Some Swimbait Construction Pictures

[diemai]

Hi , folks ,

I've been spending the past weeks with making some new swimbaits and I've found , that I probably chose the most elaborate and time consuming way to do it .

These five lure blanks of brown colored wood(guess its a kinda teakwood) have the connecting wire forms epoxied into grooves and bores through the wood body portions , this always involves thorough eye cleaning with a "Dremel" , needle files and carpet knife ,.............. every time before I could connect the next segment .

For every step of glueing in the wire form I'd have to wait 24 hrs. for the glue to cure well , otherwise it would smear the cutting tools , when cleaning off the eyelets .

I have used about two weeks to connect all of the segments of these five lures , working on them Monday thru Friday mornings one to two hours each day .

Also the painting and topcoating of these would surely give me a tough time ,........ guess , that I won't be able to paint the tail section together with the other three sections , ..........how would I hang the lure to dry without an eye on the rear ?

Would have to tie a piece of cord or wire around the tail for hanging , thus paint it in a second process , after all the rest is done !

I am not complaining nor asking for advice , just mean to display my experience to help others think about their own designs to avoid too much work on their baits .

As a result of this very time consuming procedure I had another swimbait idea back at the 2nd of December .

In fact not a new or different idea of hinging the swimbait sections directly ,...... virtually utilizing these as the hinges themselves , not employing any other hinge parts except the connecting pins .

Maybe only the working process on this lure , made of sand colored beechwood , is a little different and comes in real quick , if utilizing the right machinery like a drill press , belt sander/sanding disc and a bandsaw .

Only the final fine shaping of the hinge portions engaging into one another was a bit time consuming and elaborate , but still a lot faster than glueing in wire forms like on the teakwood lures .

Since I made my first swimbait about 1 1/2 years ago with the help and assistance of mark poulson(thanks a lot , Mark , if you read this !) , I was aware , that the problem of those wooden swimbaits connected with a pin would be possible water sepage through the hinge bores , that can hardly be sealed off .

Now , to overcome this problem , I have thought of glueing in kinda bearing bushes into the hinge pin bores . These and their bonding glue will seal off the walls of the bores .

I took aluminium pop rivets 3 X 6 mm for the purpose , their heads also act as spacers inbetween the clearance gaps of the

single sections , thus no binding of the sections would occur after painting and topcoating the single sections in a disassembled condition , also the rivet heads act as excellent bearing surfaces making the segments move real smooth and easy .

It was only a matter of minutes to file the rivet shanks to proper length and put some grooves for a better glue bond , .......I just chucked them into the chuck of my lathe with their riveting pins(never removed at that stage) and filed on the with a small triangular coarse file .

I would glue in the rivets prior to painting , if paint or topcoat would accidentally cover them , I'd simply file it off to get back to the original fit .

I'd also close the belly side exit of the hinge bores with a wooden plug and glue , so that the pin won't slide out , ...the top exit I would finally close with a drop of glue after the final assembly .

Hope , that you can follow my thoughts by the pictures , any questions or comments are welcome !

greetz , diemai

Edited December 7, 2009 by diemai

[Capital Fishing Lures]

Wow this is looking really good man, really like all the pictures! One question how did you connect all the sections of the bait?

[Jio]

Dieter, I just have to say "WOW!".

Those blanks looks great and you're done a big job with them. Hope you send more pics when you get lures more ready!

Edited December 7, 2009 by Jio

[jamie]

Diemai, I like the bottom swimbait design. I like the longer joints in the sections of the swimbait.I think I would feel alot better with the longer joints. Ive never had an issue happen with the more narrow joint sections,but I always imagine the pin just blowing out the wood on the second section of the bait ( like I said this is all my imagination) Back to your design, good idea with the rivets I will have to try this, Ive been useing beads to stop the friction of the joints. Thank you for sharing your designs and keep up the good work.

[jamie]

Diemai, I like the bottom swimbait design. I like the longer joints in the sections of the swimbait.I think I would feel alot better with the longer joints. Ive never had an issue happen with the more narrow joint sections,but I always imagine the pin just blowing out the wood on the second section of the bait ( like I said this is all my imagination) Back to your design, good idea with the rivets I will have to try this, Ive been useing beads to stop the friction of the joints. Thank you for sharing your designs and keep up the good work.

