Looking for a descent artist for custom work

[Kokaddict]

I am looking for someone familiarity to custom lure making that might be willing to do some custom lure painting/sealing? 

I can't seem to find anyone that does it correctly, but I have the bodies, pics of the pattern, the paint, and am just looking for someone to build a few lures that can be effectively trolled at 80-120 feet and not crack the first time out.  

If you think you could assist, please shoot me a PM. 

-Kok

[Hillbilly voodoo]

Location will help

You mentioned crack first time out. The clear coat or lure body is cracking?

what you are fishing would also help and a pic of the paint pattern 

The skill level is definitely here on this forum 

[azsouth]

80-120 feet will need to be solid baits, most pvc baits are not designed to take that pressure. 2.3-3.5 is a lot pressure.

[Kokaddict]

Mr: Hillbilly... thank you for your response.  The clear coat covering the paint is what has failed in previous attempts.  The wood that the lure body is made from is in perfect working condition.  

Mr: AzSouth:  The base of the body is solid, cured and dried white pine.  Not Plastic.  I have 100+ of these lures and fish them regularly down to well below 200 feet with no cracking issues.

[bigblue2]

i use soleraz uv activated clear coat  which is very strong and glossy!

[ravenlures]

Why don't you send a picture of what you want, it would help everyone out and see if they can help.

Wayne

[Shepherd]

Always found tattoo artist are pretty good at the things you mentioned. Ask for painting and even Sealing

Edited August 7, 2020 by Shepherd

[Hillbilly voodoo]

34 minutes ago, Shepherd said:

Always found tattoo artist are pretty good at the things you mentioned. Ask for painting and even Sealing

As much as I like my tattoos and would definitely let a tattoo artist paint a lure I would not trust them to clear coat lol

[Shepherd]

I may have got carried away a little bit about the clear coat... but I've seen some tattoo artist airbrush crankbaits and I turned out beautiful

[Hillbilly voodoo]

3 minutes ago, Shepherd said:

I may have got carried away a little bit about the clear coat... but I've seen some tattoo artist airbrush crankbaits and I turned out beautiful

I have an extremely life like half sleeve I don’t doubt the artistic talent 

[Shepherd]

But in order for a tattoo artist to really grasp and put your idea on your bait they're going to need a detailed almost an exact sketch of what you want. Probably better off going with one of the guys on this website. It's the whole house the brain works thing. They may can understand exactly what you want without you exactly saying what you need so stick to the guys on this board, just another option I spit out would be a tattoo artist

[Kokaddict]

Certainly understood and appreciate those that have responded here as well as through emails.

Attached are two pictures of the pattern I'm looking to have replicated.  Which, compared to most of the incredible works of real-fish art that are here on this site, VERY simplified and I would think (from an ignorant POV) should be very easy to replicate.

The sealing is obviously a big issue as I've trolled a number of lures even at 60 feet for 20-30 minutes and they've already started to crack.

The feedback thus far has been most interesting, and I'm hoping to find someone that can replicate it.  One of the other biggest troubles with this apparently, outside of the sealer, is finding true WHITE glow paint rather than the blue-glow which seems to be the more commonly available color.  I think I finally found a good source and have the powder in possession, however the last two lure makers that committed to doing this bailed and flaked out.

[azsouth]

are they splitting from the leading edges? from the solid yellow and solid orange? if so you probably need to round those corners just a bit.

[bigblue2]

2 hours ago, Kokaddict said:

Certainly understood and appreciate those that have responded here as well as through emails.

Attached are two pictures of the pattern I'm looking to have replicated.  Which, compared to most of the incredible works of real-fish art that are here on this site, VERY simplified and I would think (from an ignorant POV) should be very easy to replicate.

The sealing is obviously a big issue as I've trolled a number of lures even at 60 feet for 20-30 minutes and they've already started to crack.

The feedback thus far has been most interesting, and I'm hoping to find someone that can replicate it.  One of the other biggest troubles with this apparently, outside of the sealer, is finding true WHITE glow paint rather than the blue-glow which seems to be the more commonly available color.  I think I finally found a good source and have the powder in possession, however the last two lure makers that committed to doing this bailed and flaked out.

 i think i could copy this easy enough do you supply paint and sealer?

