Kajan

I never bag a lure in less than 2 weeks, usually 3 weeks laying out, I hate bent lures.

MF is a very good plastic. Has a great shean, little slippery on jigheads, but good plastic.

Well, I don't make any injection rtv molds, but I am always a fan of using RTV. With dat said, get the harder RTV. I think the harder ones run in the 130+ shore range. But I would recommend hand carving the prototype out of something you can reuse and finish with a very high sheen. I have used different materials, but cypress works well to carve and you coat with devcon 2 ton epoxy.

I thought someone had mentioned that one JSC, My mistake. I don't remember that one Mark

I wanted to add, if you look at my pouring station pics I posted years ago on TU, you will read where I said My pots are insulated. It is easy for anyone to just wrap fiberglass insulation around your pots to help hold in heat and it also keeps heat distriputed in the pot. You can also purchase a heat band or motor heater strip you could add to your existing pots if you wish. You can do this without any fancy controls or gauges, just check your temps on the strips prior to installing around the pot to know your settings, and you should be good to go. I never tried this because I had no need to. But might be what your looking for Painter.

Just so it says polyester resin on the can your ok. Why I hate people using brand names such as Bondo. Bondo has all kinda different products, can get confusing. Just like Fiberglass Resin, there is Polyester which is what your looking for, but there is Polyvinylester resin, Epoxy resins, ect that are used for Fiberglass applications. I should note, there is also a purple tinted Polyester resin which is sometimes used to lay fiberglass over aluminum, you want the amber coloured one.

Thanks Painter, just sometimes the plastisol manufactuer has batchs that are not up to par from what I noticed over the years. I had a batch that would turn smoke colour a strong green tint very fast. www.wenesco.com www.ritehete.com

What your looking for is Polyester resin

Since you evidently don't know since you are fairly new at this. You can not see if plastic is tinted until its poured into a thicker lure/size. You can pour slightly tinted plastic in a sheet and you can't tell, but it you pour a big enough sheet and fold on it self or pour a thick pc like I suggested, then you can tell if you have plastic that is tinted. Your Stir system looks nice, well made. Shame, I doubt it will work well. And the alum paddles do not clean nearly as easy as the stainless steel paddles just so you know. But alum is cheaper, so I understand you using that material. I don't know what motor you used, but your ventilation seems too small. If you need help, just ask, what I do, I try to help many who need help in any field I know about.

That thin plastic don't show anything. Pour it in a 1"X1" rectangle or 1" dia tube and then see if it has any colour change, and after you heat it for 30 min.

Not sure where you live Frank, but here, In South La. if you use Saltwater or saltwater/med mix, and don't stir your plastic, it will scorch in no time. Might be because of the density of the plastic is higher, but it is a fact. I am just tryin to save people from having trouble. I started making my own plastics in 1987. I had no stir system, was the old methods, was a pain in the butt trying to keep your plastic moving in a pan using a hot plate. When here on TU I saw someone had made a Motorized stir system, I could not believe I hadn't thought about doing that, but at that time I had stopped makin lures. But after seeing that, thats when I made my own system, improved on the design and came up with a paddle that works great. Just because some one might of tried a stir system and didn't have good luck with it, it goes back to the paddles, not all paddles work the same, I built and tested many types until I came up with current design I have now, which is also what Bear sells. I never push anyone to buy a stir system, but I sure hope they try and make their own if nothin else, and I have helped many people to do that. But for someone to come out and tell anyone who pours enough lures that they want to use more than a microwave and tell them they absoloutly don't need a stir system, well, I think they are agenda driven and I will stop at that, since it is foolish to argue with a fool. So, reason I posted on th is thread was because someone was having trouble with yellowing plastic. If it is using a pot with a stir system with correctly made paddle, I assure you it is not gona yellow unless he got a batch of bad plastic.

OK Frank, I understand your reasons. And as far as a stir system with pots, I will bet money that people who use stir systems will burn and scorch very little plastic and bou'cou' lower % than anyone who just uses a pot. I have heard people even tell people they don't need a stir system, which is true, but sure gona cost people some money with all their burnt plastic their gona waste.

Dave, I think your out of touch a tee' bit der'. I have been using presto pots and stir systems for a while now, and they do heat evenly, only problems I ever had with plastic is if I get a bad batch of plastic. Not sure what your experiences are with the presto pots, but I can tell you mine work great. I was just asking a question to find out why some find it necessary to warm plastic before putting in a presto pot, I am assuming with a stir system with paddles.

I have to ask, why do y'all heat plastic in a microwave before putting it into the presto? (Not Frank, since he has no stir system)

I think thats the main reason. Many colour lams work with horizontal configurations. Meanings the fish seem to prefer it. But its not to say some might like some colours the other way, just you don't see as many bait fish or such in nature with that type colour shapes.

Looks Bon', nice job on the molds and design.

Unless you use someone else's recipe, where their drops could be different from yours, you should not have any issues if you always shake well like stated with ss nuts in containers and refill the same bottle you use to administer the drops, just keep refilling it.

IPT , dat is why you put a motorized stirring system. When I did my first lures in 87, that was the issue, stirring and keeping plastic from scorching. This thread might help http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/index.php?/topic/14203-pouring-station/?hl=kajan#entry106399

If done correctly, no issues keeping nozzle hot enough. It has been explained on here many times as on other sites. I know we explained it bou'cou' on Bears forum. I mysef' helped many to build their own pot or pots. If your gona do hand pour, or open pour molds, the pot with valve is definatly the easiest and best method I have found. Of corse all my rtv molds I put alum on bottom, which allows you to manipulate the mold under the valve for easy pouring of a small stream of hot plastic. It was not that many years ago when Bear started offering Hand Injection, so pouring was the most used method. I still don't inject, only pour from presto pots.

Plastisols I have used don't have any smell once cured. Trick is to cure them long enough before packing and you will have good lures that hold der shape and don't have that offensive smell

First question, I have no clue Second question, will answer with a question. Are you using alum molds or your own home made molds? Reason I ask, a lot of people have problems getting clear lures making their own molds due many reasons. One, master was not finished fine enough. Others use of pop or other dry material that was not sealed correctly/smooth finished. Some use RTV and bou'cou' tiny bubble marks in the mold that transfer to the lures. But , since I am not familiar with using that type plastisol, it could be the product, I remember using one plasitsol that had a cloudy appearance on transparent lures.

Go find some old lures you have that are not Powerbaits or Gulp and cut them up in small pcs and remelt those. Might help your urgent need to test your molds LOL The addiction continues

Way I do it is, I put plastisol in the pot, I turn on the heat all the way up. Turn the stir motor on and leave it be until it reachs temp, usually around 337 F with Thermometer . I then make sure all little micro bubbles are gone, lower temp to approx. 300 on dial, start mixing colours. Then I add some glitter, some I don't add til it treachs 300 F, add those and at this point I turn the stir motor off. I use the nozzle to hand pour, so I usually do around 4 molds then turn stir motor on for approx. 3 seconds to keep plastic moving and keeping glitters mixed. The softer the plastic, the faster it will heat to temp.