Anglinarcher

Then that is what I would do as well.

Not even close to SC, mostly from the West and South Central. My guess is that it was lures friends had.

Mike at Alumilite can help you with the details, and the how-to videos at makelure.com should do you well. http://www.makelure.com/store/pg/54-How-To-Videos.aspx Just keep in mind that to get the clear bubble free results you will need to degas the resin or mold it under pressure. You can go to their forum under lure making and see a thread on degasing pump and container. I thought that lip looked familiar, but I just cannot place it. Good luck and I hope you do well.

Molding lips is a tough game to play. There are several materials I can suggest, but unless you degas (or pressure pot them while curing) them they will be full of air bubbles. I also don't know if the materials I could suggest will be strong enough. First, the lip is NOT punched from Lexan, it is molded, but probably molded from Lexan. You could make a silicon mold for that lip and if your skills are up to the task it would be an exact replica. If this is your only lip you would need to make a mold for one, pour several, then make a mold to pour many at once, assuming you need a quantity of them. D2T might work as a resin, but the fast cure time and bubble problem would make it a challenge. Alumilite has some options that might work well for you, including Alumilite Slow Clear and Alumilite Water Clear. http://www.makelure.com/store/pg/64-MakeLure-Casting-Resins.aspx The Clear is a little harder, so in this case stronger, but the Water Clear will give you a little more working time. I hope this helps, I have used the Clear to repair broken lips and it worked well, but I did not have a degassing vacuum at the time, nor a pressure pot, and the bubbles were nasty. The lips still worked great, so............. yes, I believe the above options would work.

I have primed with rattle can sprays and it works great. If you get the right "basecoat" color that you want it will work just fine. In Europe they do a lot of their painting with rattle cans and they get excellent results. I will provide a link to a site with some options you can did out that might help. http://www.lurebuilding.nl/indexeng.html

I use pointed mini vise grips that I got at Harbor Freight. They were cheep, worked great, and were able to open and close well once adjusted. I have used forceps, but I did not have the clamp power I wanted. Hope this helps.

Your welcome BH. I still hope you find the magic plastic you are looking for.

Ya, apparently so. I actually found the specs great eating but a little less then a challenge for sport fishing. Easy fishing, easy to subdue. Spring, winter, summer or fall, if my wife did not enjoy them I would not have even messed with them. The teeth seemed to me to be more for show, not for go. LOL Reds, ok, they were fun. Got my wife into one that my scales showed was just over 30# on 8 pound mono. It about killed her, but she almost forgives me for not taking the rod. I still preferred to go for them top water but soft plastics were more productive. Guess those fish you have must be super fish, or.......... Na, you would not be overstating your case. ;).

It will be easy to see how the easy stretch works out.

I'll tell ya BH, you must have some awesome reds and specs. The ones I fished for did not tear up my baits that fast, not even close. I was using just Alumisol with softener or some MF medium. Not sure why the fish in Western Louisiana seem to be less damaging. Hummmmmm Still, once you get your problem figured out, I am sure you will be able to sell a bunch of it. Good luck.

Looks good so far, give us a pic if/when it bubbles/peels/separates. It has got to be something little. I will admit, I have never used the RC3 but I doubt it is all that different.

I use to fish Calcasieu in Louisiana, loved the Specs and Reds; they do tear up baits. Here is the rub, Plastisol products made soft swim better and I caught more specs and reds. Medium swam well enough, but fewer fish. Hard swam poor, caught a lot fewer fish, but lasted a long time. Given a choice, most fishermen would be more willing to adjust or replace soft plastics and catch the most fish rather then fish all day with a super durable lure but not catch fish. Still.......... I remember talking with a friend in the know about the material in the legs of the Larry Dahlberg Diver Frog. They are super tough, stretch much better, but they are not a Plastisol product and are not available to most of us for "pouring". Perhaps someday it will be. I do know that at least one other company has that super stretchy plastic, but ......... it does not hold up to teeth all that well either. In my experience, a lot of the "salt water" baits sold are hard plastic and designed not to swim, like the fake shrimp. I caught more specs and reds on a slug-go then anything else, and rather it was the factory or my own pour, I don't mind changing plastics when I am catching fish.

So did my dad, Mom is a readhead. Do you know how hard it was growing up with a redheaded Irish mom, murder, simply murder, I was always in trouble. LOL

I guess I over simplified, or maybe Webster did. Not sure. LOL

Nailed it Mark.

You normally add softener in those cases, and I also add some heat stabilizer.

Viscosity is simply the ability of a liquid to flow. Salt or glitter wants to settle with gravity if they are more dense then the fluid they are in so the fluid flows around them to allow them to settle to the bottom. If the viscosity is high enough, the salt and glitter does not settle. If the density of the salt or glitter were to match the fluid, they would not settle either. This is not an issue, but in theory, if the salt or glitter were less dense they could float, IN THEORY. Too little viscosity and you cannot fill small appendages in your bait, but too much viscosity and glitter and salt settle out. To fix that, you can cool it quicker so it sets before they settle. Baitjunkys demonstration shows a good balance where the salt stayed in, even though he heated it to 370. Very nice. Of course we cannot see if it is too thick to inject into small appendages, but Baitjunkys is pretty darn good at his craft so I doubt that is a problem.

