paddle from the body to some extent with segmentation like the yamamoto zako. its very popular as a vibrating jig trailer as is doesnt mess up the vibration and yet still has tail kick.

one thing to keep in mind on prop baits, in particular rear prop baits is to make sure the rear hook clears the prop or you may find it to stall on start up. need to space them back or heat shrink them straight