I like your design so well I went to the garage and started my own bait.

[JBlaze]

Diemai, very impressive. Brilliant and uncomplicated. Bushings for the hinge pins and smooth bearing surfaces for the joints to pivot on. I would think these would be almost frictionless and having the water for a lubricant, should last a very long time before wearing out. I like them. Thanks for sharing.

John Blazier

[captsully18]

Diemai, congrats on your lure designs. I am sure you will be very pleased with the latest joint design. I have been using exactly the same joints on my swimbait for past year and have had no problems with it. Anxious to see your baits when finished. You do very good work, and I am sure these swimbaits will be your best ever.

David

[diemai]

Thanks a lot for your kind words , guys , ......very happy , if I was able to provide some input !

@ Capital Fishing Lures

Which connections are you refering to ?

The baits made of teakwoood are connected with wireforms epoxied into holes and slots leading through the single sections , an extremely elaborate method , as I had to find out . Cleaning off the excess glue takes ages !

The larger bait's sections are connected by wire pins ,....... guess , if you have a closer look on the pictures and the write up , you will surely figure out how it works ,..........or what is exactly the thing you can't seem to figure out ?

@ jamie

It was fairly easy to shape that lure , only thing I had to care for is to glue on the sketch copy exactly aligned to the outer edges of the wood board , so that I could drill the hinge pin bores exactly under 90° related to the boards longer edge .

I have marked and drilled these holes from either side to meet in center , this way I could eliminate too much wandering of the 3 mm wood drill bit as if drilling through from only one side .

You may notice , that from the start I have kept the hinge pin bore of the third joint a bit smaller , as the lure body becomes narrower down the rear , .........but later I had also extended it to 3 mm , as the material was still sufficiently thick and also not too much tension would be applied onto the tail section as it does not have any hook attached .

The rigidity of such joints stands and falls with the type of wood used , I guess , ........this beechwood is quite hard and dense , maybe almost like maple , but a tad more buoyant , I suppose ?

@ JBlaze , @ captsully18

Indeed these rivet head bearing surface provide very little friction between the single sections , ...if I take the lure blank between thumb and index finger to hold it upright it only takes very subtle , hardly noticable twists from the wrist to get them to swing around , .....very smooth movements !

@ Jio

Would still take a longer period of time before I'd get to paint all of these lure blanks , ...I still have to make some more smaller swimbaits for a lure swap , so when I'm done with these as well , I'd start painting them all .

You know , that I am not the fastest of a lure carver !

Thanks again, folks , ..........greetz , Dieter

[Capital Fishing Lures]

I see it all now after looking at em for ages but what are all those parts called and were an i get them all(in spicture 16)

[rofish]

Diemai,

About the tail section...

Why aren't you able to paint and clearcoat this section together with the others?

I would simply put a small wire eye at the middle of the rear part of the tail. After clearcoating, I could cut off the wire eye, then put some clear in that spot. But I would prefer to leave the wire eye there. I wouldn't mind having that eye there. Fish wouldn't mind either, that's for sure. Besides, you could attach something to that eye, if you think your chances to hook a fish would increase this way.

If you know of anyone who would oppose the idea of having the eye there, let me know his contact data. I will talk him into droppind the idea

[diemai]

@ Capital Fishing Lures

In picture 12 you can view the aluminium pop rivets still with their shanks attached , I'd just knock these pins out after having filed the rivet heads to required length and file in the grooves . You can buy these in any tool shop or ironmonger in various sizes .

There are also stainless steel screw eyes pictured there , these are especially manufactured for fishing lures , as they are longer shanked(different sizes and styles available) than "ordinary" screw eyes of comparable size also avilable in tool marts .

I mailorder these screw eyes from My link , but there are many other suppliers around as well . But keep your hands from brass screw eyes , as these may easily twist off in hardwoods ,..... always go for stainless !

