First Crankbait Prototype

[Stringjam]

Sintra is a type of board used for sign making. Mostly you have to get it at sign making shops. You might luck into some scrap pieces for free.

Jon - I know where Marty is coming from - I thought the line tie looked a little close to the nose, too. But the closer you can get it without the bait becoming uncontrollable, the better for action, so it's worth a try! I have a couple of P-20's and the line tie seems slightly further out on the lip. The P-20 lip also has a down angle of about 10 degrees, plus a lead plug. And of course, the P-20 is a balsa bait. Can't really compare them to other baits but I do like that lip shape.

Bob is right about the Sintra - I've also heard you can get free scraps at the sign shops.

I ordered mine from www.foamboardsource.com.

You're probably one of the few people that have tried out the P-20, Bob....I think the design is unique, but it just doesn't cast worth a darn. ;D

My bait, of course, is much smaller and not intended for that much depth. I'm hoping it will be a solid mid-teens performer.

I mounted the rear hook hanger, hook, and experimented with ballast tonight (I'm supposed to be assembling wedding invitations and other assorted things at this point, so I have to be stealthy in my crank testing/building endeavor... ).

First of all - I was in shock that the thing actually worked when I pulled it through the tub, but I was even more pleasantly surprised that it was pretty much nailing the action I had in mind to achieve. Tight, snappy, with a very lively tail movement. Mostly wiggle with very little roll.

I'm still accounting for clearcoat and the front hook weight, but otherwise still very buoyant with a 1/4 oz. weight. More buoyant than a DT-16. I think with the final hardware added it will be right where I want it.

I tried adding some additional weight farther noseward to increase the nose-down angle, but found it to have a slight deadening effect on the action, without increasing the attitude noticeably. I think I'm going to have to decrease the main ballast weight if I actually plan on putting a secondary ballast up front. More experimentation to do here.

I'm going to get the lure into "final mockup" mode with fully mounted hardware and ballasts and hopefully get it into some lake water soon......the bathtub is only so useful for deep crank evaluation. ;D

I'm completely stoked at this point!

[BIG M]

Jon,

I would not worry about chest weighting if the baits is sitting good in the water now.   I find chest weighting just hinders the action.    I only do it on those really big balsa divers because they require so much extra weight.   I'm surprised that bait took a full 1/4oz and still floated.   In the future with a fat body like that you can use the heavier finess weights and a 5/16 hole.   Those weights are pretty easy to cut/trim to the proper weight.    Very cool to watch you build this bait.

[whittler]

One of the best threads on here in a long time, thanks Jon.

To the new builders read all the posts the read again, you can get this information almost knowhere else.

[ToledoEF]

I love this stuff, its gonna help me out a lot for when I tackle my projects over the winter!

[BobP]

A friend who molds baits from Alumite/microballoons temporarily mounts lips with a dab of hot melt glue for testing. Guess you could do the same with the ballast. The finish will not add much weight to the finished crankbait, maybe .05 oz. I haven't tried hot melt on wood baits though, don't know if it would come back off as easily.

[whittler]

Bob, the hot glue works fine for testing, just a small drop on each corner of the lip and if it sticks a little too much just run your Exacto blade under a little heat and a couple shallow slices will remove it. I'm not sure but I think thats what Bagley and Rapala uses to attach their hardware. The lip on a DT can be very easily removed by cutting shallow, just through the topcoat around the lip, then just lightly twisting and pulling straight out. Bagley I think just uses their topcoat for assembly as most of  those are very easy to remove.

For the newbuilders again, keep notes on each design, no sense to build a great bait and then not be able to duplicate it.

"A short pencil is better than a long memory"

[BobP]

idlov, I agree 100% about recording how you build crankbaits.  Believe it, after a few crankbaits you will never remember exactly how you built #2, what kind of wood you used, how much ballast and where, how you undercoated it, or how much it weighed when finished.  Even what color pattern it was, if you give it away to someone.  And if you are developing a design, that info is gold - it will save you untold hours.  Buying a $20 digital scale was one of the first, and certainly the biggest improvement I made in building crankbaits as a hobby.   

[BIG M]

The digital scale is a must have, along with a wheeled marking guage.   

[rezbass]

I like the shape of the bait, as mentioned before it looks a lot like the old poe's super cedar baits.  Where did you get your pvc from?  I have never tried to make a bait form it, as I have only used cedar. 

[Stringjam]

I like the shape of the bait, as mentioned before it looks a lot like the old poe's super cedar baits. Where did you get your pvc from? I have never tried to make a bait form it, as I have only used cedar.

That's interesting, as I really didn't have the Poe's in mind when I was trying to shape it up. I think the pics do make it look a little bigger than it is, though.

