Senkosam

flor. chart and flor. orange flakes; Spik-it chunk paint for pattern

Good advice Willy. Plaster is cheapest and the easiest to use for baits that don't have thin connections (ie slider worm or grub). For that, you would have to use injection or silicone, the former not easy to come by. A POP mold can be used from start to finish in about 3 hours once the gloss coat sealer dries, but as Willy said, requires thinning regardless of the sealer for best detail. Many baits are meant to have a flat side and these are perfect for POP. Some round baits will still work with a flat side, a stick being one of them. Overpouring will allow a small rounded hump to form, making the bait appear almost full-round. You can drill small shallow pits in the cavity, giving the appearance of textured bumps. Coating is still necesarry. Air bubbles in the plastic does occur depending on humidity

Putting a request in writing and saving the response is the best way to do business. Kind of like making a formal contract between buyer and seller. For example. From now on if I do business with a mold maker, I will find out the following in advance and include everything in an e-mail: Cost of mold(s) Who pays for return shipping if the mold is wrong (ie wrong design or # of cavities)? When can I expect the molds? You tell me 2 weeks and I haven't received them in 2 mos., I'm posting it on TU! You have my money so where's my product? Will there be prompt e-mail or phone notification about delays or impossibilites? Communication from the supplier saves a lot of frustration and suspence. Telling me your e-mail doesn't work doesn't explain why a phone call wasn't made. If I'm explicit about the design and give you a prototype, I would expect that as a plastic lure producer, you would know the limitations of making that lure from a hard mold vs silicone. POP has limitations we have all experienced, but many don't realize it carries over to aluminum. If it can't be poured, it shouldn't be offered unless the buyer says he wants to take a chance. This should be in writing. It should always be understood that if the buyer changes his mind, he pays for mods changes and shipping both ways. It's like asking for a new lure. If the seller screws up, he should do the same and with an apology for time lost! If I screw up a glitter order, I make good with more than asked for in other colors and apologize for the screw up. Just good business. UPS or other tracking is the way to go and should be available on all orders. Telling me an order was sent and then giving me a bogus tracking number and when it doesn't work, telling me that the order was lost is b.s.! Tell me the truth up front. I'm not stupid! It should be in writing that the supplier agrees to the above requests. Take nothing for granted and assume nothing. If it's not in writing, take your business elsewhere. If this is being overly dramatic, so be it. It's good just business and proper. If a supplier fails in his obligations, its for TU members to weigh both sides and be thankful they were forewarned if the info is accurate. Publishing e-mail agreements after terms were not met, should not be out of bounds.

Too bad. Other than Bob, we all need another source that provides good service, though I would like to hear Shawn's side.

Please keep us informed. Suppliers are in short supply. Demand is always there, especially for classic designs.

What kind of paint? I use Spike-It Chunk Paint and it sticks fine. Oiling the mold doesn't make the lure oily and, in fact, the oil gets absorbed leaving a dry shiny surface. I use Original Fish formula in the cavity and still have to add worm oil to the bag to get the baits slimey. As you can see, the trailer is shiny:

Oil the cavity.

One Sock had it right - It takes pouring a dozen baits or so to know if the cavity should be overfilled to create that slight hump at the end to avoid the concave surface caused from contraction. A Lee's pot is easy; a pyrex cup almost as easy as long as the plastic is hot enough. A stove top pan is the most difficult and not worth the trouble IMO. 300 is the highest temp I need. Note: if you ever pour into deep POP molds, the sealer coat is a must or bubbles will happen (most likely from moisture in the plaster.)

Nice pours - salted? A color I discovered last weekend is light pumpkin/ black and gold flake. The middle stick looks like that color combo may look good in it. (Locally, been having any luck with jigs and trailers lately? Caught only one bass this year on one. The rest has been on spinnerbaits.)

Glossy wallboard prep is easy to use and will last a few years. I still have the same can of Valspar after 4 years! Others on TU like thinned down 2-stage epoxy. A craft store or Lowes has a good selection of plaster sealers, but stay away from Mod Podge. You may as well use Elmers glue.

Durham's IMO produces only a minimal amount of detail that POP may not, but my 4" Beaver came out nice using POP. The cavity coat is important in that it not hide detail by being applied too thick. Good Luck

Forget using a one part for a full side-flapper. You'll get much better results with a two part since the part is vertical, not horizontal. That's the reason the earlier LC Beaver molds were not adequate. Silicone doesn't produce the detail of Durham's and one part molds are only adequate for some designs.

Bob's, M-F and LC great! Jannes - excellent! Won't comment about the others. Better not to say anything publicly if I have nothing good to say, but I share a few of the negative experiences posted. Service is as important as good product quality IMO and I will try and overcome a few product deficiencies as long as the service is A1, but a poor product makes for time lost and p/o'd customers.

As long as the tail is very thin, most definitely! Nice color.

Like M-F and LC. LC improved their formula so that mixing is much easier. No bubbles or foaming for either brand and the service from both is great. Plastic hardness per grade is comparable and I do mix regular with super soft to get a more durable bait. As long as the temp is 300 or less, I get no color change in clear, the ultimate test of heat resistance.

Bob's 4" is better than Del's and Del's 5" is better than Bob's. IMO I talking about how close to the original. Salt and softener go togther like peas and carrots when referring to soft sticks and the famous Senko wiggle. You have to have the right amount of both for the proper drop rate which is so important to maintain the wiggle/ shimmy action. Too little softener or salt and the bait falls like a felt tip marker. Too much salt and softener and the bait is only good for a few casts. I think fish have seen too many Senkos and are shying away from them locally, which is the reason I've been using Del's T stick with the sharp pointed tail. Charlie Case has a similar design, but Dels is better. My fishing style (and maybe yours) doesn't allow me to snooze for 5 minutes until my Senko hits bottom in 30'. I would rather use a soft stick as a jerk stick, and as someone suggested, use it on a jig head or use a split shot up the line. You can make that stick dart & die all the way to the bottom or even let it sit on bottom to get hammered, but it least it gets there faster. Nice wacky design Jim! Will have to try that with Phenom worm bodies and a marble to make the mold. For my favorite wacky desingn (pictured in another post), I take two T-sticks (4" or 5" depending on length), cut them at the egg sac and fuse them together with a candle flame such that the ends are both pointed. This design allows a nice quiver on the horizontal drop or rod twitch. (Charlie Case also has one that's similar.) For either design, I add fine salt for casting distance and texture (not taste). Even firm sticks when used as jerksticks catch bass and picks. Look at the success of hard jerks!

Check it out on Del's site. The tail is pointed.

Dell's 5" and Bob's 4" are almost exact duplicates of the Senko. Bob's 4 and 5" tapered sticks 9T-stick mold) are great and better for jerk worming!

Excellent beginning Nutty! Nice job! You couldn't have produced a nicer looking lure unless you used a metal mold. For a glossy look (if you think it important), brush some light salad oil in the cavity, with or without garlic salt added. I had the same experience with an old Roboworm I found in the dirt before a tournament. I like the ribbing design and decided to use the top part of the body to make swim grubs. After seeing that the one part mold came out nice, I made a two part. The one on the left. The lures to the right were modifications of the one 2nd from the far right that a customer asked me to make 150 copies of. POP is the only material I use. Keep up the good creations!

One time I did a temperature and reheat test using only clear plastic. If I stayed below 300 (about 285 for minimal pouring temp), the test colors of gold, red and violet held their hue, didn't shrink even a little and didn't bleed. Reheating once produced a slight bleed in the clear plastic which also started to take on a slight amber tint. Reheating the third time produced all the problems I usually see with temps over 350 and the clear plastic was a deeper amber. Heating clear plastic to 350 produced the problems of bleed, some shrinkage, but no color loss. M-F plastic held up well and didn't take on an amber tint until after the first reheat. By that time the glitter was tiny and a pale gray. Red, violet and maroon were the worst. If I found a supplier that supplied heat resistance up to 375, I would carry their product. Personally, I chose to heat over 325 for the finer detailed cavities, but even I'm limited by temp. constraints when using glitter. If any of you have found a supplier with high temp glitter, stay with them as long as the price for small amounts and shipping are not important.

The problem with purple and red is that many bleed if the temp gets past 300 degrees and also on reheats. I know that many need to use higher temps to pour many baits at once that they sell and in order to save time. My flakes probably aren't for everyone, but people do like the vibrant violet purple vs. LC's darker blue grape and sometimes have use for the more pinkish maroon which has been used extensively in light grape by many companies. Temp is the key. I made some baits this morning using some leftover LC .062 black glitter and it shrank to .015 in 325 degree plastic. I don't carry .062, but needed it for a certain look and still have it from when Dave owned the company. I had to let the plastic cool before adding more. One Sock, I would be interested in the company info that sells poly for that price, as long as the glitter is color stable over 300. I haven't found it for less than 23 bucks a pound, shipping added. I usually buy 10lbs per color and size.

Good luck and keep at it.

300 or a little less works for me right from the microwave and I get no bleed on the first pour, even in clear plastic. Lee Pot plastic temps vary unless stirred a lot.

Thanks, I just wish picks didn't love them so much. They just have no appreciation of how much longer it take to do two pours! LOL Strange though, but after the spawn, bass seem to prefer more muted color in my waters (ie green pumpkin, roadkill, watermelon/red and black flake, chartreuse/ black flake, rootbeer/ black and green flake) and I put the ft sticks away until fall.

I came up with my own ft versions a few years ago: Spike-It dye and .090 deforming black flakes and that uses florescent orange and green flakes; Spike-It chunk paint for coach dog markings