[diemai]

I am almost ashame to just open one more thread about swimbaits , fore I have already found so many here on TU !

In fact hereby I'd just like to express my gratitude to Mark Poulson for his kindness and efforts to encourage and advice me in a couple of PM's about creating this interresting sort of lure in a fairly easy manner and without too much working effort .

Thanks a lot , Mark !

Though I am supposed to proceed with a lot of different lures , it urged me yesterday evening to finally start launching my first swimbait .
Didn't even make a design sketch at first , just pulled out a beechwood board(4/5" thick)out of that small wood stack in my basement , took a ruler and pencil and off I went !

After Marks advice I roughly made all the hinge affair prior to finally shaping the outer contoures of the lure(not done yet , will continue tomorrow) , so I cut all out on my drill press , which has a cross slide table and a machine vise(see pic) .

After drawing the outline of lure and the marker lines of the separation cuts , I first cut and sanded the back portion to shape .
The belly remains straight as a reference for furnishing the hinges and especially the bores for their locking pins .
The belly would finally be shaped , when the hinges are taken to proper function .

I employed the round sawblade to first angular cut apart the blank into its three sections , then I pre-cut the hinge slots and extented them with the thin router bit , they are now as wide as two screweyes held together to fit in .
I hope , that this space is sufficient enough to let hinges work , even after topcoating .

The slotted ends of the sections I then rounded off with that profile router bit shown , it has a radius of 2/5" , so just perfect for the 4/5" board .

On the opposite ends of sections I cut a kind of cupping with the thicker router bit (4/5" dia.) .

I must admit , that some nasty things happened whilst working , first a bad spot in the wood appeared , that I overlooked .
But I guess , the rounding-off of the back portion later would make it disappear !
Second thing is , that the rear section came loose from the vise whilst cutting with the profile bit , so that one damaged the surface of the wood , not deep though , but I've covered it with wood filler , hopefully the blemish would also vanish , when rounding off back portion finally !

Third was , that I forgot to fix the feed slide of the drill press , when making the slots , so the front ones got a little bit too deep , I guess .

Next step tomorrow would be to first make the back outlines of the sections more even , since due to the routing-off material some small steps came up between them .
After set in the screweyes temporary at proper locations and then make the bores for the locking pins , but I am still not quite sure , where to place those bores , either exactly at the center of the radius or a little off centered , towards the end of the section !

But I'll find about that , when the screweyes are fixed , I guess :

LEARNING BY DOING !

I am not claiming , that this is perfect or even the right way to proceed , and I am still a little uncertain about this swimbait thing , but I believe , that up to now I got further , than I expected so far! Thanks again , Mark !

Greetings , Dieter

[mark poulson]

Dude,
Looks like you'e well along on the swimbait curve. And you've discovered the big secret, that it not really that hard to do, just time consuming.
With your shaping, painting, and finishing skills, this type of lure is a natural for you, and should be a piece of cake.
Save your Euros, and invest in an occilating belt sander. Way easier to shape lures with a sander than with a router, and symetry isn't really that critical in swimbaits.
I am looking forward to when you post photos of your finished lures, hanging out of a 50" pike's mouth.

Originally Posted by diemai

I am almost ashame to just open one more thread about swimbaits , fore I have already found so many here on TU !

In fact hereby I'd just like to express my gratitude to Mark Poulson for his kindness and efforts to encourage and advice me in a couple of PM's about creating this interresting sort of lure in a fairly easy manner and without too much working effort .

Thanks a lot , Mark !

Though I am supposed to proceed with a lot of different lures , it urged me yesterday evening to finally start launching my first swimbait .
Didn't even make a design sketch at first , just pulled out a beechwood board(4/5" thick)out of that small wood stack in my basement , took a ruler and pencil and off I went !

After Marks advice I roughly made all the hinge affair prior to finally shaping the outer contoures of the lure(not done yet , will continue tomorrow) , so I cut all out on my drill press , which has a cross slide table and a machine vise(see pic) .

After drawing the outline of lure and the marker lines of the separation cuts , I first cut and sanded the back portion to shape .
The belly remains straight as a reference for furnishing the hinges and especially the bores for their locking pins .
The belly would finally be shaped , when the hinges are taken to proper function .

I employed the round sawblade to first angular cut apart the blank into its three sections , then I pre-cut the hinge slots and extented them with the thin router bit , they are now as wide as two screweyes held together to fit in .
I hope , that this space is sufficient enough to let hinges work , even after topcoating .

The slotted ends of the sections I then rounded off with that profile router bit shown , it has a radius of 2/5" , so just perfect for the 4/5" board .

On the opposite ends of sections I cut a kind of cupping with the thicker router bit (4/5" dia.) .

