Delw

if you need something rigid get some broom whiskers( the things on the push brooms) your plastic needs to be cooler when you pour it so it doesnt melt, you will have to try it to see what works best. the cool thing about the broom stuff is it comes in all different stiffness's

Your going to use a hot pot that has pressure? thats completely different than an injection machine . The problem with hot pots is that very few have an equal heating area, some spots get hotter than others basically its just a glorified lee production pot. Adding heat stabilizer is a must for ANY plastic that sits in a hot pot for more than 45 mins, its recommended that heat stabilizer is put in every 30 mins. the heat stabilizer is what burns off first and with out it ANY plastic will discolor over time. the amount of heat stabilizer you use should be about 2.5 oz per gallon of plastic. Frank Frank Frank, there you go talking about stuff and not getting the whole truth in the picture again. you haven't boughten any Calhoun plastic in what 3 years? well before the bubble issue. and if I remember correctly you quit buying it due to the price of shipping. Then your buddy bought some and had problems with it ( which we corrected for him immediately BTW , which you seem to never mention). I told him to dump the plastic as it wasn't good . Instead he gave it to you or you bought it from him and you used it, Now you have bad plastic but yet insinuate that its normal calhoun plastic. it was either you or your buddy who called to tell me that you were using it and I told one of you that it wasn't a good idea cause I would hear about it some how some way. and that was what a year and a half ago maybe a year? over the last few years you have always found a way to knock some one for something even if it has to do with stuff that should have been thrown away. I've seen you hammer almost every company that sells anything to do with bait making, even though the description of there contents was clearly marked everywhere, and you will probably continue to do so with out any clue what so ever. Either grow up or at least get your facts straight and tell the truth not just part of it to benefit your self proclaimed ego. For those who know me know I don't feed people full of BS and I don't favor one product over another, and I will help anyone that needs it whether you are using what we sell or anyone else's. The bubble issue with Calhoun, A nightmare if you ask me , however there are a lot of misconception about it. There are also a lot of BS running around from a few people as well. so lets get some facts. The bubbles started about 2 years ago. At first it was just a few customers and they didn't have the problems all the time, I didn't have problems not even the slightness then all of a sudden I did. then the next day Bam no problems. this problem went on for about 3-4 months, we had some outside testing done as well ( not affiliated with calhoun). There are all kinds of variables that fall into cooking plastic and trying to sort everything out is a pain in the butt. only ONE thing was common in the bubble issue from what we found and thats the microwave. if it was cooked in a pot or in a REAL injection Machine there was NO problems, about 6 months into this bubble issue the issue came up in an injection machine ( a real one) these guys have about 35 machines and shoot 1500 gals of calhoun plastic a WEEK if I remember correctly. then the problem went away as fast as it came. Occasionally we get some plastic that has bubbles in it. it always happens around NOV. why? I have no clue but we haven't ruled out moisture. We have found that in a microwave if you put your temp setting down to 3/4 or 1/2 it works better when and if you get bubbles. we also found that if you get bubbles then nuke the plastic for 15-30 seconds more and generally they dispearse. heres were some of it gets tricky. adding salt to ANY plastic will cause bubbles, Salt holds moisture. so in some of these posts I read they have bubbles and I try to get the details most of the time its due to salt. In talking to the outside source that did the testing for us, we found 2 things , one was moisture and the other was viscosity. in the viscosity the bubbles wouldn't rise to the top and burn off when we thinned the plastic out they did. The first time the bubbles came it was pretty bad, it was like foam on the top, we haven't had that problem again, nothing even close to it. Again its Nov. and some of my customers have said they got some bubbles and some have said they haven't again we go through this find the answer phase and again its a problem in the microwave. I've gotten bubbles 3 times in the last batch.and the rest of the time I haven't. I have some customers that have gotten bubbles and most have not. go figure. 3 customers of mine have boughten over 60 gallons in the last 4 weeks from this same batch and they have no issues, only one uses a hot pot, the other 2 use a microwave. this year starting in jan I didn't have any issued with any bubbles until the last batch. I think it was one customer who did and we narrowed it down to salt, as it was put in before the plastic was cooked. if you do get bubbles the plastic sit for a min or 2 then reheat it, try lowering your heat setting on the microwave. bubbles in a hot pot. Think about it does it really matter? since most hot pots pour from the bottom and the bubbles rise to the top. in an oven which best simulates a heat exchanger used by injection machines there are absolutely no bubbles ( with the exception of one time) I talk to people all the time, the bubbles happen in calhoun, lure craft m-f and a few that aren't very popular, calhoun in the microwave happens more often than the other. Calhoun sells thousands of gallons of plastic every week, mostly to major manufactures that make baits for cabelas, Bass proshops and a host of other companies. there are about 20 major injection companies that use calhoun, not to mention a ton of hand pour guys that use it buy the 55 gal drum every 2-3 days. Yellowing, that has everything to do with heat stabilizer not the plastic itself, Calhoun adds ton of heat stabilizer to the hand poured plastic because they know that it will sit in pots for a long time. EVERY plastic will turn yellow if sitting for great lengths of time, there is nothing you can do about it except add heat stabilizer to it and live with it. One of my customers ( mold customer) uses another brand of plastic he goes through 5 gallons in 2 hours in big 5 gallon stay warm pots and has yellowing issues, he added stabilizer and it reduced the yellowing a lot, he is working on it to get it crystal clear and he is almost there. If anyone has problems with it or questions feel free to call me, cause if I don't know about it , I can't figure out the problem with it, not to mention if it gets posted ( which I don't mind) there are a few that will talk just to hear themselves talk with out knowing the details of what the probelm really is. Delw

