Jump to content

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation since 02/02/2011 in all areas

  1. At Rowhunter's suggestion, I'm starting a PVC thread. I use it for all my lure building, for the following reasons: It is totally waterproof, so I can shape a lure, and then test float and ballast it without any sealing. I have a 3 gallon bucket of water in my driveway that I use for test floating. It is buoyant. The Azek PVC decking is as buoyant as poplar, a hardwood I used to build my jointed swimbaits from. The Azek trimboard is even more buoyant, like medium density balsa. I can make really active shallow cranks with it. It is strong. The decking is as strong as any wood, for lure building, and the trimboard, although not as dense, is still plenty strong enough for any crank. And I use it for my smaller two piece jointed lures, too. I caught a 7lb largemouth with a PVC trimboard spybait I made that was 4" long, but only 7/16" thick, and I had drilled several 3/16" holes up from the belly for my ballast. She ate the rear hook, and the bait held up fine. Both are strong enough to hold screw eyes with just a small pilot hole. No need for any reinforcement, or setting into holes filled with epoxy. I usually use the gap filling/brush on super glue alone to set my hardware, and a lot times my bills, too. I use the accelerant (thank you Ben) dripped onto the glue to help it set quickly, once things are positioned. It machines and carves well. Although the sanding dust is nasty, because it sticks to everything, including my sinuses, PVC is easily machined and shaped with the same tools I used for wood. As with any work, sharp tools work best. I cut out my bait profile, and lip slot, with a bandsaw, and try to drill any ballast hole while the bait has the flat sides, so I can drill straight holes with my drill press. I use an oscillating belt sander with an 80 grit belt to do my major shaping, working from a centerline I put on the bait after I've sanded the bandsaw marks off. I "carve" details with a dremel sanding drum, and drill out my eyes with a multi-spur bit on a drill press. I typically sand down from 80 grit to 120 grit with a vibrator sander, and finish up with a small piece of sandpaper to get edges and details softened. Because it has no direction-oriented grain, it carves really well with sharp tool. It can be laminated into bigger lure blanks using the same PVC glue plumbers use for PVC pipe, or you can use super glue. If you use both the PVC primer and the glue, the two pieces actually melt into one solid piece. As long as the two surfaces are flat and mate, you're good to go. It paints well. I can shoot Wicked White as a base coat onto a raw PVC bait, heat set it, and never have any separation problems with my paint schemes. When I've had occasion to remove some paint to modify a bait, I've had to sand down to the PVC to get the paint off. It never peels. Occasionally, heat setting too hot can cause trapped air to bubble up under the seal coat, so I generally seal baits by rubbing crazy glue, or thinned epoxy, over them before I paint, if I want a super smooth bait. But any bubbles that do appear can be popped by the sharp tip of an exacto knife, and they lay right back down when I press them with my exacto knife handle. I've never had any baits with popped bubbles fail. And, because it is totally waterproof, I don't have to worry about nicks and scuffs from rocks and hooks. Any top coat works. I've used epoxies, urethanes, and concrete sealers, with no problems. In short, it make lure building faster and easier, and that make it even more fun, so why I use it.
    25 points
  2. Miss out on the last lure swap or looking to add to your custom tackle collection? Spread a little holiday cheer by joining our "Secret Sander" tackle exchange! Works like most "Secret Santa" exchanges, All US residents are welcome to participate. (Due only to timing issues and being late in the season) If successful, we will plan one worldwide earlier for next year. How it works: All participants will randomly receive the name and address of another participant to make for. Participants aren't paired or reciprocal, they will simply be chosen at random. You will not know who is making for you and vice versa. The recipient won't have a clue who you are unless you elect to tell them, you have the option of remaining anonymous by not leaving a name on the package. General rules: Must be functioning (usable) fishing tackle, made by yourself or your outfit. Must be US resident. Must be able to ship via USPS priority mail which includes free delivery confirmation. If you CANNOT ship by the posted deadline simply DO NOT sign up. Try and adhere to a fair market value of $10-$15 product total. Going over is fine if you're feeling generous. How to participate: FIRST Check the following link & make sure your postal address is available and updated in our system. We will pass your postal address to, and only to, the one member randomly chosen as your "Sander", otherwise your complete postal address remains hidden to the public as usual. After your postal info is available "Like" this post, to sign up. The "Like" button is located lower-right of this post. We will use this as our list of participating members. After cutoff, you will be privately assigned another random participating member to make for. Make and mail your gift before the postal deadline. Await your gift to arrive shortly after Christmas! The most important thing is to follow through with your gift. It only works if everyone sends something and gets something in return. Signup's are open from now until Sat. Dec. 17th. After which you will receive your addressee via PM. Merry Christmas Everyone! Jerry "redg8r" p.s. I know the name "secret sander" is corny, feel free to pass along a funnier name if you come up w/ one
    17 points
  3. SITE RULES] You MUST Read Before Posting. Welcome to Tackleunderground's boards. In order to make your stay as pleasant and constructive as possible please take your time to read through this, it will help you get the most from our boards These guidelines can be changed at anytime, without notice. Last Update: 12/24/13 Tackleunderground.com prides itself on being an open & accommodating resource for anyone interested in creating custom fishing tackle. We strive to keep an edge on other related websites by keeping a clean, up to date & well organized reference for our visitors and members to benefit and enjoy. With that said, there are some important site guidelines that need to be followed, these guidelines are strictly enforced by our staff. Infractions are given to any of the guidelines broken below, and can result in having your post/s moved, edited, removed and/or your user account/s temporarily suspended or permanantly banned from the site. ================================================ DISCLAIMER By using any information contained within this website, you agree that we [Tackleunderground.com owners/ members] can not be held liable for any damages, personal, physical, financial, direct or indirectly stemming from the use or performance of any instruction or information contained within this website or any of our sister sites. If your under the age of 13, you need written & faxed permission from your parents to register with us (Sorry, COPPA [Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act] Mandates this). Spam: Spamming (unsolicited advertising) of any kind will not be tolerated, this is the fastest way to being banned from this site. We have strong feelings about unsolicited advertising & enforce this rule furiously. if you're in doubt, try it once. that's all it should take to get you permanently banned from the site. Registered users are permitted to link one personal website in their user profile. You may not circumvent this rule by placing visual hyperlinks in any photos or avatars. Acting upon the community feedback we will be introducing a formal classified ads section where users can post ads & want ads alike. The Traders post forum is open for TRADING ONLY, yet we reserve the right to migrate it into the classified system without notice. You must use the classified ads system if you intend to request custom work from our members, or sell an item. Each registered member is permitted a defined amount of upload space in the forums to display images or other attachments. This free offering is for technical use & NOT for exhibiting your work or for gaining feedback on your work. We require you to use the photo gallery instead to exhibit your work. Our gallery has no current storage restrictions (try to get that from any other photo host) Also, members can comment, critique & even rate your work there, just as they would in the forums. The Forums are intended for technical Q&A discussions, please use the gallery for Showcasing your work. Any & all posts made simply to display photos/images is prohibited in the forums unless your photo lends some insight to an existing question or discussion, otherwise will be removed without