carolinamike

If you'll notice Frank oils the blade before he starts. He is only dipping the blade into where it coats the front of the colorado blade and not the back, so it should slide right off, also if the dipping blade has a smooth polish this will help with an easy release also. Frank is a TU member so you can PM him and ask him, I bet he will be glad to help you.

Smallie, that's actually a barn fan that I purchased from Tractor Supply. The building is around 8X12 so when you turned the fan on you could actually feel it almost creating a vacuum. If the fan was going it would yank the door open when you turned the door knob. If you guys would like to see the production machines, we have pictures up on Carolina Baits Facebook page.

Bob, this material is thicker than what they use for fiberglass boats. It is specificaly designed for insulating, I think its mainly used on steam pipes. It comes in rolls that are 4 inches wide, how much do you think you would need for your project?

Yeah Bob thats the pot I built before I bought one from LureCraft, that woven fiberglass is great for insulating. I've actually used it on a couple of heat exchangers too.

I was looking for some pictures for my company's new Facebook page today and I ran across these of the old hand pour shop. I thought it would be neat for you guys to see what the options used to be. Hand pouring has come a long way since these days. Do you think my exhaust fan was big enough? On high it would suck the hat off of your head. You can see our machines on the Facebook page.

The standard is white pearl powder, the super silk that LureWorks sells works very very well.

Al is right, thats the best first ive ever seen. Also frank has give you some good advice, almost all clear chartruse will bleed, on the red shad looks it like a little bit more pearl in the red and you will be dead on the money. Keep in mind that bleeding is what you want with red shad, red shad gets its full effects when the red bleeds into the black. When first made it almost never looks like the store bought ones but after a week or so of bleeding you will have a perfect match. Remember true pigment do not bleed but all dyes are bleeding colors

Cbj, find the patent number (which is located on the bag) and look it up on the u.s. patent office website. If its like the super chunk there will be drawings of the bait, the patent points of the baits you will find throught out the patent so read the whole patent. They will harp on these points over and over like i said before patents are hard to read but its not that hard to figure out the main points because they mention them continuously.

My mess started about 15 years ago, i hand poured my chunks for 9 years, sold them on the internet and had them in at least 10 stores. It wasnt until i started large scale production that i got my first letter. I had my machines, i had just gotten one production mold and hadnt even recieved the other one yet when the cease and assist letter came. One of the molds is brand new sitting on the shelf never been used, the other mold i think i made 2 colors off of it and never got to sell a chunk. at that time there were still 13 years left in the patent, 6000 bucks per mold, but their time will come and yes i could change the molds but the sales do not justify the cost bassinfool, you can get by with it looking like zoom's chunk, alot of companies do but those dang little knots and especially the ridge on the outside of the tail is what you better stay away from, thats what got me.

Netbait paca chunk has some kind of protection I dont know if its a patent or not, but thats one that bit Zoom in the tail. i know the guys that made the production mold, when the mold was first made zoom went after Netbait for patent infringement so they had to change the mold, this led to the current design of the paca chunk, and i wouldnt be afraid to say that they out sell the super chunk as far as the super chunk and small super chunk, those patents are still current, believe you me im waiting on the day they expire.

This is a subject that I learned about the hard way. $12,000.00 worth the hard way. I really wouldn't call Zoom a bully because after talking with Eddie Chambers at Zoom, he explained to me the basics. Patents cost a lot of money to get and even more money to protect. That is the main reason Zoom is so protective. Patents are worded in a way that it about takes a lawyer to really read them but if you use the patent number and look up the patent through the US patent office, read through the whole patent, the main points will be touched on over and over in the patent. These are the things you have to stay away from. And let me clear up another myth for you right now, some people say oh, it has to be 10% to 20% difference in order not to infringe, this is not true. With the right patent, you will infringe no matter what the percentage is if there are any similarities. Take the superchunk for instance, each little knot on the tail and the ridge on the outside of the tail is claimed to make the bait swim and perform in a certain way, therefore no matter how you change the shape, if you include the little knots and the ridge on the outside of the tail, you are guilty of infringement. Eddie Chambers at Zoom is a very nice guy, but very firm. But their lawyer on the other hand, does not have a nice bone in his body. There's a couple of different kind of patents, but either way, I would stay away from those type of baits. As far as the molds sold by other companies, if they were in infringement, they would have already gotten the letter from the lawyers, so you should be ok with these types of molds.

