Delw

Yamamoto sells skirts they are what is called a double skirt. skirt then small solid part then skirt. looks like this kinda |-| you cut it in the middle of the solid part and you now have 2 skirts, this solid part will fuse, glue, attach to the bait you want to put it on.

Skirts really can't be poured they need to be injected. for example, what I do is buy yamamoto skirts then take a razor and cut them in half ( you get 2 out of one). the way I put them on is when I am pouring I have hot plastic so I dip the skirt in the hot plastic and then hold it on the freshly poured bait for a few seconds.

we been putting skirts on baits for years, brushhogs worms beavers pretty much everything, to me it gives a little extra time to set the hook, what I've been told is that with a skirt on a bait the fish things something is alive in there mouth

Don't forget this bait was designed to be fished with a leaded hook, gamy and a few others make them, the lead shank of the hook will be inside the hollow belly

or you can make one out of POP then its just your time involved and very little money. I've seen used ones on ebay go higher than they sell for new

The bait Stays that way, they won't close up. Now if you really have a tough bite the nice thing you can do with this type of Bait including the Basstrix one as it is made the same way is that you can add scents and or a little silver glitter into the tube section, The glitter thing is pretty cool as that way it looks likes scales coming off, I Don't use scents so I can't comment about that part of it other than it would hold them longer inside the tube than outside.

Like Jeff said it will almost always have a flat side, unless you over pour it, however you will never get the detail on the back side of a 1 piece mold like whats on the bottom side. The piece version I made was due to shaky heads became so popular, its a full round worm completely different than the trick worm or any other worm. it also has more action due to the full round on the back tail being thick. http://www.del-mart.com/shop/product.php?productid=16785&cat=0&page=1&featured Also on a 2 piece mold they don't need to be injected. the ones made by me bobby and a few other guys are made for hand pouring Rumor Has it some big bait manufacturer just came out with this design 2 weeks ago. one of my customers was telling me. There was no reason to make a 2 piece worm mold with a flat side on the link you posted as the price is a major factor just to get the same results as a one sided mold. And no one laugh at my pinkish color cause that was the best color on the lakes and still is here in az, heck I even got checks with that color.

Heres a pic of a little 3" one I play with. Didn't have time to do the dipping part but you get the idea. #1. dip to the #1 arrow, I dip in red color mixed with lots of pearl powder. let it set till the plastic doesn't sag( cools off). #2. dip to the #2 arrow , dip in a transparent color so you can see the pearl but still have a color tint. let it set till the plastic doesn't sag( cools off). #3. then Glue on eyes and paint it if you want to. #4 dip in a clear plastic to the edge where #3 is marked, I usually add a gold hi-lite to the clear plastic on the final dip, sometimes even a drop of Black in it. #5 let it cool for a bit then when its still warm slide the rod out through the tail, if you pull slowly it won't tear or rip, plastic does stretch you can see on #3 that my edge is a bunch bigger than a spinner blade, I do this because I like more of a cupped tail and this way the tail is more ridged on the edges and holds better. if your going to burn them( reel very fast) in use a tad hard plastic. I use soft plastic on mine. Its also a good idea to have a little cut on the end of the rod ( past the #3) so you can hang it on something and do others while your waiting. if you have 10-20 of the knifes you can do all of step one then all of step 2 etc. the one thing that needs to be mentioned is that the plastic will form the body and make it thicker in different spots by the way you hold the knife ( the plastic sags when its hot). holding at a 45º degree angle will give you a fat head and fat belly. It something that you need to play with over time

Sorry been busy, your only dipping the plastic to the edge of the blade not over it, the plastic that stays on the blade is plenty thick enough ( temp. has alot to do with the thickness of the plastic) if you use a colorado blade its very thin, but it works. just rub your finger along the edges and the excess plastic will come off. The knife slides right out of the back end of the bait when it is warm Delw

The tail insert should be attached to the knife, on the last dip, dip it all the way to the edge of the tail. I left that out thinking that maybe it was understood, sorry for the confusion. after your eyes are on and its painted then you dip to the tail, if you use two dips the tails get too thick and they don't work.