notice. Members are permitted ONE link to a personal or related website in their signature along with some text. The use of your signature is a privilege not a right. Abuse it & your signature permissions will be revoked. We offer a variety of ways to formally promote your products & services here. Off topic posts: all posts must go in their respective forum, if you're unsure of a forum destination for your post, put it in "The Docks" (our general off-topic forum). Example: Just because you only make soft plastic baits, doesn't mean every post you make goes into the "soft plastics" forum. If the post doesn't specifically relate to the making a soft plastic bait or can benefit all members, post it in appropriate forum. No cross posting (duplicate posts in 2 or more forums). Post your message once in the appropriate forum. Post count addicts: please do not post unnecessarily, to simply boost post count. The number of posts on this board has no direct relation to the actual experience of the member. Vague topic titles: when posting a new topic, please use a descriptive topic title. Topics tilted, eg. "Help!", "Wow L@@k at this", or "I have a question" these type of topics will be removed without notice. They impede our search engine, offer no lead into the actual post & wastes time for every visitor to read a post that contained a misleading title. Bumping topics is not permitted (eg; replying to your own post to push it back up the topic list). There's no guarantee that you will receive ANY reply here, again more descriptive info usually receives quicker & more effective replies. Please do not post in all caps [ALL CAPS], this is simply an issue of common courtesy & bad Internet etiquette. If you have trouble reading the text on this site, consider using a larger font in your web browser or go grab your spectacles. Hot linking to images outside TU: "Hot-linking" is using an image that isn't yours, or using an outside image period that isn't hosted on your own web space. This eats up costs for the owner of the hot-linked image & is considered bandwidth theft. If you must show someone an image that isn't yours, consider placing a hyper(link) to the image instead. Conversely, you MAY NOT use the images located here including your own images located here on other websites. We are not a photo hosting service. The images you post here are for display to our visitors only. Using our image system to store photos for use on any other websites will not be tolerated. We have a monitoring system in place that tips us off to websites linking to our images/content. You may argue that some images here belong to you, while that may or may not be true, the bandwidth & server space used to house & display your images belong to Tackleunderground.com. Use your own web space to display your images on other sites. There are TU images & files that may be publicly used on outside websites, if so, they will be accompanied by express permission for use in public domain, (example; the topsites rank images) You may display your own images here but the size will be limited to 400 x 600 pixels to help keep the site fast for our 56k (dial up) users. You may also display images hosted on your own web space or photo hosting service, however, these remotely hosted images must conform to the same 400 x 600 pixel limit. Larger images will break the layout of the website. If a remotely hosted image is found to be excessively large, "broken" or off topic, it will be removed without notice. Photos uploaded to the TU galleries should not be explicit or contain explicit or offensive images. Photos of lures that imitate male or female genitals or other private/intimate body parts are not acceptable and will be deleted. TU members who post such images will receive warning points and the image(s) will be deleted. Repeated incidents will result in suspension or permanent banning from the site. Contacting an individual publicly on the board should be avoided. members have the ability to contact other club members via protected email, regular members can use the PM (personal messaging system) to contact members privately. eBay auctions: eBay & other auction listings are prohibited because they are "time sensitive". We do this because we plan on being around for awhile & its irritating to chase an auction link that ended & sold years ago. Circumventing this rule by posting auction numbers, seller ID's, etc. will be dealt with in the same manner. TU is NOT an Arbitration Venue If you received bad or slow service from any company or conversely had a bad experience with a customer, TU is NOT the place to air out your bad laundry. If you have an issue with another member stemming from a trade or deal made through the TU classifieds system, then privately contact a mod or admin to investigate the issue. All other issues will NOT be permitted. Respect the moderators, period. They work hard here for nothing in return. Profanity and insults towards them will not be tolerated. If you have a problem with your post/s being edited/moved/removed or have a problem with a moderator use the HelpCenter or Contact Us link to speak with an administrator directly. Be tasteful, we do not permit overly foul or explicit language, racist comments, gender bashing, or offensive material of any kind. Posting of offensive photos, avatars, or files will also not be tolerated. Additionally, we do not permit devisive topics such as religion & politics. We respect your views, however, TU is not the place to discuss these issues. Multiple registrations are strictly prohibited. It invites the use of alter ego's which we do not permit. If you are caught using multiple accounts, we will ban all accounts associated. We also watch associations between various members who may unscrupulously attempt to promote each others products & services. These activities will be dealt with in the same fashion. The official language is English, we welcome anyone capable of communicating the english language. There are additional rules pertaining to particular areas of the site, they will be available in their respective areas. Some Helpful Tips Lurk (look around) and get to know the forum & members a little before you post. Use the search functions before posting. Chances are your question may have already been answered. Try & be as clear & descriptive as possible when seeking help. Detailed information almost always earns fast & helpful responses. Sometimes a photo will be more descriptive than trying to explain the issue. Thank you for your co-operation & enjoy the site. Tight Lines, The Tackleunderground Moderators.
    14 points
  4. Exx1976 - I do not understand you. I have refrained from posting this sentiment before. You put a lot of effort in, making excellent contributions to the TU community, gaining a lot of respect. And then, you seem to have a brain fart and chop someone off at the knees for very little reason. I am not blame free, I too have had my moments of indiscretion. I suggest you think your more acidic replies through before hitting the reply button! Dave
    11 points
  5. Well i have not posted anything in here for a really long time i've been enjoying the finnish summer and going fishing which i have been doing alot. anyways i decided to paint some bass themed baits and attempt to make them as realistic as possible with combining hand painting and airbrushing, the results should speak for them selfs.
    11 points
  6. Here is the way I see it. You just have to worry about yourself. You cannot stop what you are talking about. So you just need to do it better than everyone else. It is not an easy thing to do. Being the best never is. Bottom line is.....How bad you want it? Skeeter
    11 points
  7. I have started receiving complaints from TU members about business owners, tackle supply retailers, lure parts companies and others spending time here in the forums with a single motive; selling TU members their goods or services. This message serves as notice to everyone that this will STOP here and now! TU is not a venue for ANYONE to spend time hanging out here, trying to sell their products to people. It is a place where people come to learn from other lure makers. Any company who has people here and is actively soliciting TU members, be forewarned that your accounts are in danger of being permanently banned! I don't take this lightly and you shouldn't either! So if you happen to be one of those people who has been becoming more active here for the sole purpose of trying to reel in new customers, put an end to it now. If you want to share your knowledge with others without mentioning your company and without offering to "help" them with their problem by offering to sell them something, then feel free to continue to to participate here. I will be keeping a close eye on this and TU members will also be watching and if they see anything going on that is outside of these guidelines, it will be passed along to me. Once again, accounts of guilty parties will be permanently banned if this continues after today!
