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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.

I make big muskie paddletails. My advice: - make a basswood model of your soft tail - lightly coat it with Krylon acrylic spray - make the top side or back flat on your paddletail so you can do an open pour vs injected bait - make a silicon mold of your tail - forget the plaster - this should cost less than $50 and it’s so easy. Your baits will look professional. YouTube is your friend. - note: if you don’t have a vacuum chamber to use when making you mold - no worries - but when pouring your actual baits you will have to pour a few warm up tails and then the baits will come out glass smooth. - wear a respirator mask 3M 6006 is a great filter to use

I have tried many of the various manufacturers chrome paint and have used the Alsa MirraChrome. It is expensive and it does work if the directions are followed to a T and you use their clear coat(also expensive), It must be on a glossy black base or the effects are muted. I prefer good old aluminum foil tape. As you can see there are many ways to manipulate the foil to create interesting patterns.

The future and pledge and other floor care products are a hard acrylic. I am a former floor care professional. I owned my own floor care business. Think about the qualities you need in a floor care product. Here in New England we have harsh winters and a lot of salt / sand applied in parking lots. That is what floor finishes are designed to withstand. Imagine what it takes to remove that product from your airbrush. Not all acrylics are the same. I choose not to put that stuff into a close tolerance airbrush.

User removed. Excessive whining never gets anyone anywhere, especially not here.

I made a flat base to hold the razors . The base slides into the slot for the shell holder on my press. It's primitive and I used a stick welder, not the best for detailed work! The puck is just attached to the top with duct tape wrapped to act like double sided tape. Lots of leverage.

We all get frustrated when we don't get the service we expect when ordering blanks. (myself included} I wanted to take a minute to thank Get Bit Custom Baits and Dinger Baits for always giving excellent service to customers and providing top quality blanks. You are appreciated and noticed for the pride you show in what you do.

if you like it so much I have 45 gallons of their plastic I sell you

First time for me I had a lure made with 3D printing and I am making a mold right now. Lure needs no sealing since it is plastic and is as smooth as a baby's a.. Now back to work. wayne

Thank you !!! I am honored to be in this group of excellent artist It was very fun and I enjoyed looking at all the custom work congrats to all who placed and everyone who entered !!!

Praying for the officer and family! So sorry to hear this! Contests mean nothing when it comes to family!

@Bogbaits As mentioned by @alsworms, one of the judges had a very bad family emergency happen just as judging was supposed to start. So things got a bit delayed. The winners have been chosen and will be announced soon. Thank you for your patience.

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..

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.

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!

I use the lacquer version a lot. When sprayed over white you get a blue sheen on the white. The darker the background color is the more pronounced the blue color. Over black you will get a beautiful iridescent blue. In the picture you can see the colors it produces over black starting with green on the tail to blue to red to gold.

This is like a lure making university here.There is so much valuable information ..I would like to thank all our members...Without you the learning would stop..Nathan

I think the tuning problem has two aspects. How easy is it to tune a bait and does the bait stay tuned afterwards. If you use large diameter hard temper wire the bait will be hard to tune. And the force required can also crack a lip or especially the finish on the nose of a bait, greatly reducing its life expectancy. There’s a good reason why classic baits were made with soft brass wire. It tuned more readily and didn’t destroy baits. For the builder there are additional advantages in soft temper stainless wire. It’s much easier to form accurately than hard temper wire and it won’t corrode like brass, plus it’s flexibility is a little less than brass so holds a tune better. I use .041 soft stainless on bass baits and they keep their tune very well. And it’s a joy to work with compared to hard temper wire. I’ll never go back and urge you to at least try both tempers to judge for yourself.

I never mix it with my top coat...I either mix my glitter with a little poly acrylic..That way I can use different colors on different parts of the body ( such as green glitter over a brown back..and pearlescent on a white belly) You can do the same thing with spray on glitters..but I think applying with a brush gives you a bit more control.Using very fine glitter is a huge help. When done glittering..apply your top coat..Nathan

This is what my Tube Cutter looks like. Large disk is a blade, smaller disk is a washer.

Try Lure Craft's black grape with green glitter. Always worked for me.

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.

I do the same thing to make weedless underspins using shrink tubing and a wire form.

Here is a list of crankbait blank suppliers gleaned from the previous thread with the same title. The list is in alphabetical order. The last thread got a bit out of control and way, way off topic, so I have deleted it and created this new one. This thread will be pinned and locked, so forum members will not be able to comment. If you own, or if you find a good supplier that's missing from the list, please PM me and ask me to add it. Thanks Amazon.com Avidbasstackle.com Barlowstackle.com Cedarrunoutdoors.com Custombaitsupply.com Dingerbaits.com ebay.com Getbitcustombaits.com Jannsnetcraft.com Luckycastlures.com luckycastlures/ebay.com Lurepartsonline.com Predatorbassbaits.com ReelPowerHandles.com Sheltsfishingtackle.com wLure.com