Making A Pvc Crankbait

[muskietom51]

was looking at the Mcmasters site they have pvc sheets of different lengths and widths just curious if anyone has bought any from their site. They come in sheets from 1/8 to 1/4 thick.

[diemai]

Thanks a lot folks , ....very glad if we could provide some help and input !

greetz , diemai

[fatfingers]

That was an excellent video. He spent a lot of his time setting that up to help others learn.

I would only add one tip: The table top belt sander can do a lot of the sanding that was done with the file. In other words, in the video, he makes the basic pattern from wood using a paper template for the side and one for the top view also. He then uses the belt sand to shape the bait. The he goes to the file...it is at that point that the belt sander can remove 95% of the material if you simply lay the sharp edge (the part he filed off) on the belt sander and either roll it side to side or make long strokes on the rounded part of the belt sander.

You count the strokes and make the same number of strokes on the opposite side of the bait on that sides sharp edge. Counting the strokes and repeating the process on the other side of the bait assure that you remove the same amount of material from each side of the bait. Its easier to do than it is to explain and it works great. Super fast way to do most of the shaping of any wooden bait. The belt sander is your friend.

Someone asked about adding ballast to the bait. I would also like to add that not every bait needs weight added. Some baits run better without it. Some require it. You need to build a given model of bait with and without to see the difference in action and then see what the fish have to save about it.

Again, I mean to take nothing away from the excellent video he made. I salute him for a contribution to all who are trying to learn the many steps involved in the process.

As Jed said, when a lot of us started there was nothing like this stuff.

[west]

@ fatfingers

I consider myself short, because my english is bad!

Thank You!

[diemai]

That was an excellent video. He spent a lot of his time setting that up to help others learn.

I would only add one tip: The table top belt sander can do a lot of the sanding that was done with the file. In other words, in the video, he makes the basic pattern from wood using a paper template for the side and one for the top view also. He then uses the belt sand to shape the bait. The he goes to the file...it is at that point that the belt sander can remove 95% of the material if you simply lay the sharp edge (the part he filed off) on the belt sander and either roll it side to side or make long strokes on the rounded part of the belt sander.

You count the strokes and make the same number of strokes on the opposite side of the bait on that sides sharp edge. Counting the strokes and repeating the process on the other side of the bait assure that you remove the same amount of material from each side of the bait. Its easier to do than it is to explain and it works great. Super fast way to do most of the shaping of any wooden bait. The belt sander is your friend.

Someone asked about adding ballast to the bait. I would also like to add that not every bait needs weight added. Some baits run better without it. Some require it. You need to build a given model of bait with and without to see the difference in action and then see what the fish have to save about it.

Again, I mean to take nothing away from the excellent video he made. I salute him for a contribution to all who are trying to learn the many steps involved in the process.

As Jed said, when a lot of us started there was nothing like this stuff.

fatfingers , thanks for your hints on the belt sander , gonna tell Hubert about it as well ,.......just about adding ballast weight , ....this PVC stuff that Hubert and me are using(we're getting it from the same source) , is pretty buoyant ,.....you can compare it to very light balsa wood .

It is that light , that it would not be too practical to make larger and more voluminous divers out of it , .......you would just have to put too much ballast , thus probably spoiling the action .

Look at these two blanks , that I've just carved out of that PVC these days , they're quite small and still I had to put some weight , as I want them to hang deeper on the surface(pencil marks are approx. waterline) .

The smaller "Aussie"-style lure should dive possibly deep(and still rise off bottom fast enough) and the curved minnow requires some keel ballast not to turn over , I suppose .

Both lures flipped over to proper swimming position even without any lead ballast , alone the thick internal wire forms , hooks and the lips obviously provide sufficient weight , .......but as said before , this stuff is just very light .

Greetz , diemai

[fatfingers]

this PVC stuff that Hubert and me are using(we're getting it from the same source) , is pretty buoyant ,.....you can compare it to very light balsa wood .

Diemai, I understand.

The only reason I mentioned that some lures need no weight added is because many, many threads on TU and other sites discuss weighting as a matter of course. Therefore, it is easy for the newer guys to get the impression that when you build a bait, you must add weight every time. Of course, some times you truly won't get the bait to run without the ballast. But I throw that out there because a number of the newer guys found Hubert's excellent video to be informative and I also wanted to share that little tip.

I have to tell you, you KNOW he made a great tutorial when you can learn from it, even though the first one was in another language!

Very cool stuff!

Edited December 31, 2010 by fatfingers

[fatfingers]

this PVC stuff that Hubert and me are using(we're getting it from the same source) , is pretty buoyant ,.....you can compare it to very light balsa wood .

Diemai, I understand.

The only reason I mentioned that some lures need no weight added is because many, many threads on TU and other sites discuss weighting as a matter of course. Therefore, it is easy for the newer guys to get the impression that when you build a bait, you must add weight every time. Of course, some times you truly won't get the bait to run without the ballast. But I throw that out there because a number of the newer guys found Hubert's excellent video to be informative and I also wanted to share that little tip.

I have to tell you, you KNOW he made a great tutorial when you can learn from it, even though the first one was in another language!

Very cool stuff!

[diemai]

@ fatfingers

OK , ...I see , .......thanks for putting things right !

I have found , that especially on lathe-turned knock-offs of simple vintage lures(for example "Lucky 13" ," Bass Oreno" , "Rush Tango" , "Creek Chub Darter" , etc. , etc.)sporting integrated diving planes on their head portions any extra ballast most likely won't do any good .

Many years ago I've started out to copy some of these designs and in order to try to get them down a bit deeper than the usual approx. two feet(apart from the "Rush Tango" , which runs quite a bit deeper) I've added some ballast to their bellies only to see , that this does slow down their typical lazy wiggle even more .

That was ONE part of my learning curve without any access to such videos or even a lot of informative literature !

greetz , diemai