redg8r

the reason you fellas havnt recieved much feedback is because the process is like said, isnt readily available for a scratchbuilder. One, the clear plastic, the only material Ive seen over the last few years is a 2 part resin offered by Smooth-on & its sold only to industrial manufacturers. its very caustic & needs to be heat cured at @ 200+ degrees. Rotational molding or rotocasting is easier in theory, but myself & Riverman fooled with this process a few years ago & found it very tricky & inconsistent. Rotocasting is fine as long as you dont need to actually fish the bait. Each casting will cure differently & have an inconsistent wall thickness which is a nightmare for luremakers. I'll promise you, 2 identical baits from the same mold would run very differently. The most efficient method would be to invest in a 4pc. injection mold & source your casting out to a third party. If you were able to use opaque (white/amber,etc) then thats a different story, theres many suppliers for 2part urethanes in opaque colors that are suitable for scratchbuilders. The 4part mold is the toughest step. Artbrush has described the 4part molding process in the archives here, but in essence its 2) 2part molds, 1) 2part mold for each lure body half.

Sorry for the problems, We're not accepting any more photo submissions at this time, we have gigabytes worth of photos & need to cull the well a little. Dont stop taking photos, we're gonna make room for more

Sorry guys, it happens on occasion, the site has been real popular as of late, so we've been getting ALOT of traffic. Ive been reassigning the system resources & hopefully she'll start picking up the pace soon. Thanks for understanding.

Thats terrible to hear, I spoke with him & he asked me to temporarily shut down his online catalog because he wont be filling orders for an undetermined amont of time.

I getcha, shoulda seen me scramblin when I walked out & saw those baits gettin ready to drip

~DrOOL~ I figured you were up to your ears in peanuts, considering how good it is. Dont go out of your way for me, bud, if you saw me, you can tell I never miss a meal, but I wont refuse twice.

Merry Christmas George, & Everyone else here @ TU. We're all really blessed to have such a great community of people here. A little over 2 1/2 years now & over 2 1/2 thousand great members. Thanks. P.S. You still making that awesome peanut brittle? the best I ever tried.

Funny, I was gonna post & ask for opinions on it too. Im an avid Devcon user, but had a rather large batch to do & wanted to try some etex (Sorry skeeter :oops:) . All Home Depot had was the glaze coat so I picked up a couple pints. I had a full working (brushing) time of around 20 minutes @ 60 degrees in my shop, the cooler temp made the overall setup/curing a little slow for me, I turned the baits for about an hour then shutoff the wheel, came inside for awhile & when I went back out the coat was still running I turned the wheel back on for about 3 more hours & let the baits setup overnight. that did the trick. The instructions recommend a 72 hour full cure, which is cool because I was able to clean the hook hangers 24 hours later without much hassle (its always some sort of hassle) The coat is glassy, medium build & looks really nice. Not sure about yellowing, only time will tell that. I did notice the label said for indoor use only, but Im almost positive I read that on an envirotex box also.

Whats your opinion on his 4th question? how does the baits expel from the mold on a high production run? Thanks

I can tell you the process isnt much different than typical thermal injection molds you make now. 1) The plastic is a heat cure, 1 part component, no mixing. 2-3) The cycle rate depends on how fast you can cool the molds, so yeah, water cooling might be a good consideration in the design. 4) As far as ejection, thats a good question, I wondered how its done myself. 5) A nice finish is always good, but Del, Bob & others, to my knowledge, dont do any extra steps on the cavities, once off the mill. (they have great mills so not really required) Any imperfections, of course will be carried onto the bait, but the oils in the vinyl make it release well, even from intricately detailed molds. Thats my take, good luck!

Thats one issue, the learning curve on these larger carts is considerable. I have a few clients who use em & even after a couple years I still have to periodically update thier inventory/listings because they havnt quite got the hang of it. If we were to setup a cart for each vendor, we'd also have to set aside time for support on using it, since most of these carts have alot of options & configurations, it takes some work to setup for each owner, so we'd have to make sure we had enough guys on call to help when needed. Ive seen a couple programs that operate that way, Xcart was one of them. Sure, & most have an affiliate program built in to encourage everyone to promote for extra $$. Thanks, I wish I could do alot more & youre right, the site could use a reliable outlet for those needing some income from thier works, If I was to really crunch the stats, we'd probably find a good chunk of first time visitors stop in actually intending on buying tackle, rather than to get info on how to make it themselves. For the moment, Ive updated the auction platform here on TU, you can list items for sell there, use an optional fixed price (Buy it now, eg;eBay), build your own store, etc; Basic listings are still free. I put a few items in just to keep it populated: http://www.tackleunderground.com/board/auction.php Later this week I'll, feature it on the homepage & pass out a few incentives for everyone to buy or sell, until we can decide on how we want to do the mall/shop.

After researching the x-cart software awhile back, I found that the software doesnt function like a mall at all, more like a joint catalog, where there is one store like BPS.com for example, and each vendor would control thier own stock, listing & fulfillment/shipping. All products from all builders are pulled under one store. That wasnt what I had in mind, but lets hear what you guys think?

