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I like working with foil as I can get some really cool effects with it. Here’s some topwaters I did in various paint patterns.

I got some actual knobs that were a 1/4-20 thread to use.

They are called 'connecting links'. Jann's has them. https://www.jannsnetcraft.com/335505 If you search for 'fishing connecting links' or 'sinker slider links', you should be able to find more suppliers. Sea Striker, Rosco and Luxon make them You can find them sometimes in saltwater tackle stores with the plastic sliding sleeve attached if you don't mind paying extra for the plastic sleeve you will not use.

I like wake baits that I can wake, but that I can also pull down up to 18 inches on the retrieve. I generally use a slightly larger lip than most and a little more angle to help pull it down. Also, I like to keep the lip wide at the outside points of a short coffin style lip. The wide corners will catch a tule on the retrieve and kick the bait away from the tule. Helps me fish my wake baits thru sparse tules on the surface or under water.

It depends on the bait, how big the tail is relevant to the bait, type of tail ( hard to soft )... Generally for argument sake glide baits have a stationary tail and wake/divers have a moveable tail. Yes the type of tail can/will drastically give or take away movement depending on the bait. Specifics can only be answered properly with the type, size and weight of the bait. Built a few baits.... I always try several different tails to get the exact action I want. My .02

I bought a bunch of the metal sleeve spacers from Barlows and I'm quite happy with them. I buy most of my components from them. Good prices, reasonable shipping(even to AK), and I've had great customer service!

These molds were made to accommodate 32833. https://barlowstackle.com/do-it-steelhead-jig-molds-p336/

Been there done that. Just bought 3 tickets for an upcoming concert. Taxes and "convenience Fee" added up to the cost of another ticket. There was nothing convenient about this. Can't print tickets, they don't mail them. I may be old, but at least I got to see the good bands! Cheaply! I can't be sure, but if the shipper is UPS, they charge a fuel surcharge. But I thought it was around 2.50 Maybe that's this charge. Agreed! I know if I have to pay a bit more for something, I automatically add stuff to my cart to get my money's worth. If I don't know in advance And I get to checkout, I just say nope, and buy somewhere else. There's a lot of suppliers nowadays all selling the same things we use.

I’m impatient too. I heat my injectors and block up with a propane torch. Just keep it moving and while your plastic heats you can warm these up. Some times I use a griddle on HI.

Yeah. I guess I was just a little impatient. With winter setting in here in New England, I actually throw my molds and injector into the oven for a few minutes. I think the major culprit might be the blending block. It's thick and heavy so it probably takes a little longer to heat it up. I always lube my Orings before I start. I use either worm oil or WD 40. Reminds me...I'm running low on worm oil. I've got an entire winter ahead of me to figure out the learning curve of the dual injector. Thanks gang for the comebacks.

This little worm is only 4.25” but spent some time looking around and is the closest I saw. Curly tail looks a little different but close may be the best you can do. https://www.lurepartsonline.com/6920-19-LureCraft-4-1-4-Ring-Worm-4-Cav.-2-Pc.-Alum.-Injection-Molds

320* is good. I live in Southern California, I always warm up my Injector & Blending Block before shooting. The Blending Block needs to be hot. Also lube the Injector/O-rings with worm oil or Pam spray.

Thanks for the name, as it turns out there is local suppliers and I might be able to hit up cabinet guys for cutoffs. Got the steel yesterday, I have something like 200 hours of printing ahead of me so first step is to really dial in the printer so it has the best dimensional accuracy I know I am reasonably close so this is just due diligence.

It's called Corian

I was told by one of the mold makers once that their artificial stone was in fact a material that they used to make counter tops so you're probably right.

Lureworks for the paint. https://www.ispikeit.com/category/150/paint I don’t think they sell any airbrushes and would ask their advice on a setup before I purchased one. May be different depending on which product you want to use.

I haven't but I believe Mike Iaconelli did a video where he put a spinnerbait blade on the end of a senko.

Anything you like. Play around with it and find what works best for YOU! Personally, a really good base flake would be lots of small red with a touch of large black flake. I used that on many of my baits. When it comes to flake color and size, the possibilities are endless. Oh and welcome to TU!!

I like the idea of using tape for a tight fit to test! thanks for the tips! I will report back once I get it figured out!

I make the lower outside corners or sometimes the outside edges of the rounded lip slightly wider than the body of the bait. Probably 10 to 25% wider. I originally modeled it similar to the 3:16 Wake Jr. bait and also the AC Plug Minnow. It wakes well with a nice "V" wake in the water and makes a nice wood knock as it does so. My lips are made from lexan by hand. Sometimes with too much hard walk the bait is too clunky or mechanical. It seems best if you can reduce it and make it wake more fluidly if that makes any sense. If you get your bait all sealed up including the lip slot, you can test several different lips by taping the portion of the bill so there is a snug fit in the lip slot for testing. Barry

I used to make them like Jig man but just found it real tedious working with so many parts. Rosco makes a product that I settled with called a swivel sleeve. They work really well and replace a lot of small parts. They are crimped right on your wire but need a good set of crimpers so they won’t move. I’ll put a link up for you. https://www.roscotackle.com/product/romar-sleeve-swivel/

I've been wanting a dual injector for some time, but not a cheapo one. I was looking to go with a Fat Guys Fishing, or Bass Tackle. This morning Fat Guys made my Christmas wish come true!! Bought a 6oz dual injector for 20% off! Merry Christmas to me! Not my first purchase from them, and certainly won't be my last. Now to get MF back online is my next Christmas wish.

As Aulrich points out, tow eye location is very important, and should be a part of your experimentation. Dave

I have a pile of lips that didn’t work and will sometimes go back and use them for new baits. I just guess and experiment a lot.

While I can get plenty of movement out of square style lips on a wake, there seems to be a point where if I make a wider body bait a coffin style is needed to get the action I want. More surface area to help push the bigger bait. ‘When I say coffin I guess you could call them all that but I’m talking more of a harder taper to the mouth than your standard square/coffin provides. Couple examples. The baby rat in natty wood needed a real wide lip to scoot but the typical 3 piece I make (lizard pic) moves fine on the more traditional square style lip.

One other thing to consider is the line tie position, I have increased action by dropping the line tie. I tend to start at the centerline but it seems to end up under the center line

In my early days, I looked hard for a formula for lip length and width, it was the engineer in me. But alas, I failed. A sharp edge on the front face gives a stronger action, not so sure it is enough for you to notice. The thing is that every feature affects lip length; length and width of back, position and angle of lip, position of COG, and any other feature that I fail to mention. I make the lip a tad too big and trim it back until I get what I am looking for. Dave

Mark that is where I started. I’m sure you are better at this than I. I did a few with a mill bastard file. It was a pain and inconsistent. I want them to weigh 7/16 so I had to keep checking. Ted’s idea is a lot easier and actually faster for me.

If you are doing a flat face on both sides, you can put the jig in a vice and slowly close the vice. It is crude but it does work. Hopefully, you don't have a lot of them to do as this is time consuming.

Late to the party today. LOL. Arne.

I have used a part of a feather cut into a tail shape, paint brush bristles, or a fin cut from a thin silicone place mat or under sink mat. These don't noticeably affect the action on my baits. I also make the tail fin slot wider at the end of the bait and cross pin the fin through holes in the fin that are bigger than the pins. The fin will flap with the motion of the bait. Similar to the tail fin mounting on the Black Dog G2 Shellcracker. See the post below. https://www.tackleunderground.com/community/topic/38362-jointed-lexan-tail-what-effect-does-it-have-if-any/#comment-313700 It is possible to make a flapping feather or bristle fin. I have done it by laying the feather or bristles out on a piece of scotch tape with just the mounting part of the fin on the tape. I then put epoxy on the part resting on the tape. Once the epoxy cures, I carefully peel off the tape and epoxy that side of the mounting part of the fin. Once that cures, I can drill holes in the epoxy part and cross pin in the bait. Sometimes the epoxy cracks and I have to fix it with a bit more epoxy. It's a pain to do, but can can give some really nice waving action even when the bait isn't moving.

The top bait is a Gary Yamamoto Chikara crankbait. The leaping bass in the pupil is the tell tale sign. The second bait is similar to a Mister Twister, Bandit or Bill Lewis crankbait. It could also be a knockoff. They all had a groove going down the body coming from the lip. Bandit and Bill Lewis typically had painted on eyes. My guess would be the Mister Twister crankbait because some of their baits had recessed eye sockets with flat tape eyes. I think the Mister Twister bait was called the SportFisher. It sometimes came with painted eyes and sometimes had the tape eye in a recessed socket.

Check out the sticky thread above called "List of Lure Mold Companies." Most of these companies also sell plastisol. Good luck!

Unfortunately it is an issue with some of their mixes. I am shocked they havent fixed it yet.

Start by pouring a stream as thin as possible about 8”-12” above the mold directly onto the master. Covering the master first with a thin coat will help almost eliminate air bubbles in your final product. Next fill the alignment holes. Again thin stream. Then move to a corner and finish filling the mold allowing the bondo to flow across the mold. This should minimize the bigger bubbles. Holding the cup high and a thin stream allows the air bubbles a chance to burst.

If you are referring to open pour/hand pour aluminum molds there are several companies to look at. https://anglingai.com/shop-open-pours/ http://www.basstackle.com/mobile/Category.aspx?id=125 https://epicbaitmolds.com/search?type=product&q=Open+pour+ https://www.enforcerbaitmolds.com/hand-pour-molds https://fatguysfishing.com/open-pour/

Don't have any idea, but if you look at the post just above this one you should be able to find somebody that does. Lots of mold makers there. Arne.

You might research these. Not sure they’re what you’re looking for. https://www.zeiners.com/doit/570H574hooks.html Or these but they are longer https://www.zeiners.com/doit/630635hooks.html

I am a pretty unimaganative painter, probably has to do with primarily fishing for pike. It's scarry how fast they can ruin a lure. So I have a standard set of colors ranging from "natural" to loud Perch Blue/Perl Silver/white (Moving towards Silver Foil) Pike Rainbow Trout (sometimes) Walleye Green/Gold/white (sometimes depending on the lure) Flo Purple/Pearl Gold/ Flo Orange (Moving towards Gold Foil) Fire tiger Flo Green/ Flo Yellow/ Flo Orange - Black stripes Tiger Tiger Black/Flow Orange/white - black stripes (Sometimes) Pink Lady Flo Purple/Flo Pink/White - black stripes (Sometimes) I 3d print most of my lure now so anything that is a pattern is painted with a stencil

Let's hope people vote with their pocketbooks, like you did. We all know it costs to run a business. Be upfront about it, and give us the chance to decide if we're okay with what you charge.

I scavenged my motor from a junked microwave. It is the turntable motor. It is listed as a 5/6 rpm and seems to be a good speed. Not hard to extract and a breeze to wire into the power cord cut from the same microwave. I have not had any trouble thus far but I will say it is not as robust as a rotisserie motor. It however was free. Just a thought.

I do it the same day. This way it sticks real good and will not come off. I put my eyes on and dip just after to get a good bond. I think the LC site said you have to clean the baits if they have been setting. This is the same stuff as Lureworks. Frank