OhioMike

Here is how I make 2" crappie tubes. I went to a local plastic supplier & bought some 3" cutoff pieces, 3/8 inch thick' think I paid 10 bucks for 2 4' pieces. I cut them into 6" lengths, put 2 pieces side by side in a vice on my drill press. I then drilled 6 - 1/4" holes set 2" deep. I also drilled 2 holes on the side to put line up pieces in. I fill the cavity with plastic then take a large dia. pop rivet and put it into the plastic, making sure I oil them so they remove easily. The larger rivets have a larger head that won't allow it to go into the hole. (One little trick I've found is if you give the rivets a spin they center up in the hole.) Because the plasti pieces are clear you can fill half the mold with one color then add your second color at whatever depth you want. I normally run 6 molds at a time so I get 36 tubes before I have to demold I then cut the tails & ya got your tubes. My tubes have a solid body so they seem to hold up better.

I make a ton of 2" solid tuibes for the local crappie guys. What I did was to get some 1/2" clear plastic pieces cut them to 2 1/4" x 6". I then clamped together & drilled 4 - 1/4" holes 2" deep, I'll explain why only 4 in a minute. For the hollow bottom to cut the tails I found some very large pop rivets at the local hardware store, cut them off at 1". I then pour the plastic in the holes put in the rivet give it a twist to center it, heres why I only make 4 per mold any more & the plastic wants to set up to much, hard to get the rivet in. When I'm pouring I normally use 4 of these molds, by the time I get to the 4th mold the first is ready to demold. A couple of tricks that will help; Dip your rivet in vaseline or worm oil helps to remove from set plastic. After you remove the rivet you will notice a ridge of plastic around the hole, take a razor scraper & just slide it across the bottom of the mold this will remove this ridge very cleanly.Makes it mch easier to cut the tails.

Easy solution to cut the tails on the new Lure Craft cutter. Instead of moving the cutter go to your local hardware & buy a Drywall tape roller, 1st one I used was a $2.00 cheaper. They have a plastic roller that won't dull the blades. Turn the cutter blades up, put your tube on the blades however long you want it, then take the roller & roll it back & forth. I have found that twice is enough. Only draw-back is the roller wears out after a couple of thousand tubes and you have to replace it.

I, like most on this board work full time to support this habit. Ten days ago my employer gave me a New Years gift, termination, after 20 years of service. With my age and health problems gonna be a little hard to find a new job,so I've spent the last week feeling kinda sorry for myself and little else. WELL I'M BACK. Most kits will go out Monday, all are spoken for. For those that didn't send me an addy I will be in contact with you to get one. Mike

Guys my E-Mail is mpoling834@aol.com. I have enough supplys to make9 kits 4 are spoken for.

Reaper, It's my understanding that 2 part resin molds are not practical I posted the same question a while back & got several replys that the resin bonds together no matter what you try as a release agent. when I do 2 part molds I use plaster. A couple of people posted some things to try but I never followed thru, do a search on resin molds.

Monty, I really havn't given that any thought. The people on this board have been so good about sharing info & helping, not just me but everyone that has a question, that I would feel kinda funny trying to sell them as kits. As I said in my earlier post I have the 2" tubes down pretty good but have not done anymore on the bigger tubes. As long as the demand does not get out of hand I would be willing to make a few sets & send them out. All I would ask is the person receiving them cover my costs for the clips And shipping. The clips cost me about $.40 each so for 2 sets the cost would be $1.60 plus shipping. Redg8ter, If my doing this will cause any problems, let me know & I won't do it. Thanks Mike

Thanks Chris, I look at your pours and realize how much I have to learn!!

I was checking out the gallery a few days ago & came across your Gold Coast swimbait.I make a shad minnow that would look great in those colors. I ordered some Super Hi-lite pigments from Lurecraft to try it.I'm doing something wrong! I mixed up a couple of ounces of plastic and mixed some of the gold hi-lite in, It came out very blah not the luster like you have.I then tried mixing some in chart. better but still not right. If it's not a trade secret can you give me some pointers? Thanks, Mike

Merry Christmas to all, & have a good & safe New Year !!!

Sorry Big Spash I forgot to answer you about the pics, my camera is not working rite now, whole nother story, If I get it fixed soon I'll post some. Also the plastic thickness is 1/2"

I'm lucky in the plastic dept. I work for a large sign company And I can usually get my plastic from the scrap pile. I would think you could check with a plastic supplier in your area, they might even have some cut off pieces you could get cheap. When I drill the holes in the plastic I have them in a drill vice, before I remove the 2 pieces of plastic I take a very small bit & drill a hole at each end of the 2 pieces I then super glue a small panel nail in the holes on 1 of the pieces of plastic, I then cut the nail so about a 1/8" sticks thru. when I put the 2 pieces together they work great as a line up device. I use 2 large folder clamps 1 at each end to hold them together, works well & doesn't block the the view of the holes so I can see how much plastic is in the hole. I made a much larger tube mold to try but I need to work on it some more, I can't find any nails big enough that would make the hole the right size. I think I'm gonna get some dowel rods cut them to size seal them and see if that works. Just been so busy pouring orders haven't tried it yet.

