Vodkaman

You made a good decision going for the mains cable version. Mine is a battery powered Dremel. I bought it thinking it would be handy for waters edge adjustments, which it is, but in the workshop,it is a real pain when I forget to charge the battery after some heavy use. A mains Dremel is on my shopping list. My Dremel gets used for drilling twisted eye holes, sanding ballast hole filler and any concave shapes that I cannot reach with the belt sander. If I want to drill a precisely located hole, I use the Dremel with a pointed bit attachment, because I can get in close for good control. If I were to do any carving details like gill plates, lips, fins etc, it would be with the Dremel. Are you looking for carving or Dremel tips? Dave

If you are using soft balsa, the Dremel is OK, but if the wood is any harder, I would stick to carving and use the dremel for final shaping. I do all my carving on a belt sander. Wear a dust mask when using a Dremel type drill. Is it an actual Dremel? I ask this because when I started out, I went for a cheaper drill of the same type and burned out two units in less than a month. I then forked out the money for the Dremel and it is still going strong after four years. Dave

Double declutching.

I haven't tried this myself, but dip in hot cooking oil to get the bend temperature. You will need to make some kind of bending block, to control the bend. Best if this is the same tool you use to dip with, like a modified metal spring clamp. Dave

Yes, the broom was for the wood, You would surprise yourself at what you are capable of carving out. After half a dozen goes, you will start to get the hang of it, another half dozen and you'll wonder what all the fuss was about. There is no rush to turn out perfect bodies anyway, as you have a lot and testing and learning to do. You have to learn about lip size, shape, angle and placement; tow eye position and ballast position. All of these have some effect on the lure and you have to find a balance between them all, to get the bait to swim. It is not difficult, but may take several goes to get a swimmer. After a while you will start to get a 'feel' for the balance. I started off with a 3/4" diameter balsa dowel, from a model shop. I had a very basic shape that I could turn out in minutes. Yes, it was ugly, but it was for testing and learning. The carving skills come as you learn everything else at the same time. Once you can build a swimmer every time, then you can start to think about paints, NOT before. To start the bait building hobby, you need no particular skills, just safety common sense and a willingness to learn from inevitable failures. We are here to help too. Dave

There is no reason why you cannot build crankbaits for little more than the cost of a couple of trebles. Everything else you need to build, you probably have in your garage: broom handle, sharp knife, hack saw, sand paper, elec hand drill, super glue, paints, epoxy. When I started four years ago, I built a lot of baits with just these materials. If you find that you enjoy building baits, then you can make it your hobby. Any money you spend on making your hobby more enjoyable cannot be added onto the cost of the bait, as it was not a necessary purchase. Buying more glue, epoxy, paint, wood, knife blades, sandpaper etc, these are valid costs. Lathe, drill press, bandsaw, table saw, belt sander etc, these are luxury items pampering to your hobby. Dave

Ah, I just had another look and read the text this time, duh! Dave

I think it was just a guy trying to post a clever video, but he killed it with the time. He is working the robot arms himself, simple trigger mechanism, like one of those devices for picking up screws. The vid would have been much more convincing if he had speeded it up x10. Dave

I like them all, but particularly the inverted paint scheme on the last one. DAve

Big M paints it down there so that the teeth don't mess up the paint job. Dave

That is a lot of worm to pour. Will it have to be injection? Dave

I soak mine in a jug of water, with a couple of caps of fabric softener. I left it for a week (forgot about it, LOL). Came out great, smells nice too. This was new material and it was too stiff for my liking. Dave

I had the same problem, but Keri sorted me out by email. Dave

If I lived closer, I would take up pouring to get my hands on some of those cranks. Nice swimmer, looks very cool. Got any video yet? Dave

I have never posted a pic of a finished bait. Painting is just not my thing. I can do it, but I just don't get the pleasure from painting that I do from designing and testing. The only time I paint up a lure, is when I am handing it out for fish testing. Dave

I understand what you mean. It just means that you haven't set the price right. The majic number for purchasing a Vodkaman original is more than people would be prepared to pay, so I don't sell them, I don't even try. Maybe if the economy picked up, I would sell a few. Dave

Dave, I have just started documenting a shad build myself, so I look forward to your presentation. Dave

And all this time, I thought this was a tackle making forum. The first few lures are going to be a learning process, so don't think about paint until you can get them to swim. Always swim test with the hooks on and preferrably, a top coat. These two things affect the action of the lure. Choose one type of lure and stick with it, until you can make it swim like you want, every time. Only then choose the next model to work on. Don't spend money on tools until you know that you are going to like this hobby. Once you spend money on tools, it is no longer a cost saving exercise, but a very enjoyable hobby. If you hit a problem or have a query, ask away. Try to stick to specific questions rather than 'how do I make a lure' type questions. Specific questions are much easier to answer and more people will be prepared to invest time for you. Dave

That sounds like a hunting action. The lure wiggles as normal, but swims in a zig-zag pattern. Looking at your bait style, I would imagine you get a lot of those. Can you build that action in every time, or is it accident? Some say hunting makes no difference. I happen to think that change of direction catches fish. Dave

Anything that causes abuse to chickens is fine by me. They mess on my porch and wake me 05:00 every morning (Indonesia). I savour my 2 fried egg breakfast and chicken leg lunch. If my eyes were better than they are, I would definately start tying again. Looking good Nate. Dave

The length of the bill has very little to do with the depth that the lure will swim to. The depth is all about the angle of the bill or lip. The closer to 90 degrees to the body (vertical), the shallower the swim, the closer to zero degrees, the deeper the swim. On deep divers, the lip length is generally longer and the eye is positioned on the lip. For deep divers, the eye position is critical. For maximum depth, there is a sweet spot for the eye position, so be prepared to experiment. For a starting point, examine proven deep divers and start there, but every lure has a different solution, there are no formulas. Eye position is also critical on shallow swimmers. If the lure has little or no action, move the eye down towards the lip. If the bait rolls out, move the eye up away from the lip. Again, be prepared to test. Don't spend hours painting your first lure. Seal it, top coat and fit the hooks. Find some water and test it. On my first prototypes, I deliberately fit the eye sticking out a few millimeters, so that I can bend the wire up and down. This shows the range of possibilities available. Dave

If you do an advanced search on hobby lobby, it only pulls up 36 results. There are a few contenders amongst them and so you should be able to spot your thread. Dave

Your original batch was probably Zinc contaminated. Possibly mented down wheel weights. If you are going to try wheel weights, search through them for the letter Z or Zn. Then drop each one onto a concrete floor in turn and listen to the sound. Discard any that sound different. Dave

Here is my latest CAD model. I am about 40 hours into the design, which was mostly learning new techniques and procedures. Started over a few times, but now I have three design variations that I can call on, a deep body (pic), thin body and folded tail. Dave

So sorry to hear about your bad experience with a member of this club. It was decent and proper of you not to name and shame, no matter how tempting it must have been. Dave