robalo01

Is the mold release necessary?

I had a couple of rubber stamps made. They look kind of like the old heddon lettering.

I've been building wood topwater lures for a couple years and I would like to build some diving lures. What's a good design to start out -- the easiest design? deep crank, shallow crank, minnow? I have a lathe.

The RTV I get here in Mexico is thinned with what they call "silicon oil". I have tried it but: either you pur it stight and it seta fast and is very tough and porous; or, you thinn it with the oil, it turns out a lovely mold that is s little more firm than jello. it won't hold it shape under the presure of expanding foam. So I've been making some molds with regular silicon activated with water. I guess this is one I'll have to try myself. I'll let you know how it goes. PS. What about pouring molds with PVC plastisol with a lot of hardener?

Is it possible to thin common household silicone with sillicone oil (used to thin RTV silicone) in order to pour it over a model for mold making?

I've been turning some baits on a lathe. Before the bait is fully turned, I drill my hole (3/8") and then I use some lead plugs that I made for this that are slightly bigger. I cover them with polyester glue and press them into the wood while still on the lathe. In about five or six minutes I turn on the lathe again and finish turning the bait to size. The lead shapes pretty well as it is about as hard/soft as the wood. When I'm done, the there's really no need to fill anything. Seal, prime and paint.

I have a 2 part clear epoxy that cures in 24 hrs. Isn't slower better? I would think it would settle more even.

I did a search on this and didn't find anything. If you already covered this, sorry. Has anybody ever tried rotating a silicon mold that is half-or-so filled with an epoxy resin to get a hollow body? I guess its the inverted version of putting finish on rod wraps. I suppose you wold have to make a gadget that would rotate it in several directions.

I don't think that it's that closely related to consumption as much as speculators gambling on what they think the consumption will be, o rather then, what they think other speculators will think. Actual comodity consumption doesn't fluctuate nearly as much as the prices do. Anyay, now that "deflation" is settling in, maybe prices will come down. Although I don't know if that's a good thing.

When the price of oil (the comodity) started rising, along with it the price of plastic products, including plastisol went up with it. I wonder if now that the price of oil is back down, plastisol will follwo suit...or is it only affected on the way up?

I've made tons of lead molds from bondo. It works pretty well. A couple of things you need to keep in mind: 1. Look in the wire baits forum for exact directions on how to make your original mold. I don't want to repeat what has already been covered thoroughly there. 2. Make your mold about 4X as thick as the part you want to mold. It tends to warp if you make it thinner. 3. Once you make your first mold that you like, make at least three replicas of your mold. Do this by pouring a few extra of one side, then then turn it over and make few extra of the other side. It's a lot easier to do them in a series than to do all of the steps for each mold. 4. Keep one mold as a master and don't use it. You'll need it to make more molds when the first ones begin to fail. They crack after about 100 pours or so, depending on the size of the piece and frequency of use. 5. Demold as quickly as you think it's safe. If you let the casting cool down completely inside the mold, it tends to shorten the life of the mold. Try to keep them as cool as you can. Since the Bondo has refractory properties, it doesn't need to be preheated or any thing. 6. Number the three molds and alternate their use. Give them a chance to cool down between castings. They will over-heat and begin to crack if you keep pouring and pouring with no rest. Depending on how many castings you want to do, you might need more molds. I'd say you need to let the mold cool off about 8-10 minutes between castings. If you need any more help PM me. I'm not in this forum very much.

Would a cone-shaped pot make a difference in the weight of the plastic? Or what about making an screw auger (sp) out of the mixer that would force the plastic into the mold?

I've used a lee pot for pouring led for quite a while and what I like about it the most is that when you put the mold directly up against the spout it actually injects the lead with the weight of all the contents in the pot. Would it help to use the same technique with pouring one of these types of molds from a presto pot? ... rather that pouring it from a couplle of inches away as I've heard of some people here doing. Just curious.

Back to the topic of curl tails. Is it posible to do a two-color pour with this type of mold? I saw on u-tube, a clip of a guy souldering skirts to spidergrubs with a souldering iron that had a piece of flat brass attached to it. He would slide the two pieces down either side the brass plate and then when they slipped off they stuck to each other pretty quickly. Anyone ever tried this technique for making two-color baits?