Rixon Bobby and I used it 5-6 years ago when pouring, once you do it and figure out how to use it , it pours great and suspends in the bait perfectly. the problem lies in that tungsten powder is just too expensive, and its going to get worse. Material that uses cobalt tungsten and a few other allows have quadrupled in the last 2 years, I have one type of material that I use to pay 18 - 20 bucks a lb for 2years ago, now its 92 bucks a lb. ( that was a quote form last week too) In all honesty the only thing it saves is tying on a weight and in all thats just a matter of seconds since you have to put on a new hook anyhow a weight doesn't take that long to do. Delw

dampeoples Its a full round mold, its not a flat sided mold. looks just like berkly 7 " worms

Dave. I will let the others tell you how it pours but I should make sure you understand how that 2 piece mold works. Due to the curly tail you have to pour the tail then close the mold and pour the body. doing that it works perfect just like a regular mold. there is no way short of injecting that you can get a curly tail mold to pour. While it sounds like ti takes more time it really doesn't as you pour the tail after you take the finished baits out. then close it and pour the body

Any tall alum can will work, it has its draw backs though. for one if you don't put it on a pancake griddle the plastic will cool off very fast. if you put it on the stove make sure you put a pan down first to distribute the element or flame evenly so it doesnt burn the metal can. set the metal can on the pan and it wont burn the bottom. However heat your plastic in the microwave first as its faster and easier to keep plastic warm then to start from scratch the other thing you can use is a paint sprayer can, liek the binks #7 copy paint guns they sell for dirt cheap at swap meets.. I think they are 7" tall

There are so many threads so i didnt know were to post this. I was playing Crafts with my 6 year old this afternoon , and she pulls out all kinds of weird items, so anyhow we are making dolls and crap ( no comments) and she asks me what this stuff is. she has a huge roll of it. I looked at it and tossed it aside. then started thinking, this would be the perfect pattern for scaling, as it is thick and thin so overspray wouldnt effect everything. heres a pic of it. My MIL got it at a dollar store, its for shelves no skid stuff I guess. its like a buck for 20 feet April says. Maybe its something you can use maybe not, from what I have seen its the best looking material so far to use as a template.

