T_Bend Posted June 19, 2020 Report Share Posted June 19, 2020 (edited) Over the years if there's been one thing I've heard about which buzzbaits work better than others it's the "Squeakers" or "Squealers". I became interested in how to make this happen during a tournament on T-Bend back in the late 1980's and have "tinkered" around w/different ways to achieve the "perfect squeak". Of the techniques to make this happen- from holding it out the car window at 75mph, taping it to a fan for 3 nights, crimping the rivet, making the shaft hole on the blade square w/a square nail, filing the shaft and/or blade ends to roughen em up, adding an extra rivet- I've tried them all! (Or have I?). I saw Reaction Innovations even had one called the Squeaky Dolphin that employed a "2-part threaded knarled brass" fitting .Those buzzbaits are now discontinued and sell for upwards of $75 online these days. (see pic). I'm surprised w/the level of 3D scanning, printing & high-tech reverse engineering software available to mechanical engineers these days no lure company has jumped back on this idea! I'm presently looking into it myself! My latest endeavor to achieve the perfect squeaky buzzbait is all about friction & this is my question. What are the common sizes of buzzbait wire used in molding the heads? .052 -.053? Seems the bigger size wire would fit tighter on the blade, creating more frictionw/the proper size blades- Voila! More squeak- But this is just a theory. Any comments- good, bad,etc are welcome. Edited June 19, 2020 by T_Bend spelling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalljaw Posted June 20, 2020 Report Share Posted June 20, 2020 Welcome to the board!!!! I prefer .052" diameter wire because buzzbaits need to be durable and I never had an issue with that size wire. I never thought that the wire diameter played a part in the sound but after reading your post I think you could very well be right. I always scored the rivet with a utility knife, I can't tell you how many knife blades I've gone through but I bet that amount could easily stock a mid size hardware store. Anyway, scoring the rivet seems to work, I've tried using sand paper and files to rough up the surface of the rivet but the results were always different. The easiest way to test that theory would be to make identical size baits with identical components with the only difference being wire diameter, this could be an interesting project. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaBehr Posted June 20, 2020 Report Share Posted June 20, 2020 (edited) The amount of squeak would be influenced by the type of plastic in the blade. The good news is the cheaper the plastic, the more it would squeak! Plastic on plastic would squeak the most (use a cheap non-lucubrated plastic). In the industry we call these "wear" thermoplastics. To reduce wear or squeaks you would use a "low wear" or lubricated plastic. So, if you could put a plastic tube around your wire (and fit it tight or glue it) and then put the blade over it, you might be able to get the sound to want. Only one way to know! I noticed that the blades I recently purchased have an aluminum shaft insert in them. I suppose that it was to make sure they spin and/or to match wire size to the hole in the blade. The problem would be to get the squeak, the blades would not turn as easily so you would need a bigger blade or faster speed (I suppose). Gee....all those years in the thermoplastics industry finally payed off! Edited June 20, 2020 by DaBehr 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalljaw Posted June 20, 2020 Report Share Posted June 20, 2020 3 hours ago, DaBehr said: The amount of squeak would be influenced by the type of plastic in the blade. The good news is the cheaper the plastic, the more it would squeak! Plastic on plastic would squeak the most (use a cheap non-lucubrated plastic). In the industry we call these "wear" thermoplastics. To reduce wear or squeaks you would use a "low wear" or lubricated plastic. So, if you could put a plastic tube around your wire (and fit it tight or glue it) and then put the blade over it, you might be able to get the sound to want. Only one way to know! I noticed that the blades I recently purchased have an aluminum shaft insert in them. I suppose that it was to make sure they spin and/or to match wire size to the hole in the blade. The problem would be to get the squeak, the blades would not turn as easily so you would need a bigger blade or faster speed (I suppose). Gee....all those years in the thermoplastics industry finally payed off! I think we are talking about different buzzbait blades. I was talking about the standard old aluminum delta blade, there is no plastic on it. I know there are plastic blades but too much friction on those would probably stop them from spinning. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaBehr Posted June 20, 2020 Report Share Posted June 20, 2020 Aluminum would be a good material to use if you do NOT want the blades to squeak. If you want squeak it would need to be plastic on plastic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglinarcher Posted June 23, 2020 Report Share Posted June 23, 2020 Aluminum blades, the delta style, are the ones that did squeak. T_Bend talks about the methods that I once did myself. I sure would not claim to have found the "commercially viable" way to make the squeak uniform for sure. For mine, I still use a course file and I find that it works, but some are more effective then others: pretty tough to be consistent. To my knowledge all of the plastic blades are molded around some form of aluminum shaft. Most straight plastics I know of would wear with use so the life of the lure would be limited. Still, I can see it working. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
