Delw

Salt will absorb any oils /residues, if your using worm oil that is probally the culprit as worm oil will turn yellow if left in sunlight .

a few ways to do it the best way is to heat up a butter knife then fuse it back together. you can use super glue but its not that great and it hardens the bait.

First off make sure your plastic is mixed up extreamly good then when you are heating it in the microwave or hotpot /stove it will start to turn thick once it turns thick it will also clear. once it clears it will start to get pourable thin and runny if you made it through these steps then you should be ok as once it cools off with will harden up. now I am taking into account you haven't add'd any softener or hardener or any other additives. if you are please post exactly what your going and how much your adding be'ing very specific will help someone help you out. Delw

I think we all know your not bashing anyone, this is one of those pouring problems that might benifit everyone, snap some pics with those nice cameras you have. you said lines? so the dimples are not there now? lines are usually caused by very cold molds of plastic being to cold. Delw

tried to edit the post, but didn't work, anyway just wanted to add, to see the full size pic in IE internet explorer hold your mouse on the lower right corner, when the expand window comes up click on it. in firefox hold your mouse over the pic, you will get a + sign click your mouse button. these programs normally size the picture to full screen only, you have to do the above to get the full picture size. Delw

heres some pics http://www.del-mart.com/downloads/IMG_0647.JPG http://www.del-mart.com/downloads/IMG_0648.JPG http://www.del-mart.com/downloads/IMG_0649.JPG http://www.del-mart.com/downloads/IMG_0650.JPG

I opened a few boxs that were waiting for ups and post office, poured 3 cavities out of 6 different molds. 18 baits. poured them with med plastic. cause thats all I had avail. real quick. poured out of a 1 cup aluminum pouring pan, heated the plastic in the microwave. Plastic was very hot like very war pancake syrup. No problems with cold molds went back and poured some with the molds being hot and had no problem. grabbed one of Loyds molds and poured it had a problem hmmmmm took the first 3 ribs out of the mold making the mold opening bigger and had no problems. I did tilt loyds org. mold before cutting it using a 1/8" allen wrench at one end of the mold, I was able to get 5 good ones out of 5 Loyd I thought we opened the end of those molds up, I just looked in your box and none were opened? I could have sworn we did that. April went to the house real quick to get the camera, when she comes back I will post a few pics. they are very big pics so download time will take a while with a dial up, but the detail should be good.

The old version of the trick worm, poured but was tricky ( no pun intened) It poured for us when we took the pics and posted them with no problems. seems simple enough so we put them online for sale. Loyd contacted me and said he was having problems. we worked on that for a while. I was getting no problems and some of the guys that had the mold I contacted were getting no problems. I saw the pics so I know loyd was having some pocket problems. held up production on them for a week or so till I could figure out the problem. opened the worm just a tad bigger ( most people wouldn't notice) poured fast and nice. grabbed a mold loyd sent back pour nice. so now I am like WTF. after doing some playing and pouring many worms I think we figured it out to be gas build-up in the ribs/pockets. Don't forget small sized worms you do have to pour slowly. what happens if your plastic is smoking gas rises this gets caught in the pockets as they can't be vented. with the new changes you shouldnt have any problems, however if you do tip the mold slightly and that should knock out any problems. if you have any air at all in your plastic you might get some problems as well. they been tried in every plastic out there so I know its not a plastic problem. some guys pour them with salt and have no problems, I haven't tried it. out of the 40+ molds we have out have less than 5 with problems, and one of them is me. poured great the first few times but not after that and then poured again with good success. the new version I have no problems at all both in the 6 and 7 inch. whats funny is that I have one customer that has no problems with the 6" (old version) and the exact same problem with the 10" which is really wierd since the 10" is pretty thick. He told me that once he cooled the plastic down and it didn't smoke that he has had no problems on the salt issue, if you have the problem with salt get rid of the salt as it cools it it will shrink and pull teh plastic from the sides cause dimples. If you guys remember correctly this has come up with the stick molds from all who sell them and I am pretty sure that has alot to do with heat. you can do a search on this forum and find the stik problems. I believe they are related.

cam, email or Call april I think she has a few there that I poured to use last month. the 8-12 come in any Dia. you want so I don't know what dia there is laying at the shop. I wrote a marco for these so I don't have to make a program every time for a different size. and can do it all in the machine.

1. You won't find to much anything that won't scratch the teflon, Anything hard will scratch it. Might try some high temp. plastic kitchen tools? 2. I knew this would be brought up with guys using these pots sooner or later. its going to be a problem. even if you throw a mixer in there glitter will settle. I am guessing the pot is not round? if its round then you need to fabricate a mixer that is pretty close to the edge and bottom of the pot( say with in a half inch). if its not your S.O.L. a few things that might help. is to lower you temp on your plastic so the glitter will stay more suspended, this might make it a problem to pour however. the other thing to do is just live with it and stir it as much as you can. one other idea I had is one of those cake mixers that occolates(sp) and spins at the same time ( kitchen air or something like that), as the thing spins the head moves a little bit . That might work if the speed is slow and you fabricate a blade for it, not saying it will but it popped into my head and seems it would work better than hand stirring. Delw