    11 points
  8. With small lures, members discovered that very thin fiber/circuit board lips were more effective than thicker Lexan lips in creating waggle action. The thinner the lip, the better the action. The reason for this has not been discussed much, if at all. It is all about the sharp edge. Water can flow around a round object with minimum 'peeling off' of the flow, thus minimum disturbance of the water. Conversely, flow cannot negotiate a sharp corner; it cannot change direction that quickly. This causes a low pressure area behind the edge of the lip. Water gets sucked back into this low pressure area and thus the vortex is born. At very slow speeds, the shape of the water flow is symmetrical, the same both sides of the lure. But, as the lure speed increases, a certain speed is reached were the vortices start to interact. There is not enough room for the vortices to exist independently so they take turns. The vortices start to alternate, forming one side then the other. This effect is called ‘vortex shedding’, a ‘vortex street’ or ‘Kármán vortex street’. This alternating vortex is the engine that drives the lure, causing the desirable ‘waggle’ or action of the lure. This also explains why a lure has a minimum speed before the action starts. The sharper the edge is, the stronger the low pressure area, the stronger the vortex and therefore the stronger the action. Larger lures in the range of 8” and larger will require a thicker lip in order to survive bouncing off rocks with all that body weight behind. But the thicker lip is not going to produce as much action as the knife edge lip of the 3” lure. The solution is to cut a chamfer behind the lip face. This reintroduces the knife edge and improves the vortex strength and thus the action. Another way to improve action is to make the face of the lip concave. This causes pressure to build up in front of the lip which further increases the strength of the vortex. Here is a video that shows vortex shedding, and the start transition explaining the minimum speed. Dave
    10 points
  9. Here is my take on this topic... I was approached by the gentleman who started this magazine. He was respectful and offered me the chance to showcase my baits in his online magazine. The offer was at no charge to me and he asked for nothing but photos...as many as I wanted to submit. Although I have not contributed as of yet, I saw nothing but an honest earnest offer to participate in his venture. I am currently busy with other matters but I may participate later just for fun. Why not? I enjoy building and I get a kick out of sharing my efforts...don't we all? Isn't that why the gallery here has no shortage of contributions? I think that like any new venture, he will probably have some growing pains and that's okay with me. As is often the case with any new idea or venture, the mission may change as time goes on and perhaps will have more for everyone later. I wish him all the best as he tries to get his venture off the ground. I hope he succeeds and I hope at some point he profits from his desire to showcase custom lures for everyone to enjoy. We all enjoy looking at baits and on a blog that I started on another website, I have also tried to showcase what I consider to be some of the finest bait builders from all over the world. People seem to enjoy that and this fellow is simply trying to do the same, from what I've seen. I see absolutely no reason to wish him anything but the best of luck as he tries to do something that he feels has a certain value for all to enjoy.
    9 points
  10. Roll the fillets in cornmeal and deep fry for 8 minutes. Sorry, it was there for the taking.
    9 points
  11. A few things going on in regards to light transmission and suspension of salt. First all these salts are the same as in NaCl. Where they differ is purity/additives. Salt by it very nature is problematic in that it picks up water. NaCl is used to calibrate some instruments that measure water uptake based on its very well studied water adsorption. So unless you store your salt properly and dry it you are adding some water to your plastic during the heating process. Adding some cloudiness to the end product if not all removed (not a big issue as often gets boiled off during heating). Additionally to counteract salts water loving tendencies manufactures place anti caking agents in it to avoid it turning into a brick (and iodized typically). So you have impurities playing a role in regards light transmission. Other issues that cause cloudiness are result of tackling the suspension issue.. The salt crystal shape plays a role in suspension. Table salt and others are cubodial. The shape results in crystals that don't suspend readily. So guys grind it to make the particles smaller but in doing so exponentially increase the surface area and further cause issues with transparency (lack of). Sort of like fill a glass with ice and pour a margarita mix over it versus putting that same ratio in your blender. You also are adding defects in the crystal in the process. Think of safety glass: pre and after hitting it with a hammer. Kosher, Maldon, and other salts prized by chefs are different in shape. Kosher typically is forced into a flat shape under pressure to form flakes. So take two cubes the same size/mass. Take the second cube and compress it flat. Drop them in a liquid guess which one hits the bottom first. The shapes vary in regards to displacement. The flat shape will displace more plastic and will sink slower than the cube and is the reason Kosher salts suspend better in comparison to table (cubodial) salt. Cargill uses a process called Alberger process to make some of their salts. It results in concaved plate/flake. These salts Kosher, maldon, the Cargill select products are typically larger particle size to boot so often get the best of both worlds... larger crystals (less defects and less surface area) with a shape but do to the shape suspend better than cubes. Additionally they often don't have anticaking agents.
    8 points
  12. aluminum tape polished with Mothers aluminum polish
    8 points
  13. I remember when I first started painting lures and even building a few how this site was the only source of information. Unpainted blanks were limited to a few sources and were tempermental sometimes to fish. You could ask people on this site how they painted a color but you still had to work through the process all by yourself. We even had to learn how to blend colors thru trial and error. I leave the "business" for several years and now you can find a multitude of sources for unpainted crankbaits, youtube videos showing the entire process of painting any color pattern imaginable, and even sites with painting tutorials you can print out. While things have changed one thing remains constant. This site still remains as a great source of information and full of very helpful people that will assist in any way they can!!
    8 points
  14. As I do not build gliders or jerk baits, all that I can do is throw a lot of theory out there, to help you understand how the lure works. Understanding the theory helps the builder to design a lure to take advantage of the forces accordingly. Of course, experienced glider builders will have already figured this stuff out even if they do not know the reasons why their lures work. Experience is a valuable tool, theory only gives you a ‘leg up’ at the start. As you have already figured out, this is a very complex issue with multiple factors to be taken in to consideration. The apparent ideal solution for a lure to swim a long distance with efficiency is an arrow with all the weight at the front. But we already know that this would not work in water as it does in air because of the nose down attitude, like I said; multiple factors. Also, the super aerodynamic shape of an arrow is designed NOT to produce vortices. When we fire an arrow in air for maximum distance, we apply great force and we aim up at 45°, and due to air resistance, the arrow falls at 70°+. Target sports for darts and archery only use the top of the flight arc. Also the arrow is designed not to swing from side to side, a definite requirement of the lure. As for the lure; we want it to travel in a straight line as far as possible, then on the next pull, we want the same again only in a different/opposite direction (left/right). So, what causes this desired change of direction? The answer is vortices, my favourite subject. A waggling lipped lure generates a rapid series of vortices that cause the lure to waggle left and right. The sharp lip causes vortices to be created at a relatively low speed, and the theory of the ‘Kármán vortex street’ causes the vortices to rapidly alternate left/right. But still, the lipped lure requires a minimum speed to operate. The lipless glider still creates vortices but has a much higher minimum speed to create the vortex. The operation of the lure is to tug or jerk the lure. A single vortex is created and no more as the lure is already slowed below the vortex threshold. This swirling vortex sucks on the rear half of the lure body causing it to change direction. The next jerk causes the vortex to form across the back of the lure and sucks it in the opposite direction. As the lure slows down, that single vortex is still there, working on the lure, sucking it further around. This effect can be seen on multiple section swim-baits; a steady, constant retrieve causes alternating vortices that act on the rear of the lure causing that beautiful snake action. BUT, if you jerk the jointed swim-bait, the lure curls around even 90° and beyond. Check out the video, you can almost see the vortex sucking the lure around in the jerk sections with a little imagination. The above is the basic mechanics of what is going on. Now we have to figure out how to use the mechanics, the theory, to make the glider lure swim how we want. To start with, I use an analogy that I have talked about many times; Grab a 2 feet length of dowel in the middle in your fist. Rotate your wrist rapidly left and right. The dowel swings fairly easily. Now add ¼ pound of lead at each end of the dowel and repeat. The dowel is much more difficult to swing left and right. Now put the two weights at the center of the dowel and repeat. Once again, the dowel swings easily. This is the effect of inertia. We want the glider to change direction but we want to resist the continuing change of direction. The solution is to increase resistance to direction change by increasing inertia. By placing weight at the front and rear we increase inertia and resist the change of direction. But as always, design is a compromise. If the inertia of the lure is too great then the change of direction will be minimal or even nonexistent. You may end up with a straight swimming torpedo. Another feature is the depth of the lure body that the suction of the vortex acts upon. You may think that a deeper body with a larger surface area would resist the side movement, this would be incorrect at least according to theory; the suction force of the vortex acts on the side surface area of the lure, reduce the area and reduce the force. But yet again, design is a compromise. If you reduce your lure to a torpedo cylinder, no vortex will be created in the first place. If your lure swings excessively as it slows down then consider reducing the body depth. The reduced depth will also reduce resistance to forward motion. Once the glide motion clears the vortex, it will travel aerodynamically like a torpedo. We only require the vortex sucking effect at the initial tug of the lure, if the glider can swim clear of the vortex then it will continue in a straight line for more distance. If the glide distance is short and the lure continues to turn; reduce body depth and/or extend the weights to front and rear. If the lure does not change direction then no vortex has been created, you have a torpedo. You can add a flat to the top of the nose to help the vortex form, or increase the depth on the next build. Gliders need to naturally float horizontal, but the rest is a compromise between body depth and ballast distribution. Dave
