JP MYERS Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 (edited) I had read a recent TU thread this evening on jitterbug lips, making your own from metal.. I had purchased stainless lips recently in 2 sizes for a new solid pour plastic frog lure Ive been working on.. The ones I bought are 2"x1.25" and a smaller one at 1.75"x1".. Both make the head sink below the water surface line.. I changed the prototype & added more plastic bulk to the body for balast and an angled area below the mouth to accept the lips at the proper angle, which also added more plastic ballast to the body.. The liquid plastic is of the floating variety ( Smooth-on Featherlight) .. I really needed the larger 2x1.25 lip for the lure but it really droops the head down... I know Moores offers an aluminum version but Im afraid the weight would still be too much.. I was wondering if anyone knew where to buy plastic polycarbonate, lexan or other types of non-metal jitterbug style lips anywhere?.. Musky size preferred.. I know Arbogast is using a plastic lip on the Hocus Locust surface lure and some Japanese lures have a clear plastic jitter lip on them too.. I've ran several searches but haven't come up w/any suppliers of a plastic lip.. I was cosidering putting 4-5 metal lips together to use as a moldmaking prototype to try pouring my own but I wouldnt trust the strength if it were not lexan or a similar strength plastic.. Plus I want clear or even slightly fogged plastic, not white which is what Featerlight cures to..I don't know of any other liquid plastics that both float & cure clear..I do have on stock clear cure plastic but its a sinking variety..I really do not want to increase the belly bulk of the lure any further to make the metal lip work for me.. This started out as a frog body, starting to look like a big rat now!..haha..Attached is a photo of the prototype, jointed legs, will have glass eyes if I ever complete it.. You can see in the pic how I added the angled throat to attach the jitter lip but it still nose dives till the eyes are submerged.. The butt and legs remain afloat.. Any help or info would be much appreciated..!!! JP~ Edited March 28, 2010 by JP MYERS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VermontPhisher Posted March 29, 2010 Report Share Posted March 29, 2010 I too have searched everywhere for these plastic lips. I have seen them on a few lures at the store , but nothing for us yet. The frog looks cool, good luck and let me know If you find them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diemai Posted March 29, 2010 Report Share Posted March 29, 2010 @JP MYERS hazmail has put up a tut in here about how to bend or cup lexan lips permanently , it works with a homemade springloaded bending template and heating up the material in hot oil . But I have read in a lure collectors book , that the plastic lipped jitterbugs of the world war two period(no metal lips available due to material shortage)did not work to the satisfaction to the fishermen , as those lighter lips would not "shoulder" into the water as heavily as metal ones would , thus generating less sound ! good luck , diemai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JP MYERS Posted March 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2010 Yeah Vermont, if I ever find any plastic jitterbug bibs I will definitely post the supplier.. Im sure there would be others interested too.. Thanks for the input Diemai.. I owned a few of the old WWII plastic lip Jitterbugs.. as you said, they didnt bite in to the water as well as the metal lips..But I thought lexan would, as it is probably a little heavier.. A splitshot or 2 in the throat might help too.. But at any rate, Im now making 2 more bodies for the frog lure.with 2 different heads.. One will have an open mouth for a surface popper appearance..Hopefully it will spit water out the mouth when jerked.. The other will have a slot in the throat to hold a square wakebait lexan lip.. Im hoping the wobble will get the jointed legs to make some nice action.. i will keep experimenting until I get this thing to work!.. Cant give up now.. I'll see if I can find Haz's tutorial, sounds interesting.. Thanks, JP~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VermontPhisher Posted March 30, 2010 Report Share Posted March 30, 2010 I have been thinking about this all day now. I might try a few things out this weekend. I am going to try to mold a piece of plexi-glass onto a spoon in an oven. I am going to do this outside in a toaster oven just in case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyo1954 Posted March 30, 2010 Report Share Posted March 30, 2010 @JP MYERS hazmail has put up a tut in here about how to bend or cup lexan lips permanently , it works with a homemade springloaded bending template and heating up the material in hot oil . But I have read in a lure collectors book , that the plastic lipped jitterbugs of the world war two period(no metal lips available due to material shortage)did not work to the satisfaction to the fishermen , as those lighter lips would not "shoulder" into the water as heavily as metal ones would , thus generating less sound ! good luck , diemai That is the best explanation i've heard on the whys of it diemai. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyo1954 Posted March 30, 2010 Report Share Posted March 30, 2010 I have been thinking about this all day now. I might try a few things out this weekend. I am going to try to mold a piece of plexi-glass onto a spoon in an oven. I am going to do this outside in a toaster oven just in case. I considered that after the first thread. I thought I'd make a sandwich board mold using two spoons and press a cd to see who that worked. That evolved into making a mold out of Durhams. I bought the Durhams but things got hectic. I need to get back to that idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