The wire hinge pins are made from 1,5 mm thick stainless steel welding wire , some guys also use bicycle spokes for the purpose , stainless steel wire in various thicknesses and styles is also available at component suppliers like the one linked above , but I am not sure , whether of sufficient thickness ? Otherwise look out for welding supplies .

@ rofish

Thanks a lot for your idea , haven't thought about such an temporary eye before , ......I should think over it , it would really ease the painting !

But I won't leave it , probably only make a small 1mm bore and superglue a piece of aluminium wire(got heaps of it for drying hooks)into it and snip it off again , when done with the lure , ........it would hardly be visible anymore !

greetz , diemai

[Capital Fishing Lures]

Thank you for all the help diemai I am working on a swimbait right now! I will send you some pics when im done

[mark poulson]

Dieter,

Your lure looks great! Man, you are a clever builder.

I think you might be able to further waterproof you pin holes by dripping some runny crazy glue through them, and then redrilling them, before you put in your rivets (which are a great idea!).

If you're still using your penetrating oil mix, pushing it through the pin holes with a small wire or brush should be enough.

One thing I've found is that putting the hinge pin in the front of each section, rather than the rear, seems to help the lure swim more easily.

You'll have to ask Dave Vodkaman why.

I have never made hinges like yours, so I may be all wet, and it won't make a difference.

[RiverMan]

I like the bait in the bottom pic too...............really cool.

Jed

[shade_skyhi]

Hi , folks ,

I've been spending the past weeks with making some new swimbaits and I've found , that I probably chose the most elaborate and time consuming way to do it .

These five lure blanks of brown colored wood(guess its a kinda teakwood) have the connecting wire forms epoxied into grooves and bores through the wood body portions , this always involves thorough eye cleaning with a "Dremel" , needle files and carpet knife ,.............. every time before I could connect the next segment .

For every step of glueing in the wire form I'd have to wait 24 hrs. for the glue to cure well , otherwise it would smear the cutting tools , when cleaning off the eyelets .

I have used about two weeks to connect all of the segments of these five lures , working on them Monday thru Friday mornings one to two hours each day .

Also the painting and topcoating of these would surely give me a tough time ,........ guess , that I won't be able to paint the tail section together with the other three sections , ..........how would I hang the lure to dry without an eye on the rear ?

Would have to tie a piece of cord or wire around the tail for hanging , thus paint it in a second process , after all the rest is done !

I am not complaining nor asking for advice , just mean to display my experience to help others think about their own designs to avoid too much work on their baits .

As a result of this very time consuming procedure I had another swimbait idea back at the 2nd of December .

In fact not a new or different idea of hinging the swimbait sections directly ,...... virtually utilizing these as the hinges themselves , not employing any other hinge parts except the connecting pins .

Maybe only the working process on this lure , made of sand colored beechwood , is a little different and comes in real quick , if utilizing the right machinery like a drill press , belt sander/sanding disc and a bandsaw .

Only the final fine shaping of the hinge portions engaging into one another was a bit time consuming and elaborate , but still a lot faster than glueing in wire forms like on the teakwood lures .

Since I made my first swimbait about 1 1/2 years ago with the help and assistance of mark poulson(thanks a lot , Mark , if you read this !) , I was aware , that the problem of those wooden swimbaits connected with a pin would be possible water sepage through the hinge bores , that can hardly be sealed off .

Now , to overcome this problem , I have thought of glueing in kinda bearing bushes into the hinge pin bores . These and their bonding glue will seal off the walls of the bores .

I took aluminium pop rivets 3 X 6 mm for the purpose , their heads also act as spacers inbetween the clearance gaps of the

single sections , thus no binding of the sections would occur after painting and topcoating the single sections in a disassembled condition , also the rivet heads act as excellent bearing surfaces making the segments move real smooth and easy .

It was only a matter of minutes to file the rivet shanks to proper length and put some grooves for a better glue bond , .......I just chucked them into the chuck of my lathe with their riveting pins(never removed at that stage) and filed on the with a small triangular coarse file .

I would glue in the rivets prior to painting , if paint or topcoat would accidentally cover them , I'd simply file it off to get back to the original fit .

