nova

What are you using to melt your lead? If it has a thermostat; turn it down. If you pour you lead too hot you can take the temper out of the steel in the hook. This will make the steel brittle. www.novalures.com

The turning color is due to too much heat. I always mix my lead with 1/2 pure lead and 1/2 wheel weights. This will almost eliminate the denting you are having. www.novalures.com

I use epoxy thinned with alcohol. The first coat I put on is quite thin because I want it to sink into the POP. The next coat is a little thicker and after it sets up ( I use the oven set at 150 degrees) The last coat is a little thicker again. This should give that "glassy" finish you're after. Let us know how you make out. www.novalures.com

Good stuff; lot of work but nice result. www.novalures.com

Thanks Delw. The eyes you see there are on the masters so that when I make the mold it has the impressions of the eyes. This makes the bait come out with quite raised eyes. The baits work quite well. My wife has caight big fish with them everytime we go out. www.novalures.com

Here's the pic. These are the masters I carved out. The biggest is 6" and smaller one is 5". www.novalures.com

My shop is a lot colder than that; lol. www.novalures.com

I always add everything but the glitter to the plastic before I cook it. Just make sure you stir it well before you heat it. Try 4 oz plastic; one or two drops white; 1/16 tsp pearl, and 1/16 tsp fine holi glitter. I use this for the belly color of baitfish. www.novalures.com

I must be ahead of my time, lol. I made a couple of baits that look a lot like that and poured them with the salt formula about 3 years ago. They work very well. I'll post a pic. Oh well. www.novalures.com

Good for you; hope everyone's well. I had 2 girls and one boy. I'll take all boys anytime. Wait till the hormones get flowing you'll see what I mean. lol Just kidding; kids are always a joy; especially when they give you grandkids. www.novalures.com

You have to get your plastic hot and you have to pour one bait at a time. Each color has to be laid one on top of the other as soon as you can. If you let the layers cool too much you will get cold cracks. Also, you must work with warm molds. I usually pour scrap plastic in the molds prior to starting the baits to warm the molds. You only need to do this once because once you start to pour your baits the molds will stay warmed. www.novalures.com

Yes you sure can. www.novalures.com

Way to go Mike. I knew it was just a matter of time. Onward and upward buddy. www.novalures.com

If you bake the clay you will ruin the mold if it's a one piece trying to get the master out. Leave the clay soft and carfully pick it out once the mold has dried. Let us know how you make out. www.novalures.com

Quite good work for just getting started. It'll only get better. www.novalures.com

If you put actual weights in the bait you can determin how the bait falls(action). www.novalures.com

If you're wondering about what colors to buy; go to the softbait recipie sticky and pic out which baits you want to pour and then look to see what colors go into making them. www.novalures.com

Glitter has to have some means of sticking to the bait. There are glitter glues that the kids use but I've never had the need to try it. Glitter should be the last thing you add to your plastic before you pour. www.novalures.com

The one thing that any good business understands is that you can't please everyone all of the time. There is not one mailorder business that hasn't backordered something. I feel that the owness is on the customer to let the business know that if there are some backordered items in the order the business should conact him/her to let them know so that the customer can substitute or place an order with a different company to obtain the product. I almost always ask this when I order from my suppliers. www.novalures.com

Yes you slightly over heated it. When you reheat (microwave) do it in short bursts. If you heat it too long at one time it will turn on you. www.novalures.com

If I had known it was Tackle Tour I would have only said " go for it". www.novalures.com

As long as you can confirm that this is legit; I would say go for it. If you can't confirm, or you have a hincky feeling about it, you may wind up just giving someone a bunch of baits for nothing. I know that more than a few of us have been "contacted" by all sorts of folks for "donations". I'm not saying that this is what this is; I'm just saying make sure. www.novalures.com

The problem; as I see it; is that there will always be some uninformed/non-businessperson who will foolishly sell their product at or near their presumed cost. This can; at first; reflect poorly on those who pride themselves on suppyling the best product they can to the public. After enough of this sub-standard product has been sold 2 things will happen. At some point the seller will find out that they are actually loosing money because they failed to account for "all" of their costs of manufacturing; and the customers will come to realise that this product is very substandard. The old saying of "you get what you pay for" is very true. www.novalures.com

Very nice. Did you do that with the funnel? www.novalures.com

That's the only drawback. Once the first mold is done; so is your master. At that point; if you want to make more molds; you keep your first mold as the master and pour plastic baits from it to make other molds. www.novalures.com