Senkosam

Kelly green flake in .035 is what is used in manufactured baits.

Get your basic plastic dyes from DelW. His price is good and you get what you pay for. The same goes for M-F manufacturing. Del's plastic price is unmatched; M-F is high, but the selection good. For odd colors that neither have, go to lurecraft, but what you see in the catololg, might not be accurate. (motor oil is brownish gray, purple is grape, some colors are opaque or cloudy- not clear.)

Thanks Badfish. I'm certain your creations are just as good if not better. Nova, your on to something and it gave me an idea - medium smoke with fine (.008) chartreuse, blue, red, yellow gold, silver or hologram glitter. Another great effect is a lam: clear belly/ clear with holo or yellow gold (.008 or .015) in chartreuse plastic or better yet, swab some chartreuse Spike-It worm dye over the glitter side of the lam.

I'm going to try the above this spring in clear or stained water. My take is that the lateral line will take care of tracking until vision detects finesse sparkles. The two bottom worms are the same, except one viewed at 90 degrees. Pour have the 2 or 1 part mold, sprinkle glitter and pour the rest. Clear plastic of course. You can modify by pouring clear plastic first and then clear with glitter or grind some salt, put enough in clear to make it slightly milky, pour half and then pour your choice of the other half. Laminates are fun and I think have their place in stained water. Recently I poured a lam of chart. with gold and black glitter laminated to oxblood with black string, hex and red flake. Superb. Sam

Vents don't help and create a mess. Just my take.

I've ordered from them and the service is GREAT!! Far better than Bass Pro. I like how the colors change at the top of the lure page when selected below. Their prices are decent also. The only thing I was surprised at was that they didn't come down on their Tiki Sticks to match Walmart. (Of course, I make my own now and don't need to order plastics on-line, unless the clearance is too good to pass up. Certain baits are still better from an injection process.) Sam

From my experience, I'm not to thrilled with LC silicone, one sided molds, especially for jerk sticks. Pay the $45 for a precision aluminum mold or make one super cheap from plaster or Durham's water putty (powder/add water; best detail but more expensive). Silicone produces a dull versus shiny surface and glitter colors near the surface are muted similar to looking through a frosted glass. The detail of his molds is lacking (sharp ribbing). There are a few tutorials on how to make your own and well worth it. Once you've made the mold, whether copying and original or copying your own prototype, it's could for unlimited pours. You can make two part molds that results in no flat side and where the surfaces will be glossy due to a protective cavity coating of epoxy or Valspar gloss sealer. My first 4 molds were from LC and they lay under 35 plaster molds that I use when needed. I have 30 more to make before spring, having discoverd some great prototypes by fusing different pastics together to form a unique design. Each has been tested, caught fish and will be copied in plaster or putty. If I were to copy a fluke, pearl would be my choice or floured salt added to clear plastic (comes out milk white). Del or Bob have the best molds available. Think before you lay down $12 or more for a mold you will replace with metal. The gallery had many great looking baits poured from metal molds. Sam

NJ, string glitter looks like short lines of glitter. Zoom uses it in some of their flukes in hologram or black. I'll post a pic of my stick with string and black flake. If anyone is interested in holo string, contact me. If the demand is there, I could stock 11 lbs. (my min. stocking order), like I have for black string. I'// be evaluating chartreuse string also. 10 new glitter colors being evaluated, but only in .008 and .015. Sam

You mean Zara Spooks?

Thanks guys, the comments were helpful and very accurate. I will probably add more of Del's red and a little fl. yellow. Here's a bass on an oxblood Senko: DelW, please stock some good chartreuse. LC has some good stuff, but I'd rather purchase from you, considering how excellent the motor oil was that you carry. (Still waiting for a 5" Senko Worm from your mold.) Color #325 is Brown Indigo w/ red flake. I forgot the red flake and put in .040 black and black string. Very nice. Sam

Is it my imagination or is LC's oxblood, in reality, pumpkin? Even when I made the color more concentrated, it can out nothing like Yamamoto's. Any ideas? Sam

Kalin discontinued this great color combo: Chartreuse - pumpkin laminate. chartreuse tail and body had marigold, black and kelly green flakes. I reproduced it perfectly. Sam

I had the same problem with some hologram glitter I ordered from one distributor. If the flakes where sitting on top of the plastic as it was melting, they would spark and flame. I sent back 10 lbs. and chewed him out since I specifically said, "for microwave use", before I ordered it. He swore it was supposed to be all poly with a thin metallic coating but I'm sure it was aluminum based.( I only order .008 abd.015 flakes from him because of colors I can't get anywhere else. (lt. blue, lt copper, lime, rem. steel)) If you immerse and stir in the flakes in completely, once the plastic is melted, there should be no arching. Flakes exposed near the rim of the container may arc just like aluminum that's too close to the wall. Flakes that are immersed aren't affected. ( You can use aluminum in a microwave to retard the cooking of one end of a piece of meat that's very thick, as long as it's well of bottom and away from the edges.)

