jigmeister

Fishing skirts .com gets their skirts from the same supplier in Vietnam per the supplier . I was on a waiting for a couple of colors for over a year before I received an email saying these colors were discontinued and NLA.

I posted on an old site that predated this one called "Luremaking.com " around 2001 as Megabass and most of those old guys mentioned were on there . If memory serves me correctly the luremaking.com site shut down after the Administrator lost interest and most if not all of those members came over to a new fledgling sight started up by a member who posted as " redg8r " . There is still a remnant from that original luremaking.com site that migrated here on Tackleunderground in the "Soft plastic cookbook " . There is a few color recipes I posted under Megabass around 2002 .

The top skirt tab supplier to the US market has it's production plant located in Vietnam. They make silicone skirts for Z Man and other big name lure manufacturers as well as skirt tabs for venders here in the states . They are overwhelmed by demand right now and running their production at 150% of designed capacity from what I was recently told . This has caused a shortage of skirt tabs and also the discontinuation of a lot of colors in favor of what colors/patterns their major clients want made. I was also told they were looking to expand their facilities in Vietnam to meet demand but Covid has put a damper on that for now .

Looks like some expensive precision equipment is required for making these thin .015 silicone strips . The heat curing is part of the process and then additional machinery would be needed for cutting and to slice the strands.

I recently received an email response to a question I submitted to the largest silicone skirt tab supplier in the US (and possibly the world ) inquiring about popular skirt tab colors that are no longer available today . The gist of it was that their production is overburdened and being unable to keep up with demand they scaled down the colors produced to about 300 used by their biggest customers . My original thought was to try to arrange a group purchase to meet a minimum lot size of tabs but even this was not an option . It seems like a golden opportunity for someone to start up a skirt tab production plant in the US to take up some of this business due to obvious "Supply and demand " issues. I'm sure the cost would be higher than what it cost to make a similar product in Vietnam but at least the US availability would be back . Maybe it comes down to environmental regulations ?

The first "Hard Head type worms were made by Bagley's in the 70's . Mann's came out with their hard head series years later . I believe both of these designs simply used a tougher plastic formulations for the head (such as saltwater plastic) and softer plastic for the body and tail . One type of plastic that is impervious to melting when exposed to plastic baits is plastic cable and wire ties (zip ties) if that will work for your project . Nylon tubing also

I bought a similar plastic made by Calhouns years ago . It looked like the stuff in the picture above . Soft spongy crystals . You have to heat it in a pan on a stove or hot plate , no re-melting left overs , Have to use powdered pigments no liquid plastic color , prone to stretchy strings coming off pan when stopping pour after cavity full . Oh and the stuff I bought was very expensive . People complained about all of the same experiences but I had to see for myself I guess . Maybe this new stuff will be better?

Yes that would work . Admittedly I haven't got around to trying this yet but I was thinking about hitting the copper pipe occasionally with a propane torch or keeping a heat gun on low pointed at the pipe to keep the temp up while dipping .

I was thinking of using a piece of 1 1/2" + copper pipe with a cap soldered on the end . You could mount the pipe upright and fill it half way with hot plastic and dip the rod in to get the desired length with the dipping rod displacing the hot plastic higher up in the pipe .

The fan shaft diameter is shown as .187 on a Dayton drawing for your gearmotor (which works out to 3/16" ) and the fan dia. was shown as 2.63" (so 2.5" is probably the closest size available )

Sorry about the misunderstanding on my part . Speaking of parts though I did find Dayton part # for just the fan for your motor Dayton # 46-6-3 Grainger should be able to get this part being a Dayton distributor Grainger also sells a Dayton 4 blade 2.5" plastic fan # 5JKL5 that could be a match for your motor

OK looked at the label on the soft plastic paint bottle above and noticed their web address for the product Softbait Paint Clear GlossCoat (brightbaits.com) Looks like they're based in Belgium or Europe . Since this paint is highly flammable no air shipment to US so must come by boat . Spraying silver mica powder mixed with acetone through a stencil with fine netting would give the bait a fish scale pattern and after drying shooting a topcoat with this clear soft plastic paint would seal in the mica and give it a deeper look .

I searched Ebay with the Dayton 1LNG1 model number and several came up there also

follow link DAYTON AC Gearmotor 115 Nameplate RPM 52 RPM Max. Torque 25.0 in-lb Enclosure Open - 1LNG1|1LNG1 - Grainger I just added this to cart so it appears to be in stock

I don't know that the ratio is critical as long as it will spray but a little mica goes a long way . I just mixed up the mica with enough acetone to fill the airbrush paint cup and sprayed it on the baits . With the airbrush you can just keep applying multiple coats to get the desired effect from a gentle dusting of color to a heavy stripe . I am definitely no air brush painting master but it was pretty easy . I bought a low cost Testers brand air brush set to try this out and it worked

How big of a motor is this ( 1/10 horsepower for example ) and is it an AC , DC , or Universal motor ? Is there a nameplate on the motor you're replacing? If you can't specifically find a Dayton you could use a different brand with the correct rating and physical size . Can you post a picture of the motor and nameplate

You can mix mica powders with acetone and spray it on with an air brush . After the acetone quickly evaporates you can then dip bait in hot clear plastisol (ala Basstrix lures )or shoot on a clear top coat that bonds to the plastisol . I experimented with some clear paint I found that comes in spray can ( SEM "Color Coat") for dying vinyl auto apholstry and it worked but not as good as the pictured baits .

Graingers carries Dayton brand gear motors

Looking at your bait I'm thinking the "Big Hammer" style (wide tail with big kick) swimbait tail would be a good fit . You can purchase and try different style swimbaits (tails) a lot faster than you can prototype your own . Once you determine which one swims the way you want you can pattern your tail mold loosely based on the one that works best for you .

Tie the skirt strands onto the jighead one color layer at a time with thread and they will stay put . This is only feasible if you're making them for yourself and not selling as it's too time consuming otherwise.

A lot of people but especially younger people have no appreciation of history anymore . Myself I love history and remember reading about the Balsa Big-O's when the cat was out of the bag (seems like it was around 1972 or so ) . Since my income was limited to my paper route earnings at the time I was forced to to buy one of the Cotton Cordell plastic knock offs as soon as they were available . Thanks for sharing and congrats on securing those Holy relics of bass angling !

If you spray a bait with fluorescent orange paint (like orange construction marking paint) and then top coat the bait with epoxy it comes out very close to that Rapala color.

I (like many others ) started out melting down used plastic baits in a microwave and pouring them into low cost home made plaster molds . If it all works out then you can think about purchasing plastisol . Careful though it can be addictive .

Another thought ..... all of the cavities are on a horizontal plane when injecting the hot plastic into the mold cavities and entrapping air causing bubbles in the top of the ribs . You could try propping up the tail side of the mold on a piece of wood 3/4" so the cavities are running up hill towards the tail . This way the hot plastic will force the air out through the vent in the tip of the tail as the cavity fills . Air is thinner than plastic and flows through the vent faster .