    7 points
  15. Possibly inspired by divine intervention or alien telepathic communication, you come up with a great idea for a lure. You spend several hours shaping the body. It comes out perfectly symmetrical. The lip slot is perfectly straight. You seal the bait and get the perfect ballast placement in your test tub. You drill the ballast hole and have no wood splintering. After installing the ballast, you re-seal the lure for added protection. You are so excited about your creation you decide to take the lure to the unfrozen portion of a small river on a cloudy dreary 30 degree day to test the action. You brave walking over slippery rocks to get to the shore, nearly face planting several times. The sun breaks through the clouds as you tie the lure on. You feel the warmth on your face as you make the first cast. The lure performs better than you imagined. As you watch the lure’s amazing action, a huge bass comes up from the depths and blasts your lure despite the lure being unpainted and the near freezing water temperature. You get no hook up because you are testing with bent over trebles to prevent a snag. You are ecstatic about all of the monsters that will fall to the lure when it is finished in all its glory. The action is so good that on the next cast a bald eagle takes a dive at the lure. You frantically reel the lure in to prevent the eagle from stealing your precious. After your lure’s lucky escape, you get back to the shop and wait for the lure to dry for painting. After resisting the urge to paint the lure too soon, you are finally able to continue your masterpiece. With great skill and effort, you apply an incredibly detailed paint job with gill plates, fins, scales, 32 different colors, perfect shading and blending, the works. It comes out flawless. The ghosts of Michelangelo and James Heddon appear before you and inspect the lure. They simultaneously say ‘sweet’ as they disappear. You wait for the paint to thoroughly dry. You put the lure on your turner. You mix the epoxy which comes out crystal clear and bubble free. You apply a nice even epoxy coat, not too thin, not too thick. You flip the switch on the rotisserie motor. The lure starts its graceful rotation. Then… Disaster. The lure turns 2 inches before it falls out of the holding clips because you did not set the clips securely. The lure bounces off the table and onto the floor. You are momentarily stunned. You pick the lure up and see that your clear coat is now a gelatinous mess encrusted with vilest shop debris. Saw dust, grit, hair, grease blobs, clipped off fishing line bits, even a small brad nail, yup, it’s all on your bait now. You start to feel grief, but you realize you can scrape off the epoxy and sand the ruined paint, repaint, and maybe salvage the situation. Then, like a lightning bolt from the sky, it hits you; the crushing weight of your own stupidity. You realize the fall also cracked the lure’s lip. Your only solace is cracking a cold beer and weeping in the corner. This is what the beer frig is for.
    7 points
  16. Wouldn't the woman you get them from get pissed, especially if she's sober when you rip them off?
    7 points
  17. I have just received a PM message asking about hunting, so I decided to post my answer: Hunting In my early days on TU, I too found old threads on hunting, and I was very intrigued. The message then was that it was not a designable feature, but more pot-luck. There was even talk about harnesses made from brass wire produced more hunters. But, as an engineer, I knew all the above was nonsense, and so I set out to explain the cause of hunting and solve the riddle of building hunters with consistent success. This took many years and became an obsession. All lipped crank-baits are capable of hunting. It is just a case of finding the speed at which this occurs. I am sure you have noticed when you rip the bait through the water, sometimes it deviates to one side. You would probably dismiss the anomaly as a quirk, a water current issue, a fault in your lure build or it must have struck a bit of weed or a leaf and was thrown out of kilt. All these explanation, although plausible, were unlikely. You probably touched the transition speed briefly were hunting occurs. Hunting (zigzag motion) is a function of lip length, lip angle and retrieval speed. Theory 1 - The angle at which a lure swims in the water at a constant speed is determined by a balance between the lip and the back of the lure, all pivoting around the tow eye. Forces above the pivot point (eye) balance the forces below the pivot point and result in a swim angle and balance. 2 – The forces over the sharp edges of a lip are stronger than over a blunt or round surface. As speed changes, the forces over the lip change at a different rate to those over the blunt back of the lure. This difference in forces changes the swim angle of the bait; as the lure moves faster, the lip forces increase more than the back forces, this results in a steeper swim angle. 3 – as the angle of the lure increases there comes a point where the lip is perpendicular to the tow direction. The forces on the lip are now at their maximum. Any further increase in speed would try to force the lip beyond perpendicular and the effective lip exposure would be reduced. The reduced lip force has to balance the back force and results in a smaller angle. And so the lure ‘nods’ or ‘porpoises’ up and down. 4 – as the lure approaches this critical angle it just does the occasional nod. This interferes with the waggle. Think of it as replacing a single waggle motion with a nod motion. When you lose one waggle say the left side, then the lure receives a double waggle on the right side. This forces the lure to change direction. 5 – Now the lure is now swimming at an angle to the tow direction in plan-view. The forces on the edge of the lip facing forward are stronger. When the lip once again reaches the critical angle, the strong side triggers the nod and so the weak side gets two waggles and so the lure changes in the opposite direction, hence the zigzag motion. Design 1 - If the lip length is short, the transition speed will be high, and you may well never observe the hunting phenomena. 2 – If the lip angle is too shallow, the whole lure would be swimming perpendicular to the tow direction. The lure would likely blow out before the transition is reached. In any case, the swim angle would be beyond the optimum dive angle and the lure would swim shallow but with a large thump due to the large diving lip fighting against the water. And so, hunting lures are shallow to medium depth lures only. The trick is to design the lure so that it hunts at the speed that you want to retrieve the lure. Retrieval speed – I like 2-cranks of the handle per second as a comfortable speed. Keep in mind that the hunting is only going to occur at one speed. Slower and the lure will give the regular waggle, faster and the lure will porpoise continually and possibly blow out. Lip angle – I design my hunters with a lip angle of between 45° and 60° to the horizontal. A steeper lip angle will reach the transition sooner than a shallower angle, but the depth of swim will be shallower. If you want a slow, sub surface hunter, then a 60° or even higher will do the job. If you want a little more depth, a 45° or even less will give you say 4’ – 6’ but you may have to retrieve faster. Build Obviously a test tank large and wide enough would be ideal for testing, but a battery powered Dremel at the lakeside will do the job. Make the lip too long, so that there is no waggle. If you look closely enough you will observe the porpoising effect. Gradually trim the lip length back until the hunting starts. There is a lip length tolerance for the hunting effect, the trick is to stop trimming at the maximum hunt, but the only way to know what is the maximum is by trimming more and losing the maximum. I build my lures 10 at a time. I waste the first one to find the maximum hunt effect and then trim the rest accordingly. The trim operation must be on the final assembly; with hooks and topcoat. I suggest one or two lures without the fancy paint job, but they must have hooks fitted and the same top coat. Dave
    7 points
  18. There are a lot of different coatings used to seal (undercoat) and topcoat wood baits. It's a matter of how complicated and expensive you want to make it. One of the simplest regimens I can think of is to finger coat the raw balsa with some liquid superglue to stiffen and strengthen the wood surface, apply a coat of D2T to waterproof the surface, lightly sand, paint, then apply a coat of D2T as a topcoat. That minimizes the number of coatings you need to acquire and yields a pretty durable bait. There are many liquid epoxies on the market. D2T is a popular choice but other slow cure (aka 30 minute epoxies), either designed for glues or decoupage crafts will work. Each has its peculiarities, good points, bad points, etc. They all usually require rotation for an hour or two after application to promote leveling and avoid drips and sags. It's also a matter of how patient you can be when making a bait. There are optional coatings you can use like uv cured polyurethane resins (Solarez, AlumiUV) that cure in a few minutes, moisture cured urethane that you can dip and hang up to dry/cure (KBS Diamond Coat, Dick Nite S81),etc. You need to read up on the options to choose what is best for you and the way you make lures.
