atijigs

When you are doing laminates one color at a time do the lighter color first. The second color needs to be as hot as possible without scorching. By doing the darker color second you avoid the discoloration that can effect clears, and light colors if you get them too hot.. I place my molds with the first color in the mold on a griddle set at 250. I don't know if this is necessary but it works for me.

You will want a separate oven. I am not aware of any ill effects but the paint manufacturers all recommend it. Never hurts to be on the safe side.

I have not tried painting any soft plastics yet. I'm curious. Do they need to be painted immediately for a better result?. Do you let them sit for a couple of days to cure first? These questions are referring to the Lureworks paints.

The name is Larry Dahlberg. He knows his stuff. I have not used either product but many here have. They will help you with info on price. I believe his web site is Make Lure.com or something to that effect. He has several youtube vids as well.

The search function should get you started. If you already have a mold and plastic and need color help post a pic. Your question is too vague for an answer.

Run a trough connecting all the injection or pouring ports. I think your problems will be solved if you have some bulk of excess plastic to draw from.

I am not a machinist or an expert on this topic. It took me a while to figure out from your pics where your plastic flow was. Can he machine another plate from the top? Half the injection port on each side of the mold? If so the venting should be good but you will have to treat it as a hand pour mold topping it off after injection as it cools. It looks like venting is not the problem. The lack of sprue is.

Check to see if the Hilts Bonita heads molds are still available. I have that has 4 cavities. The one I use the 1/2oz size. The weights are not marked but my guess is the other two sizes are 1oz. and 11/2 oz. The are a long an slender head. They will work in a standard tube. I like them because they give the tube a gliding action having the weight spread out along the whole length of the tube. When you jig it it will dive forward.

If you post this in the wanted section you will have plenty of people that can do that for you.

The question was about injectors. Not molds. I have made mold purchases from each of the vendors you mentioned. All went well except for 1. I just past 1 yr patiently waiting for a mold that has been going to be shipped out on Friday for the last couple of months. Google each vendor before you make a purchase. Certain vendors will have warnings from multiple sources. Do your homework before your buy. I can say that Caney Creek, Bears, Jacobs, and Bass Tackle have shipped out my purchases right away. This is only my personal experience and a little off topic. I like my Jacobs injector for single colors. I have an adapter that allows me to use the other injectors should I choose into the smaller sprue hole of the Jacobs molds. I would never buy another injector without a locking pin. I don't care how many people say they never have a problem with it. Just My Personal Opinion.

Here are the results from my experiment. First try using alginate to make wax master. It worked but had too much shrinkage to be viable. I did however like the results for making a stone master. I would do it a little different next time. Using the alginate is a relatively cheep alternative to silicone. Advantages are it sets in minutes and will not stick to itself once it is set. That means no separating medium required. Ideal for a quick easy 2 part mold. Disadvantages- It sets really fast. Using cold water slows the setting a little. You have to work quick. It doesn't last. You will want to use your mold right away. I kept this one viable for 3 days by keeping it wrapped in wet paper towels in a sealed baggy. I was able to pour a couple actual baits directly from the mold. The heat of the plastic immediately starts the deterioration and drying out of the mold. I would want a mold box next time. Alginate won't stick to it but it would help to have some support when pouring. I just used rubber bands but without support it could cause distortion

I have several injectors. I use the jacobs most of the time. I have made 5 or 6 purchases from Jacobs bait. Not a single problem.

That's for jigs. This question is about soft plastics.

If you want to get recesses without altering your mold it can be done with a punch. Pour a couple of heads with your hard lead. No hooks, Take a soft lead block and beat the heads into the block so that a slight recess the shape of the head is imprinted in the lngot or lead block. Use that as the back support. Now when you punch your eye recesses in with the bolt the head will distort very little.

A couple of other molds come to mind without any modification. The lure body mold and the bottom bouncer mold. They both make various sizes.

