Teamdiarrhea

Beautiful firetiger! Haven't posted much here, just check in from time to time, great bunch of people and great info. I've been pouring for almost 20 years, started out thinking I was going to get rich but soon realized it was a lot of work trying to keep up with orders, hold a full time day job, and still have a little time to get out fishing on the weekends. Now I "recreationally" pour for myself and friends. I use spike-it quite a bit for striping, tips, etc, rather than mess with mixing up additional colors but have problems with the dye bleeding after packaging baits together and packing them around in the boat. How do you get around this? Thx, Team-D

Trying to not cause further injuries or damage while frantically trying to get your legs out from underneath the pouring bench, getting out of your chair, and getting your pants down around your knees after dumping approximately 2 ounces of freshly nuked plastic onto your left thigh... Not real funny at the time but if someone were there to witness it would have been quite a show. Luckily got the pants down in time to only come away with first a first degree burn...

jrav has it right. I call it "rolling" tubes. I cut up a bunch of 1/4" brass rods that I had laying around into 8" or so long pieces. Your plastic pots need to be around 4" tall but you only need to fill them with 1 or 2" of plastic. I like to use lots of salt so dunk the rod in the container and stir like heck to mix up all the salt - tip the container until the plastic is just out to the edge like you are about to pour it out. The rod should be laying in the layer of plastic and touching the bottom of the pot - roll the rod back and forth between your fingers until you get an even coating then hang it on a drying rack over something to catch the plastic that will drip off. Repeat the process as many times as necessary to get desired tube thickness. See ya on the riv' - TD

The reservoirs were made out of the head of big Kalins Mogambo grub, I put them in at the same time I put the "Sink-O's" in. You can use anything or drill them out afterwards like I read a lot of guys are doing. I place the "reservoir" piece about an 1/8" from the head of the bait, then when you pull the final mold apart you have very little material to drill or cut through to make the final reservoir/bait connection. I also made a couple of 4" molds, I actually pour/use more of them than the 5". The aluminum molds are awesome, I don't have any of the 2-piece yet but recently got the brush hog imitation and love it. I also really like the looks of the fatter style senko imitations. Makes me want to take a second mortgage and buy a CNC machine I'll try the Valspar, sounds great with no mixing, water cleanup, and best of all almost immediate pouring. My patience runs thin and I hate the waiting process - that's also the beauty of Durhams. See ya on the riv' - TD

What works pretty good for me is taking a small soft bristle paintbrush and spreading the pancake batter on the bait in a thin bubble-free coat just prior to dumping the rest of the batter on top of it. Also let the batter sit for a few minutes prior to pouring, tapping on the mixing container prior to pouring, and again tapping on your mold container after pouring. here is a 5" Senko mold I made two years ago. It is coated with the blue mold-making silicone which works pretty good, but I'm looking forward to trying the thinned Devcon that everyone talks about here - should be easier and much less costly. See ya on the riv' - TD

Sweet ideas. Just went out and dipped a couple of grubs real quick, awesome. Can't believe I haven't thought of it myself What I used to do with tubes is throw a layer of salt out on the counter - after you dip and while the plastic is still semi-soft throw it in salt and roll it back and forth. The salt will stick in the plastic and leave a zillion small holes behind after it dissolves. The holes will trap small bubbles and give your bait a different look. TD

Not a finger, just several thinly sliced pieces of flesh of the end of a finger....

I was doing everything right but my file was bigger than 640 x 480. Here it is.....

Sorry, can't figure out how to get the picture to post. Any help greatly appreciated, or shoot me an email and I'll send it to you....

Here is the tube cutter I made several years ago. Dug out an old garage door operator arm and house door hinge plate from my junk bin, several bolts, nails, etc, and a chunk of rubber gasket material I dug out of a scrap pile. I also "borrowed" a nice wood cutting board from the kitchen, she still can't figure out where it went.... The blades are "bolted" together with machine screws and separated by thin washers. Use a generous amount of salt with the plastic, let them sit overnight before you cut them so the get hardened up, then place the head of the tube at up against the two nails. Lube the blades up with cheap fish attractant oil every 3 or 4 cuts or you'll rip the tails up when you pull them out. I put the cutting blades down on the tube and get them positioned, then press the arm down on the tube with a quick motion - the tube actually will make a "pop" sound if you do it right. If you want to market the design don't forget about me I'm with dtrs5kprs - I haven't made any tubes in a few years because it's so labor intensive. I wait until BP spring catalog comes out and buy enough for $1.99 a ten-pack to last me the whole year. My problem is I keep doing that every year before doing inventory and I now have enough to last me for the next several years (especially since that last order came in a week ago)...... Awesome site you guys have here, I haven't participated much but try to get on as often as I can to pick up the latest tips.... See ya on the river. Team-D [/img]

