joshimoto son

Okay, I finally remembered to take the note I wrote home... The mold numbers for these baits are: Small one: 869 My medium one didn't have a number on the mold, but it sure does look a lot like the 823 on the website. the large one is a 719 I hope this helps, I haven't heard any reports from the guy I made them for. I think he's still waiting fo the rainy season to start down in florida and the creeks to start running. joshimoto son

Thanks for the wishes. She's one of my biggest supporters. Here's an example. I qualified for the 2008 Forest Wood Cup last year as a co-angler in the Stren Sereis National Championship. Because of her lack of vacation time, we can't take a honeymoon and have her go with me to the Cup. Therefore... ( this is completely her idea!) she said let's make the Cup our Honeymoon. So that's what we're going to do. nuff said. joshimoto son:yay:

Dink Master, Sorry! Completely slipped my mind. Getting married in two weeks will do that to a guy. I'll write myself a note.

King Bait, I've only been throwing the tube minnows I'm making, and so far... the pike have not damaged them to the point of only one use. I can see, given some of the slashes on the tails, if they happened to be in the right spot it would be done for. joshimoto son

Sorry for not getting back over the weekend, don't have internet at home. Yes, I did dip them in clear after I painted them. I originally just dipped the head to keep the eyes on, and when I seen how much more the clear dip made the colors "pop", I just dipped em completely. I gotta check on the model numbers for the molds. I can never remember that stuff. As far as rigging them... They're gonna require a pretty big hook, since they're solid bodies. I made them up for a freind of mine who lives in Florida just south of Lake Kissimee. He wants to play around with them. The only thing I've been able to catch on the swimbait here in Michigan so far is pike. I've had some bass follow it up to the boat, but nothing big. It's really hard to tell how well they're gonna work right now, most of the fish around here are in such a post spawn funk, it's been hard to get a bite. I'll keep trying it. joshimoto son

Just an after thought, I'm not trying to blow up LC's skirt. I just know a lot of people have questions about "how do some products work?" I just wanted to share some info. joshimoto son

I couldn't sleep, so I just stayed up till three a.m. and messed around with some of the molds I picked up at Lure Craft. I used their plastic, paint, retarder, thinner and colorant too. I'm still strying to get better with the airbrush. As far as swimbaits go. Has anyone been having good success with them in the Michigan or tri-state area. I haven't gotten in the time I feel they deserve to give them a real test. Josh

Okay... I got it now. What else I do have in my shop is a 27" that is connected to the DVR. That sits right on front of our "extra" kitchen table and chairs. This is for coffee drinkers and slackers. I also have a band saw for cutting out my swimbait "dipping sticks". I'll keep it feasable. I would like a drill press or possibly even a mill. A nice sized aquarium with lots of light. I really do need a pressure pot... or two. I would also like to be able to keep a 55 gallon drum mixed automatically and just have to go over to a spout and pour out the amount I need. Shelves!!!! Storage for me is a big thing. If everything had a place, then my basement would not get trashed so much... Okay, yes it would, but I would be able to clean up much faster. Oohh... something to shake my colorants and soft plastic paints. Like those little thingy's they have at the doctors office that shakes up the medicine vials. Nooo I'm not talking about the nurses! Magnetic molds!!!! Please let's get away from the thumb screws and wing nuts. Production would increase greatly. Still make them from aluminum just insert magnets. Mill out the edge of one side on opposing sides so you can separate them. Come on DELW... I know you can do it. I'm giving away free ideas here. That's it for now. joshimoto son

Kind of funny you posted this. I just finished my basement a few weeks ago. I bought an oven vent at the local DIY store for $99 and built my own fume hood. I set my air compressor in there for painting. I works really well, not one sniff has leaked up stairs. And recently, my fiance had just commented on my "winter disposition" since I've completed it. She says I've been much easier to live with. joshimoto son

It might be easier to get a template of the pyrex cup if you were to fill it with plastic and cut it in half once it cooled down. I was thinkning maybe a big butcher knife or possible even a high tensile small diameter wire that could be pulled through. Just a thought. joshimoto son

Tightline, I see your point. Very well thought out. You said it... "high heat transfer" I've had 8 years experience in heating and cooling controls, mainly for large building like hospitals, Universities and Pharmacutical companies. It might just be the way I was trained and my mental "mind set". For me it's all about temperature control (it's just my thinking, please don't take offense), and using a material with a high heat transfer will generate higher temp. swings. In my field higher temp. swings meant poor control and higher energy usage, which didn't make our customers happy. Because we don't want to go out and spend a couple hundred dollars on temperature controllers with a PID control loop that anticipates temperature overshoot. We're stuck with the el'cheepo binary hotplates. Therefore, my thoughts have always been on the safe side, which is slower reacting materials with smaller temp. swings. The benefit being less scortching of the plastic. The down side is that it takes longer to get to temperature. We might be onto something though, that is the oil. It just might be the happy medium we're looking for. If I don't get back with you today, I'll be back Monday. joshimoto son

