I have gathered several of these anticipating that very application. (I saw a few on one of your workbench pictures). My tip is to extend the shelf life of those custom mixes a little longer...place a small piece of Siran Wrap over the cannister before snapping on the lid, then store it upside down (for that matter, store all of your paints upside down). The air that seeps into your paint is what dries it out...the paint settling against the cap will prevent that from happening.

 

I use the cheap craft brushes from walmart for applying epoxy I think they are $1.77 for 30. When I am done I cut off the bristles and use the handle later to mix epoxy, paint or whatever you need to mix, they work great. I also use them to put epoxy in lip slots and on Lexan lips.

Rod

 

Cheap Eyes
O.K here is mine for making lure eyes.
Get some silver lure tape, a paper bunch, some black and white paint for the pupil, and a couple of Sharpie markers, Yellow and Red.
Punch your eye out with the paper punch, add a white dot then a black in the middle of that, let dry,apply to lure, cover with Devcon epoxy.
Or punch out your eye, coat your eye with either the red or yellow maker let dry, add your dots, let dry, apply to lure, Devcon.
Cheap and easy.

 

You can pick up an assortment bag of these half round beads at your local craft store for a couple of bucks. Remove a portion of the reflective backing and paint in a pupil on the back of the bead. Attach eye to lure as you would with any 3D eye.

 

I moved this post over here from another thread.

I don't have a lathe so I have to shape the body on the belt sander. It is difficult to rotate the blank by hand and get the smooth shape I'm looking for so I cut the head off of a screw and chucked it in the cordless drill. I screwed into the center of the blank and used the drill to rotate the blank on the belt sander. I made the blank longer than needed so I could cut off the screw hole portion.

 

Sometimes its a good idea to clear the bait before changing colors while painting. I often clear during the painting process after getting the bait to a certain point with 2 or 3 colors and before I add the remaining colors and touches.

That way if you have an error in painting, you can wipe off the error while preserving the work already completed.

 

I use electrical tape for my kill dots. I use a paper punch and punch the kill dot out of the tape and stick it on. Nice uniform round dots every time. The epoxy clearcoat blends them in nicely.

(The "kill dot" is that black dot right behind and slightly above the gill plate area)

 

Make your own line ties:

Take a block of wood, like a 10 inch piece of 2x4 and hammer two nails into it just far enough apart that the wire fits in between the nails.

Slip the wire between the nails and you have a great wire bender.

Experiment by trying to duplicate the lip wire shapes and line ties you see on commercially sold bait. Its easy and you'll be making your own line tie wires in no time.

Doing it yourself allows you to make a variety of different types and you can also use different wire strenghts and diameters.

I use spinner bait wire for the line ties on musky baits.

I'd recommend you buy only stainless steel wire or something similar. Rust and corrosion are your enemies.

 

When using skirts on wire baits make sure you hold the bait up at eye level and cut the bottom of the skirt even with a sharp pair of scissors. This will help the bait run true and not roll over during the retrieve. If one side of the skirt is longer than the other it will pull through the water harder than the other side and tend to pull the bait.

 

For foiling, (now i dont know how it is normaly done) but if you are using a foil that does not have an adhesive side to it just rub some glue from a glue stick down on it. Same for the mesh, but rub it on the lure itself than apply the mesh.

 

I was looking on Ebay for Husky Jerks and saw some with fiber optic eyes. The idea is the fiber optics collect all available light and concentrate it to the eye making that glow that animals eyes have. I know Rapala doesn't make them like this so I wanted to figure out how/where to make the fiber optic eyes. I also saw lures with a line that ran along the side that had a glow.


The closest thing I came up with is online I found fiber optic beads and you could sand them to a half circle and glue them on each side. The other thing would be to take the string used in fiber optic bow sights and use that to make fiber optic eyes or line.

If anyone else knows where to get these eyes it would be nice to know!

 

Here's a link for brushes that work great for applying epoxy.

They're cheap enough that I don't bother cleaning them but you could if you wanted to use them over again.

I save some after I'm done with them and cut the handles into small pieces to make rattle tubes. Cut off a small slice of of ordinary lead pencil and plug the ends after inserting a few bb's.

http://www.rsquality.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=654&idproduct=3201

 

I was asked a question about stencils on another board via PM and I'd like to share the discussion.

The question was about how to make stencils for applying stripes, gills, fins, etc.

There are dozens of ways to make stencils and a ton of material from which they can be made.

Here's one way to make them and use them...

The stencil I often use is a piece of semi-hard plastic, sort of a flimsy clear film. You can find it in packaging when you buy stuff at stores. Often computers have a thin film of plastic covering the screen to protect the screen when it is shipped. That's the type of stuff, I save and set aside for stencils.

Anyway, I take the baits before they are painted or primed and lay them on a piece of plain old white copy paper, like you use in your computer printer. I draw an outline around the outside of the bait so I have a side profile image of the bait shape on the white paper. I then draw the stripes on the paper.

Next I lay the clear plastic film over the white paper and trace the lines onto the clear film. Then I take an Xacto knife and cut out the stripes and VOILA, you have yourself a stencil.

Spray one side of the bait, remove the stencil and wipe off all the paint from the stencil using the appropriate solvent (water for water-based paints, or paint thinner for enamels). That way, you can again see through the stencil to place it on the opposite side of the bait, and you have no excess paint sticking to it, which would of course possibly stick to the bait and screw up the job.