    7 points
  19. wrong, you might wait. but not all of them wont answer or call you back..
    7 points
  20. HAND CARVING YOUR OWN FISHING LURES Do you have an idea for a “new and improved” lure or an oldlure that’s not available anymore? Or would you just like to copy another lureand make some modifications to it? That’s not a problem any longer. I'm going toshow you in the following steps how to hand carve your own custom lures. If you follow the steps below, you'll find outthat it's really not a hard thing to do and you can step away from repaintingother people’s lures. I’ll start by selecting a pattern for my lure. This can be apattern that somebody else has drawn up or I can create my own pattern. I usecardboard for my lure patterns. I then write on my pattern any informationabout that lure such as: location of hook hangers, location and amount ofweight for the lure, thickness of the lure, eye placement, lip angle and type,and any other pertinent information. That way the information is always handy.I also cut the lip slot into the pattern. Select the wood that you want to use to carve your crankbaitout of. Here, I'm using Paulownia. I have several boards that I have planned tospecific thicknesses. You can also use a block of wood and after you cut outthe profile of your lure, you can just cut the lures off at the thickness thatyou want. There are other various woods that can be used including basswood,balsa, and poplar. The choice is up to you. I’ll trace my pattern onto the wood making sure that I markthe location for the eyes and for the lip slot. I also want to make sure thatthe grain of the wood runs the length of the lure and NOT from top to bottom.This will ensure that the lure has structural integrity. Once I've completed that, I’ll take the wood over to theband saw and cut out the profile of the lure. At the same time, I’ll cut thelip slot. Before I cut out the lure I will check and see that the table of theband saw is 90-degrees to the band saw blade. This ensures that the lip slot will beperpendicular to the lure. If I wait until after I carve the lure, it's hard tocut the lip slot and get it right. Using a small 1/16-inch drill bit, I’ll drill a guide holefor the placement of the eyes. NOTE: This is optional. I do it to give me areference point to countersink my eye sockets. In this step I will widen the lip slot. For that I use a1/16-inch diameter diamond grinding bit. I like to use one that has a 1/16-inchshaft. That way I can get deeper intothe lip slot. This bit will follow the already cut lip slot almostperfectly. Be sure to widen the lip slot before you do the tapers on your lureas the bit will sometimes tear out a small chuck of wood as it exits the lipslot. After I widen the lip slot, I then hollow out a smallchannel at the bottom of the lip slot that will allow me to insert the back endof the line tie if the line tie is in the lip. Next, I'll go ahead and drill the holes for the rear hookhanger and line tie (if the lure’s line tie is not going to be in the lip). I willalso drill a hole to accept the belly weight. The next step is to taper the nose on both sides and thentaper the tail. I can do this taper either by carving the taper with a goodcarving knife or I can sand the tapers on a belt sander. I’ll try to keep thesetapers as symmetrical as I can. You can see in the picture that the nose istapered about a quarter of the way back from the nose and the tail is taperedfrom about midway of the body to the tail. This taper may vary depending a loton the type of lure that you're making. Now I’m ready to start carving the lure. I will start bycarving the shoulders on either side of the back as in Fig. 1 above. I willcarve until the widest point on both sides is about the same width as what I'veleft across the back. I want those threeplanes to be basically the same width. You'll see what I'm talking about in Fig2 above. Once I get those flat planes carved on the shoulders I will roll thelure over and do the same thing on the belly. I originally started with four corners on the lure. Now thatI have carved those corners off, I have eight corners. Carve those corners offand that will basically round the edges of the lure for you. For you guys thatare carving musky lures or large swimbaits you will wind up with sixteen corners.Just carve them off like I did the eight corners. That should be enough tofinish the rounding of your larger lures. After I carve the lure I glue in the belly weight, the rearhook hanger, and the line tie, if there is one. My carving is now done. I’m going to sand the lure. I liketo use the fingernail sanding sticks that you find in the beauty department ofyour local shopping center. The ones at Wal-Mart are 100-grit on one side and150-grit on the other side. I use these because they tend to round the lurebetter than just sandpaper. Sandpaper tends to follow all of the contours ofthe lure and doesn’t give me that good rounded finish that I want. It’s just myway. Your way may work better for you. After I have finished sanding the lure Iwill sand the lure again with some 220/240-git sandpaper to give me a finalfinish. I give the lure a final inspection to ensure that I have allof my tapers symmetrical, all of my knife marks are sanded out, and the lurehas a general overall good appearance. My lure is now ready for a couple of coats of sealer. A few final notes: keep your knife sharp, take your time,and always check and make sure that you keep both sides symmetrical. I hope that you’ll give this a try. One you create your ownlure that swims like you want it to, there will be no holding you back. Good luck and I hope this helps. Gene Graham aka “Lincoya”
    7 points
  21. As A mold maker. Even some of my suppliers have bad customer service, But I'm not gonna buy a chinese product because of that. I still will shop quality regardless. Customer service is a Bonus in my book, Not the absolute necessity. Bob is very good at what he does, I try to model my craftsmanship after his. It is tough running a Business by yourself, I'm Lucky My wife is full time with me to complete the team. Bob, Basstackle, Myself, we could all make the cheap molds if we wanted to, and shove them out the door lightning speed. I cant speak for them, But I just cant do it. I wont sacrifice quality for quantity. I would much rather support the Family owned hardware downtown, than Walmart.