I must admit , that some nasty things happened whilst working , first a bad spot in the wood appeared , that I overlooked .
But I guess , the rounding-off of the back portion later would make it disappear !
Second thing is , that the rear section came loose from the vise whilst cutting with the profile bit , so that one damaged the surface of the wood , not deep though , but I've covered it with wood filler , hopefully the blemish would also vanish , when rounding off back portion finally !

Third was , that I forgot to fix the feed slide of the drill press , when making the slots , so the front ones got a little bit too deep , I guess .

Next step tomorrow would be to first make the back outlines of the sections more even , since due to the routing-off material some small steps came up between them .
After set in the screweyes temporary at proper locations and then make the bores for the locking pins , but I am still not quite sure , where to place those bores , either exactly at the center of the radius or a little off centered , towards the end of the section !

But I'll find about that , when the screweyes are fixed , I guess :

LEARNING BY DOING !

I am not claiming , that this is perfect or even the right way to proceed , and I am still a little uncertain about this swimbait thing , but I believe , that up to now I got further , than I expected so far! Thanks again , Mark !

Greetings , Dieter

[StoneCoal Tackle]

Deimai, great looking start on your swimbait! Nice explaination on your process too! Can't wait to see it finished.

daymon

[RiverMan]

You are doing a great job! I hope with the nose being that fat that the lure will swim good for you. If not, try a more streamline shape next time. Make sure you assemble the lure and give it a try before painting and finishing.

Also, you will get a more sinous motion of you add another joint to the very back of the lure. good luck.

RM

[diemai]

Thank you guys for your encouraging comments on my new thread !

Though I slept quite long this morning , I still found some time to proceed with my new project , but now I must soon go to my lateshift work !
I'd rather continue working on my lure !

Anyway , Mark , you're so right to say , that it is not that difficult , just time-consuming .
And I don't need a belt sander , I guess .
I utilize 5" dia. sanding discs , that I can fix onto the electric motor of my lathe , its homemade by a workmate and souped up with a chuck of a drill , so its much more versatile than a shop-bought lathe .
You can see by containing new pics , that I have already sanded the lures contoures to a rough outer shape .
The joints so far turned out fine , only have to take off some material here and there to provide a more loose play of the sections against one another .
I also learned , that twisting out the hinge screweyes a bit more increases that loose play , but it surely would be better to put the body planes(convex and concave section ends) into a more sufficient shape to prevent binding , and mount the eyes as deep as possible .
Also your described method of making a reamer out of that wire used as hinge pins worked out well , even to drill into this harder wood .
I employed such a tool before to furnish longer bores into lures with a center wire shaft like "Globes" or "Whirligigs" , since an ordinary drill bit isn't long enough .
I ground cutting egdes onto the swaged flat point of that wire , similar to an original drill bit .

@ RiverMan

I intended from the start to put that bait into a more rounded shape , though I want to leave the top of its head rather plane , to act as a sort of diving bill to provide better wiggle(in my theory) . Yet it is still in process .
As I do with all of my lures , I'll give them a thin clearcoat and try them , after the final shaping and assembly is done , in my bath tube for action and weighting , but thanks for the hint , anyway !

@ StoneCoalTackle

Guess , you ought to be patient , I have about 2 1/2 dozens of different lures in under construction presently , so it should take a while , until this particular one is about to hit the waters for the first time , but I would surely put it amongst those to be the first ones to paint and seal !

Alright , folks , thanks again , must be off now to work....... !

Greetz , Dieter

[hazmail]

diemai- for a first attempt, you certainly have jumped in the deep end, jointed lures, would have to be the hardest. You certainly seem to have the tools and from what you have here, all the skills. Your lure looks like it will work, and if they look like that, there is a good chance they will. Anxious to see the finished lure. pete

[mark poulson]

Pete,
Jointed baits are easy. Since all they do is swim horizontally, and, hopefully, wiggle as they do, it's not that difficult.
Lipped cranks that swim right, on the other hand, are the hard ones. Lip angles, location of line tie, location of hooks and ballast, body shape. Man, the variables are endless, and they all affect the action of the lure.

