Delw

when I first started pouring I used candle dyes on the wood stains we were buying a few colors from one company ( our root beer) and it had a hazzard lable on it, when I opened it it smelled familiar. April quite selling it due to it would need a hazzord fee via UPS. anyway I was in the guys shop next door re making his wood router machine and I smelt that smell again. asked him what it was and he said wood stain sure enough it was and worked just the same. it only takes 1-2 drops per cup too so you dont need alot, and there are a ton of colors that are not offered in coventional colorants. The rest I picked up by customers and on this forum so I tossed them in as well. The oil paint one was pretty cool but I have found the colors are more opaque.

yes the thin metal ones, lurecraft sells them walmart target etc etc.

Yes Frank just grab a regular screw driver and drag it towards you away from the cavity ( dont push it) that will give you a vent line. do it a few times run some sand paper over it to clean the burr off and your good to go. Molds DONT fill from the bottom, the push plastic from the Injection port top to the bottom push air out even if you shot it upside down. were ever there is a vent will be the place the plastic pushs towards or pushs the air out.

wood stains are AWSUM oil base paints ie oil paints wax colors from hobby stores, the liquid wax colors work best but the chunks of dye also work just need to be mixed very well. pretty much anything that Doesnt contain water works. Crayons in a Pinch Delw

best advice DONT USE PYREX to pour with use a small 1 cup pouring pan (like mom used to use to make cakes with) stainless or alum. fill it up 1/4 or less Never OVER 1/4 you can pour 1/16 lines with very little practis. now before you run out and buy a measuring cup to erase any doubt, goto the kitchen grab a coffee cup or glass. fill it with water and try to pour a small stream. Next to impossible.. now take that same glass fill it up 1/4 full and pour. what happens is you want to be able to turn that pan almost 90 degrees before the plastic comes out other wise it will run down the side. Dont forget after each pour whipe off the tip of the pan use a chunk of dried plastic it works best. you can use your pyrex to heat the plastic up then pour in the pan after heated. Wall mart sells them very cheap. if they dont have a spout just take a pair of dykes and bend a small one in . you really dont need anyspout. if your hands are shakey, get a yellow pages phone book, lean up against the counter put the mold on the oopsite side of the phone book, rest your wrist on the phone book and pour away. it helps me alot when I have shakey hands.

all the injected tubes the tails are already formed no need to cut. I should have some pics up tomorrow or friday. the hand pour tubes you need to cut tails, with the exception of hand poured 10" tubes, but thats like throwing a hotdog down a hallway.

I will give you the most honest best answer I can its very simple too because thats what the customer who asked for the first mold wanted as it was told to him by someone that IT WAS A MUST to have them at 90 degrees. now for the detailed better explainatiion. in most cases it makes NO difference. in some cases it does make a different, it has Nothing to do with drawing plastic from the resivour as you can see either way it will draw plastic from the resivour. As far as the molds I make with 90's or straights is do to a few factors. One mainly what the customer wants then also it has to do with material length. a mold with a 90 degree runner may fit in a mold 1-2 inchs less, thats 1 -2 inches less of material cost. other reasons are alot of guys dont clamp molds down in a vice so there narrow and very tall, using a 90 degree port makes it so the can lay them down for easier shooting, and of coarse its the way I decided at the time to do it. the paticular molds you have is that I personally like the top pour ones, but in all honesty when I first made that mold I had the stock all ready cut to length and went with it. it worked fine so I left it at that, on the side vent one as I said above the customer I made the first one for insisted on a side shot. the big spruce size is kinda a overkill to be honest. its way way too big, spruces dont need to be more than 5/16 in width, BUT again is was something that People have been told that IS A MUST. 30 cavity nolds shoot just fine with a 1/4 - 5/16 90degreed side spruce. for people who suck alot of air into a injector then a big spruce helps but not always. in these 2 particular molds it doesnt make a bit of difference which way its done as I have done them both ways. both should shoot just fine, I have never heard any feed back other than people having there plastic too cold to shoot, I was always told that those 2 molds shoot flawless baits. They are shooting good right or are you saying there not and thats why the question? I would never tell anyone to learn how to shoot so that aint coming from this shop. Delw

dave never change your ways,posts or pics, there is always good coming out of them at one time or another. Remember the one guy that wanted just spruce's ran for his full round pop molds? and someone came up with the idea of using the big Golf Tees, that was cleaver for sure. I was looking for that post a while back to repost it on one of the pop mold making qustions and couldnt find it.I thought someone even posted some pics of it.

