bsgorilla

I've had excellent service from Dakota Lakes as well.

Shopko carries D2T.

Wayne, that's awesome. Clever as heck and absolutely perfect. Thanks for posting.

Agreed Ben. I actually meant to do all the cutting post vacuum forming. I am still using cut strips of milk jug for my stencils as I haven't mastered forming identical baits to be able to use vacuum forming. I paint one side then invert the curve of the stencil and paint the other side (thus having identical sides). I have different stencils for different looks, bait sizes and body parts. I have gill stencils, fin stencils, perch stripe stencils, frog spot stencils, etc. I'd actually recommend doing body feature stencils instead of one stencil with all features. Doing it all on one stencil is really hard. You can cut it perfect until the last feature and ruin it and have to start allll over again (grrrr). Bruce

Vodka, you didn't make your video available on mobile on Youtube. :-(

Do u use through-wire design? I just thought of this so it may be a really stupid idea. With the bait cut in half, u could drill a small hole in the lip that lines up with a small drilled hole u make on each side in the lip slot of the balsa. Put a tiny lead shot, bb, tiny pin crossways or what have you in the lip hole, insert the lip/bb in the lip slot (along with your epoxy), and put your two sides back together. The lip won't be able to pull out because it will be anchored in the bait head. Depending on how heavy your anchor choice is, u may have to adjust your weighting a hair to counterbalance to your liking. I am 1000 miles from being an engineering genius like some of the fine fellows on this site so if this idea is idiotic, I apologize.

Have u tried doing your design on the computer? You can print out a couple copies, use one to copy on each side of your stencil. As long as u have a steady hand cutting or drawing and cutting, each side will be exactly identical. I am sure there is simple, probably free software out there where u could take a picture of one of your unpainted baits, upload it and use it to put your design on. That way it will fit perfectly when u print it out and u can tinker with your design without wasting stencils and lure blanks.

In true bass fisherman style, I have Got to get some of those eyes! The green ones will look killer on my basswood frog swimmers.

I contacted customcutstencil.com a couple months ago because I wanted stencils to airbrush bait names on lures. Three different bait names, 28 reusable stencils 1 1/4 inches long for under $11.50. I haven't ordered them yet but that is a terrific price. No place else I looked was remotely close. I requested prices in oilboard and mylar, same price. Steve Lewis is the guy's named and he was very polite. Might be an option to consider. My handwriting is pathetic and I wanted that crisp, professional stencil look. I make no promises. Like I said, I haven't ordered yet so I don't know what they'll look like.

Bluetick wins.

I ordered wire from McMaster Carr at about 6:00 Monday and it was waiting for me when I got home Tuesday from work. Fast! And shipping for 2 one lb spools was under five dollars.

Thanks fellas. I just placed my order with McMaster-Carr. One spool of 304 soft temper stainless .032, one spool of .041. Makes me nervous they don't tell you what shipping cost is going to be right away.

Thanks fellas. That's what I found in another TU thread to get. I was just hoping to be able to buy local as I'd like it right now (lol). I already called a local bicycle shop (wire too thick) and the local Gander Mtn which doesn't carry it. Btw, this is just for hard body topwater frogs and mice so the tuning wouldn't come into play I don't think.

Where do others get their wire from? I am just starting with through wire construction and I figure the 30 lb, coated, braided leader wire I was going to use isn't such a good idea.

I could have used this earlier tonight on a lure template. Pretty darned smart Gino, thank you for posting, explaining and taking pics. I just didn't get it until the pics showing It in use. I will get immediate use out of this as soon as I build it. Thanks so much for posting. Bruce

Okay, I'm lost Gino. Not being an educated woodworker, I have absolutely no clue how this would be used but the things u said it does, I need help with doing. Can u show or explain how this tool is used? I stared at it for several minutes and achieved nothing but proving to myself that I may be an idiot. Bruce

16 oz will last you a long time, probably a few hundred baits. Very glad to help. I feel like I've finally learned/experienced enough to be able to contribute on TU. Nearly all I know has been learned from the people on here and I still learn new things every week. So much ingenuity and helpfulness. Its priceless. The first batch of prop I made was a few years ago with chopped up plastic cups and dissolved in (i think) mineral spirits or acetone. It worked great. I stopped making baits for a while and when I started up a couple years later, I took the same plastic cups and couldn't get them to dissolve to save my life. Go figure. The melted cups worked really, really well but the prop granuals are better I think. Bruce

Stretcher, that is awesome. How are the frog hooks mounted to keep them from turning over? PS - I saw your paint job on this and I smashed my airbrush and set fire to all my paint. Thanks a lot.

