Question - Wire Former

[12spot]

What kind of Wire Former do you use and where can I purches one ?

What process do you use to make your through wire jerk baits ?

Are there any Video's that show the process you use ?

THanks for your help guy's

Dave

[mpashnt1]

If you go to www.Hagensfish.com and then go to the wire forming tools section, they have a few short video clips showing how their wire forming tools work.

Good luck

Dave

[philB]

Hazmail is the man

http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/hardbait-how/10686-micro-through-wire-construction.html

[BobP]

I use a pair of round nose wire bending pliers and choose a wire type and diameter that doesn't require brute strength to work - most often .040 dia SOFT temper stainless steel wire. It holds up just fine on bass baits, don't know about musky baits. If you are doing lots of baits of the same design, you can lay out a bending pattern on a piece of scrap wood and drive in nails at the bend points as a template. There are multiple ways to thru-wire. For balsa bass baits, I split the bait in half, make depressions with an awl where the wire travels and a hollow for the ballast, then lay in the wire and ballast and glue the halves together with 5 min epoxy. If you use that method, don't forget you need a centerline all around the bait to guide your cut - and that needs to be done immediately after you cut out the lure blank, while it's still "square" and can be marked with a compass.

[hazmail]

Dave, in that 'tutorial', the loops were made with a 'double twist' instead of a single barrell twist (Haywire Twist??), the double twist tends to shorten the wire, which makes it difficult to make a 3 eye harness. I used to use a modifyed spoke tightner to make these loops, but lost it somewhere, so I will make something tonight and take some pictures. This is a cheap way of doing it, if you can't afford an excellent 'Hagens' machine, which I do not have.pete

[philB]

Will look forward to the pics Pete.

[CL Rods]

It is a very nice tutorial and I too look forward to your pics of your modified spoke tool.

Are there any other tutorial links with this kind of detail for balsa specific work? My searchs timed out before I could get through all of the threads.

I also was checking out the thread about forming polycarbonate lips which was great. But I was wondering how you got the lips 'punched' out in the shape with a notch in them.

Ugh, I know so many questions.... But I really want to try some balsa and like the idea of using lexan lips but not quite set yet on the how to for the lips or if trying to make lexan lips, or buying polycarbonate or circuit board lips would be better for balsa.

When money is tight you just hate wasting too much in the learning curve.

[BobP]

Gator, I do my own Lexan and circuit board lips using a pair of Wiss straight cut metal shears ($12 from Home Depot) and a Dremel tool mounted with a fine grit 1/2" dia sanding drum. Rolling your own is the cheapest way to go in the long run, plus you can design lips to suit the specific baits you build. I've never been very happy with store-bought plastic lips. A 1x1" sheet of polycarbonate or G10 circuit board is less than $5 from Mcmaster-Carr. One sheet makes lots of lips.

[hazmail]

Well, I could not buy the old style, push bike spoke tensioned, so had to make something out of a 3/8” Al bar.

It would be better made from brass, or better still steel or S/Steel, I used Al because it is easier and quick to work. I got half way through photographing things, and the former rolled off the bench, never to be seen again in the rubble on the floor – so I did not get to make a full harness for the pictures. This is nowhere as quick as some formers available, but if you only need to make a few hook hangers, this might be o.k. - Whatever you use, make sure it makes a barrel twist and not a double (Haywire twist), which will shorten the wire as it is twisted . I used a thin, soft stainless wire here, hard and a bit thicker is much better, but I do not have any to demo with!!

First, with the hacksaw (fine), cut a slot along the length, and half the width of whatever you choose to use.

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Then cut at right angles across this slot and near the end

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Cut another small slot here @ about 90 deg to the longitudinal slot

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Finished former

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Draw a template and lay out where the hanger eyes will be – drill and hammer in location pins (nail with head removed) that are the same size as the internal diameter you want for the eyes, this will be the jig for locating where the wire is bent and the eye is rolled.

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Still can't find the wire former, I have been crawling around the floor for hours -so you will have to use your imagination, as to how the finished hangers look. pete

Edited November 1, 2008 by hazmail
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[hazmail]

Gator- I am not sure which you mean, is it the aluminium lips in this post?'

http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/homebrew-tools/9255-quick-lips.html

Pete

[Vodkaman]

Pete, you are the man! I have only just recently been experimenting with twisted wires and realised that I need a tool for the job and here it is. Many thanks.

The only different thing I do, is to make the first twist regular, then switch to barrel. This presents the eye straight rather than to one side. Both will work perfectly well though.

It it possible to make the tool so it will do a loose wind, as shown in my pic?

Dave

[CL Rods]

Pete, you are da man! Thanks again for another fine example on the art of how to!

The lips you were working with in the other thread looked pretty much like a circle with a circle notch on the edge of the lip. The title was Forming Polycarbonate "Lexan" and I thought you had stated in a previous thread that you punched the lips out of lexan. So I was wondering how you 'punched' them out.

I guess the lexan I have is just too thick and I need to find some that is thinner and I will just have to order it online as I haven't found it locally and I certainly can't punch out what I have.

Thanks for sharing so much info, Charlie.

