Another Newb Lure Maker!

[jigginpig]

Hey youngun, where you at? I'm in Corvallis, I could bend your ear over some brews all you could stand.

[mark poulson]

Hey youngun, where you at? I'm in Corvallis, I could bend your ear over some brews all you could stand.

 Don't make me take that drive north now!  Hahaha

[JRammit]

ive already cut a blank out on the bandsaw and i am having trouble sanding an even amount of wood to smooth out both side.

There's a good specific first problem

Ez fix, you need a center line

Lay your blank flat on the bench (this would have been done before any sanding).. Prop up a sharpie near the center of the blank, doesn't have to be exact(I use pop ice sticks) Spin the blank around the sharpie, so you have a strait line all the way around... Now flip the blank over and spin around again to make another line...... If your sharpie hasn't moved, then you have 2 lines exactly the same distance from each edge of the blank, the space between these lines is the exact center of the bait

[SW Lures]

IMO understanding the material that you are going to use after having an idea. If it's wood, know what type that you can get or afford. If wood is going to be used, know how to by it correctly. Others words know what you are buying. Once you get this down my suggestion is to lay out a bait shape on a piece of paper. This includes lip cut at the angle you want. I put a center line in two areas on the paper. I get my symmetry correct as best I can for now. This two dimenions of the bait. Go copy the drawing. Keep one for later.

Then I take put the center lines on a piece of wood that is cut to minimize waste. I put the paper shapes on the wood using wood glue. The lines from the paper are matched with the lines on the wood. I allow that to dry. The stencil on paper become pretty hard and will stay there until you want it off.

I have a band saw to cut around two dimensions. Also cut your bill slot with the wood still in a square, rectangle shape. Drill your holes at this point to. I use files to remove and shape the wood. From experience and luck I put ballast and hangers in the wood. Then I seal the wood very tightly. I put hooks on the bait and go test it. I this point I may have to adjust the ballast and hangers. Once I get the bait the way I want it. I take the other copy and put the final locations for ballast and all other information you want on it. Scan it into a computer for future work. Keep all info on each bait you make including pic. I use program like excel, mine is numbers.

That's just a sample of how to, there is much more, jigs I made, how I drill through long baits etc, etc.

Now go get your material to shape and go buy all the hardware you need. Then we will start in the next part of the equation.

Work calls, hope I don't have to many typos.

Dale

[jigginpig]

 Don't make me take that drive north now!  Hahaha

Oh Heck, let's just meet at Bullards Bar. 

[hoffbossn]

Hey youngun, where you at? I'm in Corvallis, I could bend your ear over some brews all you could stand.

HELLO!! id love to man!! Im in portland area by tigard ill drop my number in a PM...

[hoffbossn]

THANKS ALL!!! you are all awesome love the reads.. i have been searching ALL the forums and learning a ton. it just takes time to sift through irrelevent stuff and to find stuff that i can absorb.

I am now planning to make a wakebait with wood material. I just ordered some carving tools and am holding off on a spray gun until i actually get some carving skill.. actually i am holding off because I have no idea which to get.... I already have a huge compresser so just need the gun. I will try wood and PVC and see which is easier for me right now. My main goal is to increase my carving skills! and my proficiency with the tools. thanks all for replies and KEEP EM COMIN!! 

[SW Lures]

Now that I have some time. When I change ballast location and/or bill angle I print another page with just the shape on it and add the new locations and degrees. I know the bill that match that design because I have saved that info. I scan it back into the computer. Then I save that page and start another and copy and paste with a snipping tool on pc's or for me grap. I put multiple patterns on one page. Now I put these on the material to make the bait out of (refer to last post).

As far as learning to carve and symmetry first your absolutely right. Then learn where to put ballast, bills/lip and the tow eye. Remember what I posted earlier and Mark made me understand. Do your drilling and lip cutting first when you are doing a bait that you will use. Even now while practicing I would get use to doing these.

As far as the airbrush question...you will get all kinds of answers. When I first bought a quality brush quite a few years ago I got a Ewata. Overall I like them a lot Recently I got a Paashe Talon with three sizes of needle assemblies. I am enjoying it very much. All are gravity fed. I am looking at the Paasha brushes (set) for powder painting.

This brings us to needle size. I like detail at times (ie, gills), then don't need or want precise detail in other times. That's why the Paashe.... I have three brushes in one. Most here I believe will say .3-.35 needle size. This thread ought to be very interesting from here on.

Later,

Dale

Edited November 23, 2016 by DaleSW

[hoffbossn]

Now that I have some time. When I change ballast location and/or bill angle I print another page with just the shape on it and add the new locations and degrees. I know the bill that match that design because I have saved that info. I scan it back into the computer. Then I save that page and start another and copy and paste with a snipping tool on pc's or for me grap. I put multiple patterns on one page. Now I put these on the material to make the bait out of (refer to last post).

As far as learning to carve and symmetry first your absolutely right. Then learn where to put ballast, bills/lip and the tow eye. Remember what I posted earlier and Mark made me understand. Do your drilling and lip cutting first when you are doing a bait that you will use. Even now while practicing I would get use to doing these.

As far as the airbrush question...you will get all kinds of answers. When I first bought a quality brush quite a few years ago I got a Ewata. Overall I like them a lot Recently I got a Paashe Talon with three sizes of needle assemblies. I am enjoying it very much. All are gravity fed. I am looking at the Paasha brushes (set) for powder painting.

