Art Brush

Hey Vy, I demold my lures 50 mins to 1 hr after casting. If you demold too soon the blanks will get lumpy due to the slow expansion rate. F-lite expands about 1/3rd it's original vol. To ensure a full cavity fill I cast the resin up to the sprue cone collar. To figure the amount of F-lite you'll need, fill the mold half with water then measure the water. For eg: if the water measures 2 drams then you'll need 4 drams total per lure. Shawn

Hey Vy, I appologize for missing your ?. Glad the guys chimed in to help. There's a few things about F-lite you need to know. It is finicky to work with. The best tip I can give you about using it is if you open a can..... Use it all up within a few days. Pour it all. Freshness counts. When F-lite gets old some blanks might look dry but will sweat uncured resins thru the paint and foul the lures. Even days later a lure will look fine but will develop a blister. So a lure looks fine. You mail it out and when the client gets it the lures got bumps.... Smooth-on says the reason behind "resin sweats" is the product gets old quick. Part "A" is succeptable to air and moisture. Use "Xtend-it" dry gas If you don't use it all within the 1st week When I use older F-lite I allow the blanks to air dry for at least 2 weeks before basecoat. When it's fresh it works like a charm. Shawn

Hey Muskiefool, I just started thinning my 2ton with denatured alcohol. I doesn't extend cure time but does make it easier to brush on. With epoxy slightly thinned it allows more bubbles to rise to the surface before it sets up. For a 2.5" lure I use 1-2 drops. Combined with the torch it's the best method I've found thus far. You can get denatured alcohol from home depot for $10 a gallon. Tight Lines, Shawn

Topppher Absolutley. Folks contributing can specify whether they want to auction for red cross or TU members effected. We'll put the info in the auction when we recieve your tackle. You can email your auction photos to me as I'll be batching them for web. Skeeter, Blades, .. those sound like some kick ass lures. I'm putting up cranks I didn't plan to release for a while either but now seems as good a time as any. Your contributions are much appreciated and needed. Watch the katrina page for updates. Shawn

Solid! That's the spirit guys! As we recieve your tackle for auction we will post them in the auction section. I'd like to leave a couple options open to those sending tackle or services. For eg: DeVery & Skeeter have 6 lures. Do you want them to go as a lot of 6? or 6 singles at the same time or 6 in succession or 2 lots of 3? I think we'll raise more money doing smaller lots or single lures. You can also tell us the starting bid. Just include the information in with your auction donation. When the auctions start tell everyone one you know who likes to fish to come and bid high. Every little bit helps. Tight Lines, Shawn

Guys, My heart is breakin seeing all the suffering on the news. I'm sure it's only a mere fraction of what's happening there. I'd like to send a check to get a new home for everyone there but I don't have it. I know we'd all like to do something to help. I am initiating a custom tackle auction to benefit Katrina victims. The money collected will be donated to the Red Cross to go directly to those who need our help. We as a community can do something for them if we all donate a few tackle items and tell everyone. Post at every forum and call any big wigs in the fishing industry you know. We can auction single items or we can put it all into one big lot. Any suggestions? Shawn

Hey Smitty, Here's a link to Ken's tutorial on cupped and slope faced poppers... http://www.tackleunderground.com/board/kb.php?mode=article&k=18 Shawn

Hey Dink, Here's a link to Hiro's tutorial on how-to scale the foil prior to putting it on the lure using a scoring tool. http://www.tackleunderground.com/board/kb.php?mode=article&k=15 Tight Lines, Shawn

Minky, Please use the gallery pages for showing off your lures. The upload is located here... http://www.tackleunderground.com/photos/upload.php There is approx a one day delay before they are posted. Posting photos in the forums is killing our bandwidth so please refrain from posting photos for the sake of feedback. There is a sticky post at the top of this page aswell. http://www.tackleunderground.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=6051 Thanks, Shawn

Hey Vy, From what I've heard they want you to invest money up front. Then your products go into catalogs that they ship to flea market vendors and shop at home SMC styled groups. Your investment pays their wages and catalog printing costs. Alot of people who get their catalogs are looking for low cost items they can mark up and sell on ebay. Something you can do yourself. I really don't think there's a market there for lure makers. Tight Lines, Shawn

Welcome abord LaBassMan, The search button is on the top toolbar. Here's a link... http://www.tackleunderground.com/board/search.php Lots of friendly folks here to answer any q's you might have. Post your lures in the gallery when ya get a few done. Tight Lines, Shawn

Welcome aboard Steve, For the black dot or "kill spot" use a paper hole punch to punch them out of electricians tape. Then you can stick them to the lure. Tight Lines, Shawn

