Question for balsa lure makers

[Andyco]

Good morning everyone I am Andy from Alabama. And I am a crank bait junkie I just started building my own balsa lures. And I was looking for suggestions on what to seal the Baits with. Along with any other tips or tricks will be appreciated thank you very much

[barrybait]

Andy, you could use the search function and gather information on topics like this.  I am making balsa crank baits also and the best procedure to date appears to be using thin super glue for initial sealing and to give the bait a sort of shell.  Follow that up  with a coat of Solarez Polyester Resin.  Then after you paint it, can coat with Devcon 2-ton epoxy. 

I tried using multiple coats of D2T instead of the Solarez but it is not as tough and a hook will still easily damage the coating.

Good luck,

Barry

[BobP]

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.

[RayburnGuy]

Well said Bob. You've pretty much summed it up. 

Ben

[Dauds]

As RayburnGuy said, Bob summed it up very well.  My small piece of advice is on your painting: keep track of your colors.  If you're just getting started, no matter how you're painting your baits (airbrush, paint brush, splatter, finger-paint) you may find yourself mixing some crazy paint colors.  Keep track of the colors you mix and in what proportions because you may never find them again.  Terrible feeling when you look at one of your own baits and think, "That's Awesome.  How did I do that?"

At the beginning, I swear there was some magic in my paint mixing that I've never been able to replicate.  Absolute magic... gone forever.

::sigh::

[BobP]

I'd apply the same reasoning as Dauds to all of the details of bait making.  There's nothing worse than building a bait that turns out to be a great one, then being unable to replicate it because you forgot where exactly you put the ballast weights, or what the finished bait weighed, or the angle you used on the lip, etc etc etc.  and if you build more than one model bait, you WILL forget.  I take detailed notes on every batch of baits I make and make frequent use of a digital scale, starting with cutting out the blank and finishing with the type of topcoat I use.  And I note what I think about how the bait performs afterward.  It will show you the way to improving your baits and how to replicate the good ones - and how to avoid making not so good ones!

[SW Lures]

Times 4 or 5!! Keep up with all info. I have infomation about every lure that I have made and will make. I also know all mix colors that I have made. Cookbook for paint schemes. Why do I do this? Because I didn't in the beginning. I made a color on scheme and could not reproduce it again. 

I've got info on a spreadsheet in the computer. I got info on profile patterns that I shape my baits with.

You are not going to remember something!

Dale

[aulrich]

Watch out sometimes duds are not duds.

I made some lipless rattle trap type lures last winter, after sealing I tested them and they floated ,  I painted them up and as it turned out they were awesome for shallow water spring pike, now if I only had taken some notes.

 

So as long as they swim they might be worth something even if it was not the swim profile you were looking for.

 

For sealing I like thinned e-tex followed by a full strength e-tex and as it turns out you can do it in pretty much one step, but you need a rotatory rack to use e-tex 

 

e-tex = Envirotex light