wood will work, however the biggest problem with wood is that its very porous and the plastic will stick to it and not slide off. I know guys that have painted devcon on wood and it wont bubble , the baits slid off easy also. but they only last a little while before the devcon starts to blister due to the moisture in the wood contracting and expanding Delw

Vinyl paint is pretty much what is used for soft plastics Delw

The thickness of the blade has absolutely nothing to do with teh thickness of the plastic or tail. the thickness is determined by 2 things only how many times you dip it and most importantly how hot your temp. of the plastic is. if you dip the blade in very hot plastic you will get a thinner tail, dipping it in cold plastic will give you a thicker tail, dipping it twice will give you a thicker tail. The problem with using remelts( on mass produced baits) is that the plastic is always to thin at almost any temp. it doesn't have the characteristics of hand poured plastics. It doesn't reset up like the Org. bait, anyone that has used mass produced plastics can attest to this. There are a few baits made by cabelas and Bassproshops that you can remelt, these baits are made with Calhoun plastic. If I remember correctly its the " living eye type baits" Injection plastic used buy the big boys runs about 1/6th of the cost of hand poured plastics. The big boys don't need to worry about smell, smoke and a few other things. all there stuff is done in a heat exchanger not on a pot or microwave. Too many people have wanted to get started in pouring baits and figured they would remelt plastic only to be turned off cause they aren't getting the results they want. I dip them in soft and I dip them in med, depending on the tail action I want. with a hollow tube it really doesn't make a difference in what type of plastic you use as you will still get the same effect. however the tail will just wiggle differently.

remelts are garbage and they are dangerous to use. they also won't work in most cases.

Find some shim stock or sheet metal, sually .050-.080 thick. cut it to fit in the hook slot of the org bait with about 1" hang out. mold it Walla you have your new mold with a bult in hook slot. you either have to permanately attach the sheetmetal to the mold or insert it in the mold each time its poured.

Liek OMNI said goto the doc. trust me its not worth it, Bobby and I were playing about 5 years ago with jans netcraft injector, well it melted in my hand and as you know you cant get that stuff off. My arm was burned pretty bad however my index finger for the first joint to the knuckle had no skin or meat, it was just bone. me being suborn didn't goto the doc. took probally 3-4 months to heal back up and get some growth over the knuckle took 1.5 years to were if the sun or something hot was near it. It wouldn't be painfull, I wasn't able to fish for 2 months and when I did I would just bust it open and bleed every were. working was a pain in the but and I had to do it one handed. I had one bad infection set in but I took care of that with a drill bit . if your like me and to stuborn to goto the doc. then when it does start healing keep it moist with vasoline it will keep the skin from getting tight when it heals and you should rip it open. But seriously burns are very dangerous due to infection see a doc, if it was bad enough to remove skin you really need to.

Very nice. one suggestion though, the tail needs to be at an angle to make it look like the real one. if you have any plans on selling them the angle is important.

Little craw Sorry I didn't see this, but I can probally explain it best. we try like heck to ship molds in 3-4 days, we try to keep the popular molds in stock. some molds we run every other day due to demand, sometimes we have to push them to run every 3 or 4 days. some molds we keep one in stock as they don't sell that often and then all of a sudden we get a run on them. what happens or can happen is that lets say on friday I have 10 of mold x and 5 of mold y. Monday morning comes along and there are orders for 11 of mold x and 10 of mold Y, now I am short anyway you look at it. molds can take up to 3 hours of just machine time Unfortunatly its only my wife and I who do this and there are only a certain amount of hours in a day I work about 12-18 hours a day 6 days a week. Then you Have the Del factor to throw into all this . what happens is April will have a list of things that she needs, I talk to someone on the phone and have my own list. I usually mess everything up Aprils the one that keeps everything perfect but then you throw me into the mix and OOOPS. I can tell you this the last 2 weeks have been hectic one custom job took about 80 hours of programming and set up and takes 7 hours of machine time per part. Oh yeah I wasn't feeling good the first part of last week so I lost about 3 days of work. Call April tomorrow and she will get it all straightened out. I don't know if she sent out all the tracking numbers on friday for what she sent out sat and late friday. We found it best if I stay off the phones and only do what I know how to do and thats make molds. Also I didn't take any offence to your post, no need to be sorry.

