goldenshinner

do they poor into silcone molds or plaster? and are these one up or 40 up moldes???

JRammit do you mix the Elmer's into water to make the mix with plaster while setting up?such that Elmer's is in the plaster..not just a coating like the epoxi..what ratio..also word on street from another hobiest was saying anything but the aluminum molds don't dissapate heat fast, and can be concern

JRammit do you mix the Elmer's into water to make the mix with plaster while setting up?such that Elmer's is in the plaster..not just a coating like the epoxi..what ratio..also word on street from another hobiest was saying anything but the aluminum molds don't dissapate heat fast, and can be concern

yes. have been thinking about a project based with arduino microntroller . and a wireless video monitor in the bait. you would only be able to use it to around 12ft or so before the signal would be lost. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino large baits mainly for musky

here we go again. semi v john verses perfectly flat bottom jon. i find myself benifiting from a modified semi v to handle rough water bodies that have some shalllows. some of the older boats have semi v running from the front to roughly 1/3 way back and flat rear end. when you run them they plane out well in shallow water. I dont know about the "V-hul being more tipppy than a flat". if your in 4ft waves or higher either is going to be tippy. i would be more afraid to tip a flatbottom that has allot of top heavy weight.

from my limited experiments. the cheeper silicons dont last as long. shrink with time.locally availble dowcorning is expensive but lasts and doesn't shrink with long term storage. i have molds that have been stored now for 20years and are showing no shrinkage that i can tell!

actagreed! rare to find a boat made with real marine grade plywood. I would recomend real marine grade plywood(not green treated), seal with " McCloskey MAN O' WAR Marine Spar Varnish" probably atleast three coats each side and ends. completely sealing the piece, then rhino lined spray polyurea truck bead liner. it is at this point acid resistant, sun and waterproof! your regular retail floor will likely rot soft in less than 10years if stored outside. this floor will last. ive done it in most of my boats. only two down sides is it is hot in sun, and slipery when wet. you can add an extra step to texturize the floor before spraying the rhino liner. either run shallow slats with a router or add something like gravel to the mix for more aggressive texture. this floor would likely run you up to $300-$500 or more depending on the size boat. but it would stand up to daily comercial use over years!

looks nice. i might have primed and painted, rather than sand down old mercury based primer that was used up to mid 80's, also i like rino liner sprayed textured polyurathane on the floor rather than carpet which is impossible to keep clean. especialy in the places you would need a flatbottom. also you just pull the plug and power wash. ive got a sand box at the end of my driveway which all my imeadiate neighbors hate me for....

got into this discussion late, but my thoughts, starting with your perch image, perhaps rebalance the color levels in photoshop increasing the contrast and density of blue and yellow channels(CMYK) also when you go to print the sheet, try tracking down one of the heavy docucolor 5000 or 6000 serries printers(one of the biggest office lazer printers in the office serries, can be roughly up to 15ft long, try the largest kinkos). they print insainly nice, and as close to offset as lazer printing gets. request sheets to be printed face side up(this prevents fliping and jaming inside the machine), also request it to be printed on either uncoated 187-220 weight or coated 187-220 weight. these will give you crisp images. you will also need the image as a digital file, as they do not have scaners(or atleast the newer ones dont). finaly if you have trouble and want to trade some cnc bodies for some printing help postmessage me as i need to do afew also. my 2 cents

i am under the impression that the older ones have a wider more erratic(good) woble to them. they are fragile and dont last. but they are unbeatable as far as action goes. my 2 cents.

looks realy realy nice, if you fish the river alot(like me) then that would be too much carpeting for the amount of sand and mud. but nonetheless very very nice. thanxs for sharing.

it seems to me that i remember a chemistry lecture on the curing of epoxis. that the surface will produce somekinda cured layer chemicaly similar to wax. it might not mater depending on the formula, but alcohol cleaning might increase the bonding between layers. just my 2-cents.

ok,ok.... i originaly posed this question to the forum. it brought alot of mixed feelings. tons of debate. i think allot of old school builders were somewhat against this concept. with a simple model it might be possible to design all the theoretical ideal balances of bill shape to body. my interest was not to perfectly model all the aspects of fluid dynamics, or taking acount of surface drag differences(between different paints or textures). instead i think that if as many of these varriables are removed and distilled into a simple function then we could explore/understand that say for every body length and body height we have set ideal lips that will produce the absolute theoretical maximum/and or ideal wobble. many people previously believed that there are too many varriables that affect lure motion. while many things may affect it, i still believe that a distilied grand unification(simplification) theory is possible in the universe of lure building. this holy grail of formulas would greatly help and accelerate many peoples understanding of lure design. finaly. i would mention that i have recently come apon the realization that each lure probably has an optimal speed that it will occelate maximaly at. that said, i think that i can roughly mentaly see, that as the lure gets bigger and bigger the running speed must get progressively faster to produce the affect of wobbling. now at least if nothing else a simple formula could be written that could be used to estimate lure size based on the speed that the target species typicaly chases it prey. but again, my original interest was to graphicaly show all the optimal lip shape and size in relation to the length of the lures. we are just on the verge of this simple function being openly understod.

