Hand Crafted Angling

I made two different versions of this bait I've tested so far. One was a smooth bait that I think was weighted correctly. The other was like you were saying but I definitely made it on the heavy side. I've printed out a 3rd version with the flattened spots again. This time it has multiple different line tie spots so I can dial in exactly where to put the line tie. I'm just waiting for it to warm up enough to test it. Everything close to me is frozen.

Thank you very much. Im trying to learn the toolpaths first and then move on to feeds and speeds once i figure that out.

It does. I'm still trying to figure everything out. Its been a pretty steep learning curve. I've been trying to do some 3d carvings in wood to learn the cam part before I try aluminum. Are you just running one roughing and one finishing operation?

Fusion 360 does both cad and cam. Is the 1/16 bit small enough to do fine details like ribs and scale patterns?

I picked up a new toy. I got a desktop cnc router thats suposed to be able to cut aluminum. I want to cut some lure molds with it. Its been a pretty steep learning curve. I cant find much information out online. Im trying to figure out what endmills to use and what toolpath operation to use. I havent cut any molds yet. Ive been trying out some 3d carving using a rouging stratagy and a parrallel finish cut. Im not sure if that would work on the mold. Anyway for anyone who has done this I am having issues getting fusion 360 to cut vent lines and scale patterns. Does anyone know what bit and cutting operation I would use for these? Thanks

Im gonna try putting a bunch of line ties on one bait to see where the best spot to put it is.

Didnt think about that but the tide swings up there are crazy. I got to witness it this year on vacation.

Just pored a bunch today 2- 8 oz. New jersey is much shallower. We go 3 miles offshore and your still in 60ft of water.

I dont think I can make the weights go any lower without making the bait weak. I can deffinitly tweak the ammount and make it static. Ill give that a shot.

Yea Im not good when it comes to lipless lures. I made one lipless crankbait before but that was a rattle trap design with the line tie up top.

I had it tied to a splitring. Ill give a snap a try. Where should I move the weight too? Ill try and get a video of it soon.

My buddy requested I make a twitch bait for striped bass. I threw one together in cad. I think I got the weight right because it slowley sinks perfectly level. I havent used twitch baits much but I know im doing somthing wrong. Its my understanding that some twitchbaits dont swim on a normal retrieve and some do. I would like it to swim if possible. But mine doesnt swim at all. Straight retrive does nothing. A light twitch it moves forward straight as an arrow. Ill post some better pictures tomorow but can someone point me in the right direction for what I did wrong? Im not sure what part of the body gives this bait the action. Im working on a v2 with a flattend front and bottom of the tail like a rattle trap but im not sure if thats the problem.

I did some more testing ant it seams as though my best bet it to wrap it to the line tie directly with wire. I dont think a hub would work correctly.

I heated it to the 400 degrees and injected it super slowly. That solved my air issues. Thank you very much!

Thank you, Ill give all of that a try

Finally got around to trying out the flex x 200 bait plastics makes. Stuff is extremely stretchy but I'm having some major issues with voids and dents. Out of 15 baits I had 2 that were functional. Not too many dents but massive hollow parts in the baits. I'm trying to figure out the issue. All my molds are made by me so it is definitely possible its just a venting issue however it works fine with plastisol so I don't think that's the issue. This is my first time using a pot instead of a microwave so maybe I'm doing something to add bubbles but I hardly saw any inside the plastic before I injected it. The only thing I can think of is a temp issue. I was shooting at 350-370. I don't think it would shoot any colder than that. They recommend up to 400 degrees but I would think going hotter would give me more issues. The only other thing I can think of is the outside temperature. Not sure if that makes a difference but it was 28 degrees in the shed where I now pour. If anyone could help me out I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you

Picked up an ear ball lure mold and want to star making some of those silicon skirts for them. Tried my hand at bucktail but I need some serious practice with that. I'm having issues with finding the skirt materials. I want to make something like this. I cant find any info on the bands though. All I can find is the band that just clamps around the skirt. I like the look of what I think is called a hub skirt where all of the skirt points back from the jig and none of it goes forward. I found what it looks like I need but for some reason I cant find it on any of the real deal tacklemaking sites. I only found what I am assuming is cheap Chinese ones off of amazon ebay and alibaba. There is no info on how to make skirts with them, what tools to use or what size they are. They will be used on large saltwater jigs. I would also like to know where I could find those large fins that would be a nice touch but not as important. Thanks

Posted back here a while ago about making some jig molds and what material out of. Decided on bondo as it seemed middle of the road on cost a durability. My plan is to make a mold of the mold on my 3d printer and cast that with bondo to make the jig mold. I did my first test run the other night. Mold was unusable anyway because I missed part of the mold box but I had an issue with air bubbles. There were holes in the finished mold right on the cavity of the jig. I’m not really sure how to eliminate them while pouring. I used bondo cut with fiberglass resin and Pam baking spray as a mold release. When I poured it I went slow and poured it in the empty space of the mold box. I didn’t really see many bubbles going in. Is there something I’m doing wrong?

I picked some up for personal use. Is the heat a problem for storage in a tackle bag? I wanted to make some large internally weighted swim baits and some saltwater stuff with it but if it melts that easy it might be a problem.

Never used this stuff before seems interesting though. Wonder how well it would work as a clear coat. My baits are plastic but as far as i am aware neither petg or polycarbonate are soluble in acetone. Wonder how well the paint would hold up though. I have no idea what I am talking about but isn't this what you are looking for? https://scipoly.com/shop/cellulose-propionate-cat-1077/ https://scrapo.com/p/27534/cellulose-acetato-propionate Also this topic did peak my interest and I did some reading about people using plastic cups for this. Polystyrene is what solo cups are made of and I know those pellets are readily available. I know abs is soluble in acetone that may work too.

I went way down the rabbit hole of trying to figure out how to make super stretchy and durable soft plastics and I've hit a wall. I figured id post what I have found here. All of these baits are made out of a thermoplastic elastomer. (TPE) This comes in the form of a plastic pellet that is melted down and injection molded. I've seen some different theories on here before that they are either two part plastic or made of some kind of thermoset rubber but this is not correct. I don't have any specific formulation but the plastic pellets are a mixture of some kind of oil a heat stabilizer and sebs plastic (Styrene-Ethylene-Butylene-Styrene) There are commercially available pellets with the correct hardness and elasticity but they are all made for traditional injection molding. They only need to be stable under heat for seconds rather than hours and they are injected under an order of magnitude more pressure than we use. I have tried testing some of these commercially available pellets and they do not react to heat well. Within 10 minuets the plastic turned yellow and my shop was filled with smoke. The only commercially available forum of this that I can find is Bait Plastics flex x 200. This is the same concept as the commercially available pellets it just has enough heat stabilizer to survive being melted for long durations and have a low enough viscosity to be hand injected. I wonder if large companies like zman use traditional injection molding or they have a formula similar to flex x 200 that would work in something like a Zorn injection machine. It is beyond me how you would get laminates as well as suspended flake through normal injection molding.

Are you topping off the sprew when it shrinks back in?

I had that issue caused by air getting into the mold. Are you sure you aren’t mixing any air in when mixing up plastic. Also burping the injector before injecting will help greatly

The softer the plastic is the more action the tail will have at the cost of durability