[Kokaddict]

AZ South:  No, they split along the body of the lure, and typically split the entire length of the lure.  The edges typically aren't the first areas to go.  It's along the main body and for some reason, always along the bottom of the lure

[Hillbilly voodoo]

Classic salmon style plug the design is not the issue 

[Kokaddict]

Hillbilly....Agreed. I think it comes down to quality and craftsmanship and attention to detail along with proven quality products and application

[woodieb8]

at roughly 150ft deep trolling.pressures at 65lbs.

[Kokaddict]

I have a number of similar plugs that I troll at a depth twice that deep with no cracking issues like what's shown below

 

 

[Vodkaman]

As WoodieB8 correctly pointed out, the pressure at 150ft is 65psi. This is not that great a number, in fact your shop compressor is easily capable of generating such a pressure. If you placed your lure in a steel box and cranked the pressure to 65psi, would you expect it to fall apart, I don't think so.

Air compression under pressure - 14.7 / 65 *100 = 22.6%

Air in a balloon will compress to 22.6% of its original volume. Yes, this is huge.

Wooden body - the outer skin is supported by the wooden structure, and so the air within the wood is NOT compressed.

Solid resin body - zero compression.

Hollow plastic body - this is the only situation under question. Can you deform a hollow body between finger and thumb?
How much pressure can you apply with finger and thumb?
What area are you applying that pressure over?

Let's look at this from an engineering point:

Looking at my finger and thumb compression area, I make it roughly 1cm2, approximately 1/6th of a square inch. In other words, if you an apply 10.8Lbs force with no deflection of the body wall then you are good for 65psi.

Put 5Ltr of water in a bucket minus the weight of the bucket and pick it up with the tip of your finger. This is the force of 65psi. It is a bit of a struggle, but you can certainly more than achieve this pressure with a body pinch.

I would say that 150ft depth is no problem for any lure.

Dave

Edited August 18, 2020 by Vodkaman

[Hillbilly voodoo]

Looking at the pic I am wondering if the problem is poorly installed eye screws or a poorly sealed lure with this being the failing point 

I have made a lot of lures for lake trout and salmon that get fished at depths exceeding 200ft without issues. Nothing fancy is needed with the clear coat to withstand these depths. The only issues are from hook rash and teeth 

the issue is not depth related but instead poor construction or poorly applied clear coat or a substandard product used for clear/sealing. Looking at the pic I am assuming eye screws were installed without a pilot hold followed by water penetrating the wood do to failed clear coat  

Edited August 18, 2020 by Hillbilly voodoo

[Kokaddict]

HillBilly:

Agreed... construction is the *KEY*.  That would certainly be the case, I don't know what the steps were for the creation of the lure, but EVERY SINGLE LURE I do have that was made, is failing in the same way.  Hard to say what exactly needs to be done to make it "right", but clearly there's a lot of examples as to what's been done wrong.

 

Side note maybe someone here can shed light on... I have a bunch of these plugs in 4 inch and they are made with patterns/colors that absolutely dont work at all.  I've tried every paint remover and epoxy stripper I can find as well as industrial airplane paint remover and nothing works... like water off a duck's back, nothing touches it. 

Short of manually having to sand them with 150 grit sand paper... anyone have any suggestions for chemically getting rid of the sealer/clear coat that I could try? 

Thanks in advance... Kok

[Vodkaman]

I have read that brake fluid works. Do a TU search for articles.

Not recommended for plastic lures.

Dave

[Kokaddict]

Interesting... wouldn't have thought of that but we'll give it a whirl and see.  No worries there, all bodies are made from wood so should be safe.

[mark poulson]

If I were trying to repaint those lures, the first thing I would do is remove the screw eyes, and use some runny super glue to reinforce/reseal the screw eye holes. 

Then I'd redrill the pilot holes, and reinstall the screw eyes, coating them with some medium super glue so they will be locked in place once reinstalled.

Finally, I'd do just a scuff sanding to give my new primer/sealer something to bite, reprime, and repaint.  I wouldn't try and strip the bait down to bare wood.