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You can use it as a belly or vein color, or add liquid colors to it to get pearl blue, pearl red, pearl grape, etc for bellies, veins, tails, other laminate uses. I use hi-lite blue for my basic "pearl" color.

With the Lee pots you also have to adjust the temp control for: 1) Adding the plastic...when straight out of the microwave it will increase the temp of the plastic already in the pot, and will increase the tendency to scorch if you don't ride the temp down. Of course, you then have to run the temp back up once things have stabilized. 2) Volume changes...as the volume of plastic changes in the pot, so should your temp setting. Seems obvious, but I know I missed it for probably the first 3 batches or so. Less volume = lower setting, more volume = higher. I would also recommend using stabilizer in all colors when pouring with a pot. It is a big help. If you are wanting to pour with salt...sticks, straight worms, chunks...try the big Lee pot. It has a larger spout and allows the salt, plastic, and flake to flow more easily. I use the little Lee pots for worms, grubs, drop-shot stuff and the big pots for chunks, sticks, swim baits. If pouring sticks or other full round molds, you can also un-bolt the pot from the stand and re-attach it "backwards" so the pot hangs over space. This lets you clamp the pot to a work surface by the base, and gives the clearance needed for the 2-piece molds.

How about making the original mold from resin? Would set up faster and let you make a plastic or RTV master proto bait for reproducing in whatever molding medium you prefer. You could even do it as a one piece pour-over, then cut the halves apart to release the dead fish. Curious...how bad does your workshop smell CC?

I believe Barlow's has it as well.

A few answers: 1) Detail is very good with all of the materials used. The beaver molds show the detail that can be acheived, the craw is a smooth finish bait. 2) I split the beaver molds because I found them too wide to conveniently pour using Lee pots when they were a 2 cavity mold. I pour using drywall tape knives to hold and position the molds under the pour spout (keeps what is left of my fingers away from the hot goo). As a 2 cavity mold it was difficult to position the mold without bending into strange angles...a problem if you have 10 or so molds lined up and 2 to 3 pots running side by side. When split, I can line two single cavities up nose to tail on the tape knife and let it rip. 3) Smooth On has info on coloring their RTV. I was going to paint the cavities on a couple of the molds with some dark worm dye and see if that would work. 4) The only difference I can tell between the aluminum original and the RTV version is that the aluminum mold tends to produce a little thicker bait. I don't think this is the result of shrinkage when molding. It seems like the plastic, maybe due to faster cooling, sort of pools up a bit more in the metal mold.

I have a couple of Balsa B's from Hustler. He shoots a nice bait and does a super job on the old Bagley colors.

Interesting. I am still using up my big bottles of the old formula. Does the new C-tex handle any differently? Shooting? Clean-up? Coverage? how does it respond to clearcoating?

Pics of RTV molds: 1) Dark blue mold at left (craw 2 cavity) is made from Smooth On SoothSil 930 platinum cure silicone. This is the silicone that failed to cure when poured over soft bait masters. It cured nicely (although I may have gone a bit overboard with the activator, judging by color) when poured on and over a hard master (plastic resin "mother", mold box, replicator box, whatever you name it). In this case, the resin master was prepared from 2 part liquid plastic (Smooth On 300 series) and had been lacquer coated with a clear spray lacquer. Mold cured overnight, has nice shiny cavities, and demolded from the master with a tug at both ends. This RTV, or one of the same line with a higher shore hardness, might have some applications for lead molding or foamie crankbait molding. Seems a much tougher material. 2) The clear mold at top is made from Smooth On Mold Max 27T. It was made over a soft master of an aluminum mold (see my post from spring 2005 for process). This is one of the molds that caused concern due to what seemed an excess of bubbles when poured and while curing. The cavities cured nicely and seem to be unaffected by the bubbles. I still think this product would be easier to use if de-gassed. After pouring about 60 or so baits the 27T molds produce a nice bait with adequate detail. **Only negative, and it is a big one, is the transparency of the material. It makes it very difficult to see cavity detail when pouring, esp under a Lee pot. This might not be such an issue with a "straight" mold like a worm, fry, reaper, etc. Cost is good, in the neighborhood of $80/10# or so. 3) The light blue mold at bottom middle, is made from TinSil 70-25 from US Composites. Previously I had some issues with bubbles, cure, and set-up with this material, but am now attributing those to operator error. When poured over a soft master (same type as the Mold Max 27T) it produced a mold with many of the same characteristics as the Lure Craft RTV yields. The mold has excellent detail, sharp edges, and is quite a bit more flexible than LC RTV or either of the Smooth On products used to date. Cost is similar to the SmoothSil 930...about $110/gallon (9 or so pounds). 4) The slightly darker, used looking mold, at right is made from LC RTV over the same master, and is included for comparison. Cost $240/gallon or so. A good and forgiving product in most of my experiences. All the beaver molds were made as 2 cavities, then cut down the middle for ease of use. Just an explanation of the rough edges.

You can also just bore out the FB head mold to fit a 1/8" weedguard with a dremel, or a drill bit. Works fine on my mold. The FG 30's are also available in varied stiffness and more colors than the FG 12.

Maybe injured shad swim backwards...but then, I sometimes paint rogues upside down on purpose so maybe I'm a bad one to judge Looks good. Don't fret Finlander...you will still need the airbrush for backs, bellies, shading, tinting the clearcoat over the foil, etc.

Del is right on. Even on cavities that look like they have poured correctly you still need to go back and top off the sprue. I think this is because we are pouring a full round bait without benefit of pressurization to force the air out. In this case gravity and the incoming hot plastic have to gradually push the air out of the cavity. You can actually hear and feel it leave the cavity if you pay close enough attention while pouring with one of the stik molds.

