Category: 3D Printing

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

I 3D printed a mold just to see how small I can go. Allow me to introduce you to the world's smallest paddle tail!