    7 points
  22. Bob did not start the post so his comments are welcome and always have been. He not posting a thread selling his products and showing what he has done. Funny how some can take things way out of context. We have forums for all types of posts and if used right everyone benefits. Over many years many of us on this forum have contributed great knowledge to anyone who asks. And many of us have seen some that don't, they complain and go away.
    7 points
  23. I do, and speaking of being old , I am finally re-tiring. April 30th will be my last day of work. yipeeeeee!
    7 points
  24. You need to take your baits tied with rubber out of the boxes and places them in a bag with unscented talc. Give the baits a dust and store in a separate box with each bait being it its own compartment and not touching any other bait. Every other month you need to redust with the talc, it keeps the rubber from sticking together and absorbs small amounts of moisture. I'm on the old side so this may be new to some but when we were kids and you got a new bike tire inner tube, it was made out of rubber and when you opened the box the inner tube had white powder on it and in the box, it was there to keep the rubber from melting together and the same treatment will help living rubber from getting that way.
    7 points
  25. Here is how is round over crankbait lips. tools needed vice grips, washer or bushing, band saw or sander. 1. clamp lip to bushing or washer using vice grips. 2. shape lip with bandsaw or sander. 3. clean up with sandpaper. hope this helps. Todd
    7 points
  26. Daniel - Usually when people join TU, they either introduce themselves or ask a question. You sign up and post two recommendations for Shelts within 3 minutes. If I was a cynic, I might suspect that your real name is Mr Shelt, but of course, promoting your own products in the forums would be breaking the site rules, if you had time to read them. Dave
    7 points
  27. was having trouble finding the size of mesh for my smaller baits and it occurred to me to try the tissue printing technique for scales. googled fish scale patterns, found the size I wanted, printed on the tissue paper and glued it to the bait. turned out good. will have to see how it looks once I finish the paint job ( perch).
    7 points
  28. RW - do not concern yourself about the questions. Even if the question has been asked before, it serves a purpose to re-address a question and see if any new ideas come to surface. This is a very interesting question and was actually one of my pet projects in my early days of TU, when I attempted to write a spreadsheet for designing lures; were you enter in all your parameters and the sheet would tell you if the lure was stable or not, how deep it would swim, how wide the wobble would be and how fast it would wobble. Everyone warned me that it was impossible, but that only encourages me. Actually some things are possible to predict mathematically, but there are so many variables that have to be taken into account. At the time, my limited knowledge was holding me back, but as my knowledge from testing improved, I found that I did not need a spreadsheet to tell me how a lure would swim, I could just tell. Predicting the depth is one of those difficult features. This is because there is a lot more to it than the length, shape and angle of the lip. The most important variable in determining the swim depth is the tow eye position. But, there is even more to it than this; the length, width, shape and curvature of the back of the lure has an effect. The length of the active edge of the lip, combined with the length, width and shape, all these features have an effect. So, certainly predicting a swim depth with simple spreadsheet maths is not possible. What you can do, is learn what affect each feature has on the depth of the lure. Think about how a lure achieves depth in the first place. Understanding these details is what experience is all about. Here is an example: A deep diver design, long lip, shallow angle with tow eye on the lip. There is an ideal position for the eye for maximum depth. Move the eye forward and the lure swims shallower, move the eye further back and the lure swims shallower. Analogy - firing a cannon ball. There is an optimum firing angle. Fire too low an angle, distance shortens, fire too steep, distance shortens. Back to the lure; The eye position is a balance of all the features that I mentioned above. This means that I can alter the swim depth by altering any of those features. Let's say you have a lure that has the perfect balance, then obviously altering anything is going to make the lure swim shallower, but what we can do is think of the change in terms of the tow eye position. Starting off with an easy one: Shorten the lip length - effectively eye position moves forwards. Swim angle reduces, bait swims shallower. Lengthen lip length - eye position moves rearwards. Swim angle increases, nose down, but bait swims shallower with a harder thump. Narrower lip - eye forwards. Wider lip - eye rearwards. Thicker lip - eye forwards. Thinner lip - eye rearwards. longer body - eye forwards. shorter body - eye rearwards. Fatter body - eye forwards. Thinner body - eye rearwards. Rounder body - eye forwards. flatter body - eye rearwards. This should be enough to get you thinking about the design. Dave
    7 points
  29. Be forewarned! If coffee had been created on the first day, it would have only take four days to create the world. If bass fishing and lure making had been created on the first day, the rest of the world would never have been finished.
    7 points
  30. After I burned down my garage the second time, because I saw how far I had to go to even come close to his paint jobs, my homeowner's insurance won't allow me to look at Tim Hughes' baits any more.
    7 points
  31. I want to remind everyone that photos uploaded to ANY of the galleries here at Tackle Underground should not be explicit or crude. During the past few days we have had at least two different images uploaded for the contest that depicted male and female genitals and/or intimate body parts. This is NOT acceptable content. Some users reported this content and it has been removed, and rightfully so. These forums and this community are here for the good and education of everyone, regardless of whether they are 14 or 74, or even older than 74. Material should be posted with that in mind, keeping it clean and family-friendly. Parents have enough to worry about what their kids are seeing on the internet. Viewing images in a fishing tackle forum should not be one of those things they have to worry about. Your help with sticking to these guidelines is appreciated, and this will be enforced, going forward. Infractions of this type will result in warnings being issued. Thanks for your cooperation.
    7 points
  32. These are promos from M-F few years after they started out, I was only 5 years old calling (M-F) where my mom worked that my brother was picking on me and now I've worked here over 15 years. Thought I would share this with you guys, see if you can see the prices back then: 1974 jeff@mf
    7 points
  33. Never heard back from Jerry with a thumbs up or down on this, so let's just jump in and hope we don't cause too much trouble. 1) "Norman/Thundershad Rootbeer (yellow/green)" -prep bait and spray white basecoat -Belly color...Createx Flo Sunburst (lightly sprayed and with extender and water added for transparency) -Sides...Mix Golden Acrylic Titan Buff, C-tex Tinting White, and Golden airbrush medium to produce a very light (in terms of "yellow-ness") opaque bone color...shoot sides and blend with the belly as needed -Back color Rootbeer (yellow/green type)...Mix C-tex Leaf Green 10:C-tex Lt Brown 2: C-tex Golden Yellow 2 (10:2:2)...thin and extend with water and C-tex airbrush medium -Splatter color...whether shot at low PSI & high viscosity or done with Hughesy's toothbrush method...C-tex Dark Brown, possibly with a little Tinting Black to darken the color. -Clearcoat and add green or red flake (fine or ultra fine) at this point. -Eyes...C-tex Red, Opaque Red, Scarlet, or mixes of similar 2) Some other mix ratios: -Green Pumpkin...C-tex Leaf Green 3: Lt Brown 1 -Flo Red Craw...C-tex Flo Red 3: Opaque Red 1 -Pearltreuse...C-tex Flo Chart (yellow by name?) 4: Pearl White 1 + water and extender or medium...a neat color to shoot lightly over a pearl or hi-lite body. -Pearl Green Craw (38 Craw)...C-tex Pthalo Green 2: Pearl Copper 3: Pearl White 1: Leaf Green 3...may have to adjust slightly if using Auto Air pearlescents... *** If this is useful or interesting to you please add your own recipes as time allows.
