Tacklemaking with Tech!

[NateFollmer]

Stupid title I know, but I wanted to share with everyone my whole process of getting into hardbait... fabrication we'll call it. I already know I can't carve to save my life, so I'm going about this the only way I know how - using the computer I'm going to warn you up front, this is going to be drawn out over a pretty long period of time, so bare with me

Anyway, here is my first body design I modeled for a crankbait design I had in my head. I used 3DS Max to model the body, then I took the mesh into Zbrush and did the details (eye holes, gill and lateral line markings). I'm going to cut a 'master' body for each design and then use a replicator to make all the wooden blanks. I didn't want to go overboard with the details though, I don't know exactly how small I can cut with the replicator...

This one is going to be a wake style (or a shallow runner). Going to make a deep diver, a lipless crank and some pencil style jerkbaits (I spend way too much money on these, so I may as well make my own).

Let me know what you think or if you have any ideas/suggestions!

[Vodkaman]

You have done a tremendous job modelling this in CAD. It is not as easy as people might think.

Keep us informed of your progress.

Dave

[NateFollmer]

Thanks Dave! You have seen my other work too I hope the master turns out as good this model ha ha

[Steven Ladner]

It has an interesting body style. I agree, keep us updated on the progress. Looks like it's heading in the right direction 

[Big Bass Man]

Great job Nate, Your off to a very good start !

[SkilletSizeBass.]

Nate, it looks cool so far, keep us updated on the progress.

[NateFollmer]

Still working on my designs. Been busy with some other projects at the moment. Should have some other designs done by this week.

I got the replicator the other night. I also got some various wood to mess around with. I got a bunch of redwood and mahogany from my pap's shop, so we will see how they do I'm going to get each lure cut in two halves, made out of corian, to use as the 'masters' then I'll hollow out the areas for ballast weight's and such manually. I wonder if the corian would be a good idea to use as an actual lure and not just a template.... This is becoming a lot of fun

[Jigfishn10]

My guess is that you would have to really hollow out the corian, otherwise it would sink like a rock....It would be a cool idea.

[NateFollmer]

Ok, finished the project with Dwain (and I must say, it turned out great), I'll let him share the results

Anyway, Lipless crank I did this morning. I find I model better if I listen to George Harrison

[DBatey]

Based on my design drawings, this is what Nate rendered, he made it better than the drawing. This is going to be a cool bait.

[Fishwhittler]

Those look awesome!  I can't wait to see the finished product. 8-)

If you're making these out of wood, I think you'll run into problems with the details.  If you seal the bait with epoxy, you definitely won't be able to keep the fine lines shown in the image.  But, I don't have much experience sealing with materials other than epoxy, so correct me if I'm wrong.

Ben

[NateFollmer]

I wish everything I modeled was drawn out as well as what Dwain sent, he did the hard part

Im going to experiment with different materials so we will see how much detail is kept. Dwains getting his made and I won't be making that body, that's his baby I try to keep my details thick since ill probably end up using wood or PVC. I may look into resin though, but it seems a little out of my budget.

[SkilletSizeBass.]

They are looking real cool guys

[BASSclary]

Would those print on a 3-D printer? We have one at school and I think it would be really cool to see your guys' drawing comes to life.

[NateFollmer]

That's essentially how I'm going to cut mine BassClary. Are you allowed to use the printer? I can send you the .stl file of the first crank I posted if you want to mess around with it. You can get a desktop 3d printer for around 1000 dollars from MakeBot. They have desktop CNC machines for $600 (kind of the same as a 3d printer).

[BASSclary]

Yeah, in my intro to engineering class we have full access to the 3-d printer, and we can print anything we design in SolidWorks 3-D,(Which I really would like to figure out how to use, its so intimidating!). Some nerdy kid made a replica of some Star-trek space-craft etc whatever, and printed it out.

All I really know about our 3-D printer is that It basically makes your object with a whole lot of layers of plaster of paris type material, which you soak in water or something like that. I haven't paid to much attention to it really, but monday i'll try to get the make and model if you want.

Also, do you know how to use SolidWorks? If so, any help/advice would be appreciated.

Edit: I also have ac3d on my home computer, but dont know how to go about making anything more complex than sphere  And I really cant figure it out, let alone make a lure!

[NateFollmer]

Never used Solidworks, but once you learn how to model, learning other modeling packages is easy. I know how to use 3ds Max (my primary modeling tool), Maya, Zbrush and Blender (Blender is awesome for a free program... heck its awesome even if it wasn't free haha).

Check out tutorialized.com, they have tutorials for everything. Even if the tutorial is for a different package, you can still follow it if you know the tools.

Learn to "box model" first, until you get a sense of working in 3d space, then you can get into more advanced modeling like spline/patch modeling. I box modeled all these lures so far (start with a cube and cut faces and extrude until you get the basic shape, then smooth and subdivide your shape).

I could go on forever so ill stop there

[BASSclary]

Okay i'm downloading Blender because it's free 

Now I hope you can keep up with my hundreds of thousands of questions! ;D

[NateFollmer]

Better PM them so people don't complain about you posting

Feel free to ask away! I don't mind.

[Vodkaman]

I listen to didgeridoo music or Enya if it is really difficult work.

I work in a different way to you guys. I start off with profile curves, arcs, conics and splines as a last resort, to represent profiles in plan and side. From these I throw straight surfaces in side and plan. I then blend surf between them. I can then adjust the tension of the blended surface to suit.

The secret is not to try and do too much with one surface. Nose top and bottom, middle top and bottom, tail top and bottom, then symmetry. Close the surface and fill to make a solid. You could then carve away detail, but I never get involved with that.

Those models are looking fine Nate.

If Nate says he does not mind, ask away, it is all relevant and we may all learn something new.

Dave

[NateFollmer]

Yeah, I don't mind at all. Thanks for the kind words everyone

Vodka I hate spline modeling, I like to box model because I feel like I can see results more quickly. I control my surface tension by selecting edges and giving them a crease value. The higher the crease, the closet the subdivided mesh will be to the original edge.

The only thing you really have to watch (especially if you are sculpting in zbrush or mudbox) is keeping all your polygons the same size and keeping them square. BassClary blender has sculpting tools, but they aren't as good as zbrush or mudbox.

[BASSclary]

hmmm, so maybe I should BLEEEPP zbrush or mudbox? I know BLEEEPP-ing is wrong but which would you prefer?

[NateFollmer]

Use the demo. Zbrush is better, but mudbox is easier to learn. Zbrush has a clunky user interface but once you get the hang of it, its awesome (fyi they used zbrush to make Davey Jones and all his guys in pirates of the caribbean).

Learn to model first. You'll get frustrated if you try to sculpt without a good base mesh. Plus, if your mesh does something odd during sculpting, you'll know how to fix it so it sculpts more cleanly.

[BASSclary]

Nate, you've got mail

[NateFollmer]

Ok, the more I looked at that lipless crank, the more I hated it New design, I wanted to give the front a more tight and defined face, I felt the last one was too rounded and smooth. I also used a new shader on this one (it's called Gorilla skin haha but it has nothing to do with the final lure, it's only for screenshots):