BobP

I've never had an Alberto knot break. Since this one unraveled, I don't see how micro guides had anything to do with it and certainly don't want to tie a knot with a long tag end that will be passing through rod guides. The whole point of this is to have a slim but strong knot that you can fish without worrying about it snagging in the rod. From the evidence described, I still think the knot was not tied correctly. It's all too easy to end the knot by passing it through the loop in the wrong direction and impossible to see your mistake until it unravels while fishing. That notwithstanding, if the FG knot is even slimmer and just as strong, I'll be tying that one next.

Yes you can paint water based Createx directly onto a blade without a primer as long as your topcoat is durable enough. I use a moisture cured urethane (Dick Nite S81) over Createx to paint spoons. There are several ways to go, you need to choose a regimen of coatings that are durable and compatible with each other. Take a look at the Dick Nite site. He builds and sells spoons and also sells coatings to hobbyists. He uses solvent based lacquers to paint his spoons and topcoats them with his own proprietary moisture cured urethane.

I paint blades with water based airbrush paint and then topcoat them with a moisture cured urethane topcoat like Dick Nite S81 lurecoat. It's the best topcoat for metal blades.

Well, you can shoot any paint you would use on an automobile - if you use a proper safety mask rated for organic solvent protection. The stuff contains isocyanates which are very poisonous. Or you can use Createx Auto-Air water based acrylic paint. In and of itself, it is not waterproof and has to be coated with a durable waterproof topcoat. Depending on the object to be painted, It would also help to use a self-etching metal primer before you shoot your color coat.

The obvious place an Albright will fail is if you finish the knot by putting the tag end through the loop in the wrong direction. If you do that, you don't have a knot, you just have a bunch of braid wrapped around a piece of leader. Been there, done that. It lasts for a couple of casts then ...

It should take a lot of years to wear Shimano gears to the point where they begin to sing. That said, I've upgraded reels with different ratio gear sets and have sometimes had gear noise at first. After trying various cures, I tried lubing the gears with Shimano Drag Grease and it quieted them right down until they had a chance to "wear in". After that, normal greasing resumed with no noise. Also, if Superlube grease was used in your reel, it may on first glance appear that the reel is "running dry", but may actually be properly lubed. Superlube is a white PTFE fortified auto grease that works great in reels and is used by some reel shops and by a few manufacturers. Nice stufff.

Carbon washers are not meant to replace metal drag parts, they replace fiber drag disks or worn PTFE drag disks that go between the metal parts. No, you won't save any weight. But you would probably end up with a better, more reliable drag system if used as intended.

I wrap on V-blocks, a cup to hold the thread, and a phone book as a thread tensioner. Use a home brew rod turner to apply epoxy and let it cure. It has worked on 20 rods so far, no problems. A surplus 4-6 rpm motor, a chuck made from a piece of 2" PVC pipe drilled and tapped for 3 thumb screws works. My expense for rod building equipment is about $20.

In 20 years of servicing my reels I've never had a plastic levelwind gear break or even noticeably wear. So I see this as a non-issue. I'm not a materials engineer but think that if Shimano, Daiwa, Abu et al use engineered plastics, it's probably because it's the best material for that specific job. And I agree with DVT about tolerances in the levelwind assembly. A spec of dirt in the worm gear of a super-tight tolerance levelwind system might bring it to a screeching halt. Ever cleaned your levelwind and found no dirt and grit in it? Doubt it. Frankly, I don't understand the "All Metal, All TheTime" attitude. That thinking is "So Sixties". I'll take a light, compact reel engineered with a mix of the best materials for the job every time.

I never saved money building rods on inexpensive blanks. Yes, I still liked a hand built rod that cost $75-100 in parts (like an S Glass crankbait rod), but I can buy finished name brand rods made in China for that price that work just as well, without the work involved. Where you begin to save actual money is rods that retail for around $125 and more. And you save lots on rods in the $200+ range. It's good to use some inexpensive parts to practice on for the first couple of rods, but keep in mind where the real cost savings begin.

