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I have done a lot of work on ballast calculators in the past. I have never offered them up for use by TU members because I considered them complicated and clumsy. This one however, I consider to be very slick and versatile. You can enter data from a first prototype and it will calculate how much ballast you need to add or subtract to achieve the buoyancy that you desire, be it slow sink, neutral or float. Boxes 1 and 2 are merely to collect data on the body material in order to obtain the material density. Boxes 3 and 4 are measured from a completed lure with hardware, hooks and topcoat. Box 5 is your desired buoyancy, 100% = neutral buoyancy. Box 6 is the density of the ballast. This can be changed if not using lead. The calculation takes into account the body material removed or added to make room for the ballast. PM your email to me if you would like to try this spreadsheet. Dave

Hey guys, new here. I am having problems with my lures not swimming straight and not having a nice wiggle. I have been doing a lot of testing and can't figure out if it is the shape of the bills, angle of bills, position of line tie etc. the type of bills that I use are circuit board from Jann's netcraft, and my lures are carved from poplar and I do not weight them. I have been making lures for about 3 years now and I'm starting to get into it where I want all my lures to perform great and can make them all the same but can't find the right lip angle, line tie position, and ballast placement, I can send pictures of the lures if needed, please help

Hello all, There seems to be a lot of questions about how much weight to add to a bait. There are several methods described in other posts dealing with this issue for a “new” bait. I have a system for developing consistency through a line of the same bait as I’m sure many TU members have. My system is in no way perfect but gives me a good starting point. This is my process. I try to build lures by a repeatable process. I also use balsa wood. These two things don’t always agree. Different boards are from different trees and therefore have different densities that will affect the action of the bait and amount of lead that should be added. I have designed a system that allows me to come up with a reasonable starting point for a new lure by deciding how much weight to add. Whenever I try to decide how much lead to add to a bait I start out with math. I take measurements from previously successful baits (weight, vol, density,…) and use equations to get a rough idea of where to start. These calculations in no way are absolute. The different shapes of baits and amount of surface area that is exposed to epoxy or sealant also affect the weight and final volume of the bait. Other factors that influence this include line ties, hook hangers, lips, hooks, split rings….. and the way that many of these are attached to the bait. These equations are meant to be a rough estimate of how much lead to add in the construction. When I first get a board I place it on a kitchen scale and weigh it. I then record the weight on paper and on the board as well. I then use the dimensions of the board and the weight to calculate a density for the piece of lumber using the equation Density=Mass/Volume. (see attached volume table) Using mass values in grams and volume values in centimeters allows me to see what the density of the board is in relation to water (density=1g/cm^3). When I create baits I use a router. This allows me to be as repeatable as possible. I construct a bait by joining two halves together to form a bait with epoxy. I try to be as consistent as possible in the joining of the baits by the amount of epoxy I apply and always press the baits under a set amount of pressure while drying. Once the baits are joined I weigh them on a powder scale to determine their mass. After taking 5-10 measurements I calculate an average mass for the run of baits. By doing so after the baits are epoxied together allows me to be closer on the end product than weighing them beforehand. This negates some of the error encountered in gluing and from half to half. After the average mass is calculated I determine the volume of the lure body by using the known density and mass values. By comparing this volume to previous baits I can get a rough idea of how much weight should be added to a bait. (see area of drill bit table, multiply by depth of cavity and gr per cubic centimeter for a rough estimate of mold size needed) I then take the amount of weight calculated and install it and finish a lure with all the necessary components and coatings and test it. Sometimes I don’t coat the lure for the sake of speed. From the test I make adjustments accordingly on the amount of weight needed, hook size, line tie position, bill angle…… Once all this has been done for a particular style of bait you can adjust the amount of weight needed by recalculation of the density. Then you can adjust the weight accordingly to the density of a new board to get the same rate of rise in the lure. The action will be somewhat different as the distribution of mass in the lure is slightly different but usually the difference is negligible. By always recording all the measurements and calculations it is possible to get very close to a run of baits from the past that have turned out to be very successful. This can then be followed as a recipe. I’m sure this is nothing new but thought some of the members might benefit from an explanation of what it is to be repeatable and how to do so. The process, once again, in no way is perfect (bits have different points, walkout,....). It is a good reference and starting point for me however. Good Luck, CarverGLX