gone2long

I know nothing about dels colorants but I would get Black Grape and Green Pumpkin. I am not sure how his June Bug is but you can make June Bug and standard Purple with Black Grape.

Good idea, I did see that lurecraft is now selling a press splitter on their web site for $140.

I don't use a release agent for the bait as long as you don't put too much catalyst in you won't get hot enought to melt the bait. It pulls out just fine. I have put too much in and it does cause some problems in removing because the bait becomes semi liquid like say jello.

Thats what allot of people do they put too much catalyst in trying to speed the process up, I use little less then what is recomended and wait it out less heat I've even put so little in that it took 24 hours to set but it is as good as any other mold in my collection. Good luck what ever way you choose.

I use Bondo fiberglass resin works great for a 2 piece mold, maintains fine details and no need to seal. Think a gallon went for $30 but you will get a load of molds out of a gallon the key is making a good mold frame so as to not waste material.

I have the 5x749 it's a zoom trick worm and it pours great. I personnaly like the micro and pyrex, go down to your local goodwill/thrift shop you should find a cheap micro there. I did the pouring pan thing maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance but the pans were crap and hard to use. I made my own presto pot which works freaking great but I found myself going back to the micro and working in 4-8 oz batches the presto pot is for larger runs. Make your own salt just grind (flour) in a coffee grinder or blender save yourself the shipping cost. The regrinds (sprue) sounds good, are you close to them as I stated shipping cost were crazy.

I looked into Ozark's for sprues but found the shipping was going to kill me figured I might as well buy the plastisol in liquid form and make my own versus being limited by their colors. Don't have any experience with the injector but you should start by pouring you'll find it's as good plus the injector is for their injector molds. Have you looked into a starter kit that

I second that I have a few molds from http://www.lurecraft.com/ and they pour excellent, now when you decide that you've got the disease Bear's got top shelf stuff.

Lowrance has emulator software you can download on their website for all their products so you can test drive on you computer nice to be able to give it a go before hand.

I agree with Bear don't make it difficult use the colors your accustom to and go from there. I started with medium plastic but I'm up north in PA in hindsight I would have went With soft plastic just keep it fun and go catch something with your own then see what happens Also I agree with going with a cheap micro and a Pyrex cup more control with less aggravation.

Is it possible to soak salt in berkley's scent then dry it out and add to your plastic when dry?, would act like a slow release. But as stated you do not want to mix anything water based in plastic.

I read that Del's amber should get you pretty close if not dead on.

They appear to be a part of Bobstackleshack.com, Custom CNC Molds maybe give them a call.

Nice job!

I'll just add that in this country early on in made made resivoir days the dumb jerks would strip the land clear of all trees brush and structure in the area that would be flooded so if we didn't have man made intervention such as brush piles and introduced contraptions such as this there would be no structure for fish to connect with.

2 schools of thought there, floured salt will make the bait opaque but it will suspend much better than granular and you will need to make changes to color recipes that don't call for salt. straight salt will allow you to use standard recipes and be pretty close without much adjustment and will still be translucent but will need close attention to stiring to keep it suspended. Table salt can be used and there are several other salt options depending on your application some suppliers sell micro fine salt or flake and so on. Search for basic stik formula and there are instructions for that recipe.

Very nice, someone led me to a site that sells heat transfer fluids that will not degrade & have an extreme flash point so I'm waiting to hear back from them but same idea but I thought by securing to a lid I would get added safety and keep heat in speeding the temp process but your setup is basically the same I'll post when I get additional info.

Someone recommended Non-aqueous specialty liquid phase heat transfer fluids. Im looking into that, I was aware of oil degradation from prolonged reheating it's the principle I'm looking at. I don't make tubes yet but I would like to, I haven't decided yet on dipping or a 2-piece mold and injecting with a hand injector but dipping clearly seams to be the way to go for multiple colors though.

I was thinking of a way to consistently keep 3-4 small pots of plastic at temperature and here is what I came up with. I am going to make a lid that fits snug on my presto pot and secure 3-4 narrow pots in the lid and secure some type of ventilation for the lid. I am thinking that if I fill the presto pot with say vegetable oil to a height that will provide the heat to the pots I could maintain the proper temperature for the plastic. Obviously with narrow pots the amount of plastic will be minimal and will give me several color combinations to work with. Was just wondering what your thoughts are on a system like this.

The best way to look at it is find your niche market, for example I'm on the Delaware River and we have a strong Striper fishery here so I would target that fishery for choice of bait types keep it simple a few types and a few proven colors. Then as things develop add a few more maybe targeting Smallmouth but the rule is to keep it simple unless you plan on going full time you should be able to cover costs and add a few things to you collection.

Have you asked Kim if she can get the colors you want? She works very hard to accommodate requests that are made.

Here's a pic: http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/ProductImages/YD-OSM.JPG

You need to mix your plastic more, mix, shake and stir and when you think you got it right do it again plastisol settles to the bottom and requires aggressive mixing to re-incorporate put a few loose nuts in your bottle to help agitate. Chris

Take a look over at Lurecraft they have a ton of molds, they may have something close.

Also consider pre-heating your fluke mold as this will help pouring the tail, the cool mold will set the tail to quickly when your learning but it will come in time I had the same issue. Chris