Vodkaman

A plastic ball (toy shops) of a suitable size could be used as a mold. Drill holes for waxed wooden dowels, to be removed and drilled out later, for the pipes. A pour hole cut and the mold filled with 50:50 bondo filler and fibreglass resin. This should be thin enough to pour. Dave

I guess it is just a British thing. Such practices would never be permitted in UK. It just seems wrong to introduce lumps of plastic into the habitat, even though the promotion of the food chain in the water is a reasonable arguement. Do you think the clay ball would work? Dave

Probably could be achieved with a lump of clay. No offence George, but I think this is an incredibly bad idea. Dave

Up to the age of 16, I was a keen soccer player, also I did gymnastics, athletics and table tennis. I played cornet in competition brass bands for 25 years, but had to quit this when I started contract work abroad. I have been playing snooker then pool since I was 10 years old and play around 25 hours a week. I am not a master, but can hold my own in most company. I find pool a great way to meet new friends when my work takes me to a new city. I play darts also, when it is available, but it has not caught on in Indonesia yet. Dave

If that amount of lead is delivered daily, then I can understand your problem. But you are moving 15,000 jigs per day, so you can afford to buy your own hydraulic palette mover. If this is not the case, I do not understand the need to continually move the mass around. I would build a shallow box, to contain the lead, in a corner of my workshop. Build a stout trolley, to move lead from the car to the storage box. Make half a dozen small, easy to carry boxes, that hold just enough lead to load up the melting pot, this way I would only have to grovel amongst the dirty lead once for every six pots of production. Dave

Anything smaller than 5" length starts to get real tedious, but not impossible. I remember Lapala posting a pic of a very small swimbait with four or five segments and about 3.5" long. I could not find the link for you, maybe LP will jump in here and give you his personal experiences on the subject. Another consideration is the swim cycle. As the lure reduces in size, the speed of the cycle increases and you don't get that slow sexy wide 'S' movement. The action becomes a bit frantic and narrow. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as small fish have faster swimming actions, for the same reasons as small lures. I found that by having more segments on the micro lures, I could get back the 'S' action. I would also imagine that strength would become an issue, as the geometry of the joints is reduced. Builders would also have to charge more as more work is involved. This is hard to justify when the lure reduces in size, the buyer would probably be expecting a reduction in price. If you are going to attempt a small swimbait, plan it out on paper first, to get an idea where all the hardware will go. Forget about two trebles, go for a single treble from the belly. You will probably have to go with a lighter wood, in order to be able to get some ballast in there (not balsa, not enough room for the extra ballast and strength issues). Dave

Very poetic Milia and many thanks. In Indonesia, the Isa refers to god and Bella refers to helping others. But it just happens to be one of my favorite names. Dave

I found this link for you: Cooking oil It will help you select a suitable oil for your experiment. You need to select an oil with as higher smoke point as possible. Dave

Thanks very much guys for the kind words. It has been 21 years since I last changed a nappie, but I am sure I'll be able to engineer something, maybe a few jigs. Cadman, we toyed around with a few names, unfortunately Vgirl did not get the consideration that I thought it deserved. We settled on Isabella in the end. Dave

My wife gave life to a baby girl yesterday. Why would any Mom go through all that pain more than once!!! So to all the mothers of all our children, I say respect. Dave

Bojon, you appear as a none member at the moment. Send a pm or e-mail to Jerry to sort it out. Dave

I am not the electrical engineer that you are looking for, but I have read your article and the web link several times and this is how I see it: The phase charger relay is energised/switched when the two wire connection to the alternator lights up, indicating that the car battery is charged. The connection between the car battery and the boat motor battery is then made (a bit like jump leads between batteries). This then starts to drain your car battery until the charged wire of the alternator switches off and de-energises the relay, thus breaking the connection. So the relay will switch on and off, until both batteries are charged. Placing an additional phase switch between the main boat battery and the trolling motor battery will work and switch the connection on and off relative to the car batteries state of charge, NOT the main boat battery, it is all about the connection to the alternator, which is monitoring the car battery. BUT, after reading this link: http://www.carbatteryshop.co.uk/carbatteryinformation.php then maybe the whole idea is not such a good one, as I suspect that unless the motors were of a similar size as the car battery, then they would be subject to overcharging, which would result in overheating, evapouration of electrolyte and buckling of the lead plates. Like I said, I am not an electrical engineer and you should seek expert advice before trying these ideas. Dave

After two or three dips, the surface is fixed with the plastic. The first dip soaks in, the second dip fills any remaining pores, the third dip gives you something to sand. A light sanding to remove the raised grain, followed by another couple of dips should give you your prep. If grain is still evident, sand and dip again, until smooth. A light rub down with scotchbrite or 600 grit paper, should give you good paint adhesion. This method works for me. Dave

Thanks Tauruck, didn't think of that. Personally, I use a mix of polyester based filler with polyester resin, for ballast lead weights. I don't do plastics, but I did some resin castings and the detail was amazing. From the information that I collected by googling, the amount of catalyst used is critical with larger casts, too much and it overheats and cracks. Here is a link to a recent thread on the subject, worth reading, especially post #17: http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/soft-plastics/16214-what-should-i-make-mold-out.html Dave

What is the purpose of the talk? Why not just use straight resin. I too suspect the talk is causing your problem. Dave