I have the same poblem with burning if I leave the plastic in the pots. When I first bought my pots I got a couple extra, I was gonna dedicate these to certain colors, leave the plastic in them all the time. Yeah right. I now clean my pots after each use, takes about 5 min per pot after they cool.

Can you make 2 part resin molds? I know it shrinks a little but are 2 part molds feasible. If so what do you use as a release agent?

Sorry, A little quick on the submit button. :oops: A couple of more things, The reason I put the grommets on the nails is so I can adjust the depth of the hole. Most of the tubes I pour are for guys using weedless jigs so I give them about 1/2" of solid body, but if I want to make the hole deeper for insert heads I can. Still have to cut the tails but I guess you can't have everything

I made two 2 piece molds out of clear plastic, basically just drilled 4 5/16" holes in each set. Since they are clear I can see how much plastic I have in each hole. I fill them half way with the main color then top off with the tail color. While they are still molten I take a 16penny nail, that I put some hard rubber grommets on to act as a stopper, into the holes. This causes the plastic to overflow and because the grommets have a rounded surface I give the nail a little twist & it kinda self centers itself in the hole. I then set the mold aside & do the second mold the same way. By the time I fill the second mold the first is ready to demold. I remove the nails, take a razor scraper and run it across the top of the mold this removes the overflow, pop open the mold And toss the tubes in a pan of water. One thing I do is keep the nails in a small pan with about 1/8th inch of worm oil in the bottom, this really helps to lubricate the nails for easy removal. When I first started to do this I was hand pouring, I have since bought a couple of Lee Pots which has increased my speed dramatically. I really dont see why this wouldn't work with bigger tubes also, just gotta try it.

Rick, Thanks for the quick responce. Gonna try it tonite. Also I've come up with a different way to make tubes. It works really well with tubes for crappie 2". I poured 200 2 color tubes in about an hour last nite. Gonna try it with larger tubes for bass, I'll keep ya'll posted.

I'm about ready to try making a resin mold, couple of questions. I've heard that as the mold cures it generates a lot of heat, so can I use a plastic master or will it melt? Also can I just use vasoline as a release agent.

I have 35 sheets of 19"X27" 040 lexan, anybody interested?

I've been thinking about getting a few of these pots to pour with. I pour mostly small jigs, tubes, nail tales and minnow baits for crappie. Because of the quantity of baits I pour I am looking for a way to speed up the pouring. My plans are to get a few of these pots & use them for the main colors I pour, 1 for chart., 1 for green etc. My question is how well do these things work, hold up? Can I just keep the plastic in the pot and how often should I clean up? Thanks for your help.

All of the baits I pour are used in Crappie fishin. I have built up quite a following of local anglers that use my baits ( who would have guessed). I pour 3 basic baits. A Nail Tale, a Vibra Tail and One similar to the Shad Assassin. I've wanted to make tubes but just wasn't happy with a dipped tube (takes way to long). Well I tried to pour a solid tube & it worked very well, but couldn't cut the tails to what I considered an acceptable form. Here is the Kudo, I read about JRAV's blade sandwich & I built one & it works very well, did find I needed to split the tail before rolling it but that was minor. My tube mold is made out of Aluminum, very basic 6 1/4"X 2" holes. I've had a lot of requests for multi color tubes but had trouble pouring a consistant length of the first color. My solution was to drill the holes in 1/2" thick plastic so I could see how deep the first color was. Came out great BUT the hot plastic is eating up the mold. I've poured about a thousand tubes & am on my third mold. Now for my question, I've heard people talk about resin molds. Can you get a clear Resin? If so how does it hold up. Again ,Thanks JRAV.

Don't know about that brand, but had an old 15 1/2' Chrysler Tri-Hull. Very stable fishing platform, but that puppy would flat beat you to death when running across the lake.

Hey Red How do I get the pictures to you? E-Mail?

Red, I will have the camera back Thurs. I'll take some pictures and send them along with a explanation.

Sorry, Mama has the camera with her visiting the grandkids. All I did was make a box 5" wide 12" long 2" deep, cut a hole in the bottom for the shop-vac hose. Since I make all my molds in a rectangler shape that will set up on it's side, I then routed a 1/4"wide x 10"long slot on top. I just centered the mold over the slot on it's side & turned on the vacuum. On the first pour I found that I had way too much vacuum, It was pulling the plastic thru the vent holes & into the vacuum box. Since my mold was only 6" long I had sealed part of the slot with tape, I then removed the tape to give it less draw. On the second pour everything worked perfect, good draw but not enough to pull the plastic out of the mold. If you still want a picture I can have one next week.