Senkosam

Oh, and another great supply company - http://www.fishingworld.com/M-F-Manufacturing/Default.tmpl?Cart=119444616737516448. They always pick up the phone and respond to e-mails! The more you order of a particular item, the less per unit cost.

Is there a site that sells dental plaster? Is it still POP? Sounds like it would be more like a plastic cement they use for fillings and expensive. A 20lb bag of POP cost me 8 bucks 3 yrs ago and it's not half gone. My copies have come out with reasonable detail and the lures catch fish. My 4.5" Beaver type 2-part mold produces nice lures and the side fins look as good as the prototype. Just got to oil.

Thanks Mike, I consider trying your process. Oiling the cavity is time consuming.

A TU member recommended a site for artist grade plaster. When I run out, I'll be ordering from them if I can find the site.

The nice thing about using POP is that if you make a mistake or want to modify a bait, it's the cheapest material available and does a fair job regarding detail. I've never baked POP molds and always use the same wall board gloss sealer to coat the cavity. It dries in 20 minutes and is ready to pour in 1 hour max. Being water soluble, it thins easily and can be brushed into tiny grooves or part connections and cooled plastic releases fine as long as I oil the cavities (a disadvantage versus using aluminum. I don't like the flat matte surfaces of POP or silicone.) Show us some pics after you remake the mold.

Del, If TU members or anyone else likes your service and plastic, all the power to ya. John (Bear Paw baits) dumped your plastic, bought my 5 gallons from M-F and was able to meet his order deadline. The quart he gave to me to test was junk and I dumped it. John will never go back to using Calhouns and there seems to be other pourers on this site that got burned the same way and because you gave them a hard time about how it was their fault the stuff bubbled and yellowed (ie. not stirring enough, too much humidity, etc.) Not many have posted on TU that they started reusing Calhouns or reported differences in brands, pro or con. I would be interested in an updated product comparison. M-F, LC and Bob (Bob's Tackle Shack) offer good products and excellent service. Good enough for me! Dave, who use to own LC learned that the hard way and lost business. LC under Poor Boy management worked on the problem with their plastic, fixed it and offered free samples so people could regain confidence using it. (M-F does the same BTW) It worked! I buy 5 gallons at a time of regular and soft plastisol. Sorry if you're ticked off, but the customer is sometimes right and knows when someone is blowing smoke ..... In fact, I didn't even mention Calhouns in my post, so why the rant? Just my 2 . Mike, the more hardener, the less buoyant the plastic. Salt water plastic floats least; other softer plastic always floats without hardware (hook or jig) but will never be a buoyant as cyberflex plastic. Adding salt or a large quantity of sugar (clear flakes) always overcomes buoyancy. Bubbles in plastic may help keep a bait more buoyant, but look like hell and nothing can be done about it from the pourer end except to reheat the plastic once before pouring. The more you reheat plastic, the more softener is needed to retain the same softness and the more amber clear plastic turns IMO. Good luck.

M-F or LC have been consistent. Ozark is up there because EW says it is! LOL (He pours constantly and uses a lot of plastic for many lure types! He would be one I would trust versus occassional pourers.) (Oh, and service it consistently the best from both sources.)

You could be right. Baits dipped in clear plastic after chunk paint applied:

Anytime CD! The nice thing about chunk paint is that you can dip the lure in hot, clear or light tinted plastic and magnify any pattern you paint on the bait. It won't melt the paint! I'll post a few pics of baby bass and sunfish patterns when I get home. The black paint is good for a year. I still have other colors (flor. orange, chartreuse, white, red, blue) that are still usuable after 4 years. I wish I knew why the black doesn't last or how to rejuvenate it.

The difference in Chunk Paint and the dip by Spike-It is that the paint will not bleed, wear off or peel and the solvent that keeps it liquid, bonds a skin of paint(vinyl?) to the plastic's surface. But, it will come off or melt if you dip the lure in Spike-It dye or rub using a Q-Tip with dye in it. I tried to get some solvent from Spike-It but they wouldn't do anything more than ship me a free bottle of Chunk Paint. (Top secret formula I guess.) Black for some reason is useless after 6 months and all you're left with is globs in the bottom of the bottle that won't stick to the brush. I've tried to dilute it with PVC cement or acetone, but no luck. There are two other procucers of dye (Hawk and Colorite), but not paint.

