Jitterbug Lip

[BrownPigs]

Does anyone have any idea on how I can make lips similar to those found on jitterbugs?

[diemai]

@ BrownPigs

I've been making casting spoons and spinner blades from sheet metal for almost 20 years now , so I don't see any reason , why it should not be possible to make "jitterbug" lips in the same manner as well !

I haven't yet tried it for one major reason which is the line tie intergrated on top of the lip ,....... it would take a special rigid metal alloy to render this line tie sufficiently rigid against bending and also the entire lip twisting within .The lip has to be quite light in weight , so I would furnish it from 0,5mm thick stainless steel sheet or 1,0mm aluminium sheet , .......both of these materials , that are easily accessible to me , would certainly not fulfill my demands in terms of stability of the intergrated line tie .

I have made some jtterbug style lures with commercially available lips of different sizes and weights , these lips were not much thicker than I would make them , but they were a lot more rigid in terms od bending and twisting within than I could make them with my materials .

These lips were not that expensive , so I haven't bothered to try to make my own , .......but it definately is possible !

You need to make a plane marker template at first to mark the outline of the lip on your sheet metal , drive around it with a marker needle or a thin permanent felt pen .

Cut out the rough outline with shears , ordinary ones should do with the above mentioned materials , for more rigid sheets it requires bench shears , .............but the small latch of the intergrated line tie and the indention between the two wings of lip at bottom would give you problems cutting with shears , might as well use a metal bladed jigsaw for those details .

Afterwards you need to grind and file the outline to final shape and accuracy , break all edges thoroughly .

Make yourself a beating template of hardwood , utilize your lip template again for the outline and take a small round chisel and/or "Dremel"with oval router bits and gouge out the lips cupping curve in the hardwood , smoothen that indention as good as possible .

Now utilize a small plastic hammer to beat your lip cut-out flush into the indention of your hardwood template to achieve the initial cupping of the lip .

After you might use a small ball peen hammer to achieve sharper and/or deeper cupping portions .

Now your cupped lip would look rather ugly with plenty of bumps and blemishes on it and you'd want to smoothen it's surface .

You would do that with your small ball peen hammer on a rigid and plain steel plate/anvil or similar , place your lip onto the surface and constantly hit the cuppings inside(exactly where the lip contacts the plate) with the hammer , a change of the angle , that you hold the lip onto the plate does alter the grade and direction of the cupping ,..........takes a bit of practice , but it definately works , ........the more often you'd hit the lip with the hammer , the smoother the surface would become .

After you're finally satisfied with the looks and cupping of your lip , mark line tie and screw holes with a felt pen(you could have done that from the start as well , but mark the holes with a center punch not to loose the location whilst doing the cupping work), mark with a 90° center punch , so that your drill bits find instant grip and drill through , also carefully break the edges of the holes afterwards with a 90° countersunk or a bigger drill bit !

Mark and drill from the inside of the cupping , virtually the front of the lip , .........hold with one hand onto a scrap piece of wood on your drill press ans drill through .

Good luck , diemai

[21xdc]

Does anyone have any idea on how I can make lips similar to those found on jitterbugs?

Why make them, when you can buy them... The top two are what your looking for.

http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/crankbait-bills-lure-lips/315210.aspx

[VermontPhisher]

@ BrownPigs

I've been making casting spoons and spinner blades from sheet metal for almost 20 years now , so I don't see any reason , why it should not be possible to make "jitterbug" lips in the same manner as well !

I haven't yet tried it for one major reason which is the line tie intergrated on top of the lip ,....... it would take a special rigid metal alloy to render this line tie sufficiently rigid against bending and also the entire lip twisting within .The lip has to be quite light in weight , so I would furnish it from 0,5mm thick stainless steel sheet or 1,0mm aluminium sheet , .......both of these materials , that are easily accessible to me , would certainly not fulfill my demands in terms of stability of the intergrated line tie .

I have made some jtterbug style lures with commercially available lips of different sizes and weights , these lips were not much thicker than I would make them , but they were a lot more rigid in terms od bending and twisting within than I could make them with my materials .