MDC I posted on another thread on how to do it. You can use a spinner bait colorado blade or you can buy one already made from US. Delw

If your plastic is discoloring its due to over heating more than likely. as far as setting up to quickly it sounds like your plastic is not hot enough. call the shop when you have 10 mins and I will run you through it. over pours can a problem with rtv molds, you got the right idea with the pouring cups. RTV molds will over pour a lot due to the hold heat, after a while you will get the hang of it. if your arm is too shakey try resting your wrist on the edge of the counter or a phone book. Are you standing up or sitting down, me personally I find it eaiser to stand up and lean over when I pour. A 2 piece mold is always easier to pour, however pouring a rtv mold should work with practice.

Absolutely incredable/ early last week they were like under 15 bucks. I dont visit ebay but maybe once every few months Thanks Delw

Tarakito, I couldn't find there name any were, sorry

Jim, its carolina rigging thats why you want them to float/have bouncy. I think I posted it a few months ago about using the swimming senkos, and the skinny dippers in a c-rig. who's paying up to $60 bucks for these baits, ebay as them all over for under 15 ( last time I looked and you can get them in the stores before 11 am for 10-11 bucks) I can't paint worth a darn and don't even try LOL so I couldn't help you sorry heres the post, its on page three as mentioned yes we have them

Hookset weight flexibility and the float

could it be a netting dipped in a powder paint than layed over the bait? the heat from the bait grabs some of it putting it on as scales? kinda like powder coating is used on lead. Speaking of which has anyone tried powder coating on hot or warm plastic???

Mike you might be onto something, however I have a bait here that is kinda weird as it has the scale pattern over the cup edge of the tail, which that I thought was the last dip. I noticed this cause when you said that it would be easy to tell, so I grabbed one bait, as I was looking at it I noticed the tail being painted and only on the edge. I looked through the rest of this bag and only 1 other had the same thing. the rest didn't show it on the edge. it is 8 scales tall. What I also notice is that the scales on the cupped tail go down half way to the bottom, but on the bait its only about a 1/3 of the way down the tail( since the tail is wider than the body). on the other side of this bait its very faint and not as pronounced but you can see the pinkish scales. My camera is at home, so tomorrow or tonight I will grab it and take a picture, it might open up a new way these scales are done.

To get the scale effect you need to airbrush them, do the airbrushing and put on the eyes then cip one last time, Heres one other way you can do it also if you don't want to airbrush but want kinda the same effect. Get some fishnet stockings ( no I don't own any) cut a little chunk of them off and drape them over the back of the bait, put the eyes on. then dip the bait. It won't affect the action that much as it wont be on the tail. It shouldn't make the bait much harder either. its worth a try. using that Idea you can also do different patterns using threads or thin yarns Delw

You can never mix it too much, all plastics separate no matter whos you use, its due to the different chemical compositions. M-fs is hard to tell if its mixed properly or not, thats why he told you to mix it very good. Using just a drill for a few mins is fine. Becareful when putting stuff in the plastic to make sure its clean. Just a little bit of color dirt or oil on what your using will cause the plastic to discolor. in your case I am guesing you over heated the plastic, as white is not very forgiving and its one of the hardest colors to keep. my advice is to use a heat stabilizer when using white or at least make your temp the lowest you can pour with. one of the biggest problems that hand pour guys have is that we don't mix the plastic near enough. most of us just shake it a few times and we are done with it. if you take time to mix the plastic correctly you wont have problems in the long run and everything will be consistant. Also when you do have problems you can eliminate the mixing part as being one of the problems.