mark poulson

Great post AZ! I use sst screw eyes and hinge pins so I can adjust the size of the hinge joint if I need to when I'm tuning the bait.

If you're going to be painting a lot of baits for sale, go with the best air brush you can afford, and learn to use it. Buy good air brush paint, not hobby stuff, because the pigment particles will be smaller, and easier to shoot. Thinning your paints and developing a quick, efficient cleaning routine will go a long way toward success. Practice on some white PVC pipe, and white cardboard, so you get a feel for how to achieve the effects and colors you want. And watch the instructional videos on the website that sell air brush stuff, and on YouTube. It isn't rocket science (I can do it) but it is a skill that needs to be mastered through practice to be successful.

I never use pop with a hard master, unless it's a flat sided straight tailed worm. It's too had to get the master out of the pop without damaging it. If I'm making a sculpey master, I bake it and seal it with clear acrylic. Then I use silicone to make the mold. If you seal your pop molds with thinned D2T epoxy, there will be no residue on your baits. I spray my pop molds with PAM to help the baits release more easily.

Go to Baitjunkys website, and contact Leonard to ask your questions. I use his hi temp glitter, and no longer have problems with bleeding. I add my glitter and color after the plastisol has reached 350 and been converted to usable, but before I add my colorant. That way, any coloring the glitter adds will already be in the plastisol when I begin adding my colorant.

I would only worry that some of the oil based paint pigments might have an adverse reaction with the plastisol, but I've never tried it. I have used crayons and candle colors, and they both work without affecting the plastisol.

I made several glide baits a while back that were modeled after the S waver, and carved out of PVC. I think the shape of your joint may make it more finicky. I made the joint, a V joint with the back of the front section the indentation and the front of the rear section the V shaped point, and adjusted my screw eyes to have the bait bend at the same angle as the original. I found that this joint, as opposed to square faces or rounded faces, started the swimming action at lower speeds than any other joint shape. Vodkaman Dave said it was the vortices action on the sides of the bait not being interrupted by the larger joint as the rolled down the side of the bait. I also found, thanks to the TU members, that the key for a good glide movement was to get both segments, tested individually, to fall at the same rate, and exactly horizontal, so there was minimal friction in the hinge joint. I tested them unpainted, and then painted and top coated them. I found that, with the biggest bait, the addition of the paint and topcoat interfered with the glide movement. I pulled the hinge pin out and opened the joint a half turn each on the screw eyes, and the glide was restored. A glide bait is, by far, the most challenging bait I've ever made, so keep plugging away and you'll get it.

You have be careful heating a POP mold. I've been told that above a certain temperature (250?) the POP will revert to a powder.

Does regrinding sprues with salt affect the grinder?

Those wives are keepers!

I'm pulling for him.

Thanks guys. I'll let you know if I get it to work

Can I darken my green pumpkin powder paint by mixing in some black? I thought I'd ask before I do something stupid (again).

Your air brush need to have Teflon O rings that are solvent proof.

Been there, done that, have the T shirt.

OMG! That guy makes watching paint dry look exciting! I am lazy, and the only thing I hate more than cleaning my air brush is having to break it down and soak it overnight in air brush restorer, so I came up with a quick, easy, efficient way to do the between colors cleaning so I don't have to do the breakdown more than twice a year. I have a Glad quart tupperware full of water next to my paint station, with a little wire bracket on the side that lets the brush hang in the water with the nozzle and paint cup underwater, but the trigger mechanism above the water line. When I finish one color of paint, I put the airbrush into the water and shoot clean water through the brush to clean any leftover paint out of the cup. Then I let the brush hang in the water while I dry the painted bait with a hair dryer. Once the bait is dry, I hang it over my workbench, and move back to cleaning the air brush. I back off the paint stop so it's wide open, and turn up the air pressure. Next I hold the brush with the nozzle and cup underwater, and backflush by putting my finger over the nozzle and shooting the cleaning water through the air brush for a count of ten. Then I loosen the nozzle and back flush for a ten count again, After that, I remove the needle, wipe it (backwards, of course) several times over a cleaning cloth next to my bench, and then carefully reinsert it until it's snug in the nozzle. I spray a little water/dish washing liquid into the cup, back flush with that solution, spray it into my water tube, and I'm ready for the next color.this out than it does to do a cleaning. The whole process takes a minute and a half, tops. When I'm done painting for the day, I do a last cleaning and leave a little of the water/soap solution in the cup, and hand the air brush back on it's rack

If you want a bait that won't be ruined by water intrusion from bites, us a water proof material for your lure bodies. I've had barricuda scratch the chrome on jigs, and they aren't much different than pike and muskys.

I would contact the manuf. to see who carries the hardener, and for the correct ratio.

I think they were just that, exacto knife handles.

Have you tried a worm welder?

Dirty water/paint can get into the trigger recess when you backflush. Try disassembling the brush, and soaking it overnight in Restorer.

Thanks for 'splainin it, Lucy! Hahaha

What is Halo glitter?

For me, a great example of how density works is seeing steel hooks floating on top of molten lead. The lead is heavier/more dense, so the steel is forced up as the heavier molten lead moves down past it, and the steel then floats on top of the molten lead.