Do 3D Printed Fishing Lures Count As Special Projects?
I know this is a basically a guns and shooting forum so if special projects involving fishing lures is a bit off base I won't tie up any bandwidth talking about my next project.
It's a 3D printed lure based on the popular "Whopper-Plopper" bass fishing lure. I'm making a micro version for my ultralight setup.
Let me know.
HollowPoint
Micro-Plopper Ultra Light Version
I've actually already printed out two prototypes. I only had white ABS filament on hand so I used that . Fortunately it turned out for the best cause my 3D printer's resolution isn't the greatest. These small prints came out with very poor areas of surface finish.
I was able to dribble some super-glue on the effected areas and then sprinkle some baking-soda on them. The baking-soda was a good color match for the white ABS plastic filament. All it took after that was a bit of smoothing out with some light sandpaper. They will be painted before I assemble them so even if my super-glue patch work didn't match it wouldn't have mattered much.
Right now I'm just waiting on some small treble hooks I ordered online. I went down to the hardware store this morning to pick up some thin stainless steel wire for the rest of the assembly parts. I'm sure some more tweaks will be needed to my CAD models before all is said and done. As you can see from these CAD-Renderings I posted below, there is always room for improvement.
I suspect that I may have to incorporate some type of small weight near the bottom center of mass on the main bodies of my Micro-Plopper lures, just to keep them in the correct position as they're being pulled through the water with that small single bladed propeller spinning as it moves forward. The reason I didn't include that small weight in these first prototypes is because I was thinking that there is a chance that the centrally mounted treble hooks and the accompanying split-ring and wire-eye may be enough weight to do the job. I'll have to wait and see.
I bought a cheap Whopper-Plopper knock off from a Chinese seller on fleabay and when I tried it out the entire body would spin in the water. I've had to modify it with a bit of weight to make it track as it's supposed to. My authentic Whopper Plopper lure runs flawlessly as it is.
The two 3D printed prototypes measure approximately 1 1/2" long x 1/2 wide x 3/4" tall for one. The other is slightly larger at about 1 3/4" long by 3/4" wide by about an inch tall. Both of these prototypes when assembled will be about a third or smaller than the smallest store-bought Whopper-Plopper lure; and a fraction of the cost. I fish mainly with ultralight tackle and the smallest store bought Whopper Plopper; the one they consider to be ultra light, is still on the heavy side for me.
HollowPoint
Partially Assembled Micro-Plopper Lures
Well, I got my lures partially assembled and then I realized I still needed to get hold of some tiny split-rings in order to attach the little treble hooks. I also need some stiffer stainless steel wire and a small bead to act as bearing to facilitate the rotation of the propeller. I'm working with ultra-ultra-light 3D printed lures so I can't have to much weight or they'll sink on me or float just below the surface. I need them to float with the body of the lure at least mid-line to the surface of the water. Right now it looks Like I'll be able to meet that goal but with every additional component I add to them I'm afraid it may be the tipping point; or, I should say, sinking point.
Here's a couple more photos to give you an idea what I'm shooting for. They still need a bit more smoothing out but they're close enough to the CAD renderings I uploaded earlier. The real prints still need a bit a work to get them to look like the pristine looking CAD renderings do.
I came across a YouTube video posted by a guy who builds fishing lures as a YouTube job, so to speak. It gave me an idea for a slightly different design that may simplify things for me. The 3D Printed lure in the center of both the pics below shows what I'm talking about.
My treble hooks came in and they look good. Now I need to wait for the stiffer wire and the split rings to show up.
HollowPoint
I'm Inching My Way To The Finish Line
My stainless steel wire eyes showed up yesterday but now I hear that my split rings won't be here till the 30th of this month. No matter; while I'm waiting I can concentrate on other aspects of this Micro-Plopper project.
Since this a budget project like nearly every project I've ever done, I use what I have on hand whenever possible. Fortunately I've had most of the stuff I've needed on hand with the exception of the treble hooks, the split-rings and the stainless steel wire. While I wait for the rest to arrive I'll focus on the best angles to bend my wire so as to have any fish-load-bearing weight directed mainly on the wire and minimally on the body of the lure.
Below is a photo of the 3D printed casting mold for the little Micro-Plopper propellers. It's seems that I got all the dimensions right on the first try. I don't know if that was just dumb-luck or if I'm actually getting the hang of drawing up my models. I did a couple more photos besides this one but the others were far to blurry to be salvaged. I was in to much in a hurry again when I snapped them. If you look closely you can see the multitude of air-bubbles I mentioned that had formed inside each of those little cast propellers.
As they are now it's easy to see that they are not as pristine looking as the CAD renderings I uploaded earlier. I'll focus more on the fit and finish of these little lures once I've assembled and tested them. No sense in using up alot of time on something that in the end, doesn't perform as intended.
HollowPoint
Nearing The End Of This Project
I got a few of the different iterations all assembled. Each has a slightly different size to it. I wanted to see for myself which appeared to be optimum in terms of size and shape. They'll all work but some of the considerations I had was, given that they are so light weight, will I be able to cast them out far enough to do me any good?
Will they track through the water in an upright position even with the propeller spinning behind them. The mid-sized samples are cast-able but it turns out that the weight of the hooks and the split-rings were not quite enough to keep them from wanting to turn onto their sides as a result of the torque that the small propeller was imparting.
They all had enough buoyancy to float at the right depth when I crimped a small .177 cal pellet onto the center hook-eye. I tested them with this added weight and they tracked almost perfectly, even with the propeller spinning behind them. What this means now is that my latest iterations will have this added weight added to the inside of the lure before the two halves are glued together. That should solve the only problem that was keeping these 3D printed Micro-Plopper lures from performing as I'd hoped they would.
Here are a few more pics of my latest CAD models of what I think will be the optimum size for this Mirco-Plopper lure. (1 1/4" long X .66" tall) I also included an incredibly blurry photo of an actual Whopper Plopper, a Chinese knockoff Plopper, and one of my 3D printed Micro-Plopper lures floating in a bucket of water so you could see that compared to the original, my 3D printed lure is darn near at the same float level. Believe it or not, that was by design.
So now what I have to do with these already assembled Micro-Plopper lures is to drill a small hole near the center-bottom of the bodies and glue that extra little bit of weight to them so they'll track through the water correctly. I hope to be able to take them out this weekend some time to see if they do any good.
By the way; you have my permission to laugh at my paint jobs of these lures. I wasn't really concerned to much about how they look at this point. I just want them to run through the water in a similar manner to the original full sized Whopper Plopper.
HollowPoint
A Bit Of Video Proof That You Aren't Just Being Strung Along
Here is my short, cobbled together video of the recent field tests I did on the various iterations of the 3D Printed Micro-Plopper fishing lure I've been working on.
I actually caught a fish. That's more than I can say with my authentic Whopper Plopper lure. I have yet to catch a fish with that store bought lure and it's not cause I haven't tried. I've just had no luck with it yet.
That's not to say it's not an awesome lure, it's just that I haven't caught anything with it yet; not even a bite.
Word of warning: I suck at making videos. To record this video I was wearing a pair of those cheap "SunGlass-Video-Camera" units and I wasn't paying attention to the fact that with every small movement of my head the video tended to get kind of jerky.
You may want to take a dramamine tablet before watching.
There's a bit more work to be done before I call this project completed. I'm thinking a couple more weeks and I'll have a home made 3D Printed Ultra-Light Micro Plopper lure I can be proud of.
HollowPoint
https://youtu.be/8g8wyEpGBAk