Rockylynx Do this. Heat some plastic up in a pyrex cup, Grab a kitchen knife dip it once in the plastic let it cool. about an inch Dip it again just a little farther up let it cool ( another half inch) dip it again about a half in higher. let it cool put your eyes on it and paint it if you want. Then dip it full length let it cool when its still warm but solid pull the knife out slowly. Now you have a finished bait with a hollow center. Its really that simple. takes a few mins. Holding the knife different ways and directions will allow the belly and head to get fat. Generally hold the knife at a 120

Jason, I've been swamped these last few days, I will get some pics soon and how to do it. Bassbug, yes and no, in all honesty its far cheaper and a lot faster to dip them than pour them and unless your wanting 10-50 cavities its not really justifiable when dipping is this easy. I do have some stock on the knifes and tail parts. I will try to get some pics and write something up and put the pieces online as well later in the week. it basically boils down to is it worth it to buy a mold for around 100 bucks and still not go as fast as dipping, vs the parts running around 20 to dip with. Don't get me wrong I would love to sell molds but in my honest opinion its not worth it to the customer in this case. HAHA I suck as a salesmen don't I.

Using the microwave with that mold will give you pretty good results, or you can buy a cooking pot heat your plastic in there and then pour it into pyrex to pour. Lee Production pots don't work well due to salt and glitter clogging, not to mention its very slow at pouring for this type of mold. Best thing to do, Goto the store and buy a alum pot 1 quart - 2quarts buy a small cookie sheet or something flat. Place the cookie sheet on a big burner , then place your cooking pot on it. heat the plastic in the microwave pour it into the cooking pot. ( the heat from the burner will keep the plastic hot) I am guessing maybe 3 cups plastic for 50 maybe 2? pour the cooked plastic into a pyrex measuring cup and pour into the mold. Heating the plastic in the microwave is quicker. Thand heating it in a pot. The cookie sheet keeps the plastic in the cooking pot from scorching on the bottom as the cookie sheet will spread the heat out more. The pyrex measuring cup will give you fast flows when pouring, Yes you can premix colors hope that helps Delw heat teh plastic in the microwave, then pour it into the pan.

Jason, its 10 times easier and less time consuming to dip them then pour them, plus its a whole lot cheaper. I was dipping some last night

Ian there is a few guys messing with that at the university of melborne in austraila (Sp) its one of those big universitys down there. We made them some molds if I can find the name I will pm it to you.

I think Ghost was saying he used the paca craw as a jig trailer. Thats what I do Delw

for a hollow one just modify the mold to take a rod and pour around it. I also use them for jig trailers only as well

Most Commercially produced baits are made with low end plastic, they are also made for injecting and may or may not have different chemical properties and impurities. Hand poured plastics is made for the hand poured guys, and is made so it doesn't stink ,cures etcs. its more of a clean plastic so to speak. the other thing with commercial plastics is that they add scents and other ingredients to there baits, so when you melt them down and pour them they tend to stay soft, stink and smoke really bad etc. some of them won't even harden back up. Stay away from remelting baits if you can unless its from your hand poured plastic. on senkos don't reheat used ones because if they have been in the water they will absorb moistures causing your plastic to bubble really bad which could be dangerous as water boils at 212º and plastic needs to be heated up to around 300º

Shane, don't rule out poly glitters they have worked for years and they still have a very good purpose, most people don't pour plastic hotter than what poly's will withstand. some colors you can only get when the glitter bleeds. Its always good to have both types in your shop for certain situations. Like everything else there are pro's and cons to both.

Metal glitter is rated at 400º-425º not 365º like I had said in the above post, April corrected me sorry.

I've been using metal glitter since day one in the microwave and it works fine. we been selling it since day one as well the thing you have to watch with glitter and thats all glitter is if you just pour it in then heat your plastic with out stirring it , it will spark. when you reheat make sure you cut the glitter that settles to the bottom out of the plastic as it is usually a big clump on the bottom and the reflectivy might cause it to spark. then after your plastic is hot stir the clump in till it melts and then reheat. The spark is not caused by metal its cause by reflectivity(sp). Even poly will spark if its really bright. you can take a cube of metal and cook it in the microwave with no problems as long as it is not reflective. there was a great episode on mydth busters last year about metal in the microwave, well worth watching if you ever get the chance. it will explain many things that will make sence to guys who cook plastic in them. Also A microwave will only heat/cook if there is moisture in what your cooking, if you have absolutely no moisture it wont even heat. That also explains why some people in different parts of the country gets bubbles in thier plastic and others don't and then sometimes they don't get any at all. Metal glitters will hold heat about 60º I think its 365º. better than the poly stuff. the bigger the flake the more of a chance you have at curling due to the surface area and it being very thin. while .035 glitter will not curl at lets say 365º for example. .125 or .062 might. this is also the same for poly glitter as the super small stuff wont curl at one temp while the .035 and bigger will. a simple test to understand it is if you take a piece of tin foil and cut a very small piece hold it in some needle nose pliers and apply a flame or over a burner, you will see it curl, do the same with a bigger piece and it will curl faster with less heat. While they say metal glitter won't bleed at 365º or less thats just a rough guess/approx figure, it will still bleed a tad if the plastic is too hot, we have some glitters that won't bleed at 400º. the only draw back is that metal glitter is heavier this will make the glitter settle faster. so 2 things can be done, lower you heat and stirr if very well, Most of the settleing you will only notice in big baits like swimbaits or whats in your cup, most baits cool off fast enough to suspend the glitter, the only other place you could have a glitter settling problem is in RTV molds as these molds hold in the heat much longer. again it happens mainly on big molds were lots of plastic is used.

