SlowFISH

LOL.... funny thing is I bet it still works just fine for the fish!!! J.

eastman nailed it - use some opaque white then paint over that... really the only way you can cover black with light without putting so much paint down that you make a mess. J.

It better catch more fish... why else would I spend more money and time!!! LOL!! I go crazy with baits just to drive my friends nuts that I have something they don't... but then again... what if Green Pumpkin shifts to Watermelon then back!!! LOL!! J.

He's talking about powder colorant for plastisol mixed into the plastisol... not powder paint over the top of a bait. With that being said - I've only used pearls and some color shifting mica I had leftover from painting cranks instead of colorant - and it works nice... like everything else - you have to mess around to figure out the right amount to use. For me - I sort of mix "seat of the pants style" even with liquid instead of counting every drop.... and powders seems a little more fussy as you can over do it quickly (compare to drops of liquid) so get a really small spoon (REALLY SMALL) and try to be precise. I also found it a little harder to stir/mix evenly into the plastic compared to liquid - and that's with stirrers running in a presto - as if the powder drops in and gets on the blades or pot before the plastisol - it just stays there - no way to really "push it in to the mix"..... again - sort of me being a little sloppy when using it - liquid seems a little more user friendly. Personally the two big benefits seem to be it won't bleed and you can use a variety of color shifts from what I've seen.... I'm interested to hear what others are doing and how it goes. J.

Bob - I did exactly that - by the time I attached and turned down the original piston (trying to fix it) I felt I took too much material off - so machined a second piston - left it slightly oversized to start - threaded and attached it the to piston rod and then remounted it in the lathe and removed the last couple thou to get those two parts dead on together... should have done it that way to start! I have one of the Grizzly g9972z lathes - not the best machine - but perfectly suitable for a hobbist who isn't worried about perfect tolerances and having to remake a part or two every now and then... addition of cheap Igauging DRO's on it helps IMMENSELY on these machines... as it all but eliminates the backlash issues and makes things simple for someone with basic skills. J.

lol.... I had some leftover aluminum from various things and decided to replicate my Bass Tackle Injector - seemed super simple... crank up the lathe and I'd be done in a couple hours... lol... it drove me nuts. These injectors seem super simple - and they are - but all the little details that have to be just right to get it to seal correctly and I had to monkey around to get a smooth pull/push... so I know the pain. I also think you are dead on with a little sloppy machining locking it up when the piston is retracted.... on mine I had every thing perfect - but rushed threading the piston/piston rod and that caused the piston to be slightly off center... first pull back on the assembled injector and it locked solid in the tube and I had to hit it hard to release the tension in order to disassemble. So you probably right with a little slop on piston, end cap hole alignment, etc. that could totally lock that thing up tight.

Agree with all of this... as for the health issues with 3D printing - alot has to do with the type of 3D machine/process. SLA many times needs to be vented to the outside as the bath resin is NOT friendly and the combo of that with the laser burning it up makes some harmful gases. FDM with ABS/PLA are a little more "friendly" - but you are transitioning a solid plastic into a liquid state - so some off gassing can occur... but I'd bet you'd have same warning with a hot glue gun as well.... and FDM printing isnt close to what we breath with in with sanding/paint/clearcoats baits or if you pour plastisol. I machine a resin material for molds - and if you read the material safety sheet - it seems like I'm gonna be dead in 2 weeks from cutting this stuff.... but if you don't machine it into dust and blow it up into the air and have proper ventilation or containment of dust - its' not an issue..... again - common sense and reasonable precautions go along way. J. J.

Is the plastic cooling/setting up in your injector stopping it from moving??? That seems to be what you're describing but if your plastics is really close to 350 and your ambient temps 70-80 you shouldn't be having too much trouble with this. I'd recommend 1 thing.... try to get your injector hot before shooting the mold.... if all you have is a microwave - heat up your plastic.... pull it up into the injector - wait 2-3 seconds and immediately push it back into the pyrex.... reheat the plastic and clean the injector out.... do this as quick as possible to keep heat in the injector. This should help if its the plastic freezing up the injector. When I'm testing a mold (in the winter) and use a micro/pyrex I have my injector setup on some blocks a few inches up over a small alcohol lamp to put and keep heat in the tip/barrel... otherwise i have same issue. A very warm or even hot injector is your friend.... when an injector is cold - and even 80 degrees is cold - it will cool the plastic really fast and lock it up. J.