if its in the plastic before you add anythign there is nothing really that can be done. there are some additives ( keroseen works too) that take just a few drops. when adding salt it will happen but it all depends on how much moisture your salt has in it. always put corragated cardboard in your salt container it will help reduce moisture ( its an old reloaders trick for gun powder) you can also back your salt in a over at 150 degrees or somewhere around there. that will take the moiture out. someone told me about this or posted it here long ago. on scents as long as its oil based you wont have bubble issues like mentioned above. Years ago I used to use kicken bass which was water base, I dumped it in the pot before pouring after the plastic was nice and hot. yes it popped and splattered a tad but it work and since I was using a bottom pouring pot(lee) I had no bubble issues. cooking your plastic on a stove vs the microwave will also reduce bubbles and again having a bottom pouring pot will help as well as the bubbles rise to the top. as far as heating and waht to add before, like they all said above, softener, hardener and flo colors should be added before, colors its better to add before as you get a brighter more truer color but not necc. one good thing about adding colors after is you can see the exact color you want instead of before cooked when the plastic is white.. The best method by far is the oven or stove, while not the fastest or cleanest method it will give you less of a headach than nuking it. your colors will be much better and your plastic will be much clearer. Delw

This is why I like engineers, they go way above. ( and thats a good thing) With daves Drawing you can use it for reference on future projects as its a very good drawing and well thought out like everything he does. on what was first posted and trying to accomplish, I wouldnt recommend adapters they are a waste of time and energy plus they are cumbersome and you have to clean them out. just taper/chamfer the tip of the injector nozzle. All ours are tapered for this very reason, Ie hand poured molds.( I am not saying buy my injector cause its tapered cause I dont like making injectors as it takes me away from making molds) but you can taper the tip on any injector using the method that I mentioned above.A chamfered tip will fit on any size hole( to the size you chamfer it down to) wether the hole on the mold is chmfered or not. Sometimes we over complicate things for something that is really simple, but in over complicating things you learn other ideas. Forgot to add: I just walked into the shop. I will snap a pic in a few of what I am talking about. or you can call the shop and I will explain how, this week our hours are wierd cause our house is being reroofed from a hail storm and I have to get the patio cover rebuilt before they show up, then I find out we got another storm coming intomorrow night with freezing rain and the contrete is being poured tomorrow. Delw Delw

Mark LMAO Steven Segal is applying for the job now. he just moved into town and doing a series with the sheriffs dept. We thought forsure he was going to be at Christmas dinner with The Wardens(aprils) Family, he called at Thanksgiving dinner LMAO Delw

I am too lazy to search for the post that I posted a while back, all you need is a hand drill and a file thats your lathe right there. goto the hardware store and find a bolt that fits in the hole of the tip, your going to use this as an arbor. and chuck into the drill. double nut the bolt on the tip and make it tight then chuck it into the drill spin the drill and use the file to put an angle on the tip. when using a file you need to use a coarse file(faster) with lots of soapy water/ wd 40/ oil as the alum will load up the file teeth if you dont. you will need to move the file side to side, so it cuts dont just hold it there in one spot. now on the molds you need to do this. press out the bolts (c clamp and a socket) get a pcs of wet and dry sand paper 180 grit works great. put the sand paper on a smooth flat surface ( kitchen counter top smooth) and put the cavity side down on the paper and do figure 8s with it. it will sand the face flat and take out any burrs. press bolts back into the mold with a c clamp and socket ( poor mans press) the paper should be coated with wd-40/ mineral spirts or soap aand water, this will keep the paper from loading up. if you dont do this you will get some extra plastic on the seam lines when injecting as the mold isnt flat. DONT try drilling the hole with a hand drill and a 5/8 drill bit, as the holes in the mold are too big and the drill bit will grab and ruin your mold unless you have something very rigid to hold both the drill and the mold so they dont move. a vice on the mold and your hands on a hand drill WONT work. A drill press might if its a stout one and you can get it below 200 rpms.

