Leaderboard

"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

Buy American!!

smalljaw, Were you not able to get it to fit at all or were you just not happy that it did not sit perfectly straight? The 604's I tried worked but theydid not sit perfectly straight. I have to admit that it was a very tight fit but I would have said they work too. The VMC 7150 also fits in the mold but you have to use a 4/0 hook in all but the largest cavity where a 5/0 will fit. JB

Interesting topic. I agree with Super Ron that there is still more room for innovation in the realm of painting than most builders think there is. Firetiger was not a pattern in my father's time. Today it can be deadly pretty much across the globe. Think about that. A simple pattern that simply didn't exist until about 35 years ago. As to innovation in building....I am of the opinion that the multi-jointed swim bait is a true innovation and if I had to choose, I'd choose Hopkins as the inventor...and he was a member of this board at the time. I will never forget seeing a video clip of his prototype swimming through the water. I showed the video to my wife and she got this inquisitive look on her face and said, "That's not a lure, that's a fish, right?" But that type of innovation, true ground-breaking innovation in building, doesn't come along with any regularity what so ever. It is instead usually stumbled upon, and then capitalized upon. I posted on this board, the first ever foiled bait with mesh beneath the foiling....believe it or not. It created quite a stir. I think it was was around the year 2005, but I can't remember for sure...and no one on this board or any other had seen anything like. I even had a guy who was a musky guide and taxidermist contact me via email and offer me a guided musky trip if I'd show him how I did it. But.....here are the interesting facts surrounding that foiling method: 1. It was not my idea. It was the brainchild of a TU member named Husky. He had thought of the idea, but just didn't have the patience to execute it properly and asked me to try it. I pointed out that it wash HIS idea when I posted the pictures. 2. It was truly ground-breaking in the US at the time. I gave step by step details as to how to do it and today it is a commonplace method. 3. But, as Paul Harvey used to say, here's the rest of the story....It was a method that had been used by builders overseas LONG before Husky came up with the idea and I executed it, so to speak, and presented it as "new." I later found out that builders from other countries had been placing netting under foil for many years. How did I find that out? I have a blog called "Fired up the airbrush..." in the Tackle Making forum of Ohiogamefishing.com that I started in about 2005...on that blog, I eventually posted the work of builders from all over the country and the world and that is how it was brought to my attention. It was already happening...we in America simply just didn't know it. The Internet was still in its infancy, basically, and the language barrier precluded message boards from "sharing" with overseas builders. Today, of course, there are Facebook "groups" and translation is available at the push of a button. And I have to tell you that some of the work I see from overseas is nothing shy of amazing. I thoroughly enjoy looking at their work, even after looking at baits since the nineties when I began to build. This board has a long history and much of it is not known to many of its members. There are builders who cut their teeth here and quietly moved on. Their innovation and work is now commonly accepted as routine, but it is still THEIR work. There are too many names to mention, but some very impressive work was incubated and shared right here on TU. Today's newer builders can come out of the gate building and painting at a level that took us years to achieve because of the incredible amount of information that is so readily available today and wasn't available at all just 20 years ago. Innovation is still occurring. There is still more to be done. But it is usually something that you can't force, it just happens and usually over time. And it's why I am still a builder.

There’s nothing saying that you can’t create the next great lure and give it a beautiful paint job too. There’s a wide array of interests among TUers. My main interest is making crankbaits that catch fish for me and my friends. But others concentrate on painting crankbaits as an outlet of artistic expression. No harm there. Still others seek acclaim and profit. No harm there either. Innovation is wonderful and I admire guys who are willing to put up with the hard work and repeated failures on the pathway to success. I don’t have the time or patience for that. I just want the satisfaction of making lures with my own hands from basic materials and then confirming my efforts by catching fish with them.

I just put together a video on dipping tubes. If your wanting to see how it done Check it out! Just uploaded the tail cutting video as well.

Big ole carpet needle . Does just fine . Does not even have to have a sharp point . Just thread a partial tab threw the eye just enough to pull it through the body . Then put some scent oil on the rest to grease it up so you can move it into an even position .

I also confirmed last night, they Baitplastics.com will be offering both brands in single gallon 5 and 6 packs effective immediately. No more buckets..

We make the eye with a hot glue gun. We made a mold with the glue sticks and rtv so we just poured the color of the eye we wanted into the stick, dot the mold with the glue gun where we wanted the eye and then shot the color. I think lure craft sells the mold also.

Hello guys. My name is Edward, I'm in Ukraine and I'll try to give answers to all questions about the company baitmold.com here, of course, if the administration of the forum does not block me;) Immediately I would like to apologize for your English. To clarify the situation - standard orders we ship within 3-7 working days. Yes, unfortunately my country's mail does not always work well, especially during the New Year holidays, now with delivery there are terrible delays, we are trying to find ways to solve this problem. We spend much more time on custom molds. The manufacturing of custom molds takes more than one month. We also try to respond in time to all messages by e-mail. But we do not always have time to do this quickly. I hope I will be of use to you and I hope for your understanding.