Note: You can make a laminate or 2nd pour bait using a one pc. mold. I do it with the Beaver body alum. mold. Pour the first layer - tail and body; pull the cooled lure out, pour the second layer (minus the tail) and shove the cooled body into the hot plastic. Let cool and take a small soldering iron around the seam. You can determine the thickness of the body by the depth of the first pour. Not much different than pouring any laminate.

I'm also interested in pricing. Competition is good and good service even better! A web site and catalog of molds (with pics) would be a good idea. I'll pm you when your able to get some inventory/ ready to ship.

Protect them from ultraviolet light and use a bit more colorant.

As was mentioned in previous posts, high temps (above 325) and reheats will do things to even the most stable flakes, especially bleeding, color fade, flake shrinkage and curling. It comes with the territory of fast-heating polyacetate at high temps. Jim has a good source and I'm wondering if M-F is decent for violet flake stability. For myself, I keep temps below 300 and don't tint clear plastic with unstable colors such as violet purple and fuscia, but do so on multiple reheats. LC's grape has always bled and LC knows about the problem which they have never denied. Honesty is always the best policy when it comes to stating the benefits or limitations of a product and what TU members confirm, saves all of us time and money.

G3, I'll bet using harder plastic helps get the Zara walk! Sometimes I want a harder soft stick for early and late in the season to mimic hard jerkbaits. If I'm not jerking X-Raps, I'm jerking 4 or 5" harder soft sticks with no salt. LC does have some great molds that aluminum can't follow with certain designs. Nice to see they can compete with a full round stick mold at a fraction of the cost!

A friend that I got into making soft plastics bought 2 sizes of LC's Senko mold and I was very impressed with the results! For those that pour as a hobby and don't mind waiting until the plastic chills before removing, this mold produces soft sticks with larger ribbing (more light reflection) and good fore and aft tapers. For the newbie who's not into pouring a large amount of baits, it's worth the money. My buddy bought the 6" and 4" models and the bulk of the stick is a bit greater than Al mold sticks in the larger size - a nice chunky target - and the 4" is perfect for dropshotting, being slimmer than the Senko.

The lateral line pattern, eyes and black back were applied with the brush that came in the bottle and the baits were dipped in clear plastic. Dye fades or bleeds throughout the plastic; chunk paint is opaque and bonds to the plastic. (kind of smells like PVC thinner) The pattern above is ch. paint applied on top of clear plastic laminate containing flor chart and orange glitter. No dyes were used.

Spike-It Chunk Paint (most last for years) If a color dries out, they send me another no questions asked.

That's the stuff! Almost every supermarket sells it in NY. I keep it in a damp basement where my workshop is and not once had a problem. Much cheaper than popcorn salt (which is the same size) and less opaque than floured salt.

Diamond's fine salt is the best I've used. It stays suspended longer and has more translucence than floured salt. I use it with .015 clear flakes (sugar). Best yet is the price at 79 cents for a canister.

Ozark sounds good Craig, but how does it compare $ wise and shipping? You can use the same LC softener to make senko-soft sticks?

Beat me to it! Silvery sided baitfish reflect the color of the water they are in as through filtered light. A high concentration of .008 silver flake in clear will give you the mirror effect of any silver sided prey fish. Pearl would mute the effect IMO as well as any tints of plastic. A pearl belly isn't worth the effort for fish looking up at the lure. Adding a bit of .008 silver hologram would complete the simulation because almost all fish scales have a pearlescent quality. Another effect would be to core shoot a concentrated silver flake plastic into clear or double dip a silver bait into clear plastic. The magnification effect of the core is unique and simulates a slime coat and the flash still comes through unmuted. I've done this with tubes and slim trickworms. I used silver in clear this spring for some jerk sticks and pike and bass clobbered them! They will come out again for some fall jerking!

Lurecraft or MF for consistent quality. If Calhouns has been good, stay with it, but compare prices, including shipping. Colors stay good with all three.

Thanks. It's a two pour stick using clear plastic with flor chart and orange flakes. The colors seems to be more vibrant than using dyes and .090 black flakes for spots: