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How To Design The Best Rage Craw Style Body

How To Design The Best Rage Craw Style Body 1


One of my Patrons reached out to me and needed some help building a Rage Craw style body. It's not super easy to do in the Fusion program the way I had done it in a previous video, which was to make the segments and scale them. I found an easier way to create a Rage Claw style body.

Rage Craw Style Body

The First Sketch

We'll begin by setting up a four-inch perimeter. Referring to this first part of the Rage Craw style body as “Link.” Then draw your first head section, this will be how tall you want your lure to be. Most creature-style baits are skinnier on the top and they get wider as they go down.

After setting up the height, you can set a midpoint line through the center circle. This will set up the right side of the lure, to round it off later we'll mirror the render. Now we will determine how wide we want this to be. We're going to make a construction line come right out of the center about 6 ml tall and 12 ml wide in the front.

Now we can remove the construction line, and if you look at a Rage Craw Style body the sides bow in at the middle of the base so we're going to recreate that for this example as well. Clean up the line in Fusion until you have created the rib portion of the lure. We want the head of the body that's going to go through this whole bait to be a little smaller than this, so we're going to make an offset of the rib and design a profile that we can use as the lead of the lure.

Rage Craw Style Body

Define Mid & End Sections

Create a construction plane and type in Link to set the parameter, you can type in any number and the midpoint will adjust accordingly. When you're designing this, keep in mind of your numbers, in this video we are using sample numbers, depending on how long and narrow you want, adjust your numbers accordingly.

Rage Craw Style Body

Loft the Sketches for your Rage Claw Style Body

Let's turn all of our sketches on and then we are going to use the Loft tool. Make sure you select he inside and outside of your renders. Here is where you can see how the lure will render at this point so if you want to change anything, you can edit the sketch.

Designing the Ribs

Now we're gonna break this up because this section is our ribs for our lure body. Set up some lines across the body and determine the point where the first rib starts. We want to create a rectangular pattern and apply the set parameters to the rest of the body. Finish sketch and you can select the options for the lure. Now we have a bunch of ribs floating in space. Using the fillet tool, you can go across the ribs and make them have an indention on the end. You will be left with a bunch of bodies that need to be joined together.

Cleaning it up

We're going to to turn back on our first sketch hit ‘E' for extrude and select that inner profile. Now we're going to start here extent type and  do two objects. Come back and select this back face operation is joined and now you can see you have half of the lure body. Then you can mirror the render and clean it up.

Looking for a unique lure? Consider one of the best finesse bass lures in the industry, the TechnoFrog. If you’re fishing for largemouth or smallmouth bass you’re going to want to add a pack of Techno Frog finesse baits to your tackle box. Also, check out our online shop for all the apparel you'll need! Whether you're lounging at home, designing a Rage Claw Style Body, or on your weekly fishing trips!

Tare care, tight lines!

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Setting up Mist Coolant on my Avid CNC

Setting up Mist Coolant on my Avid CNC 2


Do you want an automated mist coolant on your Avid CNC setup for cutting aluminum and other metals? Thankfully, I'll be walking you through the hardware and the software configuration that you need to do to make the process seamless and automatic.

The purpose of mist coolant on my Avid CNC setup

As I mentioned in my previous videos, I cut a lot of aluminum and plastic, a factor to consider about aluminum is that you need a lot of air movement and coolant to keep the machine working correctly.

Originally, I had a manual valve placed on the machine, but this was inconvenient because one could forget to turn it off leading to coolant overflowing. Avid Machines have the capacity to be configured with a mist coolant in the software, in fact, I noticed that in the configuration, the Avid was already pre-configured for a cooling system.

So this lead me begin to purchase hardware to construct a mist coolant system to upgrade my Avid setup. Below are the list of the components needed, affiliate links before if you are also constructing a mist coolant system for your Avid setup:

The Pins Plan

As I mentioned before, I went through the pin configuration and I found where they already set up Pin 2-16 to handle coolant, which is the M7 command to turn on and the M9 to turn off. All you would have to do is plug in your wires correctly and issue the correct commands for the machine to perform the correct action.

mist coolant for CNC machine

Rigging the Avid CNC Machine

After getting everything wired up we're left with the solenoid on one end, a leg down to the power supply and some bare wires hanging out the other end, so the bare wires will go directly into the ESS controller. I'd recommend running them up through the bottom and hook them to the correct pins.