After I remelted the clear plastic with gold glitter, there was a slight yellow tint. After I remelted clear plastic with no glitter, there also developed a tint of yellow. I was using the last of LC plastic and used no heat stabilizer. So the caveat to using the glitter I sell, is that there may be a bleed problem for clear plastic on the remelt, but not on the first melt. There is no problem in colored plastic. Thanks to Dan for pointing this out. Frank

Like BassnG3 says, slow melting is the only way. The things you can expect for commercial grade plastics: Brighter colors will fade and may change to a drab, off color. Glitter will shrink or melt completely as well as lose color. Salted baits will lose all salt and settle to the bottom. The larger crystals used, were originally mixed uniformly by a process I haven't figured out yet. If you want salt, floured salt is the only way. Of course, the plastic will now be opaque versus translucent and the poured plastic, much harder with the addition of salt. A microwave will burn the plastic less (and stink less) than a stove top burner as long as you zap 15 seconds or so - stir the chunks in evenly - and repeat until uniformly melted. You can even pause between zaps to allow solids to melt down and avoid burning already-melted plastic. View the pyrex container like a melting pot - stir and heat slowly. Sometimes it pays to add some fresh plastic, dye and glitter, softener or hardener (if Senkos). Plastisol that's been reheated, looks and fells better as long as extreme caution is taken to prevent the temp from going over 300. You want the consistency of syrup, not water. Sam

The three at the top are yellow gold in clear (.015, .040) - no bleed The bottom two are .015 lt gold in clear - no bleed. Small glitter acts like worm dye, the same as pearl powder. The flakes reflect color off the plastic and make it seem likes it's tinted. If you make a film around the inside of a pyrex glass and it's tinted, than it's tinted. The plastic film must be held up to a white florescent light or the background will tint the clear plastic. Heating plastic over 325 or reheating after the 2nd time, will degrade glitter, cause it to shrink and maybe melt into the plastic. Adding glitter and salt after the peak pouring temperature of 275 (max) has been reached, stirring and then zapping for 5-10 seconds, allows for clear plastic to stay clear. Seering clear plastic will yellow it, as will reheating it at a high temperature. (Reheated plastic only takes less than 1/2 the time to melt than new plastisol.) Sam

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/pouring_plastic_worms.html http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/pouring_plastic_worms_supplies.html http://ultimatebass.com/lbf/index.php/topic,2257.0.html Supplemental to the how-to on TU. Sam http://senkosam.tripod.com/index.html

CJ, the .008 hologram is a fine powder. I have a pound in that size and also in .015. In fact, of the 22 colors I carry, only a few odd colors don't come in .008. FrankM

Were they from a 2-part metal mold? I like to pour light first and then use Spike-It or Bi-Rite worm dye if I want it darker or chartreuse. Watermelon dye would do a good job of deepening the color, if need. Pumpkin dye would give a unique olive color over that green. Good job. Sam

My supplier has powder in .004 and .006. I usually carry .008, which is pretty fine.

You can see the salt smoke rising after grinding. That's super fine.

http://www.bobstackleshack.com/catalog/default.php?cPath=25&osCsid=dfc155d2247e7b799a198f58b446a883

Joe, they are Bob's T-Stick mold sticks - exactly 5 14". The belly is clear plastic with 30% salt flour only and the bait weighs .2 oz more than the non-laminate pictured. All three are super soft and cast like a bullet (in the snow ). Can't wait to pour more in different colors, solid and laminate. I have Bob's 4 1/4" Senko - same quality lure. Sam

Any scanner that has a resolution of 200-300 will do a nice job, but the jpeg will be large (over 1 Mb). If you have a program like photo filter or other photography program, you can shrink it down to under 80 kb. this is a scanned picture:

What he said, but don't remove from the mold too soon!