I'd also close the belly side exit of the hinge bores with a wooden plug and glue , so that the pin won't slide out , ...the top exit I would finally close with a drop of glue after the final assembly .

Hope , that you can follow my thoughts by the pictures , any questions or comments are welcome !

greetz , diemai

AMAZING i am a big fan of your baits and if you ever want to trade any or if you want to trade aany for any of your plans or templates i am all in your a great builder and a great guy be well and be blessed..........

[shade_skyhi]

Hi , folks ,

I've been spending the past weeks with making some new swimbaits and I've found , that I probably chose the most elaborate and time consuming way to do it .

These five lure blanks of brown colored wood(guess its a kinda teakwood) have the connecting wire forms epoxied into grooves and bores through the wood body portions , this always involves thorough eye cleaning with a "Dremel" , needle files and carpet knife ,.............. every time before I could connect the next segment .

For every step of glueing in the wire form I'd have to wait 24 hrs. for the glue to cure well , otherwise it would smear the cutting tools , when cleaning off the eyelets .

I have used about two weeks to connect all of the segments of these five lures , working on them Monday thru Friday mornings one to two hours each day .

Also the painting and topcoating of these would surely give me a tough time ,........ guess , that I won't be able to paint the tail section together with the other three sections , ..........how would I hang the lure to dry without an eye on the rear ?

Would have to tie a piece of cord or wire around the tail for hanging , thus paint it in a second process , after all the rest is done !

I am not complaining nor asking for advice , just mean to display my experience to help others think about their own designs to avoid too much work on their baits .

As a result of this very time consuming procedure I had another swimbait idea back at the 2nd of December .

In fact not a new or different idea of hinging the swimbait sections directly ,...... virtually utilizing these as the hinges themselves , not employing any other hinge parts except the connecting pins .

Maybe only the working process on this lure , made of sand colored beechwood , is a little different and comes in real quick , if utilizing the right machinery like a drill press , belt sander/sanding disc and a bandsaw .

Only the final fine shaping of the hinge portions engaging into one another was a bit time consuming and elaborate , but still a lot faster than glueing in wire forms like on the teakwood lures .

Since I made my first swimbait about 1 1/2 years ago with the help and assistance of mark poulson(thanks a lot , Mark , if you read this !) , I was aware , that the problem of those wooden swimbaits connected with a pin would be possible water sepage through the hinge bores , that can hardly be sealed off .

Now , to overcome this problem , I have thought of glueing in kinda bearing bushes into the hinge pin bores . These and their bonding glue will seal off the walls of the bores .

I took aluminium pop rivets 3 X 6 mm for the purpose , their heads also act as spacers inbetween the clearance gaps of the

single sections , thus no binding of the sections would occur after painting and topcoating the single sections in a disassembled condition , also the rivet heads act as excellent bearing surfaces making the segments move real smooth and easy .

It was only a matter of minutes to file the rivet shanks to proper length and put some grooves for a better glue bond , .......I just chucked them into the chuck of my lathe with their riveting pins(never removed at that stage) and filed on the with a small triangular coarse file .

I would glue in the rivets prior to painting , if paint or topcoat would accidentally cover them , I'd simply file it off to get back to the original fit .

I'd also close the belly side exit of the hinge bores with a wooden plug and glue , so that the pin won't slide out , ...the top exit I would finally close with a drop of glue after the final assembly .

Hope , that you can follow my thoughts by the pictures , any questions or comments are welcome !

greetz , diemai

AMAZING i am a big fan of your baits and if you ever want to trade any or if you want to trade aany for any of your plans or templates i am all in your a great builder and a great guy be well and be blessed..........

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[shade_skyhi]

Hi , folks ,

I've been spending the past weeks with making some new swimbaits and I've found , that I probably chose the most elaborate and time consuming way to do it .

These five lure blanks of brown colored wood(guess its a kinda teakwood) have the connecting wire forms epoxied into grooves and bores through the wood body portions , this always involves thorough eye cleaning with a "Dremel" , needle files and carpet knife ,.............. every time before I could connect the next segment .