Again, you'll see one labeled ground and the other one with a different label. You'll see that the pair is really close to one another and finding enough space to move and get them to the right spot was difficult.

Once you are on the support site, you will see that relay output volts are 19 & 20, the latter being the ground and the former being the pin. With this determined if you look at the schematic you will see where to place the ports per their positive or negative charges. Assuming we did everything correctly, it should work.

To do this just replace the manual valve with the solenoid, to get it to stay together fasten a zip tie to keep it in place, or to make it fancy use a command strip.

mist coolant for CNC machine

Testing

Once you get that hooked up, you plug in your solenoid valve , plug in your power supply and you should be good to go. Use the appropriate commands and you will have a mist coolant for your Avid CNC machine, if it works awesome! If it isn't working, check your wiring.

Looking for a unique lure? Consider one of the best finesse bass lures in the industry, the TechnoFrog. If you’re fishing for largemouth or smallmouth bass you’re going to want to add a pack of Techno Frog finesse baits to your tackle box. Also, check out our online shop for all the apparel you'll need! Whether you're lounging at home, mixing mica pearls for soft plastic lures, or on your weekly fishing trips!

Tare care, tight lines!

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I got a new CNC Machine

I got a new CNC Machine 3


I wanted to make molds quickly for my business but finding a machinist to cut molds is both expensive and time consuming, so I got a new CNC Machine to not only produce more in-house products, but to get some more insight on how manufactures use these vs 3D printed lures.

Why a CNC machine and aluminum molds over 3D Printing?

Now I know what you’re thinking, “Dude, you’re the 3-D printed mold guy.” But I’ve said all along that 3-D printed molds are great for prototyping but not great for production.

Now, what does that mean? It means that over time the more you use the 3D printed mold, the more it tends to flex and move around a little bit, plus to hold them together you need a lot more support. Now you can use vices to some extent but from my experiences, they really don’t give you repeatable quality.

And repeatable quality results is the key thing in production when if you want to make a bunch of baits quickly. If that is your aim, 3D printing is not the way to go, and the reason why is the time it takes to undo the support nuts and bolts that are required to keep a print steady.

Now I did some timing tests, and what I found it takes about 10 minutes between shooting the bait, waiting for them to cool because 3D printed molds don’t wick heat like aluminum does and then unbolting the support, then taking the molds out and then reapplying your support. The whole process is very time consuming and it strains your fingers during the process, so I could not produce lures efficiently.

That’s what leads us to the standard in the industry right now, aluminum molds! It’s the only material that people use for molds on a production level. They are very easy to understand and very easy to use. You can clamp the materials together and put out the molds at a very rapid rate.

Challenge of finding mold makers

Now the issue comes with finding someone to cut your molds. Not every person with a CNC machine likes to cut the molds. Cutting molds requires a bit more precision, so the few people that make the molds in the industry are currently backed up with work, we are talking months out.

For any business owner this is tough because if the goal is to get a certain number of molds out per year, you have to account for not just the cost, but also the time it takes for the mold to be completed and distributed.

After running the numbers, at the same cost, I figured I should go out and get a CNC machine for myself. Now I figured this would be good for the channel, a good skill for me to learn and it would be nice to see how it’s done.

Let's check out my machine!

So I went to purchase my own, I got an Avid CNC Machine 48×48 (which refers to the work area).

Taking a look at this you’re probably thinking that this is an aluminum cutting beast, but the machine can have various applications, such as cutting sheet material out of plastic and this machine seemed like a nice balance between the two.

CNC Machine

Let me introduce you to my CNC machine, it’s set up a little bit differently than others on YouTube. It has a starboard spill board which helps since I’m cutting aluminum with coolant.

Next I added a Saunders Machine Works fixture plate, it gives me a lot of space and hold the mold in place, since I put in some holes and bolts.

Then I added a CNC Depot S30C spindle which is a very powerful spindle, high 24000 RPM and has an automatic tool changer setup.

Now does this make sense? I’m not sure, I definitely wouldn’t recommend this particular setup to anyone, but I believe it has merits to what I’m attempting to do between producing projects for myself and learning more about the machine.

