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I make PVC cranks for myself. I have found a reliable way to make cranks that hunt, that veer off direction in an irregular fashion. The side to side ballast ball method works. I drill a hole from side to side in the belly of my cranks, just behind the belly hook hanger, and insert a sst ball or two into it. I drill a counter sink hole of 5/16" first, just past the lure's side, and then my 1/4" thru hole, which I drill half way from each side, following a small pilot thru hole I drill while my black is still rectangular. Then I press a 5/16" aluminum disc, from a soda or beer can, into one side, glue it in place with brush on crazy glue and accelerator, and then add the ballast ball(s) and press in and glue the sealing disc on the other side. I have found that the shape of the lure's belly, which limits the amount of side to side travel of the moving ballast ball(s) is critical. I'm still trying to determine what's the ideal distance. Basically, the ballast moves across the bait's center of gravity, throwing that center first to one side of the bait and then to the other. So far, the bait that had the most pronounced hunting motion, switching back and forth 2' every 4' of travel, was with 2 1/8"+ bb's that moved only enough to have one bb stay centered, while the outer bb move past the centerline, and then back the other way. I've tried bigger sst bearings, 3/16" and 15/64", in an effort to see whether one ball can make a bait hunt, and to increase that moving ballast weight. I've found that the bigger balls do work, but have enough inertia to actually dent the aluminum can discs I use to seal the chamber at each end. That could also be due to the fact that I made those shallow running square bills wider at the belly to give the ballast more travel distance, so the ball(s) build up enough speed to really whack the side discs. And the bigger, heavier balls seem to add to the Xing of the bait, because my square bills with those balls wobble in a big X motion. Fortunately, while the discs bulge out from being hit by the moving ballast, they stay glued in place. I've been able to just add a drop of thick crazy glue back onto the bulged disc to restore the smooth side of the lure. So far, once the aluminum has been bulged out by the ballast, it doesn't bend any more and the lure sides stay smooth. I think I got carried away with widening the belly to get the most movement possible, and that lets the ballast ball build up a lot of momentum. I'm still playing around with narrowing the belly to get a single 15/64" ball to just barely move past the centerline, which is what the Strike King KVD squarebill I used as a model does. I'm hoping to reach a point where the bait moves off line more erratically, but still swims well. Of course, another variable is how high up from the belly I drill the thru hole, but I'm not ready to tackle that yet. Hahaha Anyway, this is another fun thing to try. Like we all need more insanity in our lure making lives!

I hope the new pourers on this site take note of this post. I shudder every time I see a post about remelting store bought baits. The most important line in this post is "If you can smell it, then you are breathing it". If you are going to pour, provide good ventilation for your work area. My pouring station has a 1500 cfm gable end fan in it and it can actually move a thin stream of plastic but I never smell a thing. My opinion is a 160 cfm range hood is not cutting it and you are risking your health.