Hi everyone, Sorry for the recent downtime here on TU. We reset some nameservers to finalize our migration to a brand spankin new private server. You should now notice some faster page loads as were on a much faster machine that we can control more directly. For those of you hosting your website with us, drop by your domain registrar to make sure your nameservers are set to the following: NS1.TACKLEUNDERGROUND.COM NS2.TACKLEUNDERGROUND.COM That should be the only changes necessary, if you have any issues or concerns, use the contact link at the top of the site to contact us. Happy Holidays, Jerry "redg8r"

Poplar isnt a bad choice, if its dowell stock its most likely kiln dried. Ive made many a popper out of poplar. if you get a chance to pick your pieces, go with the lightest color dowels, the (denser,heavier) sapwood of poplar will be darker, usually olive green & even purple in some cases. Like was said above, for surface baits, avoid dense hardwoods like whats used in tool/broom handles Good luck.

Weve been informed by our server administrator that weve outgrown our server. This could be the issue, since its not a permissions mis-setting. Im upset that we werent informed earlier, but were rectifying the situation as we speak, hopefully this will fix a few more gremlins that happen sometimes such as 404, (page not found errors), mixed up pictures in the gallery & delayed/double email notifications. hang in there, were workin on it.

There will be a running graphic on the left side of the site for more information, but for now, heres a direct link: http://www.tackleunderground.com/index.php?page=18 I'll be donating components, molds & lure bodies. I spoke with Shawn on the phone tonight & should have everything rolling tomorrow. Thank you again everyone.

Artbrush, Let me know where you wanna hold this auction & I'll start pumping it. I cant thank the volunteers & civil workers enough for the effort thier putting forth, however I'm unimpressed with the delay farther up the chain of command. I personally prepare every year with a large hurricane kit & plan ahead. These storms are predicted in advance, as opposed to tornadoes & earthquakes so I gotta say, things could be going much smoother. anything we can do to push this forward, I'm all for it. Thank you TU for your ever selfless generousity. Keep an eye on the left side of the site for more info as we get it together.

Truly sorry for your loss Joe, thankfully youre safe. The storm was only a category 1 when it passed my way, but last year Charley hit us pretty hard, areas north of me still has debris scattered & tarped roofs dotted along. Lake Okeechobee is still stained, but nothing like what Ive seen with Katrina. Theres a long road to rebuilding, Basskat, Joe, anyone else local, stay safe.

Heres a graphic of how a crankbait hunts, in my opinion. Some might agree that cranks can hunt only left or only right, but in my opinion, thats simply a bait out of tune, it must hunt left "and" right & return on track. hope it helps, good luck.

http://www.tackleunderground.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=6244

Ive been all over the state this weekend & Fort Lauderdale took a decent whippin. saw alot of downed power lines & trees in that area. Luckily it turned south, deep into the 'glades avoiding most of the populated area. but its heading north now in the warm gulf water. Alligator alley had a convoy of FPL servie trucks headin that way, miles long. If your in the projected path, do as they say, "prepare for the worst & hope for the best" My general area has seen alot of activity in the last 2 seasons. one of the costs to live in here year round. Take care.

Have it...... waiting for packaging materials.

A couple things to keep in mind.... If an organization does form, it will have NO bearing on your TU membership. the organisation should be an independent entity. I like the general idea, sure it needs alot of discussing, but I, myself might wanna join someday & I dont want TU to have any bearing on my acceptance or denial by being affiliated with it. Nathan mentioned that I offered forum space for the organization, but I would be just as happy to help find webspace for a separate forum/site. just to ensure that theres no confusion. My opinion is that any initial board members should be voted in by the public, based on what the person/s running intend to offer the organisation. Another term thats getting thrown around is "ranking" Nathan is just throwing out ideas, & ranking was one of em. Most associations or organisations wont do this, like what was previously said, if ranking is necessary, it should be done by the clientale, not the organisation. A board of members should simply approve or deny an applicant on a variety of criteria, what the criteria is, or should be, is what needs to be agreed on. I'm not trying to hush anyone whos upset by the idea, Im sure Nathan wants ALL feedback, good or bad. just my thoughts,

Hi Ryan, Good post, I had & still have alot of the concerns you are having, I can help with a few, but would also like input from anyone on the others. The mixer, 7.5 lbs of torque isnt bad, I have a variety of motors from small timers up to 200lb in. gearmotors & even with a 5lb. in gearmotor I cant stall the shaft with my barehand. a couple considerations are the diameter of the pot, as the torque load should be greater as the mixer paddle travels farther away from the shaft. Another is the durometer (shore) of the plastic. The mixer will see the most work on initial heating & cooling of your pouring sessions, of course if youre using virgin (not reheated) plastic, then its no problem as the viscosity is best in the liquid/virgin state. I'm probably wrong here, but most lure plastisols are @ a 5-10 shore durometer, if that translates into tear strength (lbs.) then your motor torque should be fine. we've had members who use 5 gal Sta-Warm pots, but my handbuilt pot is only gonna be 2 gallons. Blanket heating is the best way to go IMO, blanket heating is obviously better for consistency. Thats why microwaving is so popular versus using a burner, the heat is delivered consistently over the whole batch for the most part. If you will be depending on a mixer, however the single bottom element might not be a problem for you. Digital thermostats are the most accurate, this might be the most important investment to make. as you know, lure plastisol has a pretty small window between good pouring temp & scorching, so.... Id like input on ball valves vs. rod valves & if the valves are heated & how. Have Ni-crome wire, will travel.