Jump to content
LaPala

Right-Left balancing of Lure (quite a long one...)

Recommended Posts

After reading one of Chips post somewhere about using an RC propeller balancer to check his lure’s balancing; it got me thinking.

I’ve always wondered about how “balanced” the wooden lures I’ve carved & floating it in water doesn’t always show (especially) the right-left balance of a lure blank. This is componded by the fact floating in water will cause the lure to soak up some water & I’ve got to wait for it to really dry up to test again – after sanding of a bit here & there by guesstimate & eyeballing the lure blank.

This is what I came up with:

34243092.jpg

I tested a lure-blank & found out I'm a bad carver:

34243105.jpg

Notice as I added weight & then a hook, the lure begins to be "righter". This IS expected as I'm lowering the centre of gravity each time & those added weight "pulls" the blank straight.

Now I'm more confused than ever, b4 this I just test floated my lures & eye-ball it for rightness. Now I know 8 out of 10 of my blanks list to one side without weights (not as bad as pictured; chose the worst for clarity of pic - but they still list). Flat sided blanks are more forgiving in making though it's about 3 out of 10 that list and easily corrected. (Maybe this is one of the reason I get the occasional "hunting" lure)

In a purr-fect world the blanks should balance right/left but I'm only human, so the question is:

A. The blank should be right-left balanced withoud added weight/hook - without exception OR;

B. As long as blank can balanced with added weight it is okay OR;

C. I am nit-picking cause the lures I made b4 this test was alright.

Any ideas guys?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think part of the "buying" attraction of a wooden bait is the fact that no two run the same. While they should run fairly similar, I think it's a near impossible task to duplicate exactly. Without getting scientific about densities and what not, I'm sure we all own 3 or 4 identical lures but one seems to catch more fish while the others don't catch as many. Many pros would tell you that they have "tournament" lures and "practice/fun" lures when it comes to wooden baits. An experienced wooden crankbaiter knows this and buys with this disclaimer in mind. A crybaby newbie rarely recognizes this and cries when two identical lures don't run quite the same. I think you have to shoot for the middle. By the way, hunting crankbaits work better :wink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

LaPala,

I think anything we can do to make our lures "better" is a good thing and the fact that you are including science in the process is wonderful..."don't do it because I say so, do it because I can prove it's better". Your process for measuring balance is interesting by the way. From my experience though one must be careful to not take this process too far as it only leads to more "misery", lol.

There are so many variables in lure-building that we cannot control or accurately measure. Wood type, wood density, moisture content, lead placement, paint thickness, epoxy thickness, hardware attachment, the list goes on and on, and all will affect the way a lure will operate. I'm guessing there are some balancing/measuring processes that some builders go through to insure consistency but "tight tolerances" are likely left for the plastic mold injectors.....and even these have their variance as Soupy suggested.

This discussion reminds of a coworker of mine that loves to hunt ducks. He spends literally hundreds of hours reworking his decoys, hand painting them to perfection, tons of invested time. He told me one time he was showing his dad through his shed of literally "dozens of decoys" and which point his dad stopped and said "you're thinking too hard, just flip the deeks out there and start hunting". :lol:

Jed

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You guys are right. There is just too many variables in the making of a wooden crank and the real charm in the wooden crank is "there's no two identical ones".

I was miserable when the jig showed so may "flawed" blanks but then I do differ about the process as I do think it is important to take out all the humanly possible variance and when we arrive at the final product it is as consistant to the last one as possible. Sort of taking out as much "guessing" as possible from the equation. I'm shooting the moon here but I feel at the end I might arrive at a more controlled end product. BTW, How do you guys balance your lure?

My mind is actually moving at a tangent here right now... :rolleyes: If I contol how much listing there is in a balnk I might arrive at an angle that makes a lure hunt, sort of built in the listing (& imbalance?)... hmmm. I've already tried yesterday on the depth placemennt of weights & even a 1 mm difference change the listing. Even by drilling 1 degree off can cause an otherwise straight blank to list. I'm mumbling here.. better stop & get to my lure making table :D

Terrydabassman: did some photo-finish but our local bait-fish that I try to imitate isn't as colorful as sunfishes & perch over there, so it's just so-so finishes. Been adapting the technique to detailing though - on a new body that I'm developing; I'll post some pics when I'm finished.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

cullin8s:

I did that. What I meant was the bait-fishes here are plain vanilla looking & not as interesting to make photo finish of compared to sunfishes & the other colorful fishes you have there. The snakeheads by Art Brush are colorful but it'll surely scare the living hell out of my target fishes as snakeheads are the top predetors here. I've included a pic of seluang for your viewing pleasure - the bait-fish I was making a photo-finish of.

seluang.jpg

seluang.jpg

seluang.jpg

seluang.jpg

seluang.jpg

seluang.jpg

seluang.jpg

seluang.jpg

983_thumb.attach

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...


×
×
  • Create New...
Top