3D Printed Baits

[Lock]

I know this has probably been beaten to death, I have searched but I didn't find very many people actually designing lures in CAD and printing them.   How many of you actually print your lures and paint them vs make them out of PVC or Wood?

[Hughesy]

I do! I also design lures for Bass Pro Shops and make their prototypes with the printer that are then sent to the factories for production.

[Lock]

LOL, You are not too far either.  Table Rock is just across the northern boarder.      I just didnt see very much of this in the search, I have been playing with it for a bit and am looking at trying to make a run in the hobby designing, printing, and painting my own lures.  I have made a few out of wood but I have a CAD degree and that is where my love for design is.  I bought a DLP printer last week and have already printed out a few prototypes on it. I was just looking for like minded people to share the interest with and possibly swap ideas on lure design when it comes to CAD models vs actual working designs.  

[Anglinarcher]

Hi Lock, good to have another new person on the site.  Welcome.

To help out on this site, hover your mouse over ACTIVITY at the top right of this screen.  When the drop down menu comes up, go to search at the bottom.  Enter your keywords and hang on, lots and lots of information.

Now, we have had discussions on this site recently about the subject, and we have a couple of young guns that are doing excellent work with 3D printing.  I am impressed!

But, the take I get from it is that it takes several hours to print out a lure, not much cost per lure, but time.  

2 minutes ago, Hughesy said:

make their prototypes with the printer that are then sent to the factories for production.

I think that prototyping is the most common thing I hear done.  Excellent prototyping, and Hughesy has done some excellent ones.

31 minutes ago, Lock said:

How many of you actually print your lures and paint them vs make them out of PVC or Wood?

Unless Hughesy does it, I don't know of anyone that actually prints and then paints lures veres making them out of other things.

[Vodkaman]

I haven't done anything on lures for a while, but I have been experimenting with 3D printing the molds rather than the lures. Of course, it all starts by 3D CAD modelling the desired lure.

My aim is always to make the mold symmetrical such that you only have to print one side model repeatedly, rather than having a left side and right side. This would enable you to print out multiple molds that are all interchangeable, for a mass production situation.

CAD design of 3D molds is particularly useful for creating hollow lure halves, including ballast pockets and harness slots. CAD is also useful for determining the amount of ballast required for a lure, and determining the angle at which an assembled lure would float.

Dave

[mark poulson]

56 minutes ago, Hughesy said:

I do! I also design lures for Bass Pro Shops and make their prototypes with the printer that are then sent to the factories for production.

Do you print halves and then do all the ballasting and hardware installation yourself first, or do you send them the prototype body and let them do that stuff?

[Lock]

1 hour ago, Anglinarcher said:

"But the take I get from it is that it takes several hours to print out a lure, not much cost per lure, but time. "

It does take several hours to print a lure. I have printed about 10 so far and am working on my next .stl file to print nine at a time.  If I can do that in five hours, I would call that time ahead as I dont think I can do anywhere near that detail or that kinda of design in 30 mins using PVC or wood.   I will post some pictures as I progress but it seems to be fairly economical, very custom and if you can print twice in a day, at 5 to 9 lure bodies a day thats 10 to 18 ready to be weighted, eyed, hooked and painted by the next day.   I am new but really getting excited at the chances of making some real cool, one off lures that are not bodies being painted or something I have to cut and sand by hand. There is something about that aspect yes but, its just not my cup of tea. 

Quote

"I think that prototyping is the most common thing I hear done.  Excellent prototyping, and Hughesy has done some excellent ones."

I would like to see more users ideas and what software they are using, printers and such. People who have tested through wires vs screw eyes on polymers and overall results of printing them themselves. 

Edited March 22, 2018 by Lock

[Lock]

43 minutes ago, Vodkaman said:

 

"CAD design of 3D molds is particularly useful for creating hollow lure halves, including ballast pockets and harness slots. CAD is also useful for determining the amount of ballast required for a lure, and determining the angle at which an assembled lure would float."

 

 

How do you go about finding this information, are you using solidworks for some sort of analysis or?

[Hughesy]

44 minutes ago, mark poulson said:

Do you print halves and then do all the ballasting and hardware installation yourself first, or do you send them the prototype body and let them do that stuff?

I do it all. I send them a disassembled lure and a working prototype along with the stl file.

[Vodkaman]

I use CATIA V5. The CAD model can be assigned a material density. I also model the ballast, harness, split rings and hooks, each with their own density material applied.

I inquire the CoG of the basic assembled body shape (no density added) and create point-1.
I then inquire the CoG of the assembled model with material densities applied. Here I create point-2.

Draw a line between the points. The angle of this line indicates the angle that the lure will float. In the water, the line will be vertical, so rotate the model and line to the vertical, and that gives the floating attitude.

As for ballast: inquire the volume of the assembly, inquire the weight of the assembly. Divide the volume by the mass. if greater than 1, then the lure sinks (fresh water). You can even incorporate sea water density and make a correction.

But remember, the angle the lure floats is NOT the angle the lure swims. That is far more complex, and is beyond simple calculation.

Dave

Edited March 22, 2018 by Vodkaman

[Vodkaman]

Here is sheet 1 of a PDF of a simple lure. It shows the float angle calculated in CAD. In reality, it was spot on. The other 3 sheets is the rest of the design.

bawal lure 13_Sheet_1.pdfbawal lure 13_Sheet_2.pdfbawal lure 13_Sheet_3.pdfbawal lure 13_Sheet_4.pdf

If the PDF does not work for you, message me your email, and I will send. This goes for anyone interested.

Dave

Edited March 22, 2018 by Vodkaman

[Seele]

I'm also designing lures with CAD and 3D printer. The last ones we big shads which can be interchanged with a big curly tail. So 1 Head but 2 lures. It would be possible to make a whole series with different lengths out of it. But that's too much work for only 20 pcs.