What you are doing is very commendable and you have my respect. I really hope you find what you are looking for. All the groups that you are helping with your donations really appreciate it I am sure. So why not explain your situation to them and let them help you to help them. Nothing wrong with this idea, I am sure they will be happy to help themselves in this way. I wish you luck with your endeavours. DAve

Sinyo, I like it. I'm wondering if it would work with clear acetate sheet with the markings. The sheet may curl up with the heat though. Very thin tracing paper would work. Also, the cold curing clear RTV, recently introduced by husky, would probably work well too. Just a few ideas to throw out there. Dave

Rookie, this thread should be in the gallery section, LOL. Dave

PP, I understand now. That is a very good solution, compressing the mold to aid flow into the difficult areas. I plan on using a combimation of vacuum and injection at the same time, if the injection does not do the job on its own. For the injection, I will use a cake syringe. Cost a dollar and easily dismantled for cleaning. I have used the cake icing syringe before, when pouring thick resin/microsphere mix for hardbait bodies. Dave

PP, Interesting read. If the RTV is spongy, you may be adding too much water, it takes very little for the reaction to take place. Dave

This thread may well get deleted. If so, I will understand, as this is a fishing site and not a political forum. But Indonesia is my home, I choose to live here for several reasons, mainly because I am made abundantly welcome by the locals. This welcome has not been matched by any of the many other countries that I have visited over the years as a contract designer. As a result, I have elected to make Indonesia my home. The industrial and commercial effects of the Bali bombings of 2002, combined with the monetary collapse of the Asian markets in 1997, severely crippled the Indonesian economy, with massive job losses from local industry and foreign investment being withdrawn, resulting in a very significant lowering of living standards for the population. Indonesia has fought a long, hard battle and won against the bad human rights records of the not too distant past, the corruption of recent governments and the above mentioned national disasters. Just as foreign investment was starting to creep back into this needy nation of hungry workers, another atrocity strikes. International relations amongst industry and commerce are surely set back yet another ten years as prospective investors rightly retreat in fear of terrorism. The media will inform you that Indonesia is the largest Islamic community in the world. But do not confuse the Islamic beliefs with that of terrorism. Violence is not part of the nature of this nation. The goal of the average Indonesian man is purely survival, to feed his family for the next week, to keep a roof over his families head and educate his children, in the hope that they might enjoy a more fruitful existence. Keep in mind that there is no family support system in effect here, no pension, no insurance, no welfare. Survival into old age is purely a family based support system. I spoke to many locals today regarding the Jakarta hotel bombings, the response was absolutely unanimous: anger, sadness and dismay, as they realize yet another lengthy period of national depression and hardship will inevitably result, as the rest of the world once again frowns upon Indonesia. My point is, do not mention the country Indonesia, when you talk about terrorism. These people deserve a break, but it does not look like they are going to get one any day soon. Spare a thought for those and their families who were killed or maimed by these senseless atrocities. Dave

LOL, well that is a relief. I just tried adding half a teaspoon of olive oil (looking for a carrier for color pigment). The mix did actually cure, but much reduced elasticity. I was aiming towards glycerine. Can someone try adding acetic acid to determine its effect. This could carry color and/or reduce the viscosity. I have no vinegar in my batchelor kitchen. Dave

I will keep an eye out for the clear. I was thinking of water based dyes, but the amount of water required is so small, I doubt that it would be enough. Some experimenting will have to be done. I am planning on trying a two piece paddle tail, from a 2 piece PoP mold, for my first attempt. The design of the master will have to take the reduced flexibility of the RTV into account. Also, I was planning to experiment with silicon microspheres, as RTV is a little heavy, BUT, a float test revealed that the cured RTV floated like a cork. I haven't calculated the density, but I would guess around 0.7gm/cm3 or 43Lb/cuft, I was not expecting that! Also, the accelerated curing caused by the addition of water, causes the mix to give off some pungent odour and it does not smell healthy. The smell stung the inside of my nose. I could not determine what the smell was, a bit like vinegar. But confirmation of the chemical is required, just incase precautions need to be taken. Dave

The tube I bought was Dextone RTV 100% pure sealant. Grey in color, $2.43US for 300ml tube (Indonesia). Husky, I know you have experimented molding baits from this stuff. What kind of colorants work? I haven't tried anything yet. Dave

I remember Husky writing, "just a few drops", but I wanted a more specific formula, so did a few tests: In the first test, I measured out 10g of RTV and 5g of water. When I tried mixing them together, I found that the water was not being absorbed. After about 2 - 3 minutes of mixing. I poured off and weighed the unmixed water (3g) and left the RTV to set. The texture of the watered RTV was very stringy and difficult to control, also the working time was only about 3 minutes and fully cured in 25 minutes. When I cut the cured sample in half, a lot of air bubbles were evident, due to the mixing process and the stringy texture. In the second test, I measured out 10g of RTV with 3 drops of water, in the hope that the setting time would be extended, as 3 minutes working (rough guess) time does make the mold making process a bit rushed. The sample was cured in an hour. It did have good elastic qualities, but could be marked permanently with a finger nail indentation. The working time was also longer and the mix was much easier to work with, but you still have to get a move on. When I cut the cured sample in half, fewer air bubbles were evident, due to the mixing process. Air bubbles/voids are unavoidable as the liquid RTV is way too viscous to allow the bubbles to escape. PP