Diemai,
Once again, kudos to you. I've found the taller shape makes the head more stable, and I get a bigger side to side action with the second section and the tail. My four piece lures swim more snake like, and the 12" five piece even more so, although I think I'll hire someone to cast it for me.
As to the shape of the first section, I taper my baits from the line tie back to the first joint, so the head is almost V shaped, or a pointed U shape, and then back again toward the tail, so the first joint is the fattest part of the lure. That just looked right to me so I did it that way. No ryme or reason. The triple trout by 22nd Century, the gold standard three piece trout lure here in SoCal, is more similar to yours in that the thickness of the lure remains constant for most of the lure, or at least it looks that way to me. And it swims really well.
I learned early on to make the joints looser, to leave room for finish and epoxy, and so they would swim more. My first attempt at a jointed lure, which was a glide bait that I cut up, was beautiful looking, with hinges were hidden, but it didn't swim for beans. So now I leave the screw eyes out a little farther now, so I have 3/16" clearance before finishing. Seems to be about right. And the fish don't seem to care.
Using screw eyes lets me do adjustments after I've shaped the lure and finished the hinge detailing. I can assemble the sections two at a time, and play with the screw depth until I'm happy. I can even bend them a little when they're in the final position, to compensate for any errors I have in positioning. Then I remove them one at a time, and epoxy them in , so I can use the other one in the pair for depth reference.
And be sure to ease the edges of your sections so you don't have any sharp edges. It won't affect the action or looks of the lure, but your finish will bond better to it. I don't know about the actual system you use, but epoxy doesn't like sharp edges. It seems to like to pull away as it sets, leaving little fish eyes and weak spots.
I reviewed your gallery pics again this morning, and was reminded again of how fertile you imagination is.
I have a fertile mind, too, but those who know me think it's due to the abundance of fertilizer up there.
Keep up the good work, and I look forward to seeing some huge pike with your lures hanging from their mouths.

[jamie]

Man thats just great diemai, you and I were the last two men standing who hasnt made a swim bait now you went and done it!!! Just joking your bait looks great!!!! I will be following in your footsteps, dont want to be the last one standing LOL.... I cant wait to see your finished bait Im sure it will look good as all your baits do.

[diemai]

Hi , folks ,
This morning I again proceeded a little on my swimbait , at a glance not much has been done since yesterday , only continued working on the hinges to let them have the proper swing required(I suppose).

Since I like Mark Poulson's idea quite a bit about not permanentely bonding the hinges , but leave the possibility of disassembly(for maintainance)even on the entirely finished bait , I have thought about the features pictured here in this reply .

I intend to furnish a dorsal fin and tailfin of fibres or brush bristles onto my lure , so I could not quite employ Mark's method of glueing the 90° offset flags of the hinge locking pins right onto the back of the lure , it would have taken too much space on the second section's back , where I want to cut a groove to glue in the fin .
So I had the idea about sinking those flags into the lures back , but pointing forward , I made those little grooves with my "Dremel" and a small router bit .
Off course I could still glue in those flags into their grooves , as Mark kindly explained to me , but I've also thought about a different way to secure the locking pin against slide-out .
That is to fit a piece of cable insulation tubing tight over the bottom end of the pin and carefully cut it flush .
It takes quite a force to push it over , for final assembly I would just secure it with a drop of superglue .
For this arrangement to be reasonably flush with the belly of the lure , I countersunk the hinge bores a bit , just big enough for the tubing to fit in and be able to cut it open with the pictured narrow knife blade in case of disassembly .
The handle of the also pictured file I would use to push the pin upward then , so that I can get a small screwdriver under the flag in its groove to finally lever out the locking pin .
I should have good access to it , when the hinge is swung sideward to the limit .

Off course the pin arrangement , as it is shown here , is only temporary , it will be cut to accurate size , when lure is finally painted .

It's a pity that I cannot go deeper with the countersunk at the rear section(slightly more than 1/10") , but the bottom ridge of the hinge is just not thick enough , hopefully it would still work out that way .
I am also aware , that if I round off the belly too much later , the countersunks would partly loose depth , so maybe , I'd still have to tinker a bit about it or just leave the pins and tubing potrude just a fraction !

@ Mark
Thanks again for your kind explanations and statements to assist rookies like myself in swimbait building .
I hope , that you won't feel bad about that I haven't quite taken over your described method about fixing the pins , you have still done a great deal in helping me , I guess , without you I would not have started out at all !
I am now already thinking about how to seal the hinge bores from the inside , I guess , that I would use a very reliable glue called "UHU-hart" , which is used for bonding wood in terms of modelmaking , most likely balsa . It cures quite hard and won't bind to metal .
I would put it into the bores with wire several times to possibly cover every spot .
I am also thinking about pouring a drop of molten wax inside(wonder , wether its possible at all somehow) , for added protection against water .
Or maybe an ocassional drop of reel oil would do as well , in case of the finish affected by this , salad oil would do as well ? I just don't know !

I know , that you like to keep working processes simple and this bait might be of too much working effort for your own taste , but I like to tinker and fool around with many features , but I can't deny , that my disappointment would be much greater , if things should fail !


@ jamie

Thanks about your kind words , but I am sure , that we are not the last ones standing , there would be many guys around still planning on swimbaits , on German sites they are very popular these days as well !
Infact a link from one of those sites brought me here to TU , and I'm very glad to be here !

Off to work again soon , Dieter

[diemai]

Sorry , pics didn't submit the first time !