Here's what I came up with. Jacobs 3" helgramite http://stores.jacobsbaits.com/hellgrammite-3-1-cavity-mold/ Cut off some legs Not bad

This site is the result of a few DEDICATED craftsmen that were tired of paying for crap. Eric gave many the first place to start. But it was Red that really made it reputable and the number one place on the web to learn. Red was probably the most dedicated person that I can remember. In my eyes he created this wonderful playground that we all enjoy. The dedication, skills, innovation, and the willingness to settle for nothing less than perfection gave this site the reputation that it has. I have always been thankful and proud to be a member of TU. I have learned much and made many wonderful friends. Skeeter

I have been using Fusion 360, MeshMixer, and 123Design, For about a year know. I transferred all of my designs over to CAD/CAM and now have quite the library that are all set-up to cut in a matter of minutes, Last pic is the design I did yesterday for the jig that I am going to use to cut the lip slot and drilling operations. The more you use the software the easier it becomes. I had no previous CAD/CAM experience before starting last fall

Use a kitchen hood. They have explosion-roof fans, to prevent grease fires.

Stirred it up and it works fine. Also found a bottle of hardener from the old stuff. Tested a little in a batch and again, worked as it used to.

Here is the progress so far. A wire frame, rough sculpey form and after a bit with jewelers files

Here's the homemade rack I use. I bought 2 of the galvanized plates used to nail 2x4s together. Drilled holes in them for a couple of small diameter threaded rods. On one plate the rods are secured using hex nuts. One the other plate, wing nuts. I got a sack full of small flat washers from an industrial supply house and put them on the rods, then the free moving plate and wing nuts. I can hang my jigs on the rods using the washers as spacers. Then tighten the wing nuts to hold them tight. I flip the rack over then so my jigs are standing up. This prevents any excess paint from making a cone head.

I would not recommend sanding lead, as the fine dust you create becomes airborne and you breathe that in. I use a small half round bastard cut file to file down the remainder of the sprue after I cut it off. All the remains fall in a little tray I keep under the jig I'm sanding. Any rough marks left from the file, the powder paint will cover it to make a beautiful finish.

Funny thing is, as soon as you import the mold and make baits from a patent protected design, you yourself are violating the patent. The likelihood of getting a C&D letter may be low but none the less, the minute you copy the product you are liable whether or not you sell the bait for profit. And I will 100% agree with Leonard, buy (North) American and support your own people.

I saw there is at least one company offering a tungsten weight that sort of embeds into a senko style worm to add weight. I prefer it over a jig head style weight. These can easily be made with regular split shot, a drill and some light ss wire. I push it up through the bottom of the bait and then put my hook through the wire loop. Seems the original senko lasts a few fish longer. Here's how I configure.

I got out of making crankbaits for the past 2 yrs. I just plain got burnt out. I am going to get back at it again soon. What I have decided to do is make baits and just enjoy making them again. What I make is for sale if someone wants them. Anyone that really makes baits for sale can tell you is that you have to be there for your customers. Even if you aren't making baits at the time, you have to make yourself available in case someone needs something. This is especially true for pros or the truly dedicated. My phone blew up so much with calls that the fun went out of making the baits. When I got to the point that I was having trouble keeping up with demand I sat down and re-thought how to do business. For me, when I got to the point where most of my free time was ate up with making baits, the fun went out of it. So my new plan is to just make them when I feel like it. The fun needs to be put back into my hobby. That is one of the reasons that I started making baits in the first place. Skeeter

I don't sell chartreuse glitter just because of that reason.

Well third time's a charm. I got to thinking about the 97 cents for the filament to make the frog and it just didn't seem right. The 97 cents was the amount the printing program came up with BUT, it took 7 meters of filament to print the frog. There is 400 meters on one roll of filament (1KG) which cost $20. So, that means I could print 57 frogs on one spool. $20 divided by 57 = .35 each. Sorry for all of the screw ups. I just thought the program was right but it must use a different cost on the filament. So total cost to print the frog is definitely 35 cents.

Is there a crack proof topcoat? Don’t think so. You basically have 3 epoxy choices. Decoupage/bar top epoxies like Envirotex Lite. Maybe a bit more flexible than others. Contains a solvent so is much thinner and cures slower than others. Usually requires multiple coats. Cheapest per volume. Glue type epoxies like Devcon Two Ton. Cures faster, goes on thicker, one coat coverage. No solvent unless you add it. Rod guide epoxies like Flexcoat. More expensive, contains some solvent but less than Envirotex, some have UV inhibitors at extra cost. Yet another epoxy is Bob Smith Industries 20 or 30 min epoxy. Not sure how to categorize it but it’s popular too. Each of these has fans. Each epoxy has idiosynchronies in how best to apply and cure it. It’s a learning process. I learned epoxy with Devcon and it’s still my choice when I want to use epoxy, not least because I’ve got it down pat and never screw it up anymore. If I were building baits in a production setting, I’d probably use either moisture cured urethane like KBS Diamond Coat or a UV cured polyester resin like Alumi-UV. Both are tougher than epoxy on a per-coating-thickness basis and are less prone to UV yellowing.

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.