No, at least not with Alumilite White, Tan, or Black that I have used, or the Smooth-On I tried. If it is not mixed at the proper ratios or not mixed well enough it will not cure. I have had uncured spots that I cleaned off (shabby mixing) with a little sanding, painted over, cleared, and went fishing with. Sure, not pretty, but the fish did not care. LOL The problem is that there might be a lot of things that can cause it, but ...... if he is doing what he claims, it should work, no matter if it is Alumilite or Smooth-on. It could be that he is using a mold release and not getting it cleaned off. But, I never use mold release when pour resins in silicone molds. It could be he is using a dish soap but not rinsing it off well enough, but, I doubt it because I use a little Dawn in my home brew airbrush paint thinner and it causes no issues. It could be he is leaving oily finger prints on the blanks, but it would take a lot of oil or dirt to cause a problem like that. I never worry about it, I just wash my hands while working on them, and use nitrile gloves when painting, but mostly to keep the overspray off my hands. It all falls down to he is doing something sooooo subtle that he is not even thinking about it. But, if several us watched a video of birth to death of his lure, it might just allow us to pick it up. It really sounds to me like he is doing everything at least 95% correct, but that last 5% is getting him. You know what they say in Engineering, "The Devil is in the Details".

Rhallman, I hate to say it, but we would almost, actually definitely would, need to actually see your steps from start to finish. I have been using Alumilite White for about 10 years now and I have never had the paint separate after it was top coated. I have topcoats of Etec, D2T, Solares, and Alumilite UV. No issues with any of them. Even more, I don't seem to be doing near as much as you are. I suspect there is something little, but terrible, something you are doing that you aren't even noticing. 1) I never wait for "off-gassing". Resin cures, not dries, so it is not necessary after the 24 hour cure. Cure it for another day if it is in a cool room. I do wait if I am making the lure from Alumifoam, it does off-gas due to the foam expansion, but only a 2nd day. 2) I never wash with Dawn. Sometimes I hit it with a damp acetone cloth if I have dirty hands. It sure won't hurt though. Make sure you rinse well. 3) Priming makes the other coats go on better, but if I don't it does not cause separation. I have primed with Createx, with Krylon rattle cans, with Taxidermy paints, with Wicked, and probably others that I don't remember. 4) I have never ever used more then a single Etec coat, nor more then two D2T coats. You asked for a suggestion, and the best suggestion I have is to film your process from the mold preparation to the pour to the painting to the clear coat. Then either put it on YouTube and give us the link, or store it on the cloud and again, provide the link. I am quite sure that a lot of us looking at it will discover the subtle, little, simple thing that is making all the difference. You seem to be doing it all correctly, but your results are quite opposite of mine. This is the only thing I can think of to tell you. Good luck. But, if worse comes to worse, assuming you are using a silicone mold, paint the inside of your mold with Cretex or any of your other primers. Pour with resin, such as Alumilite White. The resin will bond with the primer, chemically and mechanically, and it will never separate. Unless the paint separates from the primer. Ouch.

In the same email, they told me the initial temperature needed to be the same as what I know the others use as well. Still confused, but I will get a sample soon.

When emailing the company today, they still tell me that the inject temperature they suggest is 310 to 320. I am curious if there is a thermometer issue and you are actually injecting at a higher temperature or if the company is just hedging their bet? Looks like I might need to request a sample soon to try.

I second Mark's question, and ask what sizes it is available in? Always like to test new stuff. Saw this already posted. $99.50/5 gallon right now and they do have a limited amount of basic pigments and glitter. Looks like a fume respirator is highly recommended.

Been there, done that. "I don't know if what you posted would work. However Lure Parts Online sells a spray gun for powder paint. http://www.lurepartsonline.com/Online-Store/Paint-Supplies_5/Powder-Paint-Spray-Gun.html" Yep, that is the one I would get. Same price, low pressure.

Not his question, I believe his question was will the etching gun work to spray Power Paint. I totally agree that the PP you suggest is far better, so your post is very valuable. But, back to the question. https://www.harborfreight.com/10-30-psi-powder-coating-system-94244.html That is what I was looking at using. I have no clue how it works though. Most of the time I find HF products work quite well, but are lacking in bling. I even use their air brush to push stuff I am afraid to use in my Talon, just in case it ruins it I am not out that much. I have used the etcher, but only to etch mirror glass and other decorative glass. I can see it might work, but ........

Yes, in fact, it would cover 99% of every lure out there. I had several salt water guys that wanted even their salt water stuff as soft as possible.