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wcgood

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About wcgood

  • Birthday 06/28/1963

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  1. Also forgot to mention that legally you need to comply with the IRS excise tax. It's a whooping 10% of gross sales. Which is just not fair for the little guys.
  2. Having taken a bait to market from scratch I can attest to the fact that custom bait making is not a great business model. Yes, you can make some money and it is certainly rewarding. The large bait companies make money on volume. Profit per lure is relatively small and they are quite automated. If you choose to hand carve and finish or even use a high tech duplicator as I did, at the end of the day you are working for minimum wage or maybe less. It's simply a volume business and volume will make you a slave to it. The market demands a certain level of quality and achieving this quality can cost you tens of thousands and don't expect not to break even for several years. I'm really not trying to sound negative or discouraging here but sometimes hobbies are better as hobbies and not businesses. I'm just sharing my personal experience. Some guys here may be doing well at it, I don't know. Bait making is labor intensive and unless you can hire cheap labor to do the work it's not real profitable or you work for small wages yourself. If it's for love, wonderful. If it's for profit, not so wonderful. A leader in balsa bait manufacturing once told me "if you like to fish...don't go into the bait making business". How true this was. Now I enjoy bait making as an art and without the baggage of bottom lines. Good luck. Another things to keep in mind. If you sell direct to the public you will maximize your profit, assuming there is any. If you sell directly to a retailer, they generally like to make 40% (there goes your profit). They are making at least that on mass produced baits. If you use a distributor then cut another 20% from the 40%. Advantage is you will sell more baits. I like the idea of selling fewer baits for more money. Problem is the market will only bare so much. To get your production cost down you have to make a certain volume. Commercial grade paints and coating don't have a long shelf life so you have to use it with larger productions putting you into the volume business game of small margins. Hope this helps or at least it is personal experience and insights.
  3. Clogged nozzle. Doesn't take much pigment or residue to cause this. Consider an ultrasonic cleaner assuming you are not using one. It will do the best job hands down. I rarely have had to use a brush to clean any parts. Iwatta's are the best.
  4. I know the original owner (Paul Kaptis) was trying to sell his business some years ago. Burned out making baits. I thought his baits were made very well at the time. Maybe he sold it then the new owners cut corners. Don't know for sure. His website was the only place he retailed so I'm guessing if they are on ebay now that's probably the only place to get them.
  5. I have a machine for sale that does the job. Production quality, same as the big boys use. Contact me if you have interest.
  6. I make a lure that has a small body dives 8-10 but I can easily get it down to 12'. You can see it at **********. I use a metal lip that contributes to it's diving depth.
  7. I have a lure carving machine for sale that is designed for a production environment. Cuts two perfect bodies at a time in less than a minute and is the same machine the big boys use. This machine has only been in use for 1 year and has cut less than 2000 lures so it's like new condition. Will sell for $13k firm. Machine is located in Maryville TN. You can contact Sonny at 770-218-8245.
  8. For me i like the siphon feed. 2 reasons: I usually paint 15 lures at a time so the paint volume is better. Secondly, I'm using lacquers and the bottles serve as a storage container. I have 4 brushes connected at a time for quick color grabs. When I'm done with a paint session i attach a bottle with thinner to each brush blow some through and it can set for a week without needing a cleaning. I'm using Iwata teflon coated revolution brushes. i'll use an ultrasonic cleaner when I don't plan to spray for a few weeks. If I where spraying water-based paints I would probably use the gravity feed except on heavy coverage colors. But for Lacs the paint dries too quickly in the cup and these brushes would have to be cleaned a few times a day.
  9. There is a tool for twisting aircraft safety wire that works extremely well. Wrap cut lengths around a headless nail, clamp down with with tool, 1 1/2 pulls gets you a perfect hook hanger. MILBAR SAFETY WIRE TWISTERS http://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/to/safetywiretools.html
  10. I have a couple of compressors from TCP Global. Had one stop working and they replaced it no problem. I use these as back ups, they are small capacity but not too loud. For most of my spraying I use a tank of compressed Nitrogen. It's silent so I don't wake the neighbors and 100% dry. 2000 lbs of compressed Nitrogen will go a long way when spraying lures. Eventually I'll probably switch to a large capacity compressor that I can enclose to keep it quiet. For now the tank works nicely. Iwata's are the right choice and TCP Global is a great source.
  11. I trust and use an Iwata. Was an airbrush illustrator for many years and have used them all. I currently use Iwata revolution series for painting lures, bottle feed since I paint many at a time.
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