http://www.napaonline.com/Search/Detail.aspx?R=BK_7151245_0282450456 obviously you dont use the hose. the last year the cup washers changed havent held up to heat very well, you can get replacements from many stores that last longer, or you can get a insert made that uses O rings instead of cup washers Suction Gun, 1 PT Product Line: Balkamp Part Number: BK 7151245

no you didnt I did because I mentioned "Suction gun" "Napa" and "10 bucks" all in the same sentence. Making injections guns in my opinion are a waste of time and a waste of money on the customers part when you can buy one that works perfectly out of the box from your local hardware store for 10 bucks, and its SAFE and the tips dont fall off as they are screwed on, not to mention they hold alot of plastic. They also have a chamfered tip. Delw

your talking about the water based paint from Wallmart and some hobby store correct? it works and it works pretty good, first you need to clean the baits off with accetone or something that drys and gets the oil off. then thin the paint our with HOT water, dont thin it too much or too little than paint it on and let it sit for a day or 2. the water in the lake Wont rub it off very fast. I know I was shocked also. you can dip your bait as well after you painted. I have a pic somewhere of some swimbaits painted with the paint and was pretty shocked that it worked and stayed on. if your paint is Too thick it will crack, I was also told to bake it on with a heat gun or oven the nice thing about it is you dont have to worry about the fumes as its water based and its cheap. but the paint seems to produce a dull finish unless you dip them after they are painted Delw

Dave I disagree. the "thermal conductivity" of alum is best for baits, mainly due to speed heres an example. take any steel dont care what it it make a simple dropshot worm open pour do the same with alum. pour them and tell me which one is better. they will be Identical in the out put of the bait, the only difference you will have it lets say you want to round off the body ( the top where you pour in) because Steel stays hot if you pour higher than the cavity top surface it will flow over and you will have to trim baits like you do with RTV and POP, with Alum its not a problem and you can build it up pretty high and almost right away. as the thing corner of alum Thanks to the thermal conductivity Properties will col the edge almost immediatly cause the edge to cool the plastic allowing you not to over flow and requiring a trimming session. I found this out by accident years ago. being from the areospace/commercial machining background we like everythign debburred. I was using a cheaper not so sharp tool that kicked up a pretty nasty burr one day and one of my old employees came to help me out for a little while. He saw the molds and started to clean them up deburring the edge of the cavity buy lapping the face of the mold. They looked nice I mean really nice, however the ones that my customers got that had them before they mentioned now they have to trim baits. We thought it was the plastic. one day I was pouring for a tourny I was going to in another state and actually paying attention, I had a few of those nicely finished molds and some older ones and over poured almost every bait on the nice finished faced molds compared to the old molds as I was trying to build it up. Thats why I never ever sand the surface of a open mold(1 piece) that little .003-.005 burr that the cutter kicks up is NEEDED to keep people from over pouring and to round off open pour baits if someone elects to do so. I have run a steel CRS mold of the same dropshot worm and if you try to over pour the bait(rounding it off) it wont work like the alum mold and needs to be trimmed.its kinde like using RTV Delw