    6 points
  34. I found this technique here on http://www.tackleund...h__1#entry33351 In theory, the technique is used to find the volume of a lure, but in our application, it also tell us what the final weight of the lure needs to be for neutral buoyancy in fresh water. The down side for you guys, is that you have to work in grams, NOT ounces. The Archimedes dunk test: 1 - Fill a beaker with enough water to completely submerge your lure, without touching sides or bottom. 2 - Place beaker of water on scales. 3 - Set the scales to measure grams and zero. 4 - Hold the nose eye with long nose pliers and submerge in the water, upto the eye. Leave the hooks on for this. 5 - Read off the scale and write the number down. Because one gram of water has a volume of one centimeter cube, the number written down represents the volume of the lure in centimeter cubes. The number also represents what the final lure should weigh (in grams) if you are going for neutral buoyancy. If you want a floater, just add less ballast. This test can be done as early as the first seal of the body, to get an early indication of the final weight of the lure, or right at the end of the build process. If you want to tweak the final lure to get neutral, fit all the hooks etc and test. This will indicate the size of the slug you need to add. Another application is, if you want to copy a lure and get the same amount of float. Weigh the original (with hooks) and divide by the dunk test weight. This will give you a ratio. When you build your copy, ballast to achieve the same ratio. I have been using this technique for a few months now and it is quick, very accurate and simple. I recommend that you at least give it a try out. Dave
    6 points
  35. here are some videos, not the best but you get the idea. https://youtu.be/KPsVzycUTf0 https://youtu.be/YY0KLwPxOkY https://youtu.be/XjENNdaTFR4
    6 points
  36. So much butthurt, frankly it cracks me up. Anybody on here whining about Farcebook groups and "too many painters" need to just shut up. Probably angry because when they started the help available wasn't as easily attainable.I wonder how much help this forum has been to them over the years? I guess it's OK to get help and info here but no place else on the internet? And as far as the sale pages, THE CREAM RISES TO THE TOP! Plain and simple. Are there a ton of guys doing crappy work? Yes there is, same as before, always been hacks in every business however. There are also a ton of folks putting out some amazing work, hell yes there is. As I said before, the damn cream rises to the top, the hacks sell few and when they do it is at low prices, the quality folks sell plenty at premium prices. crankbaits, jigs, spinnerbaits, plastics etc. Someone brought up "cheap blanks from china", guess what dude, damn near ALL manufactures source the blanks, painting and packaging from China as well, not much to bitch about here either. Well, if there is a bitch its that it all comes from there, and we are responsible for that as a whole, but discussing that issue further is impossible without it getting political. So, my recommendation is, quit the whining and get painting. If your work is good, it will rise to the top too. let the hacks be hacks, they don't sell hardly anything at much of price anyway. Try embracing the shared knowledge and adding to it, instead of whining about it, after all you are on THIS site and I was under the impression that's what this site is about. Its no different on Farcebook, just more of it. Have a wonderful day and try not to be bitter.
    6 points
  37. Let me preface this little write up by saying I'm in no way affiliated with Ultra Molds and haven't been and won't be compensated for this post. The reason for doing this is that I know there is interest in this product but there is very little hands on info about it and I would have loved to have someone shorten the learning curve and give me pointers before I got mine. Hopefully this will not be removed and thought of as an advertisement because that is not it's purpose at all, it's simply some tips and tricks to help people decide if this system might be for them. With all that said I wanted to wait after I've had the system a few months and have ran around 300 gallons of plastic through it before I gave my thoughts. The system comes with two pots with stirring motors and heaters with digital controls connected by a manifold for dual injecting. You also need to by the dual injector that has the tips that fit in and turn the valves on each pot and the manifold. First thing I would recommend is getting the Universal Heater that they sell. There are a couple of reasons for this. One reason is that the first thing I do when I walk into the shop is turn on the Universal Heater with my dual injector sitting in it and let it start getting hot. While it's heating I then can clean the pots out from the residue from the day before and the injector will be up to temp by the time I'm done cleaning and heating the plastic up. Another reason for the Universal Heater is that I run it's temp up to 325 on the digital control but I run the pots at a different temp. (more on this later) A couple of other "options" that I opted for and almost didn't and am so glad I did after using the system. You can get a mounting plate with holes all pre drilled and everything ready to mount it on. I almost didn't get this but it made it very easy to set up in the shop. I drilled 4 holes in the stainless bench that I have it on in the shop and mounted the plate with system on it and fastened it with bolts and wing nuts so I can remove it easily if I need the room for something else. Another thing I almost didn't get and can't imagine using the system without is the locking brackets. The way Rupert explained these to me is that they designed these for a customer that had a disability and had limited use of one arm so he need to be able to draw the plastic one handed. The brackets make drawing plastic so much easier that I honestly think if you have a system without them you need to spend the 20 bucks or so and get them. Instead of having to push in with one hand to seat the injector and pull on the handle and working against yourself and making it easy to suck air the brackets keep the injector firmly seated and you can draw plastic one handed. Very slick and like I said I would hate using it without it now. As far as actually using and running the system it's pretty simple and straight forward once you get the feel of the valves and injector. Here are some observations and tips from things I've found after running it a few months. 1. I seem to have the best luck with reducing dents, getting good laminates, not discoloring the plastic, if I run the digital controls on each pot set at 300 degrees. (remember I set my Universal Heater at 325) I keep my injector sitting in the Universal injector set at 325 the whole time I shoot. I feel like by keeping the injector on that heater it will stay much much hotter and I have no problems with it plugging up. It would probably work fine sitting in the middle cradle between the pots, but I feel like it keeps things flowing better when the injector is really hot. 2. I heat my plastic in the microwave and then add my coloring, glitter, etc before I put it in the pots. You can heat from raw to workable temp in the pot, but it's going to take longer and you are going to have to turn the temp up and then back down. I run on 60 ounce batches and it takes 12-15 minutes to heat 60 ounces of plastic to temp depending on the strength of your microwave. I put 60 oz in each pot. If I'm doing single color baits both sides get the same color, for laminates I have one color in each. the 60 oz comes up to just under the top of the stirring paddles. 3. Cleaning is not as bad as I was afraid it was going to be. All I normally do between colors is after the pots have cooled I peel what plastic I can out including the "puck" at the bottom, then spray the inside with simple green and wipe out with a paper towel. When I take my plastic out of the microwave I turn on the pot heaters to begin heating the pots. I don't do this before then because I don't want what is leftover in the channel to the valve and manifold to melt and run back into the pot before I add the new plastic. After I get the colorant and glitter I dump the plastic in the pots and then I purge the manifold and injector by drawing an inch or so out and shooting it on the table. Usually doing this 2-3 times and you are rid of the previous color and ready to go. I read on here somewhere about blowing the channels out with an air compressor and am going to try that pretty soon as that may reduce the amount of plastic I have to purge. Shooting Star vs Presto Pots I started out trying to run two presto pots with a Basstackle Twinjector setup. For what I do and my personal preference I can't imagine going back to the prestos. I feel like I'm much more efficient with the shooting star (even though Frank could still shoot circles around me out of his Prestos, but that doesn't count because he is a machine) there is no blending block to clean out and your injectors aren't submerged in the hot plastic The shooting star is a pretty well sealed and contained unit so the smoke is very much reduced. I still run a vent system, but I couldn't handle the smoke that the presto pots put out. There is very little waste when you are done with a batch and I always had a hard time with sucking air when I got close to empty with the prestos. One thing I will note is that the single injector you can get for the system is kind of difficult to use with the system due to the push/pull thing I talked of earlier and the opening and closing of the valves can unseat the injector tip. I have found the single injector extremely useful for doing remelts though. I heat the injector in the universal heater and melt sprues in a big pyrex and just draw from the pyrex with the single injector and wipe it and sit it back on the heater between shots. After using it for several months I would say I'm very happy with the system and Rupert was very easy to deal with whenever I had a small issue and went above and beyond to get it resolved. I also had him build me an air clamp that you can see on the right side of the picture of my setup. This is a huge time saver as well not having to mess with manual clamps. Like I said, this is not meant as an advertisement, but mainly to give info on a fairly new system and to answer questions people might have that are on the fence about it. If anyone has any other questions I'd be happy to answer as I'm sure I've left something off.