Now I am leasing this machine, so what is nice is that I didn’t have to shell out the 19,000 it would cost to own the machine. Now, there is an argument to make for making a purchase because it should pay for itself eventually, but the big thing is the learning component.

Looking for a unique lure? Consider one of the best finesse bass lures in the industry, the TechnoFrog. If you’re fishing for largemouth or smallmouth bass you’re going to want to add a pack of Techno Frog finesse baits to your tackle box. Also, check out our online shop for all the apparel you'll need! Whether you're lounging at home, mixing mica pearls for soft plastic lures, or on your weekly fishing trips!

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Best Lure Details with Fusion 360 Chop and Screwed

Best Lure Details with Fusion 360 Chop and Screwed 4


So you want to add details to your lures but you want to keep them constrained in the certain areas of your lures? Today I'm going to go over best practices to make the best lure details with Fusion 360.

starting to make details with Fusion 360.

Prepping the Lure Body

Here I have the start of a paddle tail I'm working on. I've sculpted the body & I've split it in two because we only need to work on one section. Now we're going to go about adding some details to this lure.

The first thing to do is to create a sketch on the same plane that I used to split my lure in two. Then select ‘Create a Project' and select the geometry on the outside. Select ‘Hide' and the result will be an outline of the lure. Once you have your outline, think of it as the foundation of your design, now we assign where the body parts of the lure will be placed.

For the purposes of the lure I'm designing. I'll carve the head by using a fine-point splice & bend. Then, insert a line that splits the top and the bottom half of the lure to the middle-half of the tail. After this we can bring the body back by clicking ‘Unhide' then using the ‘Split' tool on the first arc, and then split it again once the arc has been removed.

You'll be left with a lure that is split at the arc, resulting in the ‘Head' on the top-half and then the bottom-half of the lure all accomplished to make the best lure details with Fusion 360.

For the purposes of this guide, we won't go into extreme detail on the full detail of the lure, we have plenty of videos that can be found here if you're interested.

What we're attempting to replicate is something you see on a lot of lures where the top-half has the cross hatch kind of pattern and the bottom has you know single line pattern on it so we're going to create a sketch on the same plane.

details with Fusion 360

Rectangular Patterns to create Lure Details with Fusion 360

We're going to create a sketch on that same plane that we've been working on. Begin by using the line tool that goes the length from the top to bottom, so when you stretch it out the pattern needs to be long enough. Next we're going to create a rectangular patten on the plane and we're going to from left to right across the lure, we're setting this up based on how you want it to look.

Next we're going to repeat the same process using the line, we're going to go across with the line tool. At a 30 degree angle on both sides it creates a cross hatch pattern all the way through. From here we can use these lines and pull them longer so we can place them accordingly.

‘Finish Sketch' and lock the top layer of lines so that you're only working the bottom layers of lines.

more details with Fusion 360

Project to Surface

Using the ‘Project to Surface' selection, it allows you to select the appropriate faces for your lure, in the last section we highlighted that you can pull the lines out longer, during this step you'll be selecting the bottom half of the lines, since they are longer they are easier to select. This should allow you to select the image vector and and ‘Finish Sketch.'  The same will be applied to the next selection of the top lines. During this process you will receive plenty of errors but you can ignore them.

What you will be left with is this frame-like structure. Using the ‘Create Form' then select ‘Create Pipe' and go along the frame one at a time. If you do not then you will be met with an error denoting intercepting figures. Click ‘Finish Form' and we can clean the intersections.

final product

Clean up the Midline & Bring it all together

In order to clean up the lure, is to add in a midline and ‘Create Form' once the midline has been added in you can combine your bodies together to bring the design together.

Once you're at the end and have your design, we can mirror the body and apply it to the opposite side, once that has been completed you'll have your completed lure.

Looking for a unique lure? Consider one of the best finesse bass lures in the industry, the TechnoFrog. If you’re fishing for largemouth or smallmouth bass you’re going to want to add a pack of Techno Frog finesse baits to your tackle box. Also, check out our online shop for all the apparel you'll need! Whether you're lounging at home, mixing mica pearls for soft plastic lures, or on your weekly fishing trips!