Heres some main reasons why bait molds are made from alum and not steel. COST of material Cost of cutting Tooling cost also its a benifit that they cool off faster, as you can pull a finished bait out faster. Ive made molds out of almost everything from CRS, Plastic, Alloy steels and even wood. Alum is the best ffor the situation that our bait pouring process is in. for injectors the best one ever made was/is from NAPA, its steel with threads and holds well over a pint all this for 10 bucks, guys have been using them for a long along time well before hand injection came to the hobbiest. Just dont mention it on any forum or you will get chastised seamless tubing in steel is pricey and the finish on others is not good enough to run O-rings in on most of it, without hoing it first, then it has to be polished. as if its not the plastic will stick, where as alum tubing the ID is already polished pretty much. the draw Back of steel molds are plenty of over pours in 1 pcs molds. ie requiring lots of trimming. the weight of the mold and believe it or not a CRS mold will warp far faster than a aluminum will.steel will also rust faster and pit faster than alum will with salt content. Alum molds for the hobbiest( even commercial aplications) wont warp under heavy use in the heats we use. I been into areospace, commercial and Real molds (not bait molds) since the 80's The "Areospace" industry just like the "Mold" Industy are a completely different ball game with totally different needs and uses other than the fact of tolorancing. everything else that applies to the areospace business can be throw out the door as it really had no place in the mold industry. when one talked about areospace its generally just the metals that are used, Inconell titanium, stelite, (hanse, mar, aka Ball Bustrium) waspoly and the list goes on then its just turning milling, grinding to hold the tolorances to those specs, As you know warpage and the hard spots of the high nickle alloys are sometimes a pain in the butt to machine, plus they have to hold in high pressure, high temps,High stress, and alot of not so metal friendy conditions The bottom line still runs he same COST. you wants to make the perfect mold get d2/o6 machine it heat treat it then edm it and Polish it. while the mold will last for ever maybe 100+ years do you want to buy one for $2000-$3000 that would be a little 2-4 cavity one. There are hundreds of molds that are alum that are 20-40 years old and used in production and they still look as good as they did when new other than cosmetics. I've seen them one of my customers has a few(made from zorn I think) and they still produce perfect baits. Delw

I will give you the simplest best advice there is. If you think the bait looks cool, make it and sell it . remember one thing the "FISH" Dont buy baits its the "Fishermen" that buy baits. take a simple straight tail worm for example(berkley, zooom etc) in one color lets say black. take that same worm and pour a 3 color laminate( ROBOWORM) in it and you will sell 100-1 of them because they look pretty. For the most part the action stuff is more BS than anything else. ( I said for the most part) I can take a bait that has no action and pour it in a softer plastic and get a ton of action out of it. Now if I misunderstood you and your trying to sell your designs to a lure company chances are its NOT going to happen and if you Value your ideas and you want to make baits and sell them they last thing your want to do is show another BAIT COMPANY. I see hundreds of baits ever year, this year I only saw 3 very unique baits, 2 weres based off of something already made and they looked entrirely different and one was so damn simple yet so different that when its on the market your will crap your pants and say "Why Didnt I think of that". Even the Japanesse hadnt come up with this idea. BTW the Japanesse come up with the most unique baits I have ever seen and most if not all American baits are knock offs of them. There is no Magical Bait, its all about making them as pretty as possible and selling them, if they sell great if they dont tru something else till you find what people want. Delw

The elements are too close to the mold using a toaster oven. best advice is to warm them up in the house before using them. the other thing is that going from a cold mold to a hot mold also produces moisture aka sweating of the alum. qhich creates other problems. leave pins screws or what have you in there and they will corode/rust alot faster, and oxidation will happen much faster if your using salt on the cavity itself ie damaging it. this also goes for when your done pouring and shut off the heat in cold climates, if they cool to fast and also your pins or bolts are in them your going to start the corrosion proccess. Its always best not to rush pouring especially if you can damage a mold in doing so., Delw

get a dremal tool and cut out a pocket for the hook to hold, or send it to someone to cut a hook pocket out, its very simple to do both ways, if your a hack like me with a dremel then cut an opening in each side of where you want the hook to go alot bigger than the harness/ jig/hook. then fill it up with bondo or something with your hook in there cloase the mold and let it cure. if you have an open top and the hook needs to come out of the top the simplest way is to use a paper clip to steady the hook and hold it center. Delw

there are a few ways to do it, lot of people thread them on very quickly its easy. if your going to shoot them with the line and hooks installed its a pain in the butt but only for putting a hook in each bait. 2 hooks tied together is a pain in the butt to get to lay on the mold so you can close it using mono. Wired worms you can shoot at any temp, mono tieing the 2 hooks together need to be injected or poured at a very low temp( injection is the best for low temps. as low as you can go) Braid works well as it doesnt twist when laying in the mold tied with the hooks on. Delw