You honestly won't know till you try - but I think your tail might just glide behind the body and not "flap/kick"..... but that's pure speculation and I've been wrong before on what happen with something i made... but now that I got the disclaimer out of the way - I think of tails like a crankbait lips to some degree.... you want it to force the tail left/right due to the water forcing it..... your tail is fairly "slick" smooth and rounded on the front... I'd think that's gonna help the water move around it more than force the tail to move out of the waters way (if that makes sense). Also - I'd look to make it wider.... again - like a crankbait in some ways - a wide fat bill usually give a wide wobble - and smaller / narrower bills tighter wobble to the point if its too tin (left to right) it doesn't move at all... Looking at you master - I don't think length of the tail is your friend here.... as if the tail "lifts" instead of being forced left/right the water will move around it rather than move the tail/. I know the above probably isn't scientifically accurate - but I've built a bunch of keitech type baits of various sizes from 5" down to 1.5" and above is what I've learned doing it. Also - if your looking at your first mold as the "test mold" - maybe undersize the tail a bit... then carve/dremel out the tail area in the mold deeper/wider after you make a few baits.... this way you can make 3-4 baits, mod tail - make 3-4 more, mod again.... do this a few times and test... then just pick the tail shape that worked the best... I find myself cutting my first mold up a bunch of times to make things work just right... much easier to keep cutting/grinding then trying to fill.

McMaster Carr should have a bunch - just look at spec on the one you have. Look for Compact AC Gearmotors.

Might wanna keep eye on it when you reheat it the first time if its that old.... I had about 1 quart left in a gallon jug sitting around that was probably 3-4 years old and it must have absorbed moisture from sitting - it didn't get over 300 degrees before it became a foaming/bubbling mess.... J.

For paddle tails /swimbait - try to keep the section before the tail thin.... as the thinnest section will likely be where it bends the most. Also width of the tail is your friend - wider will give more kick in my experience. Keitech swimbaits are a real good place to look for inspiration. J.

Did you mix it real well prior using the plasttisol? Did you have any hardpack in the botttle??? Almost every issue I've had with the plastic "not performing" has been due to me not stirring/mixing the crap out of the plastisol before I pour.... and once you take 16oz of incorrectly mixed plasitsol out of a gallon - that whole gallon will be off to some degree cause now the formula is off. The night before I pour I shake/stir/etc the crap out of my gallon jugs till there is not one spot of anything stuck to bottom of the jug - then let them sit overnight before use to minimize bubbles... haven't had any issues since doing that.... before taking this step I'd have tacky baits, or stuff that didn't' seem right at times. J.

I just painted about 40 cranks for me and my friends over the last 2-3 months for the upcoming season... I sweated the color of each bait, texture placement, bought color changing mica to add to the baits to get some great effects and sweated every detail - I think I painted, then sanding off the paint jobs of 8-10 lures that I didn't like a week later after looking at them - super anal about everything... yet my favorite topwater lure (LC Gunfish in sunfish color) that I've had for years looks like I drag it behind my car to the lake every trip - half the paint is either flaked or hook rashed off - eyes have been glued back on 2x cause the originals and replacements fell off after hits with rocks/trees and its still the best lure I have!!! I also have a friend that kills with a squarebill that he painted florescent orange with a krylon spray can - no masking, no pattern of dots - nothing - just shot the whole bait orange bill and all and uses it.... arrgghhh kills me!! LOL!! No doubt we all over think most of this stuff WAY WAY WAY more than any fish ever does. J.

The pics with baits help... Bryan's suggestion is a good one... and now seeing it's just the top bait and the bubbles are pretty much down the entire bait on the top side - try putting 1 or 2 small c clamps on top edge of that mold in addition to what you are already using to clamp it. You might not be getting a perfect/tight seal and sucking a little air in when it cools. All my molds are made of resin and they warp/bend when they get to hot.... sometimes I don't get a good seal between the mold haves and have an issue like this. But to answer an earlier question as well... if all else fails - you could try to vent each rib up top - but I'd exhaust every option first before you start messing with your mold. IF you do decide to vent it - I'd start with a VERY TINY vents... maybe just use a utility knife scratch a tiny vent then hit the surface with some 800 grit and paper to flatten out any distortion of the metal - you really don't need much for air to escape.

Jigmeister has some good advice here.... and the others who pointed to inj speed.... you'll need to play with a few things but air is getting caught in each rib which is common with molds like this. Tilting the mold (tail up) might help that air push out.... along with injection speed should help.

I'm a NYC guy..... plastisol in unheated garage all year round - never had it freeze.... granted I can't say for extended periods below zero what might happen - but we have solid weeks of single digits at times and no issues. J.

