Swimbait build - 3D Printing

[Bclark215]

Howdy, i'm new to swimbait fishing, as well as the forum, but have been looking around for the past week or so, and have already learned a lot. I've been wanting to get into bait making for a while, and decided to try making a gizzard shad style swimbait. My plan is to model the bait in CAD, then 3D print a bait which can then be used to make a mold for pouring resin bait pieces. Theoretically this should let me be able to quickly make changes to the design, and print a bait for testing before making a mold and casting the real baits. I am still in the very early stages of the design, but I have some questions, and wanted to get some feedback from ya'll who know a lot more about swimbaits than me.

So far I have a very baseline  computer model, and have 3D printed a very rough model just as a proof of concept. The tan colored pictures are renderings of the computer model I created, and the black bait is the real life 3D printed model. As of right now, I have the bait split into halves so that I can run a single piece of wire throughout the body of the bait which should be stronger than individual screw eyes. (I didn't think to get any pictures of the 3D printed internals before I glued the two halves together). My current design uses the through wire to create two loops in the back of the head section of the bait and then a keeper pin through the tail section to make the hinge. I still plan to make some slots to be able to glue in fins/tail and add some indications into the inside halves for easy alignment, as well as additional strength. Hopefully after that I can make a good quality print and actually test it in the water. The weight distribution will be much different than the final resin bait but hopefully it will at least give me an idea of how it will run and any changes I might need to make.

A couple questions I have are

1. I have seen people throw the idea of using kevlar ribbon/cloth as a hinge, and have seen a few baits made this way, but cant really find any feedback on the functionality of it. With my bait being split into halves, a cloth hinge would be extremely easy to implement. My main concern is the action, and whether cloth thick enough to provide the necessary strength, would also be limber enough to provide good action.

2. For fins, is there any commercial off the shelf fin/tail options? I could make a mold for them in a similar fashion to the way i'm making the bait, but as a broke college kid, spending another $40 for flex 20 on top of what i'm about to spend for mold rubber/resin would be nice to avoid. 

3. For those of you who have been making baits for a while, could you provide any insight on how/if weight placement impacts action? With my half shell design, I could theoretically drill and add weight anywhere inside the body, before gluing together. I assume the most important thing is that the bait falls horizontally, but does slightly nose/tail heavy, or a heavy belly vs heavy back seem to make a difference to ya'll?

Please feel free to give any opinions or advice. I'm sure there is stuff i'm not thinking of, and would appreciate any incite from those more experienced than myself.

Thanks!

[azsouth]

Looks good, now you just have to dial in the sink and swim. Joint looks really tight. 

[BassJunkie]

Never made a bait so I can’t give any insight but what you are doing looks great 

[Mountainryan]

HMU if you want more info on 3D print to molding. Made a few baits this way. 

[NEbucketmouth19]

Looks good! Mind me asking what CAD you used? I toyed around with a few lure designs using SolidWorks when I had access to it in college. 

[Bclark215]

5 minutes ago, NEbucketmouth19 said:

Looks good! Mind me asking what CAD you used? I toyed around with a few lure designs using SolidWorks when I had access to it in college. 

I use fusion 360. I'm also a student, but I believe that fusion is free to anyone, as long as you don't make above a certain amount of money making the software. I've used solidworks, but only briefly so I really can't compare the two. I know fusion 360 sometimes takes some heat because the user interface looks  little less professional I guess you could say, but its extremely robust, and basically as a general user you will never outgrow its capabilities. That being said I don't believe that fusion 360 or solidworks either, are the best for organic shapes and sculpting, but it does work.

On 4/28/2020 at 8:43 AM, Mountainryan said:

HMU if you want more info on 3D print to molding. Made a few baits this way. 

I might have to do that! As a student I got caught up with finals, and haven't had a chance to progress any, but I plan to print a little better model, and do some water testing, so i'll see how that goes. What kind of 3D printer do you have?

[Mountainryan]

Creality Ender 3

[Wykyd B8]

Awesome man my hats off to you!

I bought a 3d printer and tried to learn fusion 360 but gave up. Its challenging trying to learn it from scratch. I may try again when I have some free time.

[NEbucketmouth19]

12 hours ago, Bclark215 said:

I use fusion 360. I'm also a student, but I believe that fusion is free to anyone, as long as you don't make above a certain amount of money making the software. I've used solidworks, but only briefly so I really can't compare the two. I know fusion 360 sometimes takes some heat because the user interface looks  little less professional I guess you could say, but its extremely robust, and basically as a general user you will never outgrow its capabilities. That being said I don't believe that fusion 360 or solidworks either, are the best for organic shapes and sculpting, but it does work.

I might have to do that! As a student I got caught up with finals, and haven't had a chance to progress any, but I plan to print a little better model, and do some water testing, so i'll see how that goes. What kind of 3D printer do you have?

OH sweet, I actually just started learning Fusion. It's surprisingly to solidworks outside the more advanced features.