mark poulson

You are a good person.

Nowadays, it seems like common sense is a very uncommon thing. Just look at our government! Hahaha Let us know if you are able to salvage the mold. Good luck.

Olivia, If you're just getting started, don't go so cheap that you get lousy results, and become discouraged. Using better materials increases your odds of success in lure making. I think green works because it is the most natural color, and red is red shallow, and grey deep, so it affords both color attraction shallow, and contrast deep. I had problems with my red flake bleeding in my watermelon worms, and turning them more orange. I switched to Bait Junky's color and glitter, and no more problems. http://www.shopbaitjunkys.com/ I'm not sponsored by or affiliated with him. I just know his stuff works.

If you sand the run down to smooth with the rest of the top coat, then rough up the bait with a scothbrite pad, and wipe it down with clean acetone or denatured alcohol, you can apply a thinned coat (with denature alcohol after you've completely mixed the two parts of the epoxy) of D2T over the entire bait again, and it will bond, and restore the clear appearance. I say thinned because it will add less weight to the bait than a full on coat of epoxy.

I also use leftover D2T to seal my PVC baits before I paint them, if I am setting a bill with epoxy. I dip my gloved finger in denatured alcohol, and spread the squeeze out, and any leftover epoxy, to keep the bait's paint from bubbling when i heat set my Createx. But on lipless baits, like spybaits and top waters, I usually don't bother. Lazy.

I've never had that happen, but, if the rest of the silicone is truly cured, and only a surface layer is uncured, I'd probably try and wash away the soft layer with a solvent like acetone. Acetone shouldn't hurt the cured silicone, if you don't let it sit. I would do a small test on the outside of the mold, just to be sure it won't hurt the mold. If it does hurt the cured silicone, I'd try a lesser solvent, like denatured alcohol, then maybe paint thinner, and lacquer thinner next, testing each one first so I don't ruin the mold. I'm sure you're not the first one to encounter this, so maybe someone who has already solved the problem will chime in.

I agree, those are the best. I wish they'd make a solid black eye. The ones I've found for my hard baits I have to glue on, or top coat with epoxy or resin.

Hahaha!

Out here in SoCal, the 221 cinnamon brown/purple flake color is a great jig/Ika color. I struggle with trying to match it, too.

I always spray my masters, even my clay masters, with a clear coat. For wood masters, I find it locks the wood fibers, so I can sand to a smoother surface, which is important for me when I'm making a silicone mold. For my Sculpey clay masters, I just want to be sure they release okay. Maybe it's not necessary with clay, but I've always done it.

TOPFLITE1994, "The only dumb question is the one that is unasked" No one really knows who said it first, but it is true. Sometimes older TU members forget that sharing our own experiences here, and asking questions when we don't know something, is what this site is all about....shared knowledge. It is how knowledge is passed from one generation to the next. I know, for me, most of what I've learned about lure making I learned here, for others who shared their hard earned knowledge and experience with me. Anyone who says everything they know they learned on their own, by themselves, with no help from others is either a liar or a fool. Modifying a production method to include something like a mesh center is a very complicated and challenging proposition. Most soft bait manufacturers are not interested in reinventing the wheel if it is too expensive and time consuming. The larger soft swimbait market is so competitive that having something unique, like a mesh core, can make the difference when it comes to separating your swimbait from the others, and carving out a piece of the market/being successful. From what I've read here on TU, mold design and production is expensive. If you're designing a production mold from scratch, and plan to use the mesh as part of it, it has to be much simpler and cost effective than trying to modify an existing production mold. I fish the top hook Storm 4" shad swimbaits like a jig, letting them fall to the bottom in deeper, colder water during the winter, and then dragging them uphill over the rocky points here in our SoCal lakes. There are other soft swimbaits with different, sometimes better, actions, but none I would drag through the rocks like that. At 35' deep, the bass don't seem to know they're eating a $5 bait.

This is the resin I've been using: http://solarez.com/products/low-voc-dual-cure-polyester-resin/ I found it under surfboard repair. My son uses something like it for repairs when he dings his board.

That defense won't hold up in a court of law! Hahaha

Jonister, That's a new one for me. Maybe heating your baits with a hair dryer might help when it's humid. What product did they recommend to you?

Do the claws flap like the Rage Craw?

I fished a phantom red wart with a painted bill, dipped once in AC1315, hard again yesterday. I checked it this morning, and the leading edge of the bill the part with the brown paint on it, had worn slightly. But the AC1315 hadn't peeled, and was still fine. The orange on the underside of the bill just showed a little more, because the brown on top had worn slightly. The more I use this stuff, the more I'm convinced that it's my top coat.

That is one beautiful bait! Great job!!

X2

Man, that's a great looking craw!!! I have no idea what a Missouri Craw should look like. I think crawdads vary so much in the wild that a natural color scheme will work. Adding accent colors, like light blues, oranges, and chartreuse, might help to more closely match local variations, but some form of green pumpkin with an orange belly will get bit everywhere. I've found that, in general, clear top coats make paint schemes more vivid. I don't know why. For me, epoxies change paint colors the most, due to thicker coatings and yellowing of the hardener over time. The only urethane I've used is SC9000, and it doesn't diminish paints at all, even metallics and pearls. The top coat I'm using now, AC1315, is a concrete sealer. It also doesn't diminish paints at all, and it is really hard and tough (it's designed to hold up to car traffic). I have a Badger siphon brush with a .5 tip. I don't know anything about the 150 brush at all.

I live in SoCal, so the weather is seldom extreme. This might have something to with my results, but I don't know. I can only add that I don't mix or shake my Solarez, and that I dip my lures and let them hang over the dipping bottle and drip back into it until they stop dripping. I think that may make my coating thinner, so it cures out better, but I don't know. I check the lures to make sure there are no little boogers in the finish before I cure them. Sometimes, little pieces of stuff, leftovers from when I dripped with the garage door open (a big NO NO), are on the lures after I dip them, so I check for them and remove them with a soft bristle artist's brush while they're hanging and dripping, so the surface blends back into itself before I put them in the light box. I remove the last little buildup that won't drip with a paper towel dab, and then hang them in the light box with the bottom panel in place. I do take them out and turn them 180 degrees every 30 seconds for the three minute curing cycle, and they come out hard. I've never had one come out sticky.