For every step of glueing in the wire form I'd have to wait 24 hrs. for the glue to cure well , otherwise it would smear the cutting tools , when cleaning off the eyelets .

I have used about two weeks to connect all of the segments of these five lures , working on them Monday thru Friday mornings one to two hours each day .

Also the painting and topcoating of these would surely give me a tough time ,........ guess , that I won't be able to paint the tail section together with the other three sections , ..........how would I hang the lure to dry without an eye on the rear ?

Would have to tie a piece of cord or wire around the tail for hanging , thus paint it in a second process , after all the rest is done !

I am not complaining nor asking for advice , just mean to display my experience to help others think about their own designs to avoid too much work on their baits .

As a result of this very time consuming procedure I had another swimbait idea back at the 2nd of December .

In fact not a new or different idea of hinging the swimbait sections directly ,...... virtually utilizing these as the hinges themselves , not employing any other hinge parts except the connecting pins .

Maybe only the working process on this lure , made of sand colored beechwood , is a little different and comes in real quick , if utilizing the right machinery like a drill press , belt sander/sanding disc and a bandsaw .

Only the final fine shaping of the hinge portions engaging into one another was a bit time consuming and elaborate , but still a lot faster than glueing in wire forms like on the teakwood lures .

Since I made my first swimbait about 1 1/2 years ago with the help and assistance of mark poulson(thanks a lot , Mark , if you read this !) , I was aware , that the problem of those wooden swimbaits connected with a pin would be possible water sepage through the hinge bores , that can hardly be sealed off .

Now , to overcome this problem , I have thought of glueing in kinda bearing bushes into the hinge pin bores . These and their bonding glue will seal off the walls of the bores .

I took aluminium pop rivets 3 X 6 mm for the purpose , their heads also act as spacers inbetween the clearance gaps of the

single sections , thus no binding of the sections would occur after painting and topcoating the single sections in a disassembled condition , also the rivet heads act as excellent bearing surfaces making the segments move real smooth and easy .

It was only a matter of minutes to file the rivet shanks to proper length and put some grooves for a better glue bond , .......I just chucked them into the chuck of my lathe with their riveting pins(never removed at that stage) and filed on the with a small triangular coarse file .

I would glue in the rivets prior to painting , if paint or topcoat would accidentally cover them , I'd simply file it off to get back to the original fit .

I'd also close the belly side exit of the hinge bores with a wooden plug and glue , so that the pin won't slide out , ...the top exit I would finally close with a drop of glue after the final assembly .

Hope , that you can follow my thoughts by the pictures , any questions or comments are welcome !

greetz , diemai

AMAZING i am a big fan of your baits and if you ever want to trade any or if you want to trade aany for any of your plans or templates i am all in your a great builder and a great guy be well and be blessed..........

[diemai]

Thanks a lot for your kind words again , folks ....much appreciated !

@ mark poulson

Nice hint about the super glue , gonna do like you've suggested , Mark !

So you mean , that the male hinge part should better point backward and the female half forward ?

I have had a discusssion with Dave before about those vortices causing a swimbait to "snake" , I can't imagine , that there would be any difference with this type of hinge , maybe only with the screweye and pin type ????

But I don't really know , ........due to the bearing rivet heads these hinges move so easy , almost without any friction , ......don't think , that there are gonna be any issues concerning reduced movement !

Thanks again , .......greetz , Dieter

[diemai]

Hi , folks ,

Presenty working on my very first PVC swimbaits , also trying out a different hinge system on them again !

These baits are only 95 mm in length , so little less than 4" respectively .

Still have to epoxy in all hinge parts , but gonna leave the attachement plate of brass unglued for the start , so I could still access it later to probably drill out some material , in case it should turn out too heavy and let the lures sink too fast .

But I don't really think so , ...guess , that I still would have to glue in some lead shot ,.......but I shall see !

The hinge sleeve parts are made out of 0,5 mm stainless steel sheet , the hinge wire forms from 1,2 mm stainless wire .

Tail fins are from 3,0 mm lexan sheet .

Did not bother about a picture , but the three PVC sections do already have a sideward swing-out of little more than 90° , so it should be OK with that !