This brings us to needle size. I like detail at times (ie, gills), then don't need or want precise detail in other times. That's why the Paashe.... I have three brushes in one. Most here I believe will say .3-.35 needle size. This thread ought to be very interesting from here on.

Later,

Dale

thanks dale appreciate your input! what is the difference on the joint where its connected with what looks like two eye hooks, compared to when they do the one that is touching with a nail in it vertically? 

[hoffbossn]

Holy Moley everyone needs a big shot of CHILL....i can understand & empathizes with both sides...it's frustrating when one gets first bitten by the bug to build (be it hard body, soft body plastic or whatever) hoffbossn it takes time & patience (i'm certian my wife is rolling her eyes cuz i'm seriously lacking both) ...then your into a serious addiction....i'm no master builder by any means (been addicted for about 10 years...still consider myself a newbie although iv'e got a couple 100 baits  built).. i still aspire to be any where near the first rung of the ladder that leads to builders such as  Snax, JR Hopkins, Jarrel,diemai ,cougarftd, solarfall, mark poulson an the list goes on endlessly....i built my baits first with a scroll saw a one inch belt sander & palm sander with pine or redwood scraps i could acquire....trying to figure it out...wow i just kept going thru the posts not using search cuz i was a computer clueless...10 years down the road i understand AZ Fisher point of view...sometimes in attempt to learn newbies tend to "flood" the pages with redundant questions...(at least it seems...but they're not really ...that would be the question unasked)....but step back an take it all in...i began with pine & redwood moved onto bass wood and poplar...then made the jump about a year an half ago to PVC....Having read mark's posts & watched JR's video more times than i can remember...there is no downside except i do miss the "aroma" of cutting sanding wood...PVC seriously lacks on that one...one can build with an entire array of tools or with just the basics...depends who your building for...me I build for myself...to catch "the big one"...my PB on my own lures is just shy of double digit on a"punker" style...

if you desire to build for others for profit that's a story for a different time...not to sound petty or borrow from"Big Names"...JUST DO IT!!! and enjoy its a crazy love....addicting as hell...JMHO 

Michel aka "surfk9"

I do not care to build for profit. IF my hands suprise me down the road and create something amazing theres a place and time for everything, in the meantime i wanna make a swimbait to catch a state record in oregon on. I love throwing swimbaits and do not get discouraged throwing them for 8 hours with no bites. Part of the game I realize. I am sick of losing/breaking lures and buying them with crap action. I also see the passion and love in creating these sophisticated lures. THANKS!!

[SW Lures]

The hinge in a swimbait can be done by eye screws, stainless steel wire or by a pin. I recently started building these, I made some for Mucky with a dual hinge from wire (.30). A friend took them up north a month ago and got some very nice walleye. I'm working on a Thunderstick with a single hinge its done well during testing. Mark cautioned me of the single hinge because it can roll in the rear piece. So I added a small amount of ballast. That did it.

Mark and a few others are the ones that knows about the pin hinge, I've never done one yet.

When your ready to build one I have a trick to find the alignment of the hinge points.

Dale

Edited November 24, 2016 by DaleSW

[mark poulson]

Here's a link to two photos showing my hinge joints.

 

http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/4214-reversed-joint-7-trout/

 

I made these as a test of the action with a reverse joint, with the cupped face at the front of each section.  It was a failure, because it did not swim at slow speed, like the baits with the cupped face at the back.

[SW Lures]

Was that cup shape facing the rear Mark?

I have another question Mark? You told me once that a X cut may not swim as well as a V cut with the point of the V facing the head of the bait? I could have this wrong but I felt this is a good time to reask the question.

There is a reason that I ask this. I made a flat side 8" bait with a X cut (double V) and has done very well right a long with a V. Both caught the heck out of fish, I was told. I do know by doing test that the action was pretty good, well enough to let them go. I'm just trying to understand and fine tune my knowledge.

Thanks,

Dale

[mark poulson]

Dale,

When I was making swimbaits, the big thing was trying to conceal the hinge joints as much as possible, to avoid a see-thru look and get a more "realistic" effect.  That's why I've always used a V joint cut.  

Plus it allowed me to use the sides of the V to limit the bait movement at each joint, so I could get a more subtle movement everywhere but the tail, which I made looser on purpose so it would swim better even on a slow retrieve.

A double V makes sense.  I just never tried it.

[SW Lures]

I felt the same way about the V, that it concealed the hinge in the see thro look. With me learning I did the double V just to do one. I cut the angle down to 70° which made it look a little better to me. Then I laid the hinge pieces a little deeper in the two pieces.

This bait seemed to have more action. Maybe because of the pressure on the front of that piece (joint). Honestly I thought that this type of joint could kill the action when I was doing it.

That's just me, willing to have a failure to learn. This time I got lucky.

Thanks,

Dale

[hoffbossn]

Thanks guys just dropped $100 on lure parts with that nice sale going on and am gonna start having some fun when they get in

[stretcher66]

Another thing for your hinge pin is to go to a local bicycle shop and ask them if they have any used stainless steel spokes for bike rims.  there are different diameters of them and they will usually hand you a hand full for nothing out of pocket.....