I think I could offer a couple of suggestions to improve this: 1. a little monkey to come out and pull the levers for you. 2. a parrot to yell out to the wife that its gonna be just a few more minutes before you come to dinner. Good job!

Can't PM. Can you drop me a note at bassattacker@prodigy.net.mx?

What kind of max do you use?

I make my master from scultor's clay on a peice of thick glass, then build a dam around the masterwith more clay and pour the resin around it. Then you have to clean out the mold with a solvent. I use turpentine. This "test" mold then is used to make masters for a production mold. I make my own plastic instruments out of anything I can find. I was curious if anybody was doing anything like this. The good thing about using glass is that you can see the "footprint" the model makes and determine how well it will release from the mold once you pour a bait. The clay allows you to make resin molds that "hug" the bait and produce things that are rounder than if you used a wood model. I havent made any two-part resin molds. For two-parts, I use a wood model and auto body filler. (bondo).

I see here that a lot of you guys make wood models and then RTV molds from them. Does anybody make clay models and resin molds? i've been doing this off and on for the past few yers with some good results and would like to hear about any techniques or tips you have. I'll try to get some pictures up of my work to see wht yu think.

Thanks for all the advice about how to get the stuff from the US to me, but, frankly, I'm pretty much well informed (maybe more then most the people in this forum) about how to get things impoted from the US to here. My question was "Does anybody know, or know where I can get, a basic idea of a formula for having this tuff mixed for me here?" I am a legit business and I for purposes of VAT, I need to import legally. "walking it accross the border" doesn't allow me to show the expense of my raw material, and, if that weren't enough, there are laws againts SMUGLING CONRTABAND! That sounded much more sarchastic that I intended. It's getting late. Sorry for the attitude,guys, I know you mean well.

Yeah. I've been doing this for ten years, and one thing I've learned is that, short of bribing people, or commiting some kind of fraud, there's no getting out of going through a broker with any kind of chemical that's not a household product like a detergent or something like that. I know sometimes on your side the post office seems cheaper, but when it arrives here, they won't deliver it until you hire a broker, register the importation and pay the fees and, ofcourse, the fines for not doing it the right way to begin with. In short, these are "non-tarrif trade barriers." I'm looking for a way to source the stuff here. Or,if anybody out there is looking for a distributor in Mexico, it might be cost effective to import a couple barrels.

The problem isn't that it's illegal to bring in. It's just a pain because it's not a household product, so it has to go through an import broker. The mimimum broker fee is $50 + incidentals + two shipping charges (one to the border and one from the border to here). For a bucket or two of plastic that could take about two to three weeks to get here and, when you calculate everything, it can cost an additional 60% over the original store cost. I'm looking to source this here to avoid all of this. I found this on Google what do you think? Geen 121 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 ounces Geen 202 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 ounces Good-rite GP-261 . . . . . . . . . . . 25 ounces Hydrogenated Terphenyl . . . . . . . . 25 ounces Tin Stabilizer . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 ounceProcedure: As small quantity such as this may be mixed with an electric cake mixer or by hand. Commercial quantities should be mixed in larger, planetary mixers such as are used in bakeries. This product is fluid and may be poured into suitable molds. Heating the molds to 350 degrees F. in an oven will fuse and harden the plastic. There is little shrinkage and the cast objects have life-like feeling. Molds may be of any material that will stand the curing temperature. The names and addresses of 7600 or more retail sporting goods stores may be purchased from Chicago Advertising Agency, 28 E. Jackson, Chicago, IL. You should contact these to handle these plastic worms and frogs - which should be mounted on display cards for store sale. Supply Sources: GEON 121 and GEON 202 from - B.F. Goodrich, Chemical Co., 3135 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH GOOD-RITE GP-261 also from B.F. Goodrich Chemical Co., 3135 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH HYDROGENATED TERPHENYL from Harshaw Chemical Co., 1945 E. 97th St., Cleveland, OH TIN STABILIZER from Metal and Thermit Corp., Rahway, NJ I don't sell to the US, everything is for the Mexico Market.

I'm in Mexico and I have a hard time importing the soft plast Plastisol from the States -- the logistics are rather expensive. Does anybody have a hand-pour soft plastic formula that i could use to order the stuff down here? I have contacts that say they can put together just about anything. I just need to know what to ask for exactly.

What kind mold did that come out of?

Hey I've looked through the threads for this, but I can