its very Simple DON'T go above 250-300º Sure you can probaly go hotter but your gong to loose the shineness in your molds after a bit is it worth it? the baits after a while will start sticking more and more to the molds, you will start having to oil them to just get a good finish. I've posted this before a few years ago. NEVER LAY YOUR ALUM MOLD ON A BURNER, A TOASTER OVEN IS TOO CLOSE ALSO. Besides there is NO reason too. unless your pouring in a very cold climate. I dont know how to explain it in technical terms but having a mold close to the element burns the surfaces of the mold and makes them more porus, causing the bait to stick. I know a guy that set his mold on a hot plate and it screwed them up big time. you have to scrape the plastic out. heres kinda a exagerated example. a endmill that cuts the mold cuts on the outside edges of the tool but in the center of the tool it doesnt cut, its rubs the material off(machinist that have run lathes will undestand IE constant suface finish the center of the part is actually NOT spInning) anyway what happens is since the tool in the center is NOT cutting and more burnishing/rubbing is bends the material ( IE the surface of the mold)this is what gives you a very nice finish when you put it into an oven with direct heat those little bent/rubbed fragmets of alum that are smashed in will burn off opening the alum to a very porus state causeing a bad finished bait. Theres a process called heat deburing that machine shops use in the industry on critical corners. it burns the burr off on very critical parts. This heating of the molds have gotten very carried away recently and people are messing up there molds. Further more I have never seen an injection mold or injector that needs to be heated up EVER in order to get it to shoot. if you have to heat them up on injection you are doing something wrong. room temputure should be just fine. The surface of alum will stay colder than the inner core, if you heat the surface of alum too hot you will have the problems.Alum is a big heat sink and of coarse the surface is what cools first. an easier way to look at it is Prfessional injection machines use chilled/unchilled water to cool the mold, there plastic is the same as yours temp wide even cooler in some cases. they dont need to heat the molds to run 30-100 baits every 1-2min, so why do hand injections need it? Delw

Thats a myth that has been around a long time. Doing so makes no difference in the softness of the bait once it cools off. while in your hands it looks like it is more flexible its only due to it being warm. soon as it hits the water it goes right back to the way it was. Like Ghost said though heating them up to straighten tails works good, I wouldnt use water I would use a heat gun or the Arizona sun and hang them by the nose

It really doesnt have anything to do with the price and what mold makers will make off of plastic and molds.. Most crappie guys traditionally havnt made there own baits as far as a hobby is concerned. the commercial bait sellers have molds but there many cavities, and most are doing it with hand injection. they can shoot around a 100 baits in one shot hand injecting. Also due to the size the baits are sold cheap enough that you dont need to spend a few hundred bucks in molds, as that will buy a heck of alot of crappie lures. Bass lures are expensive compared to crappie baits. not to mention a guy with a quart of plastic and make a heck of alot of crappie baits. a crappie mold will generally run about the same price if not higher than a bass mold due to how fast you can run your machine, the smaller the cutting tool the slower the feed rate meaning more time equalling more cost. the other thing is Crappie guys arent near as picky or anal as bass guys on colors and detail and because of that they dont mind spending a few bucks for generic lures off the shelf. to get a good detailed crappie bait your running endmills less than .046 in dia. most common size is around .02-.025 dia. in a bass bait your typically running 1/8" diameter. between the 2 in feed rates is about 5-10 times as fast depending on the application, with the bigger endmill. I am doing one right now that is running a .015 diameter endmill its a grub kinda for perch and crappie that is about 1/2" long and 3/32 wide at its widest point, it has 30 cavities in it and its cost 1.75 times more than a 22 cavity 5 1/4" stick bait and the mold itself is about as big as a 7 cavity stick bait. I know I and another mold guy that have been making crappie baits in the early 2000's and they were injected baits. There not in big demand like bass baits, I get more demand of crappie baits if I can find someone to shoot them for the guys, As for the most part they just dont want to mess with making there own baits. Delw

put 2 1/4-20 nuts in the bottle (there cheap) and shake the crap out of every color you have before use. Pigment settles fast blues settle extreamly fast as well as white cause they are heavy. that will get you pure color again and allow you to use less drops, plus give you a consistant color for the entire bottle. Delw