This is a great site. Any questions or problems I can come up with have been addressed or are already being discussed. It can be related to other areas as well. The atv had a glitch where the high and low beams could be on at the same time. The solder connection would over heat,melt and the bulbs would drop off in the plastic head light housing. According to the owners manual I would have to take the whole front end apart to get the head light covers off to remove the separated bulbs. Went to a shop that serviced the atv. I told them my problem and they said blow compressed air in the back and the bulb will pop right out of the hole. It worked. Two minutes vs 1/2 a day. I want to thank everyone on this site for their insight. I wish I would have found it sooner. For the most part I can only share my mistakes.

Here is the 4A. Keep in mind they have a 5th cavity in the 5A.

There has been a change in the model numbers. I have the STR-4-A which is no longer listed in the catalog. Mine is a 4 cavity mold that makes 1/4,3/8,1/2,3/4oz.sinkers. Now they have a STR-4 MED that is also a 4 cavity mold starting at 3/4 oz on up to 2 oz. .I don't know how the 5 cavity is laid out but if you need a pic of mine let me know. I would be interested to see how they snuck the 5/8oz. in the STR-5-A.

I went ahead and did a little experiment. I did find out that wax could be poured in the alginate impression. The only problem being shrinkage. As the wax cooled the hard moldel shrunk somewhere in the range of 15%. This was with the blue casting wax. It is really designed to be added incrementally to limit shrinkage. I did however repour the alginate with dental stone(higher quality than pop). I got a very nice stone reproduction of the bait. It was a used bait. The detail was so good the areas that a hook was removed showed up in the solid model. Now those details could be nicely fixed with casting wax to get a perfect model. The alginate can be a little tricky to work with but it works. This was my first attempt at using it for this purpose. I had my assistant take some pics during the process with her phone. If they are any good I will post them to show the technique.

I think you may want to spray paint jigs of that size. I don't use a fluid bed so I can't say for sure if will work. On all jigs I paint over 2 oz. I electrostatically paint them. It gives a very nice uniform coat. The other option would be the powder sprayer. More people will chime in with a better answers but I would advise if you dip them hang them hook down because I foresee drips coming. The other suggestion I have is to make sure you do several pours without the hooks in them to get the molds heated up. Once the cavity is good and hot you should be able to get nice clean castings. Good luck and have fun.

Sorry about the picture quality. My flash on the camera appears to be broken. The belly of the twin tails was done along time ago. I did a whole bunch of them at one time. Pulled them out. When they are cured they go back into the mold easily. I had a few that I didn't finish. I used them several weeks later. It doesn't appear to matter if the plastic was freshly poured or not.

I did not have that result so I will outline my procedure. I sprayed the back plate with pam. Wiped it off so it was a very thin layer. I am injecting. I have an adapter from Jacobs that has a small tip and will fit flush to the top of the mold. I inject one half. Let it cool. Carefully remove the back plate without disturbing the first 1/2. If they move it will be hard to reposition them while they are tacky. I then put the mold together and place it on a griddle that is set on 250 degrees. Heat my second color and inject. If the halves are pulling apart your plastic on your 2nd half is probably not hot enough. I did one set where I had poured the first 1/2 over a month ago. Those worked out great too. I don't think I could do this without injecting. There are some pretty talented hand pourers here. It you can pour the stream down the center of the smaller hole it should work out.

I am sure you will like it. The only thing I don't like about the wire benders is the fixed line tie eye diameter. For the most part they works fine. I am doing more by hand now with a round nose pliers and vice grip because the wire diameter does not matter and I can form a much smaller line tie eye. This is for wraps and bends not spinner bait and buzz bait wire forms.

Caney Creek molds has plates with the other half of the injection port in. The only problem is you have to buy the additional plate. It would be nice if the port was just cut into the back of the other plate like Jacobs.(for an additional charge) Once mold makers start doing this the 4 color injection bait will be easy. Not quick. Just easy.

After reading my post I thought I should point out that you will be sacrificing your alginate impression to retrieve your poured wax pattern. The alginate will be soft and if you are careful you may be able to cut it with an exacto or other type of razor blade for another try. The alginate impression will only be good for an hour or 2 at the most. Once it dehydrates the flexibility is gone.