Hey Bob, The waxes come in 3 hardnesses green (hardest) blue (mid-grade) & purple (soft). The blue is supposed to be more user friendly as it will hold good detail and won't snap as easily as the green. I've not worked with any of the waxes yet, but I've got some purple to try. A jeweler recommened it as it's more carvable and won't chip... it's kinda plyable so it's less apt to snap. Make curved rake tools and spatulas to get the bulk down quick then the wax can be smoothed with a little heat. I've not done any pressure casting or used alumilite products. I've tested crystal clear 202 for diving bills and lure halves with good results. Pressure casting was lacking but the parts were tuff. Parts must be baked in the oven to full cure. A gloss finish on the model will help reduce the need to polish the finished parts. The guys at smooth-on tell me task is even tougher if ya don't mind light amber tint. Works got me busy as heck so I haven't been able to put much time into the 4 part lure molds. (Currently working 2 part / featherlite) For 4 part molds I'm using Smoothcast 300 for lure halves with the diving bills in crystal clear. Lures with the diving bill attached to the lure half can be done in crystal clear or task for transparent lures. Both are good products. Gotta perfect a few tweeks b4 a tutorial can come together. Post pics of your work bud! Tight Lines, Shawn

Should work ok with a 6 ton shop press. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=4711

Terry, I think the problem might be with the lip angle and ballast placement. Is it possible your ballast is shifting when you close the mold and stand it to vent? Is the ballast too high in the lure? I've remedied a similar problem by making the belly lower to move the ballast further down. Tight Lines, Shawn

Hey BigR, No I've not tried adding anything to RTV silicone. It's not worth risking a mold not curing and wrecking a prototype or mastermold. Coley's been using PMC 970 (urethane rubber) with a shore hardness of 90. It's less porous and stands up better to the resins. Also compounds with a shore hardness 60+ don't really require seamline bb's as they are used to keep soft molds from distorting at the seam. Post pics of your lures and molds buddy. We'd love to see'em. Tight Lines, Shawn

Happy fathers day guys. I just sent my eldest son off to join the army about 3 weeks ago. Never enough days of fishing. Can't wait till he gets back.

Hey Cliff, Does the Polywood have a fluff on top that has to be mixed back into the resins? If so then it's similar to F-lite in properties. Also if it has a crust on top then air has gotten to it. Shawn

That is a great tip Coley. I've used it on snakehead plugs. You ain't kiddin about not bein able to look at it lol. Makes it a bitch to topcoat! lol B&B I've considered getting that same kit from caswell. If you're not too busy a tutorial would be great! At the caswell site they show a video clip of a wand with a gauze bandage applying the metal. Have you tried this technique? Tight Lines, Shawn

Well done Husky! When I recieved the lures I was surprised to see the amount of flash the tissue allows thru. Looks like its printed on the metal. I'll take'em out soon. Tight Lines, Shawn

http://www.caswellplating.com/restgal/index.html

Welcome aboard Steve, Here's a link to "unglued" lure kits. http://www.luremaking.com/catalogue/catalogue-index/catalogue-items/crankbaits/unglued_crank-kit-index.htm Tight Lines, Shawn

Hey Geeman, Out2llunge put together a tutorial on PDF on how-to make musky bucktails. Check-it out It's a printable pdf file http://www.tackleunderground.com/tutimages//o2l_bucktail/Bucktail_101.pdf Shawn

Terry, It was definatley worth a try. Thanks for posting the test results Cliff, I got some silver powder however it's not real silver and comes out kinda dull like aluminum. I'll cast a blank today with it and post it when my lady gets back with the camera on Monday. The flat white color place primer is in rattle cans. I've tried quite a few tryin to seal pin holes and it seems to work the best. The mica powder I got my gal picked up from Sally's beauty supply. It's used in cosmetics as blushes and eye shadows. She thought I could use it for a glitter in topcoat. Looking at it I realized it was ground far to fine for that use. Then I noticed it was finer than talcum powder and decided to give it a shot. Alot of casts come out free of pin holes and the ones that have pin holes are less than the casts done with talcum. Mica powder is also used in candles, soaps and shampoos. If you look at some liquid soaps they have a pearl effect to them. It comes in just about any color and is dirt cheap... cause it is dirt lol. Do the guys in soft plastics use it for their perl effects? Not sure if its the same stuff or if they got a better supplier but here's a link to ebay listings. http://search.ebay.com/mica-powder_W0QQfclZ4QQfnuZ1QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ3 Tight Lines, Shawn

Perhaps chrome powder the molds? Nickle powder? Dunno... do they even sell it? Perhaps an annodizing shop would have something like that.