Thanks Lurehead03. I tried some high heat type paint on Durham's a few years back and it didn't work well, the paint kept sticking to the plastic and pulling out of the blank. I probably got impatient and tried pouring too early, 48 hours is a long time to wait to try out that new mold Is "High Heat" the brand name of the paint you're using? Thx - Matt

Envirotex Lite, thanks MagicBob. I can see TU is going to get expensive for me - running out to buy new and different goodies to try out all the time - usually goes something like, "Sweetie, you need me to run to the store and pick up milk or bread or anything? No-no-no, you go ahead and stay here, I'll be RIGHT BACK!" I'm not worried about real fine detail in my baits either, mostly pour grubs, lizards, creatures, Sink-Os and dropshot baits for my friends and self. Whenever I get to it (which isn't often enough) I like to pour enough of one pattern/color so they last the better part of a season if not longer. Don't want to have to oil molds and pry out sticking baits - I'd rather "waste" my time on the water than in the garage pouring. Although both contribute greatly to my remaining somewhat sane.... Temps are good today in the 50s but that $%&$# wind is howling again - too much work to go out and fight the white caps at this time of the year. Hopefully this weekend things will get back to normal fishing conditions (a balmy 30 degrees and no wind) so I can go out and drag up a few winter smallies.

I know, I know, you must be freezing. Have Devcon on hand now, will put to use this weekend. Thanks again - Matt

That's good news, thanks a bunch Jim! The sweetie is leaving to her sister's for the weekend - I'll pick up some 2-ton today for this weekend's moldmaking and pour-athon with the fishing buddies (or what she refers to as beer drinking buddies).....

Great board(s) here guys, don't do much posting, just like to get on every now and then and catch up on the latest. Winter is here and it's time to restock on plastics.... I've "experimented" with resin, Durham's, and blue RTV for several years. I lean toward Durham's now, there are advantages/disadvantages to all. RTV is the best because it won't break and you don't have to oil the mold prior to pouring, but the downside is that if you mess up a mold you just threw away a $10 or $20 bill - stuff is expensive. The biggest downsides for Resin and Durham's are 1) they don't take kindly to being dropped on a concrete floor, and 2) you pretty much have to oil up before every pour or your plastic sticks. Am curious - are the durham molds you guys are coating with devcon still "oil free"? The best thing I've come up with is to coat your Durham's mold with the blue RTV. Go very thin with 1 or 2 coats. Problem is the wait for it to dry out - I usually give it a day per coat. First coat soaks in and is usually enough - put on a real light second coat for more shine on your baits, but be careful and wipe off excess a few times or it will pool in the bottom of your mold cavity, distorting the bait shape and taking away any detail. Am curious to try the devcon coating on my next go-round. Hope you're all enjoying winter - took the day off to fish but it's 40 deg with 20-30mph winds right now in WA. Guess I'll have to clean the garage so I can get the pouring station fired up again.....

Can't wait to try it - am assuming the heat doesn't affect it and you don't have to use any oil or anything to get the plastic to release? I haven't made any molds for a year or so. In the past I've used two part RTV (blue stuff used for making molds that costs a fortune) for coating molds made from Durham's water putty - works pretty good but have had a few minor peeling problems.

It's plenty "pourable" for molds if you mix it right - I make mine where it is just thick enough that you have to use a rubber spatula to help get it out of the mixing container, kind of like a thick pancake batter - once you pour it into the mold container, lightly tap on the sides of the container and it will level out perfectly - this will also bring the bubbles up to the top. I have one of those lights that clamps to the edge of a table that you can bend the neck on - I put a 100 watt lamp in it and bend it down so it is about an inch or so from the top of the mold and let it "cook" for several hours or overnight - same effect as putting it in the oven at low temps as mentioned above. It's the best stuff I've found - hard, tough, and doesn't shrink.