Could have secured the hinge wire forms by crosswise wire pins as well(like the hinge sleeves) , but as these lures are small and having only one belly treble , all the tension goes through the attachement plate only , not through the hinges that much , ..........so just epoxying them should provide sufficient stability .

greetz , diemai

[mark poulson]

You are truly genius!

I have found that making smaller jointe swimbaits is actually more of a challenge, because there is a lot less room for hinges, hardware, and ballast.

Did you use this hinging method because of the size of the lures? Just curious, and in no way meant as a criticism.

Since you're a master metal worker, things that are easy for you seem like a huge challenge to me.

I was thinking that, if you use the other hinging method, with the "mortise and tenon" type hinge, you'll only have to put the rivet bearings in the moving part, and won't have to worry about waterproofing at all. And you might have more room for ballast.

But, then again, until the lure is actually in front of the builder, the actual difficulties in construction are totally a mystery.

I can't wait to hear and see how they turn out!

[diemai]

@ mark poulson

Thanks a lot , Mark , ..........in fact I have chosen this way of joining the sections due to the small size of the lures and also because I get my kicks in luremaking in always trying out different things and methods .

I won't trust the joint that you've called "mortise and tenon" type of hinge on these small lures , .....I'm rather scared , that the latches of the female hinge portion accommodating the hinge pins at belly and back might break off , as they would turn out very tiny and thin , still weakened by the hinge pin bore .

Don't have much experience about PVC yet(not even about swimbaits in general) ,.....still going to make one in the 6"+ range some day , ........but I think , that I would use the type of homemade sheet metal hinge , that I have described in one tutorial in here about one year ago .

But I might as well use your proven screw eye and pin construction .

All I know is , that I want the hinge construction on bigger PVC lures of some kinda heavier hardware , as this already adds some weight to the extremely buoyant stuff , so I won't have to place loads of lead in their bellies , .........just thinking , that otherwise I might probably get into space problems for the ballast .

Just epoxied in all the joints into these baits today , quite a finacky work with toothpicks and small drops of glue on them , as I have to take care , not to clog up the hinge sleeves , ......but it came ot fine !

One sleeve got stuck up a bit , but there was still enough room inside of the sleeve to push a 1,0 mm drill bit inbetween to get rid of the little glue , that had gotten inside , ....all is moving alright now !

Gonna keep you informed , my friend , ......but I am not the fastest of a lure carver !

greetz , Dieter

[mark poulson]

You look like you're doing just fine on the carving side.

People who buy handmade lures have no concept of how much more difficult smaller jointed baits are than larger ones.

They think we should charge by the inch. At that rate, I'd go broke!

I hope the weather warms and the water softens soon for you, and you can get out and fish.

[diemai]

@ mark poulson

These small baits really seem to be more elaborate , Mark , .........but I surely enjoy the work(I probably wouldn't , if I'd sell them ) .

This morning I have weighted them in a waterbucket down the workshop ,...... they sank very slow in a horizontal position with the weights initially taped onto the lures , but after having cut out all of the ballast pouches , they'd finally sink a bit faster for sure .

After all of the metal hardware glued in I am pretty much surprised about the amount of weight still required on this very buoyant PVC material ,............. I have used the lead chunks inside of curtain weight bands , these lead pieces are 5 X 10 mm cylinders , only flattened them out a bit to fit better into the lures belly ,..... guess , they are at about 3-4 grams each .

Tomorrow I'm gonna clean off the excess glue and apply the first paint coats !

greetz , Dieter

[diemai]

Just got done with these small PVC swimbaits yesterday , made a little bath tub video of them and my latest PVC crankbaits , you may watch it here :

Whilst topcoating the swimbaits the joints became clogged up just a bit , but I have managed to scrape all paint remainders off of them , so they obviously move freely now .

Really enjoyed working on these tiny bits , but my next swimbaits are gonna be a bit larger , I guess !

greetz , diemai

[Vodkaman]

Impressive work as usual, but I have to say "WOW!" to the action on those swimbaits. Amazing action. Congrats.

Dave