Bondo also works good for lead molds as well

This is a very simple and common problem. it has nothing to do with the molds, or plastic. whats happening is that your plastic is cooling, as it cools it shrinks. and/or you have lots of air in your plastic when your pouring and as it sits the air bubbles go up. the only way to fix this is to make sure you don't cover the pouring hole with plastic until you are completely filled up, then keep it filled as long as necc. in pop molds and RTV molds its a tad more of a pain amd happens alot more than alum molds becuase it takes longer to cool. All you need to do is pour down the center and not cover that entrance hole, keep the cavity filled with hot plastic and you will be just fine. Delw

David was just getting into Soft plastic bait making and learned alot from the guys here on Tackle underground, I was talking to him on the phone early last week and he was pretty excited about starting to pour. He mentioned a few times how he learned alot from different guys on this forum through pm's and emails. Delw

I got an email from a Family member of David Reid, thought I would pass it along as he was a member of this forum.

Saint if your using salt than that will be part of the problem, as humidity levels are high about this time of the year, salt will absorb moisture very quickly. Watermellon will give off a blueish color when it gets moisture in it.. It didnt look like you add'd salt to me in the pic. the other thing could be, if your using a microwave to heat your plastic, the glitter almost always settles to the bottom, when glitter clumps up at the botton it burns very easy. You need to cut the glitter out of the plastic and reheat then add it back in. One other thing on reheats there is only one way to properly reheat plastic with out having any adverse effects. you cook up a new batch of plastic get it hot till its ready to pour then cut up the plastic you want to reheat and drop it in the hot plastic. stir it in till it melts, you might have to zap it for a tad as the plastic will cool off. over the years this subject comes up quite often and believe it or not watermellon is one of the colors. it seems to be always either the salt and or a reheat problem or some additive someone add'ed into the plastic scents, worm oil etc.. I don't think I have seen any color for that matter change color, unless it was subjected to salt or reheat conditions.

2 things that work better than super glue. PVC cement and the paint they use to paint swimbaits with.

Our worm oil is not scented, we do have a few different types of scent asine is one of them. Dp is 100% correct about worm oil turning colors, Worm oil doesnt have UV inhibators in it and will turn color as soon as it hits the sun so don't use a whole bunch in your packages. we also found that after 3-5 weeks that even in the shop if left were sunlight is around( like when bay doors) are open it will turn color if left in a clear container. Delw .

a 2 piece ring worm type can't be poured even if it has a straight tail. the problem is the way the plastic flows, it will pick up major bubbles and not give you a full rings most of the time, some times it does work but its not worth the hassle of putting them out cause if it doesn't work people will complain. then you have the curl tail problem Now if you want to make one that works better than a alum one then you make it out of RTV or pop Plastic has better flow characteristics with these than alum., when your making it grab some piano wire in about .025 dia and stick about 4-6 in every ring, this will allow it to flow and fill the rings better. this is much easier to do then with alum, and its a lot cheaper. having a machine shop drill holes all the way around each ring will cost hundreds especially with a 2 piece mold. Sometimes pop and rtv are better than alum for pouring certain things and in some instance's easier to work with. BTW I got one with 6 .030 vent holes in each cavity and its doesn't fill all the time.The gas (or smoke) that the plastic produces gets trapped and act like air pockets. The other problem you have is that when plastic hits the Alum is cools rather quickly so unless your plastic is extreamly hot it won't fill all cavities. Hope that makes sense. Delw

We make a lead mold for it,and the regular mold as well these are internal weights, goes in the same place however it is covered by a thin piece of plastic ( thats how I set it up in my molds) about 1/8". I didn't like the lead weight showing as you have to paint them it pretty much looks the same ___ , but its different Delw

1, Yes 2, yes 3 yes 4 lurecraft 536(super soft) is the softest, any plastic can be soft or softer its just a matter of adding softener.

To pour fine lines all you need is a 1 cup-1/2 cup measuring cup or a small pouring pan. The key to pouring small and flow control is to only fill it 1/4 - 1/8 full any more and the plastic will run down the side of the pan. You need to turn a pan almost 90

unless your plastic is mixed constantly you will get the risk of burning it. or you can cook it and keep it in a heated oven

I only know this cause I had CNC lathes and ran them with up to 40" chucks. 20 rpm was flat out hauling butt on a 40" part. BTW Right at the very center the rpm is 0

Also remember that the bigger or smaller your paddle is the faster or slower you will need the RPM of the motor. As you increase the size of the paddles the rpm may be to fast. and like wise of going smaller the rpms might be too slow. A perfect example is a bicycle tire, spin it and watched the outside, then look at the center, you will see the center is not moving near as fast as the outside

Thanks but I didn't mean or to imply that in any way shape or form. The point I was trying to make was any machinist who knows how to run 3d work can make anything no matter how small or big. the problem is that just because we can make it doesn't mean it will pour. sometimes they might be tricky to pour and need to be done a certain process etc. I happen to get a lot of guys that want to copy baits just like they are made commercially, they use them for both commercial and private use. sometimes you have to pour a certain way in order to get it to work correctly. open face molds aka one piece molds were never a problem and are pretty much simple. 2 piece molds is were it starts to get tricky for hand pour guys, has a lot to do with the thickness of plastic, how much glitter salt or not, pour from a pan or a pot, air temps, and the list goes on. the bad part is everyone pours different with different stuff. The only real constant is the molds they don't change from one to another. Delw