Here's my method, makes good Gizzits but you're not going to make a bunch in a hurry..... Rolling Gizzits I like lots of salt, makes the coats of your dips thicker plus makes the tails cut better - I also use a little hardener, I'm not one for measuring real accurately but approximately 1 oz hardener to 4 oz plastic. I use camping type salt and pepper shakers, thin aluminum that have screw on tops - they are perfect height for 3-1/2" tubes - take the tops off and throw them away. Fill the cups 1/2 full - the first dip, stick the rod all the way to the bottom and stir up all the salt, take it out and hang it - I do 10 at a time so repeat the process for all 10 rods. This should give you a good base for the head of the tube, 1-1/2" to 1-3/4" long. The second dip, stick the rod all the way to the bottom of the cup again and stir up all the salt, remove the cup from the burner, tip the cup as if you are going to pour the plastic out, but stop before the plastic hits the edge of the cup (keep the rod in the cup and be careful, hot plastic on the thigh of your jeans doesn't feel good, but if you can get your pants down quick enough it will be limited to 1st degree burns only). Keeping the rod in the surface layer of the plastic, roll it between your fingers, back and forth so the rod gets even coverage. When you get desired thickness hang it again. With a little plastic hardener and lots of salt you can have good thickness with two dips. I actually call it "rolling" Gizzits as it's not actually dipping the rod into a deep pot of plastic. I like to let the "tubes" sit before cutting the tails, letting the plastic get to full hardness. I'll usually pour 50-100 at a time, pile them up like cordwood, then come back and cut them the next day. I can't figure out how to put a picture on here of my tail cutter, maybe you guys can help out? Looks like I have to have an http address for the image? Not smart enough to do that. Anwyway, like most I sandwiched several razor blades together with machine screws, using small machine washers in between each blade for spacers. I attached the blades to an flat aluminum rod with a pivot at one end - the pivot is attached to a heavy wooden cutting board that I'm not supposed to have... On top of the board I tacked down some rubber gasket material with nails. I have the blades set so that they are flat when they hit the gasket material. Every 5 cuts or so I drip cheap fish scent in between the blades so the tails pull out easier. Place an uncut tube in the right place on the cutting gasket material, bring the blades down on top of the tube properly positioned, then quickly and firmly pop the blades through the tube - the tube will actually make sort of a "pop" when cut quickly like this. Lift the blades up, grab the tube and gently pull it out from between the blades. That's "all" there is to it! Now, with all that being said, I'm honestly with Dave anymore. Prices now are so low, and colors so plentiful I rarely make tubes any longer unless someone wants a special color. My tubes are almost identical to BPS and you can buy them in their sale catalogs $1.99 per 10 pack. Take care and have fun, sorry about the long post, I got on a roll.... Team-D

Agree, sodium chloride is sodium chloride, no matter what shape, size or form. I've had the same experience - "powdered" salt definitely gives me an opaque bait, which isn't a bad thing depending on what color is desired. The finer the salt the slower it tends to sink to the bottom of the pot. In any case, if you use a lot of salt you need to do a lot of stirring - stir before every pour and pour as fast as you can. BTW, I do all my pouring out of aluminum cups rather than the production pots - just my preference. team-d

Agree, salt is salt but crystal size is different. I buy bulk "sea salt" at the grocery stores that sell it out of the bulk bins. Haven't had to buy it in a long time because it's cheap, but it's pretty fine and perfect for pouring. I've also used regular morton salt and put it in a food processor but it's a lot more work - advantage is that you can literally make "powder salt" if you desire.

Hi All, Been "listening" to all of you for the past couple months and finally joined in. Wish I would have found this board a few years ago. Been pouring plastics and making molds for 10 years or so now, did some selling at first which turned out to be too much like work so now just pour for myself and fishing buds. Have also made spinnerbaits, bladebaits, etc, and recently made my first topwater plug with a foil finish, compliments of all the advice from these boards. Look forward to chatting with all of you! Team-D

If you are using real soft plastic and can't pull the leftover "film" out sprinkle a coupole tablespoons of salt into the pot and use your hand to rub it around - it acts as an abrasive and will even remove the leftover flake.