July 20, 2019

3D Printed Frog Lures

STL’s for this lure are available for purchase from Cults3d.com

These are a few 3D printed frog Lures that I have designed.  There are several different versions that I am trying out.  The main body of this one was designed in the Fusion 360 Sculpt environment and then imported into Solidworks for the rest of the CAD work.

I did something new to me for this lure… I did a complete build video while making this one.

After repeated requests to make some tutorials on how I design my lures and make the 3D Printed Stencils I decided to do some videos to show you all the process.  This video is just the making of this lure to get my feet wet in the whole filming and editing process but the next videos I do will show everything on how I make the lures and the stencils.  This video does not have a high production value to it, it was shot on a IPhone6, a knock off GoPro, and voiced over with a crappy headset mic so don’t expect much. It’s a long video so below are a few build detail for those that don’t feel like watching the whole video.

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This was the first dual rear hook version that I made that was covered in the video. The finished lure is a little heavy (at .88 of an ounce) so it doesn’t have the most delicate presentation while casting but it does cast about a mile. 🙂

It was printed in two halves like all my lures…

… and uses the same figure 8 hook hangers that I tend to favor now over bending wire forms.

A quick float test before finally assembly.

Assembled and ready for paint.

I dressed up the hooks with fly tying material to make legs.

Here is the finished lure. I did fish an entire day with this but only managed to get three hook up but lost them all. I’m not sure if the dressed hooks are going to be a problem with retaining the fish but more testing is required.

Number 2 was a weedless version.

This version was cut in half along the side plane to allow for the larger hook placement.

These are the Gamakatsu 65114 hooks that I used.

Here it is right before gluing the valves together. I used (4) .25″ stainless balls on this one.

In the field float test. This one was printed at 25% infill so it floats higher on the surface so it would have better weedless characteristics. This is a naked version, it did have grub legs but I cut them off because the were to stiff they way I hard mounted them. I also fished this one and while I did get a ton of hits on it I only had one hook up and the fish B-lined right into the pads and threw the hook.  This version is probably more of a big fish lure and I’m not much of a trophy fish hunter but I’ll keep trying to get something on it.

Weedless version #2 did get the addition of the legs again.

To retrofit it I heated up hook hangers…

… and melted/pressed them into the body.

Using these little spiral things allows me to attach the legs to the body but give them free movement still which should allow for a better hook up opportunity.

The cut down mini grub legs are just screwed on to the spiral thing.

The next version uses two lower hooks and spinner blades for feet.

The hook hanger layout and addition weights.  This one was also printed at 25% infill so I used I used (6) .25″ stainless balls on this one so the ass end hangs below the water line more.

Sanded and ready for paint.

Here you can see how the hooks hang done on this version and hopefully produce better hook ups. I may need to add some swivels to the spinner blades but I still have to test this one.

I did make a printed stencil after the video was shot.

It needs some work but not to bad for a first spray with it.

Here is a scaled down ultralight version.

Printed at 25% infill, #1 hook hangers, and 2 BB’s for weights. (some of these build pictures are for me just so I remembered how I did things.) 

Well the ultralight version works pretty well. I caught a few Johnny Roaches on it on its first outing.

I added swivels to the blades and the action is so much better now.

I caught this 2 foot long channel catfish with it on the first day of testing with the new setup. I usually hate catching catfish but this one put up a hell of a fight and proved the lure works so it was worth it I guess.

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