Gino, I use prop and I consider my baits pretty well waterproof. I use a mason jar about 1/2 full of acetone with fairly thin dissolved prop; I have my baits mounted on needles drilled into dowels and I submerge a few baits in the prop at a time. I let them soak 2-4 hours or so depending on how long I am around. If it goes longer, its okay, you will just have more acetone evaporate. I take the baits out and let them dry for a few hours at least. Repeat 2 or 3 more times. When this is done, I sand the raised woods grain and dip the bait a couple seconds in a cleaner jar of somewhat thick prop. Let dry a while - several minutes at least - and quickly dip again. Do this at least twice and sand in between as needed to smooth grain and and any dried prop runs. Your final coat will give you a smooth, clear finish on a pretty thoroughly wateroroofed bait. I like to add another layer of prop over my white basecoat to keep it from getting scratched. You want slightly thick prop for this. It Will wrinkle your basecoat but as long as your prop isn't too thin, it will dry right back to a smooth looking paint layer. Fyi - the prop in your initial soak jar will end up getting stained pretty dark from the wood. This is totally fine, doesn't affect the soak process at all. I work on shaping and sealing batches of baits all summer so I am shaping baits while prior ones are in the soak stages. It definitely takes longer to finish baits this way but the results are worth it to me. I add weight/hardware in the fall and go out and give them a test run. Winter, I paint and finish. Final test on the spring, fine tune/fix and then fish. Keeps me busy and happy year round.

Ned, I tried a similar design a few years back (except mine looked totally hack compared to yours). I ended up abandoning the idea at the time. I used double worm hooks. The balancing on these is tricky. You basically need it to perform like a weeble-wobble that only tilts a few degrees. I planned to come back to this design and my ideas were to create a slightly deeper, rounded belly and/or widen the base a bit. I also planned to hollow the top to make it stay more upright and pop to upright more abruptly when twitched. Like I said, I think this is a slightly tricky design. I do think your hook is too short thus not leaving enough gap for hookups. I'd recommend a double worm hook with a longer shaft. The double hook should help with the balance versus a single. They are more pricey than a single hook of course. I hope you get more replies on this. I am curious how the in-house experts will answer this one myself.

I used Etex for the first time and Loved it. Did 31 lures at a sitting whereas D2 I could only do two or three. Takes 3 or 4 coats but great to work with. I dip my brush in denatured alcohol as I go to keep the consistency smooth and clean. Of course now I want to try Solarez but all this Etex is going to last me quite a while. That being said, I would highly recommend Etex for ease of use. It goes on thinner than D2 and didn't run at all on my lure turner. Has a beautiful shine and the multiple coats give depth and make my paint jobs really pop. Clean up is a breeze.

I believe youthinthewind meant to say "my wife has been in and out of the hospital. Just this month..." etc., meaning she has been sick for a while. The lack of a period after hospital makes the difference. I'm sure everyone reading this thread wishes you and your wife the very best, youthinthewind. Its easy to understand how nothing else mattered once u found out. God bless you and your wife. I'm sure a bunch of us in the TU crowd will be sending you prayers tonight.

I plan to start trying pvc this summer. I have a old timer Norwegian wood carver that gives me his basswoos scraps for free but I gotta try this pvc thing. My question with pvc is that don't u lose some of the unique characteristics of wood that make it so special? The density variations, etc that can make a particular wood bait a unique fish charmer? Or is it the uniformity of it that you like so much versus wood? I've been wondering this for a while.

I'd use one of the huge compressors. The less your compressor has to fire up, the better. I think mine is 30 gallon. It sits in the fruit cellar behind a closed door. Drill a small hole in the bottom of the door, feed your hose through and you can sit and work in quiet. Minimizes wife aggro and no constant buzz of a small airbrush compressor. Take the $64 one back and use the $$ on the higher quality brush! $105 should get you the .35 mm Iwata Eclipse BC-CS. I researched the NEO's a couple weeks ago to see about having a cheap but decent 2nd brush. Everything I read says they're junk that breaks easily.