I often carefully tape the stencil to the bait to make sure it is precisely placed and won't move during the spraying process. I make marks on the stencil as guides. For example, I might make a mark where the lip slot is and where the tail hook hanger shows throught plastic. That way, when you flip the stencil over to the other side, you know exactly where you put it on the first side and placing it precisely is much easier.

Stencils can also be made of cardboard, aluminum foil (which can be bent over rounded baits), sheet metal, cloth, various types of heavy textured paper, which can be torn instead of cut to give a textured edge to the stencil, and so on.

You can also hold the stencil above the bait to give a "fuzzy" edge to the stripes or whatever shape you've made for the stencil. If you spray with the stencil slightly elevated above the bait (say 1/4 inch), the paint has a much less defined edge on the bait, because some of the overspray rolls under the stencil and settles in a faded fashion as opposed to a sharp distinct edge. This is often a desirable effect because it can look much more natural at times than sharp edges.

 

I know when I shot the story with TIGGER, he was using a cutout from a plastic milk jug to stripe his firetiger lures... Very basic, recycled materials, worked GREAT, and just translucent enough to see exisiting striping so you don't overlap.

I don't want to speak for him, as Garth said, "I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!"

 

Here's a link for brushes that work great for applying epoxy.

They're cheap enough that I don't bother cleaning them but you could if you wanted to use them over again.

I save some after I'm done with them and cut the handles into small pieces to make rattle tubes. Cut off a small slice of of ordinary lead pencil and plug the ends after inserting a few bb's.

http://www.rsquality.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=654&idproduct=3201

Vince, just ordered some of these brushes, thanks mate. pete

 

Good deal, Pete. I hope you like those.

Here's another tip for airbrush users.

Cleaning the airbrush after each use ensures that your next painting session will go smoother. I think its important to have a set of small brushes dedicated to cleaning the airbrush after each use. I just picked up another set of brushes designed just for that purpose. The cost was about $7.

Also if you check in the craft stores you can find "stippling" brushes, which I think are also called stenciling brushes. These come in a variety of sizes. I bought a tiny one and it is perfect for the Iwata. It reaches down into the bowl of the gravity feeder and cleans out that paint which tends to get trapped next to the needle. It makes changing colors a lot faster and leaves the bottom of the bowl clean and ready for the next color.

I'll post a picture of the brush kit I bought for $7 as soon as I get a chance.

 

I know when I shot the story with TIGGER, he was using a cutout from a plastic milk jug to stripe his firetiger lures... Very basic, recycled materials, worked GREAT, and just translucent enough to see exisiting striping so you don't overlap.

I don't want to speak for him, as Garth said, "I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!"

LOL thats funny Carl! It kills me that I seem to be so short on time lately. I have many many little tips I am going to add to this. I feel bad that Vince has been calling me and I haven't been able to catch up to him yet. We keep missing each other. It is getting better. I got a lathe last week and haven't even opened the box!!!!!!! I usually would have that thing opened up on my way home while driving and have a body turned on it by the time I pulled in the driveway! LOL

Vince told me about using the Milk Jugs. A great way to recycle and rigid enough to hold in one hand. Works great.
I took some pics last night in the shop. More stuff is coming!
John

 

Here is a tip for you workbench area. I went to a construction company and asked if they had any old blueprints. They were able to help me out.

I put the set of prints face down on the bench to show the white side up. I can mix little batches of quick set epoxy and even drill and cut with a razor knife right on top of it. When it gets to messy I cut the page off at the binder and I have a fresh works surface again!

 

I KNOW you're busy if you haven't fired up that lathe yet!

 

Tigger, heres a smaller version of your great paper idea. Cut a couple of inches of tape off a spool of silver/ plastic 'Duct tape' (called "100 mile an hour tape" here) and stick in on the bench, makes a good surface for mixing up your D2T on, instead of looking around for a jar top or sheet of plastic. When you are finished just tear it up and chuck it in the bin.pete

 

For my first post I would like to say how much I enjoy reading the board. The information is invaluable.
Now maybe I can give something back.
For my eyes I use colored tape. I will put a couple strips on top of a magazine and to cut out the 2 different sizes I use an empty 223 cal. case for the larger size and use an empty 17 cal. rifle case for the pupil. I just take a small hammer and tap the end of the 223 and the 17 cal. and it cuts out the perfect size for my eyes. For my kill spot I use the same thing that vc1111 uses, the hole punch.
And I want to say thank you for letting me be a member of this forum.

 

In my house we have two names for duct tape...

1. West Virginia Chrome

2. Child Care

Great tips guys... This is awesome stuff.

 

BigDaddy, where did you get all those panfish in your avatar? Man, I'm goin' ice fishin' with you, dude!

Jim, great tip on the eyes. It would seem that if you use tape like that, they would be easier to reposition if you get them on cockeyed, like I sometimes do.

I'm glad you finally posted. Now you've broken the ice!

 

For my first post I would like to say how much I enjoy reading the board. The information is invaluable.
Now maybe I can give something back.
For my eyes I use colored tape. I will put a couple strips on top of a magazine and to cut out the 2 different sizes I use an empty 223 cal. case for the larger size and use an empty 17 cal. rifle case for the pupil. I just take a small hammer and tap the end of the 223 and the 17 cal. and it cuts out the perfect size for my eyes. For my kill spot I use the same thing that vc1111 uses, the hole punch.
And I want to say thank you for letting me be a member of this forum.

The operative word here is "EMPTY"!

 

Lake doesn't matter... I catch them like that wherever I go!!!

You're welcome to join me on the ice any time.

(BTW, that pic was from Presque Isle Bay. Takes about 10 minutes to catch that many!)