These lips were not that expensive , so I haven't bothered to try to make my own , .......but it definately is possible !

You need to make a plane marker template at first to mark the outline of the lip on your sheet metal , drive around it with a marker needle or a thin permanent felt pen .

Cut out the rough outline with shears , ordinary ones should do with the above mentioned materials , for more rigid sheets it requires bench shears , .............but the small latch of the intergrated line tie and the indention between the two wings of lip at bottom would give you problems cutting with shears , might as well use a metal bladed jigsaw for those details .

Afterwards you need to grind and file the outline to final shape and accuracy , break all edges thoroughly .

Make yourself a beating template of hardwood , utilize your lip template again for the outline and take a small round chisel and/or "Dremel"with oval router bits and gouge out the lips cupping curve in the hardwood , smoothen that indention as good as possible .

Now utilize a small plastic hammer to beat your lip cut-out flush into the indention of your hardwood template to achieve the initial cupping of the lip .

After you might use a small ball peen hammer to achieve sharper and/or deeper cupping portions .

Now your cupped lip would look rather ugly with plenty of bumps and blemishes on it and you'd want to smoothen it's surface .

You would do that with your small ball peen hammer on a rigid and plain steel plate/anvil or similar , place your lip onto the surface and constantly hit the cuppings inside(exactly where the lip contacts the plate) with the hammer , a change of the angle , that you hold the lip onto the plate does alter the grade and direction of the cupping ,..........takes a bit of practice , but it definately works , ........the more often you'd hit the lip with the hammer , the smoother the surface would become .

After you're finally satisfied with the looks and cupping of your lip , mark line tie and screw holes with a felt pen(you could have done that from the start as well , but mark the holes with a center punch not to loose the location whilst doing the cupping work), mark with a 90° center punch , so that your drill bits find instant grip and drill through , also carefully break the edges of the holes afterwards with a 90° countersunk or a bigger drill bit !

Mark and drill from the inside of the cupping , virtually the front of the lip , .........hold with one hand onto a scrap piece of wood on your drill press ans drill through .

Good luck , diemai

Janns net craft sellls pre fab jitterbug bills if you need a short cut. Take a look at my first jitter lures in the hardbait gallery.

[21xdc]

Janns net craft sellls pre fab jitterbug bills if you need a short cut..

Is there an echo in here?

[diemai]

@ BrownPigs

My link has got some in the catalog as well , I always prefered the ones of aluminium , as steel lips come out quite heavy , .......often letting the lures float up head down a bit .

greetz , diemai

[BrownPigs]

Why make them, when you can buy them... The top two are what your looking for.

http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/crankbait-bills-lure-lips/315210.aspx

I was going to make my own because I was going to put them on some large musky sized baits and wanted a bigger bill.

[garyo1954]

Weight on the front is a concern as diemai said. But yes it can be done. I had luck last year by getting some zinc plated aluminum and cutting something similar.

You can see how I attached it with the screw eye. You might consider drilling a couple of small 1/16" holes and using screws as well.

I attached the lip to the body with hot glue, but you might want to use epoxy as well as the screws.

You can tell it has been fished and it has been hit!

Took a few 3s which caused the lip damage.

You got me thinking of working on it until I get a good finished product now. lol

But it can be done

[diemai]

@ garyo1954

Your lip appears to be plane , not cupped , ..............but obviously your lure still does work !

I have seen a commercial "jitterbug" style lure in a British catalog before , that ones lip wasn't cupped either , just plane as well , but it's two ends were bent(kinked) forward a bit , guess , that this might enhance the action .

These were also rigged with a screw eye as a line tie , .............so probably my concerns about an integrated line tie could be denied with a construction like this .

Thanks for posting , great input , ........greetz , diemai

[VermontPhisher]

Hey I was messing around with this idea last week and here are a few I made. I traced an oval shape onto a piece of aluminum cut it out leaving the line then I used a bench grinder to shape it to the line. A wire wheel removed sharp edges then I hammered the center on a padded surface with a ball peen hammer. This gives it the cupped shape. Find center and drill 3 holes . Done!