Here's a top view of it beside a vintage Poe's.

I tried to really keep this thing as compact as I could - because I think that really aids in casting.

The DT was/is kind of the standard I'm judging everything on. I think it's one of the best designs out there today. My first proto actually resembled the body shape of the DT too much for my taste, so I gave it some sharper angles and straighter body lines (it also has a much sharper taper fore and aft, and flatter sides.)

Observation today - - I drilled out the cavity and mounted the ballast on the inside of the bait. This vertical movement of the ballast had a definite effect on the action. It kind of tightened up the shoulder movement (roll) - didn't really effect the wiggle any.

It's subtle, and might not even be relevant (it's still livlier than a DT), but it's enough that I'm trying to think of ways to get that little bit of roll back without having to resort to increasing the lip angle.

It's a big old cylinder of lead though, and I'm thinking about drilling out a cavity along the chest, and laying the lead sideways to keep as much weight as I can as low as possible.

I think a tungsten weight would come in handy right now because it would be SO much smaller and easier to mount......the problem would be that (I think?) cutting the Tungsten weights to get the right weight would be impossible.

I have a few Japanese baits that use a "plate" ballast, and now I assume this situation is why.

Interesting....I'm going to keep experimenting.

[ToledoEF]

Good deal! I just purchased the remaining stock of dt-16 and dt-10 from a local takcle store and am gonna use them as a template and mod some of the cranks im gonna do over the winter! I to thought about using tungsten! I also had an idea to drill a cavity to where a tungsten weight could be placed inside and move back and forth to increase casting distance(like centrifugal force)!

[BIG M]

You could drill a 5/16 hole and use either a 3/8 or 1/2oz weight cut down to the right weight.   That's how I keep the weight low in my bigger round body baits.   Have you thought about letting the weight stick out of the bait about 1/8 or 3/16, lower the weight just a little more that way. 

[Stringjam]

You could drill a 5/16 hole and use either a 3/8 or 1/2oz weight cut down to the right weight. That's how I keep the weight low in my bigger round body baits. Have you thought about letting the weight stick out of the bait about 1/8 or 3/16, lower the weight just a little more that way.

Marty - - I actually did go ahead and buy some of the 3/8 oz. cylinders and cut it down. Still a big piece of lead, though! Pulling the weight down a little bit so that it extended out of the bottom as you just described did help a bit, but I'm not sure I like the appearance.

I'm going to try a bit of a weird experiment. I ordered some Tungsten powder tonight (derby car racers use it for precise weighting). My thought is that I can measure out exactly how much weight I want for any given shape or situation, drill the cavity and fill it with the powder....capping it off with a suitable filler.

I don't know....I like experimenting so I'm going to at least mess around with it.

Tungsten is so much smaller (it looks to be almost half the size of lead) it would really make things easier. I also looked at a company that makes Tungsten shot in a myriad of sizes (without minimum ordering). I can get a pound of shot for about $30 - - an exceptionally good price considering the price of "fishing industry" tungsten sinkers.......and even better than lead.

[Munkin]

At home I have a link saved where you could buy a tungsten powder/epoxy kit? It may be something worth looking into? I was going to try it in a spinnerbait mold but was sidetracked by other projects.

Allen

[BIG M]

Jon, that' not that strange of an idea.   I use little tungsten balls made for pine wood derby cars in my small baits to get the weight up.   I never even thought about tungsten shot, 30 bucks for a pound is not bad.   

You could do a coat of epoxy on the bait to help hide the weight.   

[BassBandit35]

Looking sharp! Symmetrical? They are pretty symmetrical from what I can tell alright. Impressive.

[shimmy]

I'm an avid fisherman and am blown away with yalls artistic ability and creativity. This is something i would love to get into once i have the time but this truly is an incredible art form. Everyone on this thread is amazing. My goodness, so much to learn. Well done fellas, truly inspiring

[BobP]

Ok, now ya dun it.  I had to order some tungsten shot to keep up with the Martys and Jons :  No cost analysis, but it seems fairly cheap lead substitute and I want the ballast in some baits somewhere other than at the belly hanger.

[BIG M]

Welcome to the dark side.   Can we get an e-tes vs devcon debat going.   I just felt a tear thinking about those old threads.

[bmadd]

The proto looks sick! I like the shape of it a lot and the action looks good too. It would kill on the ledges here.

I've been away for a little while. Last I saw you had just started painting and now you're carving...nice man. Can't wait to see some pics with you catching on them.

[Thad]

Where did you guys find the tungsten shot? I've looked around and contacted some companies but I've never seen it where you can just buy it online.