BIG M

I'm not talking about doing a thru wire harness, the screw eyes will fail if you're putting them in balsa wood. Twist the wire around a nail to make you hangers and line ties, there is more surface area for the epoxy to hold. Whittler will tell you the same info on this, and a small extra step to ensure that your baits are strong.

You can cut that stuff with a pair of tin snips, coping saw, heavy duty scissors, scroll saw, or band saw. If you cut the polycarbonate on a power saw leave the white wrap on it while you cut. Keeps the edges from sticking together.

18 gage stainless steel wire.

Josh, get a small note book and keep notes on the steps you use to build that bait. It will help in building baits in the future.

Your bait looks good. I played with photo finishes for a while, but got tired of trying to hide the seems and painting the belly and back without covering the photo. There are guys that are very good at it. I'm just no one of them. Here is a little tip, get you a spool of 20ga stainless steel wire and make your line ties and hook hangers. Looks better and holds better than the screw eyes.

Just go to mcmaster-carr, and order you a sheet of polycarbonate and g-10. That will be enough lip material to last you a while.

That is different, my guess is you would have a bait that would just pull straight thru the water with little to no action. Only one way to find out for sure, make one and test it.

The joint is made with the same material that I use for hook hangers and line ties.

I don't make musky baits, but the same rules apply to all cranks. Just by looking at your carved bait I'm afraid your in for a failure there. You should first make all you center points for weight and line tie and hangers before you carve. You are going to have a tough time getting all of those components perfectly centered in that bait. Spruce has high density so I would start with 3/4-1oz of weight in the lowest part of the belly and see how it floats. Diving depth, not very deep with that lip angle, it's to steep. Should give you a good shallow wiggle though. I would put the line tie close to the head of the bait to help with strength. I'm not trying to be negative here really, I think you picked a very difficult bait to try and copy. I hope it works, please let me know.

That is a small tip, you may run into problems shooting pearls. If you do have problems, back the needle out just a little at a time until you get a steady flow of paint. If you have any problems just PM me or post here, I've had may share and may be able to help. Now get to the paint booth and show me what you come up with.

That paint is just fine, I still use some c-tex paint because it's a little thicker than wildlife colors. Get you a piece of 1 inch water pipe and practice painting on that before you tackle the baits. Spray that paint at about 22 psi and you shouldn't run into problems. Use Windex to clean your brush and color cups. Some cut the Windex with water 50/50 but I use straight out of the bottle, you can thin the paint with also. What brush did you get?

Bassonly, all of those deep runners are 18+ on 10lb line. Thanks guys for all the nice words.

I made a frame from a coat hanger to hold my baits while painting and applying top coat. You can also leave the joints out and put in some screw eyes to keep the holes from filling with paint and epoxy. Once the top coat has cured simply unscrew the eyes and replace with your cotter pins using 5 min devcon.

this one is 5 inches long and the weight is 1.5 oz, dives about 6 inches but can be crawled on top.

John, I give up. There is no way I'm trying to keep up with that one. Although I do have a big swim bait on the drying wheel. But it don't come close to that one, that is really good work. I guess I need to get back in the shop.

Luv, I've been building these things for almost 5 yrs, and I'm finally getting somewhat decent at the painting.

I understand you're not happy with them, but the baits look great. I just hope the darn things swim right. If you need more blanks to practice on, I'm sure we can work something out.

Hookemdown, those are good looking baits. How is the action on the baits with the steep angled lips? Were did you find the pre-made lips?

Sterling, I can't wait to see when the clear coat is added. Those things are going to pop, and you're welcome.

gravity feed Iwata eclipse, hands down the best brush for the money. You use alot less paint with the gravity feed, you can spray 1 drop. The tip is small at .35mm so I would suggest getting top of line airbrush paint. Pearl colors are a little tough to shoot, but the good out weighs the bad.

GMAN, how's paint look on these?

Here's a big 8 inch wake bait and some big cranks. All weigh 3/4-1oz.

Cedar is the best choice out of the woods mentioned here for a topwater bait. Yellow pine would also be a good choice. the higher density of those woods will make weight the bait easier. to make a pattern put the bait on a copy machine, shoot one on it's side and one on it's back. that way you get the exact deminsions. I don't make poppers so can't help with the mouth, but I do make a sammy copy and I use either of the two woods listed above.

Smalljaws, that was cut out of 1/2 thick balsa wood and has 3/16oz for balast weight. The lip angle is 80 degrees and it dives about 4 inches deep. Just decrease the lip angle to 50 degrees to get deeper and you won't need that much weight with cedar. If you like that body style, use it for your swim bait.

You can get all the info you need right here, do a search for all post by Whittler (he builds a solid crankbait). topwaters are not the easiest baits to build, you might want to start will a shallow running flat sided bait to get your feet wet. Balsa wood is the easiest wood to carve and shape. The finish on my baits and whittler's is not from the paint, it's clear topcoat. I use water based paint and the topcoat makes it water proof. get you some 1/2 thick balsa, 20gage stainless steel wire, a good carving knife, 150 and 400 grit sandpaper. when you have your supplies, I can help thru the rest. welcome to the darkside