    6 points
  38. "If you use hand tools to shape lures you have to develop a sharp eye to keep them symmetrical and consistent. That just comes with experience." Words of wisdom there. There are many Crankbaits that are made by companies that have put out the money and paid the engineers to make them by automation are not as good as one that is made by a skilled craftsman. Their 'sharp eye" and "experience" is what makes them that exceptional. Look at the old Poes, Zoom, and Bagley crankbaits. Really look at the symmetry and the way that the screw eyes, ballast, and lips are installed. 95% is garbage, I don't care who makes them. I have always remembered one lesson that I learned many years ago. I was at David Fritts boat dealership. His tournament boat was there and I looked inside of it. There were probably 25 crankbaits laying in the floor of the boat. Many of them were vintage Bagley squarebills. Many of them would have fetched a pretty penny on Ebay. I looked at one of my friends that worked there and said how surprised I was that he left such expensive lures laying around out in the open like that. His reply was simple, "Believe me, if those baits were any good they wouldn't be laying there in the bottom of the boat." Money can kill you as a bait maker. The desire to make as many baits as you can to maximize your profits, will most of the time, result in taking shortcuts or downgrading they quality that you make by hand. Once that starts, you are on the way of loosing your reputation and you will soon go by the wayside like many before you. In my opinion, Greed is the number one killer of excellent work. You won't get rich making crankbaits, but you will have your name and reputation. Choose wisely. Skeeter
    6 points
  39. Someone along the supply line has to eat the loss, be it the manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer, you or your customer. Why should it be you. The retailer doesn't like it because returns eat into the bottom line, but you can guarantee that he scanned his supply and returned faulty goods. If your supplier refuses to deal with you because you made a return, then I think that he should be named and shamed. Dave
    6 points
  40. cheapest tissue I have found was Walmart in the party supplies. comes in different colors in the package as well as white but still only a few dollars if I remember. I like 3M adhesive best. cut the tissue to the approximate size you need. hold it with some tweezers and spray the back of the print lightly ( tweezers helps keep it off your fingers.) wipe down the spray nozzle to help keep it clear. this was applied over a white primer coat. then I painted it as usual. see image below
    6 points
  41. Years ago when I used to deer hunt there was a certain feminine hygiene product that was great for soaking in doe estrus. It had a string attached to it that made it easy to tie to a twig or low hanging limb. Talk about getting weird looks when I'd go to the store and buy a package of those things. I live in a small town where everybody knows each other so they knew I wasn't married at the time. I just smiled and didn't say a word. Ben
    6 points
  42. Curt, thanks for your hard work. I hope the hackers die of hemorrhoids.
    6 points
  43. 6" Bluegill Female in Classic Female Bluegill Dark pattern.
    6 points
  44. use aluminum tape and polish it with aluminum polish. sand the bait smooth to get the best results ( something I didn't do )
    6 points
  45. @ pescabaits The two lures on top do not work , because the diving planes are too small compared to the body diameter and volume . Compared to the common added crankbait lips of metal and plastic mounted below the chin of a lurebody , these integrated diving vanes already do provide somewhat less and softer action to a lure , ...simply because they cannot generate so much leverage around the tow eye . And on these two lures the diving planes are so small and do not even pass over the belly diameter of the the rest of the lure body , so even less leverage can be generated , .......a diving plane should always protrude over the belly diameter , ..the more it does , the more leverage and the more action can be generated , ...to an extend , that the lure can even overturn and blow out , if either the diving lip is too long or the tow eye placed too high . The lower lure would certainlky come up with some kinda action , as the lip is longer and does protrude over the body diameter , .......but you have made the thickest body portion right behind the lip , .....this means , that the lure has it's greatest buoyancy in front , now the lip might get to sit too high and not shoulder into the water perfectly . You might try to add some ballast to the front body to overcome this issue , but I have learned , that any kind of belly ballast to such lures with integrated diving planes dampens their wiggling action more or less , ......simply because these lips do not provide as much leverage and do have difficulties with moving around added ballast . You must try to place the ballast deep into the belly right on the lengthwise center axis , right in the center of gravity , ......it should act neutral there and not affect the wiggle , but allow the front portion to hang deeper . Such lures and also banana lures with integrated diving vanes must have their greatest buoyancy in the center of body or slighly behind , ...causing them to float up horizontal or slighly head down , ...this way the diving vane shoulders nicely into the water and they should perform flawless . A shorter , egg shaped body of this type of lure would swim more irregular with a kinda "drunken" hunting action , but still wiggle within ,......a more elongated body would swim more stable , wiggle more regular and won't hunt as much ,....simply because a longer body has more guidance in the water , ......but remember , it is essential to let the diving plane protrude over the belly ! Good luck , Dieter
    6 points
  46. R&L - you would have been better off not posting. So I am going to take my own advice and not spoil this thread with any more sour words. Congratulations and well done to all the winners. DAve
    6 points
  47. Being able to hand carve a lure gives you the ability to experiment. By using PVC, waterbased airbrush paints, and UV cured resin, you can conceive, shape, ballast, test, paint, topcoat, and fish a lure in one day. I think molding is for when you've got one that really works well, and want to go into production. For some, it's the destination. For others, it's the journey.
    6 points
  48. As a supplier of blanks, I can't say anything bad about any of the guys that sell unpainted cranks as I have ordered from just about all of them and have had great experiences. The only suggestion I can give is don't go through wLure. All of their baits are KO's of KO's and the quality isn't there. You really can't go wrong with ordering from any of the guys on here.
    6 points
  49. rumor has it dugeonhawk pours in the nude
    6 points
  50. A whole lotta don'ts here, reminds me of growing up. Here are some do's: Do-learn how to use the search function Do-feel free to ask questions Do-be honest when talking about certain products Good or Bad, as you could save the members here alot of money. Do-have fun Saint.
    6 points
×
×
  • Create New...
Top