# Polycarbonate Lip Bender



## goolies (Jun 28, 2007)

I want to take a standard lure and play around with weighting and lip sizes, angles, and shapes to find the best action. I built a simple fixture to bend polycarbonate lips. It's comprised of a base, a lip clamp, a replaceable radius mold, and a hand tool. The base has guides to center the radius mold. I plan on creating other molds with different size dowel rods. The centerline on the mold lines up with the centerline on the base. The top of the mold is even with the top of the base. The lip is placed on the mold so the centerline matches up and the part of the lip to remain flat sits on the base and is clamped. I used a heat gun on low to heat up the lip and then use the hand tool to push down on the lip and shape it around the mold. It works pretty good. I may need to tweak the hand tool for smaller radius bends.


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## fugarwi7 (Sep 20, 2006)

Pretty slick set-up...I am curious to hear how the lures perform with a modified lip like that (I tried to avoid "bent lip" to minimize the jeers)!  

Does that direct heat deform the edges any and require a little touch up to get back to a symmetrical shape? Do you know the melting point of lexan? I thought about making molds and pouring liquified lexan into them...just a far out thought that goes beyond my abilities...just one of those shower thoughts I guess!


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## vc1111 (Apr 13, 2004)

That's ingenious. Are you and Hazmail related? He's always coming up with great stuff like that too!

I think you've come up with a great idea and I'd like to see more pictures and details as time goes on. 

Great work.

You might also try boiling the lip first. I've had some success bending lips by submerging them in a pan of water for 4 to 6 minutes to soften them up.

I've been tempted to try boiling oil because I think it might get hotter, but I've yet to try that.

I tried heat, but I had problems with it causing the poly to bubble a bit.


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## freyedknot (Apr 10, 2004)

how bout a heat gun . we bend some plastics for guards at work with a heat gun.


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## goolies (Jun 28, 2007)

I'm looking to imitate shallow running cranks like the HJ's. The lips on most of these baits have a slight curvature. The proto lip shown in the photo probably has more curvature than I need. Thats why I will create some larger radius lip molds.

I believe the heat gun will do the trick once I determine the proper distance to hold it from the lip and the heating time required. It should form perfectly around the mold. The ideal temp for forming polycarbonate is slightly over 300 deg. F. The proto lip shown has bubbles do to over heating.

The flexible forming hand tool eliminates the need for a matching female press for every male mold.

I will provide more info as I play with the concept.


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## walleyevision (Aug 4, 2005)

Very nice! I hope it works out.


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## vc1111 (Apr 13, 2004)

The gentle curves on certain bait lips add a whole different action. I hope this works for you.

I've personally seen Hazmail's work and it is excellent. Yours looks like you'll be able to do exactly what you want to do with the right underlying mold


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