I have been experimenting with paddle tail lures for maybe ten years, either by making a master out of wood or modelling clay, then making a mould and pouring hot pvc into it. But with a covid lock down and lack of a workshop I decided to see if I could use the power of my desktop computer and cheap 3d printer to make a paddle tail fishing lure. I am not the first lure maker to look at the possibilities of 3d printing and will not be the last. The biggest obstacle to 3d printing is Cad software, I used Fusion 360 but it was a painful learning experience for someone more used to picking up saws. It didn’t take that long to get some level of competence and 3d printing is not the most difficult thing in the world, it's only a few steps beyond 2d printing. Having all the kit and time didn’t guarantee the lures would be any good, but the thing about 3d printing is it is cheap to mess up and I did a lot of it, some designs just didn’t work or looked pig ugly. This paddle tail in this video was the final ‘ stop messing about’ lure as lockdown was coming to an end and there was a good chance of going fishing again. From start to finish I would say I have about 3 hours drawing time in it, that includes plenty of coffee breaks and random internet rabbit holes. Printing is another 3 hours but once you have mould you can keep stamping them out. I used quick set silicone to cast the lures, rather than pvc as I didn’t really have anywhere to cook it up.
Bits list
3d cad software Fusion 360 by Autodesk
This is an incredibly powerful piece of software and free to use for students and teachers, and I think makers but you will need to check out their website. There are lots of other free to use cad programs.
Slicer software
To turn the drawing into something my 3d printer will understand I used Cura a piece of slicing software, which is a free to use software package.
Slicer settings. I have .4mm nozzle and print .2mm layer height, 20% infill, no support,
3d printer
Creality Ender 3, this is a very basic entry level machine 3d printer and while it is not perfect it does produce consistent results. I have upgraded this only slightly by adding a glass build plate and an aluminium extruder pulley pack.
I use 1.75mm generic pla from whoever is cheapest on amazon and have never really had any problems.
To make sure the print sticks to the glass i use pritt stick which a basic children's art and craft glue stick
Silicone
At the moment I am using Polycraft Silskin 10 Special Effects Addition Cure Silicone Rubber.
This is fast setting 2 part silicone which i can demould after about 25minutes depending on the temperature, it is also quite flexible but not as flexible as the soft plastics normally used for lures, but it does seem a lot stronger. The down sides are it costs about four times the prices of soft plastic pvc but on the upside I don’t need to heat it, use it just measure out with accurate scales, mix and I am away.
To colour the silicone I use Smooth-on Ignite fluorescent pigments which normally come in a pack in a range of hideous colours.
To measure out the small amounts of silicone I use typically 20-30g per lure I use cheap set of digital scales that can measure down to 1/10th of gram
Eyes
I have been using 8mm or 10mm epoxy eyes bought of ebay and stuck down with superglue
HOOKS AND TRACES
I cannot remember where I bought the jig heads but they are 8g 4/0 and 3/0, i have modified some of these by drilling a hole through the jig head, with modified drill bit as ordinary hss drill bits do not work well in soft materials like lead an zinc.
To add a stinger hook I used 20lb 7strand coated stainless wire with a treble hook all crimped together .
27 авг 2024