Personally I wouldnt play with the little cheap machines, just because I know nothing about them and or wood cutting. so I can't give you an answer either way, or at least and honest answer. as far as learing yourself, all it requiers is some time on a hand mill and hand lathe, once you got the feeds and speeds down on how things work then you should be ok. Too many people think" hey I am going to be a programmer and make a killing" only to goto school and pay out the wazoo for the class's then show up at a job and get fired in 2 weeks cause they didnt understand machining. The only thing they learn in school is how to make the program do different things and trust me some of those guys know the program inside and out and can do a lot more tricks than guys who have been doing it for 10-20 years with no school. They don't know the whys or how much or even the whens, this is all learned the best way on a hand machine. as they say so learning anything is well worth it, maybe a machine shop local would let you come in and look around?

no your not big headed at all, i've seen both some bad stuff and some good stuff. Oh I know what you mean, try running your own areospace shop for a bunch of years then try to build a wall extension LOL 1/16 of an inch Crap thats huge. I've played with the smartcam nesting software one of my customers had it was pretty cool he has an new laser at the time for sheetmetal is was in 1996 or 97. do the lasers cut sideways when they go fast like the waterjets do? I know the waterjets would angle/deflect pretty bad if going to fast. I would assume the laser wouldnt deflect sideway just give you a jagged finnish. I learned about the shinny stuff for lasers, we were looking at a small CO2 laser to do nothing bu serial number parts using a 4th axis, when testing it on inconel we had that problem, they tried it with a paste that we would spread over the part but it just didnt work that well. too bad cause that little machine was pretty cool expensive but cool. the parts we need to etch were .188 dia and a 6 digit serial number had to go around it. I liek talking machine shop stuff.

its only a bad day when you do it to a machine you own and have to pay for it. they used to have insurance that covered that too, it was pretty expensive but when you had employees its was worth it, especially ones that don't pay attention and like to fiddle with numbers to make things go faster. more than likely they set the over travel limits , I am guessing they use the same tool lengths all the time and the same size tool holders lengths for the 5 different production parts they run. I know TRW does that on some machines that run the same part day in and day out for years. this way there is no mistake and no crashes, they also set there x and y limits as well so the head won't accidently bump the 4 and 5th axis attachments. On the old acrolocs TRW even reset the home switchs on some of there machines so they wont have a chance of wacking the 4th and 5 axis. one of our vendors suggested we do that on one of our old acrolocs a long time ago to prevent it from bumping the casting (casting was 19" tall). we didn't sence the job only ran for a year and had to be torn down for other jobs in between this one job, but it was scary every time you pushed the button and watched a $8k casting move with in a few inches of the head. Thing that sucked for us is we did a few finish holes. 8 min operation at the very end. then shipped them. $50 per part on our end. kinda sucks if you scrap em gotta do a lot of $50 parts to pay for a 8K finished casting lol. Job shops its tough to run limit switch's on machines like that as we can run anything from a standard 1/16 endmill on a 2" extension holder and then run a 6" extension holder with a 6" long endmill the same day. Hey that monarch is that one of the old cat 40 spindles or the old cat 50? had a big tool carrage ( like A belt that held a heck of alot of tools that went along the side of the center colum) drank power faster than the hoover dam could put it out? My buddy that rebuilds equipment had one of those in cat 40 ( maybe it was BT 40) we ran a few molds on it for a test after it was rebuilt. it was I think a 5k or 6k RPM spindle. the thing was like 8-10 feet tall about 10-15 feet wide and only had a 40" table on it with no sheilds. and a 15,000lb forklift couldn't pick it up. he retrofited it with a fagor control and a faster spindle and a few other things.

Cadman those laser are awsum, just before 911 we were going to buy a laser or a waterjet for the shop. what nesting software do you use?