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Quick Tips...take em all, but leave one of your own!

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Guys Ive been airbrushing for a week now and I couldnt get past a scale pattern. The mesh would move around and it just got frustrating, theres always a better way right well this works for me. Women thread in and out of these plastic sheets makin there precious designs but when i saw em at Michaels in the knitting section I thought about scales. I dont know exactly what there called but i take the sheets place them over a blank bait of the same type that im puttn scales on. Line up the scales how you like and take a mini torch is what i use and heat the sheet, slow or youll melt it, form it to the bait a little at a time and hold it in place till it begins to cool then itll stay there. Keep this up and youll basically end up with half a mesh mold. Now whenever you paint say a Sammy 3 weeks later you can find that mold slide it on there perfect fit and spray away just make sure you mold it tight to the bait when you form the mold and be patient let the paint dry before you remove it. This was my first brilliant ''I wonder if anyones thought of this'' moments and for a moment i thought it would be my secret till I thought about all the disasters I avoided thanks to everyones help. I hope somebody benefits from it cuz yallve sure helped me.

Great idea Josh. I will have to try that. I think the material you are speaking of is cross stitch fabric. Not sure but I think that's it.

David

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When foiling a bait I use a product called Tack-it. It's a water soluble glue you can get at HB or Michaels. Much less problem than solvent based glues. Brushes on easily and much simpler if you need to strip the foil and try again.

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I have two,

Adding epoxy to sharp a edge that the epoxy will not stay on. On my bigger musky baits I put three layers of epoxy. Put on the first coat then before adding the second heat up your epoxy so it dries faster and let set until it is almost too stiff to put on then add it to just the sharp edge. Let it dry and sand before adding the next two layers of epoxy. You may need to repeat after the second and before your final coat of epoxy.

Make sure you wood filler is dry before you paint and clear your baits. This is one way you can waste time fixing crack and peeling baits.:mad:

-Corey

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If your into makeing wooden wooden plug type baits like I am and have a old broom laying around thats no longer useful,you can use the wooden handle as a starting point.

You can make many lures out of one handle.

Only thing is most are pine,and thats not a issues unless your dealing with toothy fish .

PS...please don't steal your wifes broom and cut the handle off,she wont understand...trust me:whistle:

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Just discovered this thread and thought I would add a few. I shape using sanding drum on drill press. Safer than routers. I use A 2x4 cut with 45 degree angle on one edge as a sanding guide. For cheap marking gauge glue two short boards together at 90 degrees and drill hole thru one the size of a round pencil. Height of pencil hole not important. Insert pencil and pass body by it to make sanding lines around top and bottom of bait. Just use shims of plywood, plastic, or cardboard to adjust height of lines.

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When it comes to using templates/stencils for painting your baits, try using scrapbook stencils (stole mine from the wife :lol:). They come in all shapes and sizes and can be reused over and over again. Also, if you have a hard time positioning your homemade stencils on a bait when painting, try using clear packaging tape to make a stencil. Fold it over on itself and cut out your design. It's flexible, can be used more than once and, here's the best part, since it's clear you can see exactly where your paint will end up.

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Epoxying crankbait lips

Epoxy is the most common way to mount a lip but it can be a mess if you aren't careful. Epoxy yellows over months and years. Quick set 5 minute epoxy will age to brown. A bait with brown epoxy squeezed out over the margin of the lip is unattractive. Slow cure epoxies yellow less over time. But quick epoxy gets the lip set in a few minutes and we all like that. Here's the tip: to epoxy lips without getting it on the nose of the bait and out onto the lip, don't "butter" the lip with epoxy! Push epoxy into the slot with a piece of wire, wetting out all the interior slot surfaces. You can fill the slot up if you want. Then just push the dry lip into the slot. The excess will squeeze out the sides at the back of the slot, and none onto the nose/lip intersection. You can wipe it off neatly. You will probably have a little void around the margins of the nose. No problem. You can fill that with epoxy or whatever you use to clearcoat the bait later, and it will not go yellow/brown so quickly.

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BobP,

Good to know that slow cure epoxy on top of 5 min. epoxy will prevent the latter to become brownish.

This tip is good in case you clearcoat the lure after you have glued the lip in. But what if someones glues the lip in after clearcoating the lure? I make the lures this way because I want to chose the best lip for each individual lure. So I try several lips before I chose one. Do you have a corresponding tip for such a case?

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rofish,

I'm not BobP, but I have a tip regarding 5 minute epoxy.

Devcon 5 minute epoxy is water resistant, not water proof.

Over time in the water, it will absorb water and deteriorate.

Make sure the 5 minute epoxy you use is water proof.

D2T, the Devcon 30 minute epoxy, is water proof.

Edited by mark poulson
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Rofish, I didn't mean to say that 30 min epoxy will stop 5 min epoxy from turning brown - it won't! It was a tip about installing lips to avoid getting any epoxy, especially the 5 min variety, squeezed out on the lip surface. If you glue lips in after clearcoating, you could still use the tip with 5 min epoxy but you would want to run a bead of 30 min clearcoat epoxy around the slot/lip margin to fill in any voids afterward. That's an extra epoxy session I like to avoid.

Mark, to my mind it shouldn't matter about 5 min Devcon being only water resistant. Inside a lip slot or rejoining a split balsa bait, it will be protected by a waterproof clearcoat. Those are the only tasks where I use the 5 min. I've used 5 min to anchor hand twisted screw eyes BUT over time, the hole will be surrounded by a little dot of browned out epoxy - looks pretty ugly. Basically, I want to use D2T wherever epoxy will show on the outside of the bait, and 5 min wherever it won't.

Edited by BobP
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Kudos to Hazmail on his tip about using a laser level to check the alignment of lips when installing them! I used my level today to install lips in a batch of deep divers and what is usually a doubt ridden process was a snap:worship:

Couple of tips: run a centerline around the bait with a compass after you cut out the blank, while it is still "square". This will be your reference line when mounting the lip. Go over the centerline with a Sharpie pen so it will stay put while you shape and sand the bait. Second, put a pip of Sharpie ink on the center tip of the lip. Shoot the laser down the centerline on the body and onto the lip. Adjust the pip so it is cut by the laser and VOILA.

I've eyeballed the lips on many baits and no matter how careful I am, SOME of them ended up out of alignment. What looks straight from one angle may not look the same from another viewpoint, especially when you are looking at wood with grain lines in it. The laser makes it a no-brainer - which some of us badly need :yes:

Edited by BobP
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I have one suggestion to add to Hookup's nail clipper idea. I picked up a couple of the cheap retractable clip-on namebadge holders from my company. I put the nail clippers on the retractor and keep it clipped to my life jacket - yes, I admit it - I am one of those people that wear their lifejackets.

Gary

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