Last 4-5 Posts are dead on.... I sat down one day and just tried to figure out costs to produce baits (as mentioned above - not just how much plastisol/glittter - but taxes, tools, packaging, storage, etc, etc.) to come up with a rough figure for how much that would take from a $7 bag of baits... then figure out how many bags I'd have to sell to match my current salary.... it wasn't possible as far as I could see being 1 person without spending WAY WAY more time than I work now. With that being said - there are many ways to "be in the buinsess"... I have a good friend that is a Bicycle manufacture... out of a 2 bedroom apartment.... he focuses his effort on sales and marketing - and has someone build / ship his product.... he picked off the parts he could do very well and outsources the rest... so there are smart ways to make things happen - you just have to be smart at deciding which parts you want / like and are efficient at doing - and then how to get the other parts done by someone else.

That's not just your printer - ANY 3D printer will have build lines regardless of it being a budget or high end machine - I live this stuff every day for work.... granted - some machines are more accurate and can produce finer layers than others - but even the high end machines (we have a Stratasys F170 at work which is well over 20K in price) - and you have to sand / fill parts if you want a smooth surface even with the highest resolution settings. Just the nature of the technology. Even other processes like SLA which uses lasers and liquid baths to form the layers needs sanding - much less - but there is always finish work. Couple tips for those running machines with ABS.... Acetone is your friend. You can literally "glue" two parts together with some acetone.... I use a bottle with a needle applicator and it works great. You can also "smooth" your parts with Acetone as well.... the benefit in doing this is it melts the outer edges/layers together just a bit and will "seal" it to some degree (None of these filament machines produce a perfectly sealed part). Its fussy to "wipe to smooth" with acetone and you'll ruin some parts getting a technique down - but if you need the strength and some sealing properties - it works pretty well. The one big benefit of CAD/Rapid prototyping is your lure to lure repeatability should be way more accurate than you can get with anything other than maybe CNC. It's also great for making different sizes/mods.... I use the machien to make masters for molds.... make 1 - then scale in cad and make a few quick adjustments and you have next size up/down or slightly larger/smaller.... you can't beat the flexibility once you have a design made you like. J.

There is no logic sometimes, but some people just like what they like - take no substitutes and will pay any price for what they want..... I have favorites - but there is a limit.... you guys remember the wacko run on Keitech Lil Spiders about 8 years ago.... 6 dollars worth of baits were selling for 100+ on EBAY cause the molds wore out and Keitech stopped making them for a year or so. It was nuts... I fish 1 tournament each year (a charity event) I gave a pack of the Lil Spiders to the guy who boated me around for the day cause he loved to fish them - it was like I gave him a brick of gold - he couldn't believe I was willing to give them up - they are good little baits - but it's not like there aren't others!!! Glad they made him happy! J.

It's the diameter as well.... you'd be shocked how a little extra diameter adds a ton of volume (and therefore weight) - on cylindrical forms - diameter typically much more effective at adding volume than length.

Look into Taig CNC machines... I have one and use it for everything, molds, baits, boat parts, etc.... to get into CNC you're probably at 2K and upwards.... there are A TON on Taig users and forums so info is easy to find. But there is a real learning curve - you'll need to know a CAD system to create the bait - learn a CAM system to generate CNC code for the machine... and then the ins and out of CNC machining. If you HAVE to make balsa baits - CNC is probably the only option other than a duplicator. If you can live without wood and make "plastic" baits.... I'd just get a 3D printer for much less money and the learning curve is FAR FAR simpler. J.

For awhile I was finishing rapid prototypes and using them to make silicone molds... and rapid prototypes have build lines all through it - so required alot of sanding. If you really want to super smooth - you'll probably need to use a auto primer (spray can is fine) and wet sand down in steps from 240 to a 1000 grit - even finer if your picky. Even at 600 grit you'll still see lines picked up with a silicone mold - silicone is unforgiving and is usually formulated to pick up the fine details. I'd wax/buff the hell out the to part create a layer of protection between the part/paint and mold material. Unfortunately - I can't tell you exactly what brand of paint to use - as type of paint and type of silicone is all different.... and some can react differently - obviously testing a small item first is best bet. If you buy your silicone from a place like SmoothOn - give them a call - they are helpful and might know a product that is compatible with their materials. J.

+2 - I've been through a couple single injectors and still tinker with them to try and get them to work smoothly and mess with the endcaps to allow quick removal - was pretty much a waste of my time.... as my Basstackle injector is smooth and built very very well.... super fast to pop endcap off (SAFELY) and clean if i'm doing small batches in microwave. For the extra money you spend compared to a crappy EBAY injector it's totally worth it - this is a tool you use for EVERY bait you make... don't skimp. J.

Can you upload picture of the mold? We can probably provide some additional help.... but Marks points are best place to start. Depending on mold type (material) there are a couple options to open up venting if necessary. J.