MTfishingrods

I stopped worrying about having plastics destroyed about the time I started pouring my own. If they are lost on a fish then great, they did their job. If they start to tear or get destroyed then they get remelted and poured over again. You start adding different things to the plastic like fiberglass mesh and screens it gets harder to remelt. Just my opinion.

Great info Matt. I think I must have been pretty lucky on mine because they were both very straight blanks. But in talking to others they have had the same issues so you know how it is, sometimes a guy gets lucky lol.

Just thought I would toss in an update on these blanks. Both of you were correct. In fact I am surprisingly pleased for the price of these blanks. Like Cidgrad said they wont replace the main blanks but they have sure opened up some new options for a great price. I have a couple of spaces in my boat that will be occupied by these come spring.

I dont understand all this nonsense of not mentioning sponsors names. Its a sale. So tell everyone Del is having a sale!!! If Bear is haing one or Lurecraft or whoever is having one then lets mention it. Save our members some money. Unless I am wrong and someone can point out a rule that this violates?

Problem is Jim that the injector they sell is identicle to Bears. So mods will still have to be made if you want a good fit in some molds.

I know this wont help you with the dual injector but an easy mod to the single injector to make it fit right is to run a bolt through the Hole in the nozzle and tighten a nut down onto it. Then chuck the bolt up into a drill press or even a hand drill, whatever you have available, and turn it on. Use a file and file the tip down to the size needed for your mold. Quick easy painless and cheap. And when your done it will probably look like it was made that way in the first place. At least the one I saw did. The same mod could be done with the dual injector but you may need a lathe of some sort or jaws that would open large enough to hold the large end of the nozzle. I think my rod lathe would even work for it.

I have all the flukes mentioned in this post. Bears is by far my favorite. Dels aluminum would be the next choice. I wouldnt even bother with the LC one. But this is personal preference.

I know you have Jim, I was currious about others and if they had the same results. Again wasnt trying to make an issue about it. Just wanted clarification on wether it was compared to 2 plastic formulas or 15 formulas. Helps to know that others have had the same results as Jim has had or others may have. Then you go into the comparing of all the super softs against each other all the mediums against each other and the hards and so on. I dont think we can compare a supersoft to a medium plastic and be fair about it. Just way to many variables in the mix here. Soon I will have all the samples I need and will post the blind poll up and everyone can see which one will be the clearest. This will be interesting. When I do it though it will be all soft in one, med in another and hard in another. Then Jim can laugh at me and say I told ya so.

Not trying to nit pick here but clearest compared to what? It would help to know exactly what plastics you have compared to. It sounds like you may have only compared different hardness of MF plastic?

The Kids need pouring stuff to! LOL

Thanks a bunch Matt. I thought you might have the info I was looking for. I think I will go ahead and price one out for my customer and let him know what I have found out about them and see if he wants to try it. I will also get a couple for me and see what my feelings are when in actual use. Just what i need a couple more rods lol.

CA is just super glue. We use it on wood reel seats Rod building.

Matt was wondering if you or anyone in your group sharing rod blank data has got their hands on the MHX custom rod blanks yet? I have a customer that it may fit a build for budget wise but thought you may have some unbiased info on these. Lots of people talking them up but they wont talk specifics. Its like they held one and liked it and jumped on the bandwagon but have never actually fished one. They are cheap enough I will eventually try some myself but just dont want to make that leap for a customer till I had the chance to abuse em myself. LOL

I am one of them guys who love to fish huge baits. Since we fish for Pike a whole bunch here I just feel the larger size catches more fish. But even saying that my favorite bait this year has been the Bears split tail above that Kajan posted and its not real big. Everyone I took out fishing this year ended up buying some from me after the day was over. Rigged on a weighted swim bait hook connected to my steel leader it got almost a banjo minnow type action to it with a whole lot more weight to it to cast than a banjo Minnow. i know I will get made fun of for comparing to the Banjo, but aside from a few little quirks I dont like about them, they flat out catch fish! Also is an easy one to pour. I also use a 9" Dels fluke that I have done well on this year also. That one takes some practice to pour though as the tail is real thin, but that makes it fish good to. I just cant seem to put the flukes down to give the paddle tails a try.

I may have misunderstood what del was saying, but I believe he was talking about before it is burnt. Once plastic begins to tint or scorch, I am not aware of a way to bring it back. Even heat stabilizer has to be added before this point. I also use the bbcp and calhoun. I think the BBCP is a bit clearer. But again I think maybe cooking methods may have a bit to do with it also. Who knows what makes it different from person to person LOL. Maybe its also just finding the plastic you prefer and working with it to learn the plastic tolerances. What would be cool is somehow to do a blind comparison of clear baits side by side and not know what plastic was used until after you picked the clearest one. Take the favorite brand and or vendor issue out of the equation completely.

Colors are softener with pigment or dye added for the color depending on what color it is.

