Travis

Hey I have a 10 inch jerkbait now. I decided if I was going to give the advice I better go ahead and make sure it was possible, always irks me personally when someone gives advice without any previous experience. I used three mister twister slugs and took a blade and split the tail. I went ahead and used bondo body filler and 5 minute devcon to seal it. Can't tell where the pieces are joined at all. If I knew it was going to turn out as well as it did I would have went ahead and spent a little more time adding some details to the mold.

It might be a little thin but you could piece it together and make your mold. Just smooth out so you don't get nasty looking joints.

Don't fill the funnel till the end. Just pour the bait full being carefull not to ever "plug"the funnel with plastic this is causing the voids you are seeing. Pour straight down the opening. If you get a little off just quickly adjust so you are pouring down into the mold. Once the mold cavity is filled then fill the funnel full and go to the next one. Keep an eye on the first filled cavity and go back and add more plastic to the funnel even if you don't think like it needs it. Go to the third and repeat. Don't think as the funnel as a funnel. It looks like you are filling it and waiting for it to fill a portion of the mold and then trying to fill it again. Think of it as a reservoir to hold additional plastic once you fill the mold that way as it cools an shrinks it will have additional plastic in the reservoir to "pull" down to get a solid bait.

Nothing wrong with rogues from my experience. Really one of the better jerks for the price.

All will do fine for cutting out lures. Doesn't require much of bandsaw to cut out lures. They will also do some woodworking stuff but as Lincoya mentioned shouldn't even be considered for resawing. But then those are an entirely different price range. I have the delta.

I wouldn't bother with reinforcement myself. You don't have to clamp these things down very hard from my experience. As long as you have vents it isn't going to build up much pressure. I typically use one spur hole and may make very fine (very) fine vent holes in one or two areas in the bondo. I wouldn't recommend injecting the foam either. It really is very simple process. A lot of times it is a good idea to paint areas that have detail that might capture air with the stick you use to mix the foam. and then fill one half of the mold set together and clamp. I keep everything simple and the baits seem to turn out just fine. With a set of bondo molds you can churn out some baits rather quickly once you get a system going. As far as durability I am not so sure how many you will get out of a bondo but then again it doesn't take too long to make a series of the same mold when you start. I am sure others will be of more help, my experience with foamies is to a lesser degree than many on the site.

How many time do you get that crank that just doesn't want to cooperate. I finally licked a foamie that was one big pain in the rear. First time painting it when I went to put on water slide decals paint peeled right off no problem. Realized I forgot to lay a primer down over the krylon fushion to get my water based paint to adhear. So peeled it all off and repainted. Then went to make the new water slide decals. Of course one peeled off the backing when I went to remove it from the paper I used to feed it through the printer because I must have used super scotch tape. So printed another out. Got my new eyes in an stuck them on and didn't like the fit. They needed a little recess to sit flush with the crank. So now I figure I am not going to be satisfied without drilling a slight recess to counter sink the eyes slightly. So drill ever so carefully and some how managed not to damage the paint job but did manage to wreck a water slide. So I back to the printer. Well finally got done with that part went to slap on some devcon. Went to check the bait on the drying lure a few bubles. Blew on the bait slightly knocking them out and all was good. Come back a few hours later and find my bait sitting on the floor. Pulled up and of course a small crater along with dust bunnies, lab hair, etc... was plastered to the side. Managed to pick it all out no problem and recoated with a second coat of devcon. Filled in the crater and all dings and scratches from removing all the junk off the bait. Well finally got the bait done and can't tell anything is wrong with it. Posted a pick in the photo section. Now I figure one of two things will happen when I hit the water. I will hook the fish of a life time and have the lip pull out or most likely manage to hang it up in some sort of underwater jungle and end up breaking it off.

I am sure certain epoxies would do great problem is going through the time to find one that works similar to the solo cup/thinner mixture. Probably end up with something similar to the UV set epoxies used in dipping stations for computer chips and electronic componets. The cup/thinner stuff would also be much cheaper. For ten bucks you can make up a lot of "dip".

I don't think I would be too worried at this point. I would however remove Sweet Beaver from the discription at the site.

I decreased my problems with imperfections (rare now) by making the vent hole as small as possible to make sure I get a good skin. After I remove the lure from the mold I lightly sand and then dip in the "plasticoat" the first coat may have one or two small bubbles form but I knock those down with a fine sanding. It basically fills the small void with the plastic. Two more coats and it is baby butt smooth. I posted earlier I am using testors but forgot to mention I use Krylon Fusion as a base coat. Following pic shows four of my new goodies in multiple stages.

Not waiting till my wife and kids go visit her family. It sometimes think that if they see me working on lures means it is time to do laundry, bath time, ________ fill in the blank with what has to be done now task.