Crucials used to have a no questions asked lifetime warranty. If it broke for any reason, any Crucial seller such as BPS would replace it over the counter, no question asked. I hear they tightened up on that warranty policy but nevertheless if you bought the rod in February, it is still under warranty and you should be able to replace the rod at reduced cost. Why the rod broke is just conjecture. Obviously you did not handle it with best practices, user abuse being by far the reason for most blank failures, but that doesn't necessarily mean there wasn't a manufacturing fault in the blank. The further down the blank a rod breaks, the more I suspect a manufacturing fault. Take it to a Shimano dealer, be truthful about how it happened, and let the chips fall where they may. I once bought a Rogue rod blank, made it into a rod, then snapped off 3 inches of its tip in a screen door a week later. I told the supplier what happened, they told Rogue. Rogue sent me a new blank for a nominal cost and said they appreciated a warranty inquiry from someone who admitted the failure was theirs and not the blank's. Rod warranties are never going to be as straightforward as anyone would like them to be. The companies want to support customers and make good on any problem that is their fault. But there is a subset of fishermen who buy high quality rods with great warranties and then abuse the rods to failure again and again, swearing that every failure "ain't my fault, man". Clowns like that drive rod companies crazy and jack up the cost of rods because the companies have to increase prices to offset excessive false warranty claims. As far as how to handle a rod, anyone who looks at a TV program and thinks what he sees there is OK needs to reconsider: those guys get their rods absolutely free from the rod companies that sponsor them. And how they treat the rods in competition often reflects how much they had to pay for them.

Fluoro has the advantages that it sinks and is more sensitive than mono/copoly. In 4-6 lb size I don't have any handling issues with it on a 2000 size spinning reel. If you do, Yozuri Hybrid is one of the better fluoro/copoly blends that a lot of guys like.

I think Norman used to make the Frontrunner but don't see it in their lineup now. Used with a walking topwater like a Spook, they work really well. It looks like a bigger fish chasing a small baitfish and gets the bass's competitive urges going. Of course, it means 2 extra knots to throw, which is a negative.

I had a Shimano Chronarch MG50 that did the same thing. Sent it back to the factory, got it back with new bearings and exactly the same thing, first cast. Lightly lubricated the friction brake ring with oil and it disappeared.

I don't think vibration or bounce, per se, damages a rod blank. But if it causes the rod blank or guides to repeatedly impact or vibrate against something, yes, damage will occur.

Tackleunderground.com is a site dedicated to lure making and it has Member Submitted Tutorials about the various types of baits covered in the forums.

I like feathered trebles on jerkbaits. On regular crankbaits, they may or may not attract since they definitely will change the action of the bait. You just have to experiment. I do all kinds of mods on commercial crankbaits since I also build them as a hobby: adding ballast, repainting, reshaping, etc. One thing I'll say - the main thing that catches crankbait bass is the action of the bait. If you find one that works well and catches fish - leave the darned thing alone! And by alone, I mean DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING.

I read that Daiwa changed the T-wing system on the Tatulas. Will it hold up over time? Ask that question 2 years from now.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Big-Ms-Crank-Baits/232700570083544

Check the tackleunderground User Submitted Tutorials - there's one on photo finishing.

I've painted cranks for more than a decade and have used various airbrushes. My favorite, which is easily within your budget is the Iwata Revolution B, which has a small gravity feel cup and a .3mm tip. That's perfect size for painting cranks and for shooting acrylic airbrush paints that may contain pearls and flakes. It's a no-frills work horse airbrush that has all the Iwata quality at a very reasonable price of around $80 retail.

5 min epoxy should dry rock hard, just like all epoxies. But you should never use it to topcoat a crankbait because it yellows very quickly and is not as waterproof as slow cure epoxy, plus it will not level out as well as slower epoxy. Like DVT says, the secret to getting a good epoxy topcoat is to measure it exactly and mix it really well before application. Most guys don't know what "mix it really well" means. I mean vigorously for about a full minute. If you did this to 5 minute epoxy, you wouldn't be able to brush it on the crankbait before it got too hard to apply.

In knot failures, braid most often slips through the knot when it fails. Fluoro most often breaks due to a kink in the knot somewhere. Both lines tend to do better with knots that have multiple wraps around the main line to cushion the line. Even better are knots that wrap through the hook eye twice before knotting. There are lots of knots that do this, so choose one, learn to tie it, and you'll have fewer breakage problems. I've broken braid tied with a Palomar knot at the knot when I applied a very snappy hookset. The instantaneous strain on the line went right to the knot and broke it. A multi-wrap knot also helps with that problem.

Lines are rated by actual break strength on a line pulling machine - but most lines test at a higher break strength than what's on the box. Sometimes considerably higher. If your line broke while lifting a fish into the boat, I suspect the line was damaged before you lifted it.

If you're using regular nylon fishing line, the traditional Improved Cinch Knot or the Trilene Knot do just fine. I use the San Diego Jam Knot and it also works great. It really boils down to which knot you know how to tie quickly and effectively.