Gibo you area talented bugger that is for sure. The only thing I have ever been able to make is mistakes.
It takes 43 muscle's to frown and 17 to smile, but only 3 for proper trigger pull.
What more do we need? If we are above ground and breathing the rest is up to us!
Rule 1: Treat every firearm as loaded
Rule 2: Always point firearms in a safe direction
Rule 3: Load a firearm only when ready to fire
Rule 4: Identify your target beyond all doubt
Rule 5: Check your firing zone
Rule 6: Store firearms and ammunition safely
Rule 7: Avoid alcohol and drugs when handling firearms
Have been working on my first lures recently. I’m cutting out the rough blanks on scroll saw and then whittling and hand sanding to shape.
Bending the through wires has been an interesting challenge and have improved as I’ve gone. I’ve made a wee jig for doing the bending and am using circlip pliers to bend the eyelets. Using 1mm 316 stainless wire for the small lures and 1.5mm for the bigger lures.
This week I sealed them using several coats of Norski epoxy timber sealer, and once waterproofed did some water testing to check the balance and experiment with different weights and weight positions. Next step is to install the weights, fill and reseal and then they’ll be ready for painting.
@Gibo what do you recommend for the top clear coat? Just after something durable that won’t yellow (at least not quickly). Do you ever have issues with the hooks wearing on your top coats?
The small popper is 90mm and small stickbait is 110mm. They’ll both weight around 20grams. The three bigger stickbaits and bigger popper are 155mm and will weigh between 40-60grams. I’m also working on some bigger 210mm models as well.
Lots still to learn but it’s been good fun and will be even better to get em on the water.
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Those are looking bloody epic mate. I use envirotex for my top coats mate. I set them up on a rotisserie using a disco ball motor (slow rpm of 3.5) and brush on the envirotex. The rotisserie allows the epoxy time to cure while forming no drips due to always slowly rotating. https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/envir...tLvFEdis2arEo1
Perfect, thanks @Gibo. I’d been reading about Etex on a couple lure making pages so it was top option on my list. I’ll definitely buy some now. I saw the disco ball motor idea on YouTube the other day. I’ve been looking at picking up a cheap bbq rotisserie motor off marketplace for the same purpose.
Cheers, I’m pretty happy with how they’re looking so far. They’ve been slow going cos I’ve got a newborn at home so haven’t had much time. I usually just come tinker with them for a bit before bed once I’ve got her down for the night. I’ll post more updates once I get some paint on them.
These are cheap as mate, its what I use.
https://surplustronics.co.nz/product...all-240volt-ac
Painted up the first couple of lures from the batch above over the weekend. First time using an airbrush. Did a bit of practice on some scrap ply first before jumping into the real thing.
Decided to keep to a pretty simple paint scheme while I’m learning the airbrush. Went for a marine blue on the top with a white lower. Then sprayed over the white with a few layers of silver. The silver I’ve got is really thin and more sparkly than silvery, so I gave the blue a very thin spray with the silver as well, which has given the blue a sort of pearly colour-change effect. Mesh bag over the lure and then sprayed with the same blue mixed in with a drop of black to get the pattern on the top, and added some red around the gills.
Just need to add on some fins and clear coat & will paint some more up this week. Airbrushing is not easy, and definitely looking forward to improving as I do more.
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@Gibo how many lures would you get coated with the 236ml lot of Etex? Do you do a single top coat? I’m just debating how much to buy.
Hi mate, I do about 4-7 coats all up. I coat after each paint decal cycle then like 3-4 topcoats, light sand with wet and dry sandpaper between each coat. I use 3-4 ml from both bottles per coat its 1/1 ratio
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