Painter1

Thanks for your thoughts, gentlemen. I found someone who will sell, ship and send the proceeds from the baits directly to the Wounded Warriors project. I will let him do whatever marketing he thinks make sense. He sells other baits online and will just incorporate these. As I said, I enjoy making the baits and I donate to that charity anyway.

I have an idea for a charity project and need some thoughts on if, or how, to do it. I have been making soft plastic baits as a hobby. But I certainly do not want to go into the bait selling business. I enjoy making the baits but would not enjoy the pressures related to filling and shipping orders. I have been fortunate in other business endeavors, so the $$ aspect is just not very important to me. What I envision is a baitmaker who makes and sends off the baits in bulk to ________???. The baits are sold by ____________??? and the proceeds are sent to a good charity. Wounded Warriors is a favorite but I am flexible. I would make only One (1) bait and I call it the Honeydipper. It is a 2 color laminate for clear to lightly stained water. I have given baits to a bunch of local guys at Tablerock Lake. Everyone has done well catching bass with the larger model and the smaller one has caught many crappie and white bass, I am told. I can make about a thousand baits per day, but do not have time to do that on a real regular basis. My point is that the supply of baits would be limited, but I am not looking to get paid, so long as the the proceeds go to a charity we can agree on. Your thoughts are most welcome. Blessings, Mike

I have bought a lot of baits that have salt all over the outside and they do not stick together. Does anyone here know if they add worm oil also or just roll the baits around in salt before bagging them?

My first experience with Bears Shooting Star System. I got all the parts from Bear and put the system together last week. I mounted the whole system to a 2"x10" board that I can clamp to my workbench. I can remove the whole setup, put it on a shelf and have my workbench free again. I mounted the system off center - to the right, so I had room for the molds to the center-left side. I struggled to get the Presto Pots heating properly, but finally realized the extension cords just could not handle the wattage. Switched to heavier gauge cords and everything heated up nicely. I do need to practice and learn these temp controllers better, as others have suggested. They are not the same temps - under the same settings. Plastic was heated to 318-320 in one pot and about 330 in the other according to the "Ray Gun". Block heat was set at 165 Celsius. The system worked well, and as advertised. The bottleneck was the number of molds. I only have Three (3) of the type I was shooting so they got hot fast and I had to wait to open them. I could have done a lot more without that bottleneck. As it was, I guesstimate that I made 10 to 12 shots on the Three (3) molds per hour. (I shot for an hour-1/2 to 2 hours and made over 700 baits - 30 at a time) Things of note: I had some trouble preventing air from getting into the injector. I could hear it being sucked in when the seal broke so I just pushed in the plunger and then refilled the injector. That worked most of the time. I did still get some air into the injector. When air gets in the injector the plastic gets pushed out of the nozzles while moving between molds. Most of my shots were without air after some practice. It also helped that a member on this forum gave me some tips on this. The injector is REALLY hot. I ended up using a pot holder mitt on my left hand to grasp it. My ventilation system is grossly inadequate for cooking this much plastic. I have a large range hood directly over the workbench. I finally opened the windows and the garage door and was still hacking. Respirator will be obtained and worn next time. I really don't need something that makes this type of volume, so I wont use it a lot - but this is a well engineered system I have not cleaned or purged it yet. It remains to be seen how hard this will be. Mike

I also started this hobby about a year ago and found the gentlemen here to really know their stuff. I recommend searching subjects and just reading older posts to start. It is fun but addictive and certainly will NOT save you money.

Thank you, Ted. You are truly a Gentleman!

I'm not sure where I got them, but I have some measuring spoons that are marked "Dash" & "Pinch". I use a dash per cup of hi-lite for a subtle but noticeable effect.

"To answer your questions about the LLC. An LLC stands for "Limited Liability Corporation" (you probably know this). You do not need to start an LLC, UNLESS you are producing lures which may cause you to be directly sued due to some reason or another" Solid advice. Income Taxes will flow through from LLC to personal return anyway - so no advantage there. When you start cranking it up pretty strong maybe think about a separate entity.Otherwise it's just a distraction. As far as taxes are concerned - The 3 things I am most afraid of (in order) are 1.) My wife 2.) The IRS 3.) Electricity. I don't understand much about any of them but I know they bite HARD. Best of luck

Dad gum it. They looked good out of the mold, but after reading Franks' post I checked them out. They have been in a bag with worm oil for a few days and at least one of them has delaminated. A guy might be able to do more damage if picking at them. I will play with some higher temps on the initial pour and let y'all know. (I don't know if we are yankees or southerners here in Missouri - but we do say y'all from time to time;).

I took Bill's advice and tried it. For the record, it works well.

Sounds like a laminate of those 2 colors or a maybe lighter version of green pumpkin. Just guessing though

Steve, Fishing skirts has a LOT of colors. Post a picture in the wire baits forum and I bet someone will know what the colors are.

Thanks for posting those pictures, Bill. They say so much more than words.

LOL. Sorry but it was only funny because you are alright.

Thanks, Bill. I hadn't thought of that, but it sounds like the best solution.

I don't know about you, but for me the enjoyment of this hobby is to make things that are different and try them. I want to make a bait with a dominant color (2/3) and an underbelly (1/3) accent color. I think it will more closely "match the hatch" where I fish. I already have the injection molds, but don't know how to get a consistent unbalanced laminate. Ideas and experiences welcome.

I am looking for a suggestion on how to inject molds using 2/3 of one color and 1/3 of another. I have Bears Twinjectors. Thanks

Great. Thank you. I just needed a rough order of magnitude to do a value analysis. I can get a bunch wholesale from a friend but would rather make my own unless "she who must be obeyed" gets wind of it

Can anyone give me an idea how many 4" drop shot worms I can get out of a gallon of plastic?

I found this technical information by googling: "Di-isononyl phthalate (DINP) is a commonly used plasticiser, 95 per cent of which is used in PVC applications. More than half of the DINP used in non-PVC applications involves polymer related-uses (e.g. rubbers). The remaining DINP is used in inks and pigments, adhesives, sealants, paints and lacquers and lubricants. DINP is a mixture of isomers that have alkyl chains from 8 to 10 carbons long, but the largest portion of the mixture has chains composed of 9-carbons. There are two different substances attributed to the names 1,2-Benzenedicarboxylic acid, di-C8-10-branched alkyl esters, C9-rich or di-“isononyl” phthalate (DINP). DINP 1 (CAS 68515-48-0) is manufactured by the “Polygas” process whereas DINP 2 (CAS 28553-12-0) is n-butene based. Under the EU risk assessment these substances have been considered equivalent from a health and environmental perspective, and as such a single EU risk assessment has been conducted for DINP."

I am still waiting for my order 17 months later.

What is "regular worm oil" made from if not vegetable or mineral oil? Light hydraulic oil maybe?

Thanks guys. I will try that. The violet I have does not get it done

Wow, thanks for that information. I will try that.

Thanks, Smalljaw I am eager to try them but the bass are still deep and suspended here. What color skirts are you using.