Some good points here also. But I am not so sure that you cant create doable custom molds that will hand inject. To have one machined isnt to expensive, but with all our other alternative mold making materials out there and the talent that is on this site, I have no doubt in my mind that Homemade ones will soon be following. I mean they already have to some extent like Pikes and a few others, but the more people begin to understand just how these injectors work, and im not talking about cutting corners and trying to make do with a so so replica of one. Im talking the actual Hand injectors made by the Vendors themselves to do this job. The more people will begin to push further and further with them. Just watching the progress of everyone using these over the last few months has been absolutely impressive. I cant imagine where we will be with them come a year from now when more people start getting involved. I think you will even see the die hard hand pour guys begin to use them to a certain extent to create different effects. In fact Pike i wish I had your plastic bait, I would attempt to make one before you came through here on your way home.

At least this is a easy cheap mistake. We all make em no matter how many rods we build. It just seems the more rods you build the more costly the mistakes become.

Never have used wd40 myself. I use U-40 Rod Bond. The epoxy acts as a lubricant when sliding them into place. Not sure how much further you need to go. You could always boil the grips and then slide them on if needed. But shouldnt be needed. Actually after thinking about this a bit more those grips are now contaminated with the WD40 and the rod Bond will likely not adhere to them. You may be stuck scrapping them and starting over. Honestly they should not even need to be boiled. With Rod Bond it is amazing how far you can make that stuff slide.

Just trying to keep the info fair and honest here, I believe the baits linked in my first post were actually hand poured. My mistake. Sorry about that guys. I am sure you know I didnt do that intentionally. But it dont change the information.

PP, I did receive your email, just hadnt had a chance to respond yet and was letting this die down. We will hook up on your way through here. Should probably even shoot a few baits maybe. I think you would like to see this thing actually work and use it for yourself. But there again, Vacuum injection is one more way of doing things. Nothing wrong with that at all. I have several vacuum pumps still from my HVAC days so I may give that a shot sometime when I find something that dont quite inject right. Shane

Here is a link to the 5 color kit. You could get purple by mixing if needed. These guys used to carry the diamondite your talking about but now have their own product packaged for them. I would bet its probably by diamondite but who knows. If you call them its likely they still have the old stuff just not listed. I call for off the wall stuff all the time and its surprising what they come up with. It may be worth a shot. Also in a pinch testers model paint can be used. Let it sit till the pigment and solvent separate. Pour off the solvent and use just the pigment. Then you have some neat colors available. CRB Marbling Pigment Kit (5 Colors) | Mud Hole Custom Tackle, Inc.

Actually the only way to get blow back on one of these injectors would be to continue to put pressure on the knob while removing the injector. Once you inject your baits there is no need to apply pressure any more other than for the added few seconds after injecting if you happen to have a dent issue which I havnt seen yet but others have. Once you release the knob all pressure is off on the inside so no possible blow back. Just maybe some dripping as you move from mold to mold. Jim you go through in a week what I go through in a good month. So I cant give you an honest answer on the O rings. They are rubber, They are getting hot. Unless someone can tell me otherwise, I have to say they have a life expectancy. What it is? I just dont know. But I can tell you that when shooting the plastic back into the cup and the tip accidently comes off. Its no big deal. The more you use them the better you get at judging what pressure that tip pops and thats what makes these injectors so fast is being able to pop that off and pop a new one back on. I still say they are safe. The reason why. You dont put pressure on it till its sitting on the mold. Then when you do, we are talking about pressure being slightly more than the weight of your hand. Not actually pushing. It dont take much at all. then pull your hand off and move on. When you shoot your plastic out obviously point it away from you and push it out into your cup or pot then pull the nozzle off. I happen to have 2 nozzles. Del, Im not going to argue the fact that you have done whatever you have done to the injectors. But I will say that my injectors work just fine the way they were intended and instructed to work. Thats all i can tell ya. Shane

I think were just gonna have to agree to disagree. I guess theres nothing wrong with that either.

Del, First off, I am just going to say we will have to disagree over which one has the shorter learning curve. I teach the 4th grade fishing class here and have had them pour their own baits and now have had them inject their own baits. We will be injecting baits from now on. If I can have 20 4th graders done injecting baits in 3 hours I am confident that anyone able to make a post on this board can handle it with ease. As far as learning the safety aspect of plastic, that dont cut it either. Plastic is the same temp no matter what way you choose to use it. You can be burned just as easily injecting as hand pouring. As for getting blowback when injecting?? Holy crap!!!!!! Maybe a $12.00 suction gun from Napa isnt the right tool for the job. I would rather hand pour also. No wonder some people are reluctant to try injection. I wouldnt want to either if its gonna spit hot plastic back at me. Thats just plain friggin scary! "its mainly do to guys wanting everything too fast and perfect." Whats wrong with wanting this? If you dont want this I would wonder why. Now just so you dont think I am here to bash everything you said, we do agree on something, Handpouring and injection both have there places. I am not here trying to push just one persons products. I own both Bears molds and Dels molds and am happy with both. I hand pour and inject and hopefully one day my pours will be the quality of Ghost Baits. So even if you choose to inject that dont mean you should not learn to pour. There is so much that can be done with both techniques. But we need to be truthful about these techniques also and not be scaring people away based on false information.