Dkooser, I think there will be a temp. difference, but how much? I don't know. The good thing is that it won't cost much to find out. The drink cans are cheap and you can always remelt your lead. I think it would be worth a try for sure. The only set back I see is the preheating in the oven. Once your plastic is cooled down too much, I think it would take a while to reheat. My goal has always been to try and sustain a constant temp and get my business done as quickly as possible. With the concave bottoms on the cans, I believe it would be hard to use a hotplate and get good heat transmision.Try it and let us know how it works. This is what we do, try try and try, laugh at our failures and enjoy our victories. You never know, we might be onto something. Smallie, The tube I made of stainless was a piece of scrap I took from work. It's approximately 3.75" in diameter by 10" tall (I think) and is 3/16" thick. I welded a piece of stainless flat stock to the bottom of it. The flat stock is 4"wide, 10" long and 1/4" thick. I know I need to get some pics, but I'll try to explain it in the mean time. I did not center the pipe on the 10" long piece of flat stock. I welded it so that 1" was hanging off one side and 5" was hanging off the other. I did this so I would have a nice flat surface to work with. Let me explain. I don't know what everyone else does, but I trim the drip off of my swim baits after every dip with a pair of scissors. If after I trim it and the shape of the head is not how I like it (usually the nose is too flat or blunt). I simply just use the 5" hot surface to mold the head to a "pointier/rounder" shape. Then wipe the surface clean before the plastic burns and prevent any potential discoloring of other baits. I hope I answered all your questions. I'll check back in a couple of hours, after that I'm going to go see Rick Clunn, Kevin VanDam and Boyde Duckett speak at a local fishing show up here in Michigan at Kevin's brothers shop. It really pays off to have a brother make it big time and have some of the best guys ever come to your spring sales event. Take care, joshimoto son

dkooser, I was at Target the other day and found a wine bottle chiller for $7.00 It's made out of stainless and is basically made like a thermos. It appeared to be 3/8" an inch thick but was made with two thin pieces of stainless and is hollow inside. I thought about buying one and drilling a hole (at the top) and filling it with oil, but not all the way to allow for the expansion. Ever since I started pouring I always thought it was a little pecular that a lot of people were using aluminum. I like stainless because it holds heat better and typically has a smoother surface allowing for easier clean up. With my background in heating and cooling, it's always been easier to maintain constant temperature with a bigger heat sink or mass so to speak. The trick it to bring the pot up to temp with out overshooting. I burn less plastic, due to some nights with too many beers, and have more consistant colors from the beginning of a pour to the end. My plate also does not cycle as much too. Just something to think about... and hopefully I didn't ruffle any feathers. joshimoto son

Tightline, My initial idea was to just put the candle mold on the hotplate. Once the handle was put on, it looked like a skinny beer stein. The hotplate alone was not enough, so I took a pan and put about 2" of vegetable oil in it. Then set the candle mold in and had much better luck. When a drop of plastic would fall in the oil, it simple fell to the bottom and eventually durned black, no spattering or explosions. It worked... good, but the plastic up toward the top still wanted to cool on the sides. My plastic did not burn, but I kept it stirred while holding onto the handle. I think the addition of oil can lead to more hazzards, it's just one more thing you need to be consious of. The candle mold I bought is only a little over 2" in diameter. I only got about six 4.5" swimbaits out of it before I had to refill. I have since made my own stainless tube in a 4" diameter and put it directly on my hot plate. I get more swimbaits and don't have to deal with the oil. Let me know if you have any more questions, I'm always happy to help. Josh

I did the speed read on this subject, so if I missed anything I apologise, but I used cooking oil to keep my candle molds hot and just kept the plastic stirred. I also JB welded a handle on the candle mold to keep from having to grab the hot cylinders. I found the oil kept a more even temp because of it's viscosity and natural convection. Just like anything, be careful and take into consideration the volume of oil the candle molds will displace. Josh

It might be from lack of sleep and too many plastic fumes... but I still haven't quite picked up on what you fellas are saying. I just started using pop corn salt a couple days ago. I liked the result and color, but does pop corn salt turn the bait "milky" when used in the water? Haven't tested it yet. Before pop corn salt, I bought a 60lb (?) bag of feed salt for around $6, and then grinding it to a powder. This did turn my baits milky in the water. Another thing I haven't picked up on... Alberger salt, it does keep the baits clear, but desolves in the water (when fished)? I would think we would want to keep the salt in the bait. I'm assuming the fine flake does not need to be ground up. If anyone could help me understand a little better I would greatly appreciate it. Josh