Thread: Lure making

Bit rough, but something to work with, plenty of good info here and youtube, aim is to improve (shouldnt be hard), got some pauloniwa in the shed to play with in the future. Bigger versions behind the first attempt.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Any in smaller
.trout sizes??? Sure would be nice if they are feasible.rapalas are rather pricey.

Heaps of prints online, happy to do some and send your way, have a look and let me know. These ones are hopefully to catch a kingfish.

Those are cool c-dog. Do they require much work after printing? Ie. sanding etc. How long do they take you? I’m clueless about 3d printing.

Originally Posted by Pixie Z

Those are cool c-dog. Do they require much work after printing? Ie. sanding etc. How long do they take you? I’m clueless about 3d printing.

Hey mate, they take about an hour each, can do 3 or 4 lures at once, I just print them in half and glue together and add weight and wire inside, the luminous one came up pretty good with a light sand, 180mm long and about 70 grams, been researching air brushes now. The material is pretty strong but I'll probably give it a clear coat after paint and decals are added (just ordered a bunch from temu) tempted to take to the water and see how it swims. Found some more patterns poppy's and some other stickbaits.

probably be better to see if you can print them as a whole instead of printing them in half's then gluing them together, as that can be quite weak especially if your targeting king fish, would be quite cool if you can print them as a whole and find a way to stop it halfway then add weights in while printing like bbs or ball bearing etcs, just an ideas, but they look sick, might have to invest into a printing with he amount of money lure are these days, looking at importing some soft baits molds from America for the snapper over here.

Gluing together will be fine if you put a few epoxy coats over the top

Still haven't taken for a swim yet, been stuck inside with cold/flu at the moment. Had some other progress/testing done over the weekend. So a wee update.

Put a coat of epoxy over the orange one to see if it would react, all good so can easily use epoxy to glue the pieces together, could easily print in one piece but this way will be easier for getting the ballast correct(insulation tape together to check swimming action and add remove as ne cessary)

Made a start on a proper one with wood. @Gibo what do you use for a sealer before paint?

Printed off a small bibbed lure that may work for trout research says they can be tricky to get swimming properly.

Got some templates for the airbrush (hoping it's here for the weekend to have a play with.

Looking forward to some warm weather to get out and try snag some fish! Only caught one on a surface popper
years ago on The manukau harbour. Hard to forget the image of pack of kings trying to smash it.

I dont seal them mate, glue em together with envirotex then coat em the same

I’ve been sealing mine with Norski timber sealer. Then I’ve been water testing with weight taped to it so I can adjust position to get amount and balance right, then installing the weight, filling and re-sealing that bit. Then primer and paint, and using Envirotex for mid and top coats like Gibo. Overkill perhaps, but I want to be able to weight/balance test before installing the weight. Although now that I’ve got a few lures under my belt I’m getting the hang of how much weight I’m wanting to add and where, so soon ill probably just start installing weight from the get-go.

Originally Posted by Pixie Z

I’ve been sealing mine with Norski timber sealer. Then I’ve been water testing with weight taped to it so I can adjust position to get amount and balance right, then installing the weight, filling and re-sealing that bit. Then primer and paint, and using Envirotex for mid and top coats like Gibo. Overkill perhaps, but I want to be able to weight/balance test before installing the weight. Although now that I’ve got a few lures under my belt I’m getting the hang of how much weight I’m wanting to add and where, so soon ill probably just start installing weight from the get-go.

Theres a few generic formulas for weight. I just prep my wire and and shape the lure - I do mine in two halves, so band saw to length, rip down the middle, 3 small spots of super glue to hold the halves back together, stencil the shape, cut out with band saw, shape the lure, crack it open, dremel wire channel. Then I weigh the timber and make the ratio 70% wood 30% weight including wire. Then ill bang up a sinker to the shape I want (normally from center wire to rear of lure always keel weighted so below the wire, then dremel out a weight pocket same depth on both halves and expoxy it all together. Its a f around but I dont have all the routers etc my mates that do it for a job have

Best lure Ive come across has hair around it

@Gibo Aside from how you do the weight that’s pretty much the same as what I’ve been doing. My weight ratios and placement are about the same as yours too. Intention was to shift to pre-installed weights once I’d figured out a happy balance for my designs as that’s definitely less mucking around than what I’ve been doing.

Yeah nice, you are on the way! Looks so similar to what I was doing at that stage, keep going and you will enhance the process until you are happy with it.

Gibo, how many man hours you reckon each lure takes you?

At a guess 1-2. Obviously curing times in between that