bluegrasslover

Great idea. This is a 1 piece POP mold so I used some drywall sanding mesh and got it nice and flat, added a pour hole, then clamped a piece of plexiglass to it to make it a 2 piece. Worked beautifully! Got a perfect fluke, tail and all.

Thanks for the great information. I'm assuming that 1 hour in an oven set at 350 that has not been preheated (this is what I've been doing) never gets the mold over that magic number because they have been turning out really good. It could be relative to the thickness as well...ie, if my molds were thinner then they would reach a temp over 302. I have had good luck with my procedure but I am going to take your suggestion and lower the temp just to make sure. Who knows, maybe the ones that appear to be good won't last as long or something...Thanks, Greg

When using POP to make a 2 part mold....I was pouring the POP for the second part directly onto the baits I was making a mold for. I kept getting lots of bubbles around the baits. I started pouring the POP into a corner and letting it flow over the baits and it completely eliminated the bubbles.

This is probably a no brainer but I use the oven set at 350 for about an hour to dry my POP molds. I got busy the other day and left them in for about 1.5 hours. They were some of the best molds I had made but they pretty much just crumbled apart. Too dry I assume.

Thanks for all the great advice. I guess I have until spring to get it down. I tried the tooth pick last night but the molds were too cold so that thin area stiffened up almost immediately. The wife wouldn't let me use the cup I found that might work good so I'll have to pick one up. I did a new test mold and used my dremel to make the tale a little deeper and wider. That worked pretty good but I don't know how it will swim. Thanks, Greg

Thanks! I just tried using a measuring cup with some water and I see exactly what you're talking about. I'll have to give it a try tonight! Greg

Ok, so I made a 1 part mold of a popular fluke bait. I've been trying and trying but the tale is driving me crazy! Is there a trick to making those small, pointy tales come out right? I'm pouring out of a 1 cup pyrex measuring cup. Thanks, Greg

I asked LC about this...1/4 tsp per 4oz plastic.

I'm a newbie at this myself and my stuff isn't perfect yet but I think you can get all the info you need using this forum and the tutorials. I got my first stuff from lure craft and was happy with it. Checkout the Resources in the left navigation link. Greg

It just slows down. I just noticed it not too long ago while fishing. I thought I was just having a bad casting day at first. I have the centrifugal and magnetic controls as free wheeling as they will go and it still dies hard on me.

Before the cleaning. You might be on to something with the brake. If you just release it the line comes out fine, it's just when you cast it goes good for a bit then just dies. Thanks, Greg

I know this isn't a great reel but it has served me fairly well over the past few years...I have a Cabela's Tournament zx casting reel (http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?id=0043165121435a&navCount=3&podId=0043165&parentId=cat20331&masterpathid=&navAction=jump&cmCat=MainCatcat20166-cat20331&catalogCode=9IS&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat20331&hasJS=true) that's having a problem and I was wondering if anyone here knew what the problem might be. It reels in fine but when I cast it, it clicks and the cast just dies. I can only cast it about 1/2 the distance that I use to could and that's with cast controls set as low as they will go. It has been disassembled, cleaned, and re-lubricated but that did not fix the problem. Any ideas? Thanks, Greg

Yea, it's way over priced.

I failed to mention that you can make comments on a recipe that could be used to ask questions.

I mentioned in a thread not too long ago that I was working on a soft plastic recipe web site to help us all out. It's almost ready but first I wanted to share the current features and give everyone a chance to offer suggestions to make it better. Here are the current features... Personal recipe box so you can save the recipes you like or want to try Ability to rate recipes and browse the top rated Recipes can contain pictures Searches work on words in the name, ingredients, or optional instructions Recipe categories include Big Baits, Swim Baits, Flukes, Lizards, Trailers, Craws, Frogs, Worms, Creatures, Grubs, Tubes, General, Jerk Baits, Other RSS feeds Ability to publish and read articles Any more categories needed or should that cover pretty much everything? Moderators, I'm not trying to compete with TU or anything. I'm sure you understand the need for a way to more easily find recipes. Searching a forum returns way to many invalid results or returns the Recipes thread which you have to page through to find the result you want. I would like permission to add a banner link back to this awesome site. Thanks for any input you might have, Greg

A story about a guy that makes lures from wine bottle corks and beer bottle caps was in the local paper this past week. Pretty ingenious use of stuff around the house to make a lure! BoOzE bAiT!

This isn't a great picture but here it is.

Thanks! It's not the prettiest and far from perfect so I have a lot to improve on. I know, it a damn shame I have to make more...Greg

I made a small popper from pine for my first lure. I don't have many chances to fish during the day since the days have gotten so short so I decided to use phosphorescent powder in the epoxy on top of white paint. I used red hooks and made the buck tail from one of my dogs fur. I took it out tonight and caught a nice crappie on the very first cast with it. Not really what I wanted but I could not be happier! Thanks to everyone that contributes here, Greg

Awesome! Thanks!

Thanks for the tips. I have noticed that the dents usually don't occur until the 2nd or 3rd pour. I'm guessing that the mold must be getting heated up which means that the plastic is not hardening as fast as the first pour. I'll try blowing the mold with the air compressor or something to cool it down and see if that helps.

I just started pouring a couple weeks ago and I keep getting some defects I can't figure out. Someone has to have had these problems before but I can't find anything about it. I'm pouring 5" sticks with homemade molds (1 is DWP and the other is POP). Sometimes the center of the worm is hollow from the top down to about 2". Sometimes it's perfectly solid. I can see it sucking in from the top of the mold. Is it something I'm doing wrong? Is there a way to prevent this? This defect is a little crazy. Sometimes I get "dents" in the worm. There are no indentions in the mold and it doesn't always do it. The dented part has the texture of the mold so I know it was touching the mold at one time. Is this an air bubble that contracted when the plastic cooled therefore sucking in the side? Thanks for your insight, Greg

If I were to make a web application just for recipes would anyone be interested? I've actually already started this for myself but I could easily put it out somewhere where everyone could use it. It's basically a cooking recipe application that I was converting to be used for soft plastic recipes. It would be searchable and have the ability to add a picture. The problem to me with keeping recipes in a forum is mostly when you get a search match it's somewhere in 10 pages of a thread. Let me know what you think. Greg

I tried this process tonight. I thought I was being smart when I thought about using some of the wife's contact paper in place of the 2 sided tape. It's not nearly sticky enough. I was tapping the container to get the bubbles out and the next thing I know I see the worms coming to the surface. I do have a question though. If you use the 2 sided tape do you need a release agent or will the POP not stick to the tape? Thanks, Greg