Frank's dead on the money about machine made products. Heat exchangers are emptying out as much as a pound of plastic every minute and a half to three minutes, so the heat time is always kept to a minimum. That's one of the reasons that runners work so well as remelts. They have very little heat time. When it comes to purple flake, it can be really hard to deal with. Heat seems to affect it more than any other color. I've tried so many different purple flakes from small companies to large companies. The biggest I use is the .035 and I've got to say that Lureworks has been the best when it comes to fading. But there again, temperature is the biggest factor in this. I'm talking about their purple flake, not grape. But anytime that you're getting flake fade or flake curling, you need to lower your temperature.

t-billy I was talking about the corrosive properties of salt and cast iron. I don't know if the additive is corrosive or not, but it's just for adding weight. Basically that's all the additive does right?, add weight to the bait, nothing else? I make a lot of baits with fine salt that has no discoloration whatsoever. The only way you can tell that the salt is in it, is to taste it or rub the salt to the top of the worm. I use a very fine salt that does not take away from the durability of the bait whatsoever. Myself along with millions of other fishermen believe that salt helps make a fish hold the bait longer, plus it is a natural product that does not harm the environment. So if you're not looking specifically to add weight to the bait, and you're not wanting to add an oil based scent, I think salt is the very best alternative on the market. And I think companies like Zoom and Gene Larew would agree with that also. And I think if you did a survey of the plastics that are on the market right now for sale, that you would find salt is the number one additive. I have no need to just make a bait weigh more so I have no need to use the product and besides 50lbs of salt costs me $11.00. As far as the griddle goes, there again it was just a suggestion sounds like it's working pretty good for Frank. Maybe he can tell you what type he's using.

Why in the world would you ditch salt? I've seen this statement made a couple of times now to promote a company's product. Salt was used in fishing baits long before the senko was invented. Salt is used in baits that do not sink as well as those that do sink for it's fish catching abilities. If all you want your worm to do is sink, then I guess an additive would be ok. But salt is a long time proven fish catching additive, that's been around in soft plastics for longer than most of us have been making baits. Just the ol' cheap kitchen griddle that we cook on here at the house goes up to 450 degrees. I think if you invested a little more money in one that was more for commercial use, it would work very well, especially if it's thicker than just the regular kitchen models. Just seems like it would be more efficient if you were using more than one pouring vessel and you needed to keep an injector warm too.

I think the thicker pot is the way to go, like t-billy and Cub48 suggested. And the raw plastisol should help season the cast iron but I don't think I would use salt when using cast iron. But I was wondering, instead of a hot plate why not use a high quality griddle? The good ones don't get hot spots and there's plenty of room for more than one pot, also room to keep your injector warm and the better ones have pretty good temperature settings too.

The machine was built for anyone wanting to do small production runs and the molds that it uses are specifically designed for their machine, so you would have to purchase molds along with your machine. If i remeber right, if you sign a contract agreeing to use lure works products that the price is cheaper then if you buy the machine straight out. Cbj11lbs, If you dont mind me asking, what are your production needs?

What is the retail price of their machine?

ipt, it all comes down to personal preference. If you find a soft plastic that you are satisfied with, then thats the way to go. Some people prefer it softer than medium, but not quite as soft as soft (that is one reason why people mix their own.)

Bassinfool, the best thing to do is to contact Bruce at LureWorks, tell him what you are trying to achieve and the application that you are wanting to use. He is very knowledgeable in all of the products they sell that way you will know if need retarder or not, some of their paints dry very very quickly. He can be reached at extension 106. That will save you a whole lot of trial and error.

Bass-Boys is right, you can use softener and soften down your plastisol ok, but when it comes to a harder plastisol there is alot more in it than just hardener, for instence, there is a material that makes the harder plastic flow better and there are also different heat stabilizers and things like that.

Mark, Pam also makes a great mold release when needed.

Patrick, Definatly contact Bear. He is aware of the problem with a few of the injectors, I talked to him last week and he had told me about a couple that he had replaced due to the specs being off a little, so just let him know whats going on and i'm sure he will get you a replacement out asap.

Is anyone else getting this message that says "Oops somethng went wrong. Sorry server is too busy to handle your request, please try again in a moment". Also the site is real slow and I can't get my pm box to open. Jerry I know you're working on things. I tried to pm you instead of posting but the site won't let me pm either. The screen just darkens and the red x appears for you to close it, but it gives me nowhere to put any text. Also a couple of posts I've done and pm's just will not go through. Last night one post set for over an hour with just the text at the bottom saying "saving post". When I've tried to pm a forum member, it just jumps back to the Oops message again. I was just wondering if you were aware of this and if anyone else had the same thing going on.

Mark, I've had to think about this a little bit and I might be wrong but I think that should work. I'm picturing in my mind the way the oil sits on the water and I'm thinking the plasticizer will act the same as oil, that's probably where the bouyancy of softer plastic come from, I don't know this for sure but if you would like, I can get you a positive answer on it tomorrow. One thing I know is that the Lurecraft super soft is very durable. Mark if you do use the floating bubbles, it will add a whitish tint to your bait and most of the time it's going to opaque your colors and I know you guys out west are all about light clear colors. tbilly, I'm glad it works for you. Man that what it's all about is sharing information with each other and different alternatives for achieving the same goal.

tbilly, wouldn't you agree that if you could do the same thing with the most economical plastic on the market and not have to purchase floating bubbles, respirator or oil for the floating bubbles, wouldn't this make more economical common sense? Besides no matter whether the heat's even or not, with glass spheres at over 300 degrees you will have breakage plus you will have breakage during cooling also. Thus is the nature of glass. I used Lurecrafts super soft for years and even a 4 inch worm would float a 3/0 hook. I guess it's just according to how much money you want to put into it.