ok, great thread. Stephen also from Twin Cities. aproaching 40 and greying on the sides, i too live close to lake minnetonka which is i believe the 14 largest lake in minnesota, at around 13,000 acers. i fish for everything that swims in our state and try to fish effectivly for each species. i got started in lures by repainting and modifying comercialy made baits. my top fav 5 fish would be flathead catfish, musky, carp, stergeon, and occasionaly walleye and pike. my goals change and evolve. at one point in my life all i wanted was to catch a 50inch musky.now 30lb musky are plentifull in our local waters . no one realy counts these now. i strive instead to make the perfect bait. but have much to learn. unfortunately my bait building is restricted to being frozen in and not opening the windows, and not having tons of cash to dump into this hobby. my current baits i have been working on for over a year on and off every couple of weeks.my pals say it would be tons cheeper to just go buy the most expensive musky baits($300+) and call it even. they are probably right, but learning the hows and whys are priceless.

ive studied that tutorial several times. it makes perfect sense. what i didnt probably realize is that alumilite regular is not the same as the Rc3. regular has pot(set up time) of 90 sec. it actualy set to the point of not being able to stir at all within 4-10 sec range! im afraid to shovel another $100 in experimenting on another plastic. im tossing it in my head between a 2gal alumilite RC3 and the smooth on feather lite. this time im going to chill the stuff way down to perhaps say 30deg or so. as i need to mix a fair amount and still pour it in through my pour hole.

ok, finaly not trying to be anoying. i had problems casting this weekend i used up a bottle of alumilite regular(super plastic) trying to get just one model out of my mold. the stuff set up thick in like 3 seconds. hardly enough time even to compleatly mix the stuff. and not enought time to be able to even pour the stuff. i ended up trying to fill each mold side up with the thick paste like substance and glue two sides together with 2-ton. once cured each side was brittle and would break under almost no pressure. what am i doing wrong! oh and this is a large casting. did also try mixing with smaller batches with no results. and i had the work area a cool dry place.. one person recomended i switch plastic types. im currious what others say as far as ideal urathane and proceddure to cast a large musky bait. thanks

also for the record i would like to mention that in spots were the cured caulk chunks were placed close to other chunks or close to the outside wall i had spots that cured slowly or were soft. one spot a caulk chunk was lying against the box wall and all rtv was still soft after over 1 week of curing(well mixed batch of rtv+catalyst).

ok updates on the mold. finaly finished it. not completly happy with results. i would deffinitly do it different next time. firstly i recomend large sized chunks of Silicone caulk if you plan on adding it to uncured rtv. as it slightly affects rtv cure rate. rather i would try next curring caulk over the skim RTV coat, as it will adhear almost as well as the rtv over rtv with time. if it is a valuable casting then one pour rtv is the only way

infact the were!!! and as a sideline $50 more in suplies were burt up this weekend along with close to $40 in pyrex beakers that im not confident on cleaning to the point of safely storing in my house.

Sorry stubbs(fatfingers) ive got to quote you on this one. im rolling in my chair. this has got to be one of the truest and funniest quotes ive seen in this awsome website. this is soo so true. i wandered into a custom musky bait shop yesterday with a pal of mine. i was drooling in every lane. every corner was like a x-mas. we got to the front desk and the clerk showed my boys some of the more expensive baits. in the almost $400 range. if i had the money i might have bought one. it looked good! on the way home my pal said to me you would be way better off buying and modifing some of those than building your own. I addmited that at 30-60 bucks a pop those baits cost a lot less than what ive got into mine, but im trying to justify the cost and expense as valued understanding of bait mechanics......it is hard still to justify honestly....but it is fun...and addictive.... but serriously lets see..i think my wife wants me to join the 12 step program

as i understand some of the perls and metalics are made with a ground mica base. mica itself is not so toxic, but it normally is assiciated with asbestose(the harmful type) fibers mixed into the matrix.i think that many of these liquid suspensions are by manufacturers instructions safe when used under such and such conditions(not shot in the basement of a house,use respirator for occasional use, and professional suites under contiuned exposure.) Isocynates in the many platic cataliysts are also not good!

dow corning 3110. ive used this one in the past before and like it. also the manufacturer has several different mix ratios of catalyst. the different ratios will cure faster or slower, and the end result will be different hardness and streach properties. I think you are right though. the last time i had a mold cure this slow it never did after weeks of waiting. i think i will be forced (like last time) to coat the surface with pure catalyst. and wipe it clean after curing compleately. oh for those interested the last time this happened to me, it was because i didnt mix the heavy setled bottom of the silicone jar well enough, the result when i scraped everything out to pour the mold, was areas that had thick unmixed(with catalyst) sections. adding extra catalyst might alter the cured properties to the point that it is a tad hard but atleast it is cured at that point. now due to my experimentations a mold that took me 14hours to set up, has tons of soft spots due (not caused by lack of catalyst) but to interference with the 100% silicone rubber(which i am pretty sure has sulfer in its chemical structure, the sulfer is interfearing with the polymerization reaction) . well this should get interesting. thanks all again

oh i almost forgot. the update. my small experiment on bonding strength. the liquid silicone caulk(100%) applied over cured RTV did cure and adheare to the RTV. pulling with some pressure was ok, but allot of pressure would separate the two. i think that for very limited number of cast cycles this would work fine. ...the RTV liquid applied to cured Silicone Caulk is still wet and curing(3days now!).

I am contemplating some version of this. in the past i didnt like the way rtv skins over pop molds cast. it seemed that having a super flexible skin didnt stick inside the mold well, it flaped and sloped around resulting in somewhat distorted results. but i supose like you say, if the skin is layed down thick, that might be enough. especialy for the price!(HA HA, thanks !!!)