The design should be an easy two piece mold to pour. No exagerated details and not a difficult bait to position and have to worry about portions moving. Nice looking.

I have been using the "pasticoat" stuff also. So far so good. I have been using testors paints so far.

I haven't had this happen yet. I wonder if it has something to do with heat transfer/loss at different rates. Typically I only have to top my mold off once unless I get a little hasty pouring and end up traping air in the mold.

I usually pour my molds in the same bread pan for uniformity and they end up stacking and storing nice. I just use foil and some masking tape to create dam to alter the length of the mold.

I forgot to mention on two part molds I make sure to put a good coat of vasoline as filler in the bottom half of the mold. Then press the worm back in and clean up any vasoline that squirts out. This makes sure no air is trapped to escape into your upper portion when you pour it.

When I get any holes I just hit it with a second batch of plaster or durhams, use some dental picks to fill the hole and smooth the area out. A lot of imperfections, as mentioned, can be covered with devcon. I am one of those that doesn't bake his molds. I just slap on the devcon and have had no problems with any so far. Have poured with them for a year now. I find the plastic worms demold just fine with no vasoline or lubricant. The only time I had some dificulties was with making a "zipper" worm. Had to do a little patch work but only a few minutes worth. You can also make a make shift vacuum chamber with your shop vac to help remove any bubbles from the mix. I end up mixing mine a little thin to help also. Slap it a few times against the counter to help knock bubbles out. I will also "paint" the plaster/water puddy onto the lure if it has detail or ribs with kids brush before pouring.

I buy craft store glitter all the time, you just have to find a good brand. Stampendous glitters are great, I bought about all they had at the time. Unfortunately fine and extra fine was all they had. I have reheated multitude of times in Calhouns without any apparent distortion or bleeding.

For some reason I have done mainly bank, wading, and float tubing the past few years. This year I plan on getting the bass boat back out on the water.

What you earlier discribed is exactly how it should look when using hightlights don't be worried. Highlight will just reflect that color at certain angles. It is not going to color your bait. It basically is going to give it a sheen just like on a fish. Like on a crappie when you turn it just right you see those green and blue highlights. If you are looking for red shad you are going to have to buy red dye to get a true red plastic. In the baits attached you can see the blue highlight in the all the baits but the overall color of passion purple or cinnamon is due to the dyes.

Probably not the best way but I haven't had any problems with my molds and they are nearly a year old. As soon as I demold I go ahead and slap a coat of Devcon on my molds. They still contain moisture but hasn't caused any probems for me. The surface is dry so the epoxy sticks no problem. I typically make a mold, coat it, and pour in it in around an hour or hour half. As long as the mold isn't too complicated I will slap 5 minute epoxy on it with no problems. You do have to store these so they can dry the first time but no problem. Do a search and you will find many "bake" their molds in the oven. I have before but my rush method hasn't had any problems either. I have only made probably 10 molds so far so maybe I will have some in the future screw up doing it this way.

I found it easier just to take a paint brush and "paint" vasoline into the cavities. Straight out of the jar.

Fished the very similar style of river often during college. Just a series of riffles and quick pools. A lot of clay troughs, and lay downs everywhere. Every rain would wash new trees into the creek. Some areas just massive log jams. Spots were not too picky on lures from my experience, especally in fast moving creeks and rivers. They just sit back and wait to pounce as stuff zips past. I used a medium action to medium heavy BPS extreme rods teamed with shimano pro max or daiwa 103HL or 103PVA reels many times but typical went ahead and used the spinning rods (my least favorite). If using mono cut down on the pound test for fast current. My typical cranks were Bomber Model A's in model B02A, Fat A's in B05F, Cordels Big O 1/4 ounce size, and by far my favorites Rapala Fat Raps 05 models. A few lead suspend strips on lip will help also. I assume since you have a lot of current then pretty clean bottom you have a lot of "river" rock. I always wanted to be digging a crank through that stuff. I always wanted a deeper diving crank than the actual water depth. But if wood bait what you want the orginal balsa B's probably best bet.

I came across this lure probably 10 years ago at an antique store. It was in a junk box at the counter with odds and ends and I payed 50 cents for it. The lure is in poor condition overall but for 50 cents didn't care. It is a mouse replica. Brown with cream or white belly. Ears are molded on side of head. They don't show but then they are not pronounced to begin with. There appears to be a tail molded at the end also. The ears and tail lay next to the body. The four small protrusions for legs don't appear to have ever been broken off. Around an 1.5 inches in length and .5 inches in width. Just wondering if anyone has come across one before or seen one similar.

I would think the problem with ground glass, like most things, would be the millions of facets and imperfections you generate, increasing the the cloudiness effects observed in the baits.