Edited March 27, 2010 by VermontPhisher

[diemai]

@ VermontPhisher

These turned out pretty nice , ........eager to hear about the lure action , they'd provide !

Now , that you seem to have got the hang of it , you may wish to experiment with different shapes , widths and grades of cupping as well !

Actually I have never tried cupping blades or spoon blanks on a padded surface , might probably only work with soft aluminium and copper sheet(for spoons) ?

Guess , that you did it that way to avoid too many blemishes ?

good job done , .........greetz , Dieter

[VermontPhisher]

@ VermontPhisher

These turned out pretty nice , ........eager to hear about the lure action , they'd provide !

Now , that you seem to have got the hang of it , you may wish to experiment with different shapes , widths and grades of cupping as well !

Actually I have never tried cupping blades or spoon blanks on a padded surface , might probably only work with soft aluminium and copper sheet(for spoons) ?

Guess , that you did it that way to avoid too many blemishes ?

good job done , .........greetz , Dieter

Thanks Dieter. The one in the back of the photo needs its own photo. It is a unusual type of tamborine jingle that I got from work. It is brass , smooth on one side and patterned on the other. I received it as a circle shape but traced and cut it to an oval. We buy some of our jingles from a local family I am going to ask some questions next time I see them. They are equipped to do production . They stamp out and bend in one action leaving it smooth. If you are worried about smoothness when using a hammer you could smooth it over with a cork wheel. I have maxed out my upload quota so I will have to wait until I put it on a bait.

[shade_skyhi]

Im trying to fid the angle to place the bills. I use 2 colorado spinner blades side by side makes a perfect bill

[Vodkaman]

Bob - they use the same in British Aerospace. There was one guy with an apprentice whose sole job was to fix all the dents and bumps the fuselage suffers in manufacture. You may be horrified, but it is inevitable in a 'hand made' environment with hundreds of workers climbing all over the aircraft.

 

This guy was an absolute genius with a planishing hammer and his leather beanbag. He saved my ass when I dropped an arm full of steel dollies in the tail of the aircraft, when the riveter went too fast for me to keep up. The skin looked like a bag of grapes.

 

Learning from this experience, my first attempt at lures before I joined TU, was working brass with a ball peen hammer and a couple of pieces of leather.

 

Dave

[JRammit]

Im trying to fid the angle to place the bills. I use 2 colorado spinner blades side by side makes a perfect bill

If you have an old Jitterbug laying around, lay it on a piece of paper.. Make a mark at each end, make a mark at the top and bottom of the lip... Remove the lure, connect the lines with a ruler, extending the lip line as far as you can..... Then use a protractor to measure the angle

[diemai]

Im trying to fid the angle to place the bills. I use 2 colorado spinner blades side by side makes a perfect bill

I've always made the slant for the "Jitterbug" lips at 45° to the lengthwise axis  of the lure , ....worked out lure for lure equally well , ....made a few years ago .

 

But I think , that about 10° more or less would also make up for some kind of action , .....maybe a more forward pointing lip would generate less noise and let the lure rather skim the surface with a more ponounced tail shake , whereas an angle less than 45° would create a bigger bow wave and increased commotion , ..........but all of this is my own guess , I've always stuck to 45° and was fine with it !

 

@ all

 

Some interesting posts these are , .....yeras ago I had also read a German blog containing a spoon making tut  , where the author had used a block of lead as an "anvil" , also utilizing a ball peen hammer to shape the spoon blades .

 

Greetings , Dieter

[Fish_N_Fool]

I'm amazed that nobody else is doing this but I make mine out of plastic soda bottle tops. The curved part just under the cap and before the sides. A 2 liter bottle is great for pike, musky size baits and the 1 liter is perfect for bass sized baits. Just find ones that are smooth with no ridges and cut to fit. The best part is the are clear and don't distract from the rest of the bait and they are somewhat flexible if you hit a stump or dock with it. They have the perfect cuped shape to make the bait work amazingly well.