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Cnc Bait-Making Wood-Carving Machines Under $1400

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Would love to learn more about this if you did a tutorial about lures. They are very distinct shapes and attributes.  I have been mucking around with 3d stuff for several years now. Dave is a master of this stuff. Was a huge help in getting my feet wet. It's very time consuming.

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Here is a selection of some of my models. I have not included any of the sold models as that would not be fair to the customers. All models drawn using CATIA V5.

 

I have left the surface joint lines on the first two, so that you can see the basic construction plan. Sometimes I use circles but the best results come with splines. The hardest parts to model are the nose and tail. I use a lateral line to shift the buoyancy up higher.

 

The second was a swimbait idea. I decided that it looked too lumpy and so never built it. The CAD model allows you to see a realistic image without leaving your seat.

 

The craw was modeled just for my own interest, to see if it was possible and how long it would take. I had a buyer interested, but he was not prepared to pay for the time. Even though it was already drawn, I would not give it away for peanuts.

 

The fourth image of the Bawal is a recent project, to design a quick and easy to build lure. Build and assembly time is less than 30 minutes. A great hunter and it catches fish, one of the few lures I have actually fished.

 

The green swimbait was an early design, to test the effect of joint directions. Result – the joint needs to be reversed. Cad was very useful for planning out the hardware layout.

 

Dave

 

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Dave - Thats some awesome stuff! You mention that you have customers, do you do this on a consultant level or do you manufacture/sell your baits? I'm beginning to get to a point where I could see selling my baits once I get them tweaked and tested (<1 year), and seems like youve gone through alot of the obstacles I'm about to come upon. If it would be ok, I'd like to PM you and ask you a few questions. Once again, these are some great looking baits!

 

Since it seems like CAD isnt the dominant means of prototpying lures on here, lets mix it up alittle bit.

 

Does anyone have any pictures of their full line of lures(CAD or Physical image)? Example: Shallow Crank, Deep Crank, Topwater, Craw , Frog, Lipless crank, and so on?

 

I thought this would be interesting to see since this is the approach I'm taking right now, trying to fill out a "line" of products. Just a thought to give everyone a place to showcase their Brand!

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Just got around to printing the swimbait from my previous post, and now I am tweaking the ballast location and line tie location to get it to swim correctly. Almost there! Now I need to find someone to do some paint jobs!

 

PS- Can I upload videos to my post? I have a .mov file of this bait swimming as well I just didnt know how to upload it.

 

IMG 2095[1]

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I have spent some time thinking about this as I already have a modestly small CNC router that burns through wood like a princess goes through her daddy's credit cards.  It was not expensive, but I upgraded it to make it the wood shredder it is today.  I bought one of the little Chinese import CNC routers pitched the rotary tool it used for a spindle, and installed an actual wood router on it as a spindle.  I alos upgrade the stepper motors and controller.  Add a computer and control software and its about 2 grand in it not counting my time. 

 

I could rough out crank bait bodies a couple dozen at a time. pretty darn fast.  For me the hold up on doing more along that line is the paint process.  A good job on paint is time consuming and stretches out over days. 

 

A simple 3 axis CNC router like mine could produce a lot of bodies.  A plastic body machine like the Fireball could do it, but slower because of frame flex. This pieces is about 10 inches by 6 inches I think.  Complete machine time is about 30 minutes including cutter changes for the small stuff, and this is a HARD wood.  Red mohogany I believe.  Its probably the equivelant cutting of roughing out 20 small crank bodies. 

 

If I took it as a challenge I am quite sure I could build a machine for my own use for $1400 dollars that would produce similar results.   Don't count the computer and the control software and I would bet money on it.  I would not however build and sell a machine for that amount of money.  My time is worth something too. 

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I would add that for some simple bodies like flatside baits that don't have anything more than a roundover on the top and bottom I could cut them out an order of magnittude faster.  The machine would probably cut them faster than I could setup the next sheet to cut. 

 

P.S.  Don't be tempted by the Carvewright.  It has kind of a cult following, but it only "looks" cool.  There are lots of more crude looking machines that would smoke it without breaking a sweat and not spit ball bearings all over the place doing it.  Read some of the old reviews on it.

Edited by Bob La Londe
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I agree with Hughesy, this sort of caper needs money thrown at it. Others have been down this road, sorry cannot remember user names. You are limited to machining two halves, to be glued together, which may not be a bad thing. But, the main drawback is the machining time and you are still left with surface finish problems to solve.

 

Surface finish is always an issue, but if you could rough a body to ready to sand in minutes per body wouldn't you?  (There are thing you might be able to do to improve that too.) 

 

And, no.  Doing just one side is not the limitation.  I already solved this problem a long time ago.  Setup a simple clamping jig with alignment pins along a central axis.  Cut one side, flip the piece, reverse the scale, and cut the other side.  One piece wood crank bait bodies by the full sheet.  Cut the holding tabs and sand.  Thiockness isn't even an issue if you zero to something other than the surface of the wood sheet. 

 

I have done it for certain types of features with molds too like fins that stick out the sides of a bait.  I have to machine both sides of a top (or middle) plate, so the first thing I do is machine the bottom plate with alignment pin holes along my flip axis.  Then I drill or mill matching holes in the plate that goes on top of it.  I mill the top of that plate, and then I flip it over and mill the bottom. 

 

I'm not picking on you though.  I am almost embarrsed by how long it took me to figure out somethingthat no seems so simple. 

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That looks awesome! So that was done with a 3d printer? How long does it take it to make? I'd be very interested in seeing a video. Is it a buoyant material, or is it hollow?

So, 3d printers typically print in abs plastic with many colors to choose from. At work, I use the printers for prototyping mechanisms and form factor models when we need it quickly. It also prototypes fishing lures quite well. There are a couple problems with it though. I print the parts as I'd they were to be injection molded parts and glue the two halves together. Inherently this is hollow. But! I have to seal the model to make it watertight. This is done by dipping the model in acetone using a process I have developed here at work. When I generate the cad file I can place the lead ballast weight in the part apply material properties and immediately tell where my center of buoyancy and center of gravity are. Then if moving these critical points is necessary I can do so methodically with in a couple minutes plus about 2 hours to print the updated prototype. Really cool technology and I think as it becomes more affordable lure designers will have them in their homes, I know I will!

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ABS 3D printers are already out there on the hobby level.  Most are struggling at the "look what I can do" stage, but some are producing some astounding results.  I don't think its at the "buy a tool just to be supplemental to another hobby" stage like subtractive machining just yet though. 

Edited by Bob La Londe
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Well, I thought I might dig this one out in case anyone still has interest in hobby cnc. In the past 6 months I have designed, built, and started cutting lures with my CNC router. I have ~600.00 in my machine, not including software although there are some quite capable free software options out there.

Just wanted to show that if you really want to turn your CAD creations into a wooden lure, nylon mold, polycarbonate bill, etc. you can do it for less than what a lot of folks will tell you. Here's the proof. If you want to get a more detailed list of where I bought my components and what those components are just PM me.

Happy building!

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Well I tried to drown out the high pitched squeal of the router from the video. David Crosby has a similar effect on some people so that's a bit ironic, but I like him.

Notice the two steel pins in the work piece. This is a very simple way to key your parts for flipping when cutting both sides of a part. I cut the locations for my ballast weights first, and then flipped the workpiece to cut what your seeing in the video.

At the end you'll find a pan over on a few precut and finished lures. This happens to be a topwater design of mine, and the wood is cedar if anyone's wondering. Makes the spare bedroom smell like a hamster cage haha

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Great stuff, well done.

 

Because you are able to mill out the inside cavity with such precision, this would enable you to use denser materials and still achieve a fairly light buoyancy. Plus, precision location of your hardware for repeatability. This method is never going to be 100 bodies an hour, but once the method is reliable, you don't have to stand over it.

 

Lots of advantages - I like it.

 

Dave

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