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Posts: 86
| I'm working on makeing my first baits, cranks and minnow types.
I need some suggestions on what wire to use for through wireing. I have some tig wire, but it is on the thick side at .062" I am thinking of using 400# leader wire. Any ideas of something I can get at lowes, or home depot?
What is best to use to secure the wire in the body? 2 ton epoxy, or some type of puddy, or filler?
Weighting.
I like baits on the heavy side. On the shad style cranks I want a really wide wobble with a top to bottom roll.
Should I put most the lead in the front?
Has anyone tried putting weight in the top of the body? If so, at about what ratio compaired to bottom weight?
If anyone would be willing to share some tips, I would greatly appretiate it.
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Posts: 86
| Wow, not one reply.
Is my spell'in that bad? |
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| I dont build baits but would think that tig wire or welding rod would work its stiff enough and about .061 thick you should find it a lowes
as for lack of replies it might be because the code you have to add just to enter a reply I have tried twice and it will not go through I will try again a couple times if it does not work I guess I just typed this to my self. well here goes the 4th time |
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Posts: 1106
Location: Muskegon Michigan | Good wire is pretty easy to get. I buy mine from a whloesale wire distributer and have to buy the minimum of 75 bucks worth. I use .057 for my small baits and .078 for my big stuff. I have never weighted the top of a lure as this would cause instability in the lure. I would start by adding the weight to the balance point in the center of the bottom. Do this after completing a prototype. Paint it ,glue in,the lip, everything but the weight. Then balance it on your finger and mark that spot. Many cranks dont need weight at all. Taller body styles like Jake style bodies need weight because they are poor designs. But a poor design can be a great running lure because instability is good to some extent. I hope I am making sense to you. A tall sided lure will want to lay on its side and when you start pulling it through the water it will want to go up on its side. The more (keel weight) you add the more you will stabilize the lure up to a point. Once you pass a certain weight per bouyancy the lure will become weightless under water or neutral bouyant. This causes more instability. Lures like Loke and My Slasher are wider than they are tall. This makes them sit upright with zero weight unlike a Dragon Claw which requires three lead pockets to make it stand up. Too much weight and your lure sinks and becomes a jerkbait as it will be so unstable it wont run (unless designed to) What you are asking is so hard to explain. I build 16 different cranks of many types and sizes. Design is key in deciding how much weight you need to make a lure do what you want it to do. Wood types are key as well. Lighter woods like Cedar, Balsa , Sasafras, and Bass wood all make great crank baits while hard woods like Maple, oak and Cherry make great glides and jerk baits.
But and this is a big but, you can make lighter woods work in Glides and jerks with the right weight and design and also use hard woods like Oak and Cherry to make hybred cranks that cross over into the jerkbait class like my Little Claws and my new Rippin Shad suspending version. I have been doing this for near 20 years and can tell you I still have a lot to learn about weighting. You will learn it all by testing your prototypes and the good thing is? there is no book of rules that you have to follow. If it works? build it, fish it and enjoy it.
I would stay away from using pine, Poplar, and Jetlong. These types of wood have a long history of blowing paint. Cedar, Balasa, Cherry, Oak, Mahogany, Basswood, Teak, Maple have all worked well in the industry. All wood types have different needs as far as sealers and weighting. Good luck , there are many very good lure builders here. You came to the right place. Mike King Talonz wooden Lure Company. |
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Posts: 86
| Kingfisher, Thanks for shareing your time and knowledge.
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| Hey Doug,
Make it easy on yourself and use screw eyes instead especially if they're your first baits. .092 stainless eyes and gorilla glue them in - will NOT come out. |
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Posts: 86
| Yea, Not one known to do things the easy way, what fun is that?
These are my first baits.
I'm makeing these for myself, and I want them thru-wire.
I've found some stainless spring wire that is working out for me.
Thanks for the screw eye suggestion though.
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| Okay then,
I started building basement baits a couple of years ago and have made approxiamately 40 or so lures to date. I have not done thru-wire on one yet. Many of the wooden baits today are still using screw eyes as well. The Hawg Wobbler I repainted for a friend last week is a prime example. Screw eyes are not a bad thing but what do I know. I'm no professional bait builder. I spend more time on getting the weight/buoyancy right and then on my paint jobs. IMO it's not worth the hassle to do thru-wire. Just saying, you can still make quality lures built like a tank using screw eyes.
No support on this one? |
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Posts: 941
Location: Freedom, WI | Musky Madman - I am with you on screweyes, long enough stainless .092 screweyes and glue and you are set. Hooks and split rings are way lighter then screweyes. Besides put a nick in stainless wire and bend sideways and see what happens, it has short comings also. |
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| for jointed cranks i prefer eye screw.due to friction wire break without any warning |
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Posts: 1106
Location: Muskegon Michigan | W e build both. W e use both .072 and .092 screw eyes and they are good if you epoxy them in ,they can even last several good years. Through wire is far more durable for the long haul with softer woods like Balsa and Cedar. Cedar is the cross roads for me. I do some in Screw eyes and some in Wire through. I wish I could do them all in screw eyes but it just isnt possible to get them durable enough. We have had this discussion before here and many examples of failed screw eyes were brought to bear. The biggest problem with using screw eyes is that they work them selves loos and the lure takes on water at that point. This weakens the wood around the threads allowing the hole to enlarge. Of course the eyes pull out when the hole gets sloppy enough. Wire through doesnt have that issue at all. The wood or plastic just rides on thye wire which takes 100% of the weight. There is no comparison as far as strength and longevity. Wire through is better.
Hard woods are where screw eyes really help make things easier. Hard wood just holds them much better. I use screw eyes in both Oak and Cherry wood with very few failures in 10 years of building them. On the same token any Cedar baits I built without epoxying in the screw eyes did not last 3 years and tow eyes and joint eyes on jointed cranks were loose in one season. Gorrila glue or epoxy solves that problem just mnake sure you glue them in right from the get go. Wet wood doesnt hold glue at all. Mike |
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| I can say for curtain that making a lure thru-wired, and doing it all by hand is very time consuming. One would really have to have there process fine tuned to build thru-wired baits for resale, and keep them within a "saleable" price range.
Like I said, The only person I'm doing this for is me. I dont fish just to catch fish, and I aint doing this JUST so I got baits to fish. I'm looking for a productive venue for my creativity. Within that context, easy isnt top priority. Now I'm not going out of my way to intentionaly make things difficult, but I do like to persue a challenge.
I know that screw eyes work. If that is what someone wants to use, that is fine by me. I wasnt starting a debate over witch is better, just wanted some ideas. (thanks again Kingfisher)
This reminds me of something my Daddy used to say whenever I spoke up about something being hard to do, he'd say "If it was easy, little girls in skirts would be doing it" but then again, my Dad said so many things.
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