[hazmail]

Dave - By increasing the angle of the feed slot, this will increase the spiral around the wire. Those two adjacent pins in the last picture, are used to align (bend) the eye to the shank

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For those single eyes in your picture, I use a double twist (haywire), you can use a hook made from a nail, place it in a cordless drill, clamp a loop of wire in a vice , stick the hook through the loop and slowly twist the wire to the desired spiral (tight /loose).pete

[hazmail]

Charlie - The polycarbonate in those pictures is about .5mm thick (roofing sheet) and I punched it (small hole) with a paper punch, the ones they use for punching 2 or 4 holes in sheets for folders. it will also punch through Aluminium. Although the poly is only .5mm thick (20mm dia) these have never broken/cracked, it's tough stuff, and the thinner the lip the better the bite, especially in a smaller lure.

The actual lip was punched with a press I made, which is pictured in the post mentioned earlier "Quick Lips". pete

Edited November 1, 2008 by hazmail

[12spot]

Thanks very much Hazmail for taking the time to teach my self and others how to make better baits and saving a couple of bucks at the same time.

Thank you

Dave

[Vodkaman]

Thanks for the update Pete, gonna make me one of those as soon as I find some aly bar.

I experimented with both types of twists. I found that the haywire twist pulled out of the resin filled hole at 20Lbs. The loose barrel twist is still holding Close to 50Lbs. The barrel twist gives the glue a lot more to hold on to.

The wood used is 0.23 density, which is the same as a heavy balsa. Don't know the name of the wood, it is called albasiah here. Couldn't find anything on the web, but it is great for lure bodies.

Dave

[kelly]

I love to bend wire. If you want to bend the barrel twist vodkaman. Look at my making consistent screw locks. The bender in there is similar to hazmails, but flat. The angle is achieved by a cut with a hacksaw. Just drill the hole the size of the wire and cut an exit slot to remove the wire straight across from the slot thats cut for the angle. Use a screw driver to twist the eye or another peace of wire.I guess if you are making eyes like you vodkaman you do not need to cut an exit slot, Just use it like it is with a smaller hole.

http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/wire-baits-how/12471-making-consistent-screw-locks-rev-1-0-a.html

Edited November 2, 2008 by kelly

[Vodkaman]

Pete. I just made a prototype out of wooden dowel. Angling the end construction at about 20 degrees gave me the automatic spacing of the spirals. I am sure that this is what you meant.

This exercise helped me understand what all the angles are for too.

Dave

[Spike-A-Pike]

Hi Y'all,

This is a GREAT thread and I'm sorry for coming in late...

If your looking for a fairly inexpensive way to make wire bends, you may want to look at the Boggs tackle maker. It's a good simple machine that has proven it's worth over the years.

It is possible to make different different wire forms to create different shapes and bends - You will want to have a few hand tools on hand to simplify the process (pliers - needle nose, round nose, duck bill, a diagonal wire cutter, a small vice grip).

There is one wire bending tool I still have from my flight line days, a safety wire pliers. It works well to get a tight grip on the wire and for making "technical wire bends."

Pete - As always, I beleive you have done so much, with so little, for so long... You can do practically anything with next to nothing. NICE BENDER.

Keep it going; I'm looking forward to future installments:yay:.

[MTfishingrods]

OK since Spike felt the need to jump in here I will go ahead and correct him. He wouldnt know a good wireformer if it jumped up and took a bit out of the cheese on his head. :whistle:Haggens is by far the best way to go. A bit on the spendy side but hey, ya get what you pay for. If you want inexpensive then the tools here in this thread are the way to go. TU inovators are way ahead of the competition. And after saying all this I will admit I have never used the Boggs tackle maker. So I am dafinately biased. I admit it. But for someone who has severe arthritis in both hands This has allowed me to be able to bend wire nonstop with absolutely no pain whatsoever. Ans it was good to be able to give you a hard time again Spike. The Packers put on a good show yesterday.

[hazmail]

Here's Mach 3 version, I found the one I made on Saturday fiddly to handle and time consuming to make. This one takes about 1/2 hour to make and is just a matter of drilling a pilot hole to take the turned wire barrel, cutting 2 slots in a 1/2' bolt, and filing some 'grip' grooves, and cleaning up. I found some thicker/harder s/s wire, which made turning the loops much easier.

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Thanks Bruce for the 'Blogs Wire' link, I will have a look - and yes I know what you mean about the right tools, I have little holes and scratches all over my left hand. As I said previously, this would only be useful for tying the occasional one piece through wire, arthritis takes hold after a couple of hanger sets.pete

[Spike-A-Pike]

Pete - Your wire has a very "finished" look to the final appearance. The tight wraps look nice and clean.

The Boggs tackle maker has a "King Pin" in the base and is used to put a kink in the wire that has a centering effect on the wire loop. It's difficult to explain, but simple to perform

You see the first part of the kink in the wire, this is followed by flipping the wire and putting a kink in the other part of the wire after the loop.

Hope this helps produce an even better finished product.

[hazmail]

bruce - nice little machine and pretty versatile- yesterday I was looking at 2 of those 'spinners' you gave me in Clinton, and again realised how well made they are, I have decided ,I'm going to fish one shortly, maybe those big trout will have a go at them.

That loop is where I have had problems, and as you say it really has to be centred first, or things become very difficult - will have to make a back yard version - if I had a greater call for through wires, I would invest in one of those 'Bloggs' machines, but you know me, nothing like a challenge. pete

[Spike-A-Pike]

Pete - I think a simple form using 3 nails might work, something like that in my poorboy diagram. The may thing is getting those sharp bends on either side of the loop.

If you decide to engineer your own tackle maker, add more length to the head shaft to make longer spinners, even if you don't use it right off. If you ever want to make longer spinners, you won't have to wonder how to get some extra space included.

Edited November 6, 2008 by Spike-A-Pike