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Being inspired by TU and by all of the great fella's in here , I've been tinkering with a few swimbait designs during the past months(or even more than a year ?) .
Always on the quest for the possibly easiest , fastest and most reliable way of joining wooden swimbait sections , .......also a lot of ideas were put up in here by other fellow members , ....just a great community
!Anyway , the last idea posted in here , that I can think of , was utilizing double leader sleeves as a joining part , and that is the basic of the construction , that I have thought of right now .
My idea is to make the joining parts inbetween the single swimbait sections out of round metal tubing , that is simply squeezed flat in a vise , leaving an open sleeve end for the later connecting hinge pin to pass through .
The flat side of the squeezed tubing piece would be epoxied into a centered slot in the male part of the joint , additionally secured by a crosswise wire pin , ......the sleeve end of it would reach into a sufficiently large and wide pouch cut centered into the female portion of the joint .
The required slots and pouches could easily be furnished with a "Dremel" and it's different small drill and router bits .
Like on my previous swimbait(also shown on the picture) I would glue in small pop rivet heads into the hinge pin bores to act as bearings , spacers and seal off against water sepage(check image , I've laid them in about the position they would be glued in later) .
One would have to take care about making the pouches in the female side large enough for the joint to still move freely after topcoating as well .
If the body width of the bait is still thick enough at the female front parts , these pouches would probably not show too much , ......only if the flanks do taper down the tail a kinda gap would probably appear , as the material is not thick enough anmore to cut a "hidden" pouch still providing sufficient sideward play of the joint .
I intend to round off both opposing section ends a bit , so that they are able to pivot against one another without binding , ....maybe it would even be enough to round off only one side .......I shall see ?
On the pictures you can see the original sketch copy of the finished bait already glued on a teakwood kitchen board , I have marked the intended separation lines with a felt marker .
The front hinge piece is made from stainless steel tubing 12mm X 1mm (12millimetres dia. and 1mm wall thickness) , the one in center from 10 X 1 aluminium and the rear piece from 8 x 0,6 brass tubing , ..............these are all tubings , that I could find down the workshop so far !
Just did some testing today to see whether shaping the tubing pieces would cause any difficulties , ...but it really doesn't !
Just cut required length off and squeeze it in a vise to an elongated shape , ........now put a round dowel(drill bit shaft or nail) into one inside end of the oval , leave that end a bit protruding over the vises edge and squeeze real tight finally , .........the dowel inside of the protruding end would keep a sleeve open , you might only have to pull it out with pliers afterwards .
Naturally that dowel has to be a bit thicker than your intended hinge pin diameter , in this case I used a 2 mm bit shaft and I am gonna take 1,5 mm wire pins to connect the lure sections later .
The stainless steel tubing would surely hold up against any fish , but it is real heavy stuff , ........and not easily accessible to me ,...... found a piece accidentally on the scrapyard of my work .
The center aluminium tubing might probably be too weak , as after bending it to shape it is obvious , that the material's structure has already been disturbed at the tightest curves , ........don't trust on it too much !
The brass tubing does not show signs of wear and tear like the aluminium one , but it is too thin , ....I need it with a thicker wall of 1 mm as well , so I guess , that this would be the one to go for , ......it is not quite as heavy as steel and also easy accessible over here ,....... almost every tool mart stocks brass tubing .
Also I think , that I would need a larger tube diameter than just 12 mm , maybe 14 mm or even 16 mm , so that these connecting hinge parts would turn out a little longer , so that they could be anchored a bit more sturdy into the wood .
Well , just my thoughts so far , .........I am quite confident , that this design would work out , ........what do you think about it ????
greetz , diemai
Attached Files
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NEHIID_03.JPG 137.06K
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NEHIID_02.JPG 156.54K
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NEHIID_01.JPG 190.45K
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Edited by diemai, 07 February 2010 - 09:40 AM.