Scent or oil can help with the "wet look" on dull baits. If using a resin mold you can apply a light coat of worm oil, PAM spray, etc to the cavity before pouring. If RTV, it is sometimes due to the prototype bait that was used to make the mold. I have had some success increasing the shine from an RTV mold by "overpouring" the mold...putting the mold in a corningware type dish then pouring the cavities full and continuing to pour until the entire mold and surrounding area are covered. Not sure exactly what it does chemically or physically, but most RTV molds will start to "sweat" oil and water (maybe breaks down the carbon compounds?) and will then sometimes produce a shinier bait.

The dark side...I like it. Skeet must have seen me wearing my hand pouring respirator! Ok, from the dark side then, in order of ease of use: 1) Devcon 2) FC 3) Etex I put Etex below FC only because it seems to be the one product that continually comes up as requiring modification, thinning, adjustment, etc. Devocn and FC are basically both apply and wait for cure, just different time frame and thickness. Devcon is no doubt the easiest place to start, and importantly, it is usually readily accessible in most areas.

Update on molds 3/11/06: Well...the Mold Max 27T molds (tin cure silicone, translucent) cured and set up just fine. This was the material I expected not to work due to initial bubbles. A quick rough test pour was a success...nice pour, nice de-mold, nice baits. Surprisingly, the SmoothSil 930 (platinum cure silicone, blue) didn't work worth a sh*t. Total cure failure on any surfaces exposed to the soft plastic. This is the most significant setback I have had with any RTV, and the first time I have seen it fail to cure. Will try it on some hard molds (silicone safe clay proto's, hard plastic mold boxes). Will re-try and post some pics when time allows. Failure = increased motivation to succeed.

Yeah, Skeeter was the recipient of some pretty ugly and definitely unnecessary follow-ups in those previous clearcoat threads. sad to think you can't exchange ideas and info without getting piled on. I have stated before that he is THE man on devcon. If I could get his results with devcon I would never use flexcoat except on rods. Sadly, I have had bad luck with the glue, so FC it is for me.

Flexcoat gives you a nice easy to work with finish. Biggest issue is drying time. Check out some of the Decvon vs Etex vs FC vs the rest of the clearcoat world posts from a couple years back for LOTS of good info on clearcoats.

Most of the molds I make end up somewhere between 100cc and 300cc of mixed RTV, regardless of the type of RTV. That is for molds like a 4-5 cavity chunk mold, 2 cavity beaver mold, 4-6 cavity finesse mold, etc. To get a rough estimate...the 10# LC kit is packed in a gallon jug, at more or less 3785cc per gallon. If you use 200cc as an average mold volume, you are looking at about 18 or so molds. You can do a lot to minimize waste by spending a good amount of time planning and setting up your molds. Update on molds: The Mold Max 27T is setting up better than I expected. Surface bubbles on what will be the botom of the mold are not as problematic as they might have been, waiting to see what the cavities look like. Used soft mold forms so they will take a bit longer than 24 hours to completely cure.

On the whole, RTV silicone has always been the best do it yourself moldmaking compound. Price is usually the limiting issue, but alternate suppliers are minimizing that. It is (in most forms) easy to mix, pour, provides great detail with minimal mold clean up (no dremel), and lasts years with some care. There are also some great methods for using RTV to quickly reproduce a successful mold. Just make sure you use a prototype that is compatible (no sulfur clays, no un-sealed wood), and spend a good amount of time laying out and planning your mold to minimize waste.

Just poured 6 molds using 2 of the new RTV's I ordered recently from Smooth-On. Poured 2 with Mold Max 27T, a translucent tin-cure silicone, and the other 4 with Smooth Sil 30, a platinum-cure silicone. Both are 10:1 mix by weight (or volume + class A eyeball). Of the 2, I am happier initially with the ease of use and pouring of the Smooth Sil. It mixes and handles similarly to the RTV from LC or Barlows. The Mold Max looks like it really needs to be degassed, lots of bubbles, but it is still early. Will post a follow-up when the molds have cured. Also have some of the Smooth Sil 920, a 1:1 product, and some Mold Max 15 (lower or softer shore hardness) to play with. Rough prices...$80/10# kit of Mold Max, $115/10# kit of Smooth Sil.

Just getting into swim baits and they are challenging the limits of my laminated bags. Anyone have a better way without going to the clam-paks like Big Hammer uses?

...and sometimes the paint job adds to the action. Example: a painted rogue or pointer that works a little deeper, rises a little slower, has a more subtle action due to the added weight of the paint and clearcoat (devcon, etex, FC, whatever). Another example: crankbaits that will run a little deeper and rise slower. I have a ton of painted warts, most will get at least 1-2' deeper than factory warts (pre-normark). Also depends a lot on the fish and the lake...cold clear water and spots or brownies will tend to favor color, mud and largemouth probably action.

Scroll saws are cool. Neat cuts and you get to keep all (or most of) your fingers. You will definitely need one once you get sick enough to want to cut your own lexan lips.

Yes press fit or some sort of tap and die threaded assembly would probably serve better over time.

US Composites products were about the same as LC, with respect to bubbles. Really, all of this goop should be degassed, but some will work for countertop production. As for longevity...I have some RTV molds I made in 1997/98 (zippers & chunks) that have seen literally several thousand pours per cavity without issue. As some posts mention, the color of the mold may change & there may be some loss of flexibility with prolonged heating (meaning getting the mold hot and keeping it there, as when pouring several hundred of a given color) but with care should still yield a nice bait. Some of mine have become "sweaters" with age...sort of a greasy oil/water moisture that seeps out, esp as they cool. Has not affected the cavities or quality of pours so far. Obviously if moisture gets in a cavity you need to wipe it out.

Maybe this will work: