Anglinarcher

https://www.makelure.com/store/pg/54-How-To-Videos.aspx#prettyPhoto/61/ That will get you where you want to be. Other videos on Alumilite's site, Makelure.com are also available. So easy to get started you probably don't want to pay one of us to make the mold for you.

10 views total before this post and 1 response. This one is not going to be easy. I can offer an opinion on this only. I do not believe it is the 4012. I do believe that what you are seeing is the nature of an epoxy or bar top coating which is what Etex is. I suspect that if the mixing cup is not getting soft it is because of one of two things. First, the mixing cup would have been hotter when curing and therefore would be fully cured quicker then the 3 "medium coats". More curing time on the lures might help some. Second, I suspect the mixing cup will also get soft, but because the thickness in the cup is more then the thickness on the lure, it will take longer to get soft enough to dent with a fingernail. Just like putting a cup of water on the stove boils faster then putting a gallon of water on the stove. Again, this is an opinion only. Etex is a popular lure coat, like D2T, but many of us have gone to other clears. I still use them, and have not noticed any problems. Still, at least this gets it bumped to the top so maybe it won't get lost in the shuffle and someone else might respond.

One thing to remember is that you need to lower your initial expectations. Consider each lure a new bit of knowledge learned, a bit of information that you did not have before. I have a lure I make that swims awesome, but I am tried of the overly complex joint and molding process to get it right, to get the center of gravity (a more critical thing then just ballast, and more difficult) just right, to get consistency out of it. So, I took it upon myself to test several materials and concepts. After hours and hours of testing I am almost back to the same concept I came up with almost 10 years ago. BUT, I have learned a lot in the process. I don't want to discourage you, and this site can get you pointed in the right direction, but the more information, the more pictures you can give us, the better our collective advise will be.

I do suggest using a good mold release if you are using Alumafoam in Vac Master. Is it necessary, probably not, but it is so much easier. The biggest thing is to make sure that there are NO UNDERCUTS. No amount of mold release will work if there are undercuts. Yes, I prefer UMR because it works on all of the different materials I use and it works great on Vac Master 50. I also like it because I can paint over it straight from molding. I do occasionally just smear the Vac Master 50 mold with a thin coat of petroleum jelly when using Alumafoam. It works well, but does require a cleaning step before I paint. Hope this helps.

Bob is dead on. It can take a lot of effort to get it right. Start easy, work up from their.

Sounds like you had some undercuts. Undercuts are ok for a silicone molds but prohibited on Aluminum, hard plastic, or Vac Master molds. My guess is that the tails don't have the undercutting. Still, love you to PM me a close up picture of the mold.

You learn like I do, and my best teacher has been mistakes. But, as long as you are learning, are you really making mistakes, or are you pushing the envelope to the limits??????

I hope I have answered your questions. I agree with your HS2 and wood clamping. I will be making tutorial videos soon, and Vac-Master is on my list. PM me if you have a specific issue you want me to try and show.

Wayne, sorry I was not on sooner, but some days I just cannot get on line. I will answer your question with a question. "When you pour a crank with or with out lip in an aluminum mold is it hard to remove the lure....." The Vac Master is a substitute for aluminum so the same pros and cons exist for both. If you have the right design of lure, if you use a two piece mold, you can place the lip in mold piece 1 and use mold piece 2 to hold it in place. As you remove mold piece 2 it frees the lip so the lure can be removed. But, Silicone molds are a lot more forgiving and you can make a mold so the lip can just slip into a slot and the material can flex to enable the removal easier. If you do want to go to Alumifoam, and want to go with a Silicone, then a Platinum cure lake Trans 40 or better yet the Plat 55 might be better then the HS2. I have used HS2 and Quickset as well, and the Quickset is stiffer and easier, BUT..... If you don't mind the added step of clamping the mold between a couple of pieces of wood, and using thicker mold walls, you can still get excellent results with Alumifoam. Hope this helps, and sorry I was off line a couple of days.

The only thing I can think of is that you are taking too much time to get it poured and under pressure. The humidity should not matter at all. Adding MB to the mix can thicken it and speed up the cure a little, but not that much. My suggestion is to get it into the mold quicker and to get it into the pressure pot faster.

Sorry I was not on site for a couple of days. But, ...... here is my two cents. I understand the "fish replica" comment. A lot of fins on lures are indeed awesome, but can and do deflect some strikes. I had that happen a lot on a test lure I was making (saw it happen in clear water) but the catch rate went up once I dropped off the tail fin. So, sometimes pretty is not as desirable as functional. You can make fins from Silicone, and I have done it. If you want, PM me and I will post a pic but I don't have pictures on the computer so I would need to dig them up from my odds and ends box and take the pictures. Physically the detail is as much as you want to put into the master, but even mother nature doesn't seem to compare. LOL But, color is an issue. Silicone only sticks to silicone. Any paint applied once it is cured is not going to stick. Additionally, the color of most RTV silicones, at least the Tin Cure forms, is Opaque and often a shade of Pink. What I have done is to make a silicone mold of a fin I wanted. I then used UMR (ultimate mold release) on the mold and molded the new fin using Alumilite HS3. The pink fin had the perfect physical shape, fin rays, flex, everything one would want, except it was pink. My next version used Alumilite Alumidust to dust the mold the colors I wanted, then I added some white pigment to alter the pink, and the results were much much better. Still, figure on 24 hours of cure time for the pour. Still, I have not found a way to get the same level of detail I wanted in regards to color, but I have not given up, just laid it aside for now. You could make a mold with something like Vac Master and then you would not need the UMR. You could use a different material, like Flex 30 "extremely tough flexible rubber used for casting flexible parts and making flexible urethane molds. 30A hardness (similar to a soft rubber gasket). " Still, I am not convinced the urethane in flex 30 would take paints, but it is clear and takes dies or pigments like plastisol very well. I have not tried the Flex 30 for fins, but I have used the HS3 as stated. The HS3 has the perfect stiffness, strength, flexibility, but is hard to color. But, I bet someone will come up with something I have not thought of yet.

Many companies make glow additives that work. As for tricks, Most people I know usually pour or shoot a whole bait in the glow, then trim the tail off, place the tail back in the mold, then using hot plastic reshoot or pour with the other color. As for sources: http://www.makelure.com/store/p/954-Phosphorescent-Powder-1fl-oz.aspx https://www.glonation.com/glow-in-the-dark-products/neutral-glow-powders.html This should at least get the discussions started on this. Have fun and good luck.

Oh yes, many times. I prefer to use a little stiffer silicone mold when I do that, something like the Alumilite Quick Set or the Trans 40. They keep a little more dimensional stability so it is easier. http://www.makelure.com/store/p/918-QuickSet.aspx http://www.makelure.com/store/p/1081-TRANS-40-Translucent-Silicone.aspx Now, as for an "aluminum mold", there is another option that is just about as good and down right cheep compared to having one machined. You can make one from Alumilite Vac-Master 50. It is as close to an Aluminum mold as you can get, in fact it contains a high amount of aluminum in it, and can be machined. http://www.makelure.com/store/p/1056-Vac-Master-50.aspx If I was going to pour with the lip in place, and I was not going to pour dozens or hundreds, I would use the Trnas 40 because you can see the lip in place as you pour the resin. But, if I was going to pour lots and lots and had the mold designed with no undercuts, a good clean fit, then the Vac-Master 50 would be my go to material.

I have not purchased from them, but several on this site have and they seem to like the quality. PM mark Poulson and TerryF2858. I believe that these guys have ordered stuff from them.

Mine was about $150 but it is only 3 gallon pot size and 5 cfm, rotary vane, dual stage. Figure that you need the volume to allow the material to expand 3 to 5 times the original volume. A dual stage pump will draw a more complete vacuum, and while smaller pot sizes require smaller cfm pumps, I totally agree with at least 6 cfm for a 5 gallon pot. I got mine off Amazon but it is a bestvaluevacs product. I also found some awesome deals on EBay. Well, at least that is what I learned after contacting Silicone and resin manufactures.

LOL, looks like my new vacuum pot. It does help to make more durable silicone molds, clearer bubble free plastisol, etc. I am still not sold on it being required, or even economical, but the results are awesome.

Glad to hear it. I would sure hate the lure to be like the Bass Pro Shops KO with the chopper front and back, "double down plopper". The blades break and the reviews on the lure are terrible 1 out of 5. A bad bait like that could kill a reputation pretty quick. http://www.basspro.com/shop/en/bass-pro-shops-xps-double-down-plopper

How about some "Heat" beat up baits? This was posted by a guy that left a Pontoon Boat, with lures in the storage box, under a tarp, in storage for two weeks at Lake Powel in Northern AZ and Southern UT. It gets hot down there and these commercial lures did not fair so well. He figured he lost about $200 worth of lures.

True enough, lots and lots of variables.

BJ, the 50 pounds was a wild guess on the weight of a 5 gallon bucket. I know you sell the stuff, so about what does a 5 gallon bucket weigh. Thanks for clearing up the 12 grams on a tube. I was going to check my tubes out but had not had the time.

How may pounds in a 5 gallon bucket? How many pounds in a bait. For example (numbers made up of course) 50 pounds in a bucket divided by .1 pound per bait would be 500 baits. Now, I would expect that you would get 90% of that theoretical number due to waste and bad pours and mistakes, but you could do better. You could do the same thing using volume it is easier to determine the volume of the tubes. Good luck.

Is the chopper/plopper blade rigid plastic or flexible?

So where did you find WP KO's.

Ya, that one SDS is all over the place, non-toxic but don't ......... Lots of good points made above, especially about the scent, which I did not consider because I never add it in the cooking process.

Yep, my problem exactly.