Anglinarcher

ciumbaca, I have seen so many people get called down for their pictures that it is almost not worth even posting pictures anymore. IF there is a right way, it escapes me and I am a techno freak engineer. I say $cre_ the gallery links and post your pictures in Photoshop. Then include the link in your post. That way the reader must click on the link and it is not taking up server space on TU. Just saying, .............

Agreed.

Yep, I agree. I think my talon with the largest needle and nozzle might even shoot small cannon balls. LOL Have yet to plug that one up, but it is NOT for normal everyday use.

Oh yes, it works great with Bondo and it shapes very well. You can add it to JB Weld, to heat curing clay, to .........

RTV is a two part silicone. It cures without water once the two parts are mixed. Silicone caulk and glues are solvent based silicones and they either require that little bit of water or months to cure thick blocks of it (if ever). I guess that it is a difference of definitions. RTV is room temperature vulcanization, it is not solvent based. Additionally, RTV silicones yield excellent detail, on soft masters, on hard masters, even from organic masters. Solvent based silicones tend to be ........ well that problem is what created the question in the first place.

Keep the etex thin, keep the metal line eye free moving on the versions that have it, then go for it. I did one a couple of months ago and it turned out perfect.

I am a little confused. RTV stands for room temperature vulcanization, which is the process for making silicone molds. There are different silicone mold densities, from quite soft and flexible to very stiff..... is that what you are referring to? I use Alumilite Silicones for the type of work you are doing. The price is not cheep, but it is not terrible either. Additionally, I can alter the mold as often as I alter the prototype with just a little work. For what you are doing, HS2 or even quickset would work. Still, as indicated by Ed, POP will work, but it is delicate so be careful. Bondo is more expensive and less fixable then Silicones like Quick Set or HS2. As for shape, ........ I had a square tail version that worked great, had versions with larger tails, but required more ballast and less retrieve speed, .... had ....... only your testing and personal preferences will be able to answer your questions.

If you use mineral spirits, the mineral spirits will 'evaporate' from the mold over the course of about a week. As a result, the mold will shrink. Some of us use this trick to shrink lures, by up to about a third. If you make sure the walls are nearly uniform, the mold shrinks uniformly. Water catalyst silicone. What brand? I know of no water catalyst "silicone", and I am always trying to learn.

You cannot pour tungsten, at least not in your normal at-home or small lure shop. You can mill it, but it is not so easy to mill and is brittle. If your reason is to get away from lead, you can buy tungsten powder and mix it with epoxy, pour it into a silicone mold, and get lead like density without the lead. The tungsten powder and epoxy will never be as dense as pure tungsten. Not much help, but the best I can do for you. You can get the tungsten powder at makelure.com in their lure making accessories section.

I do want to point out that I have some of those Bomber flat paints, and they are not that durable either. LOL OK, they are a flat lacquer, and better the a water based paint, but ........ just saying......... need to repaint a couple of the production lures now. LOL

I agree with the cleaning, clean often, at the beginning of the session, at the end of the session, and between color changes. Experience will tell you how much and how often. I agree with having a bucket to black flush the brush in, and I advise a gravity feed air brush. Often, during the spray session, between colors or between fills, I just soak the whole head of the brush in that bucket and push the spray valve. This flushes clean water through the brush and cleans the build up off the crown and the tip of the needle. I have a Passche Talon (gravity feed that comes with three different size needles for a hundred bucks total) an older Passche siphon and a Harbor Freight siphon. I use the Harbor Freight for lacquer and for a fast and heavy base coat of acrylic, and I use the Talon for everything else. My advise, learn from the airbrush painting experts. As lure painters, we take the lessons the real painters have learned and use them for ourselves, but ........ we are not painting experts. YouTube is full of true airbrush artist that are more then willing to teach us how to do the basics. I suppose that WE are experts when it comes to base coats, colors, paint types, top coats, etc., but not really experts as it refers to true artist. Once you get the basics, then practice, practice, practice. The fish don't care and soon enough you will be shocked at how good your work looks. Then, in a way, you will become as much of an expert as any of us are.

Epoxies, glues if you will, come in different strengths, different properties. Not all glues are brittle, not all glues are clear, not all glues are ............. Etex is actually no different in base compounds to D2T. They both will "glue" and they both will "clear coat". The real difference is in the eventual hardness, clarity, and flexibility. Yes, you can shatter or crack D2T if you smack a rock at 30 MPH, but ....... if you take a dollop off of wax paper and slowly bend it, it will flex. Try it, you are a smart guy. Do the same with Etex. You will discover that the Etex is more flexible, a little clearer, takes a little longer to cure. In fact, in most respects, D2T differs from short cure epoxies like Etex differs from D2T. The longer an epoxy takes to cure, the LESS brittle it ends up. The longer the epoxy takes to cure, the less it clouds up (more clear it can stay). This tends to be true for epoxies of the same bases, so if you plan on testing with JB Weld, your results may differ. Contrary to apparent popular opinion, Etex is nothing more then a slow cure epoxy. The application is for "decoupage" but it is still just an epoxy. And, if you have a heavy lure, and smack a rock at 45 MPH, it too will shatter or crack. It just takes more of the abuse then D2T, which will take more abuse then 5 minute epoxies. Again, I don't want to argue the point, I respect you too much Mark. All I can suggest to you, and to everyone else following this thread, is to take some wax paper, put a similar sized dollop of 5 minutes epoxy, perhaps a 4 hour epoxy, D2T and Etex on it. Let them cure for a few days, then remove it. Place the dollops where they can just set out of the way for several months and check them out every once in a while. See if what I say is not true. In fact, make several dollops of each and you can test them to destruction for as long as you wish. Prove me wrong is you can. I am NOT ALWAYS right. If you need conformation about that, I can put you in touch with my wife. LOL

No Mark, I am talking about D2T. I have used epoxies, especially D2T, for years, long before I started using it for lure top coating or clear coating lures. In archery, epoxy is often used to glue the point inserts into graphite/carbon shafts. Short cure epoxies would get brittle and the inserts would pull out in almost a year to the date. Several of us did test in the archery world and I took every brand and cure rate of epoxy I could get and made test samples (samples placed on wax paper, then lifted and left exposed to the air and sun) that I left on my roll top desk for about 5 years to see what happened. All epoxies will yellow after time, but Devcon D2T was one that did not yellow much. 5 minute epoxies would shatter if you bent them after just a couple of months, 24 hour epoxies would still be flexible after a year. No Mark, I know what I am talking about on this one and I won't budge on it. No, I was not testing it for lures at the time, but life does not revolve just about fishing lures. The test were valid and others confirmed the results. I expect you can find the test results still reported on Archerytalk.com, probably dated about 5 to 8 years ago.

What Dave said. The plastisol products have material that settles out over time. Some are worse then others, but all do it. I made that mistake myself one time and I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER. If you tried to pour a lot with the original pour, you have find you now need to add softener to the mixed batch, but not a lot.

Robalo01; Yes and yes.

I have never observed any "amine blush residue" with cure. As for a hard cure, 24 hours in normal temperatures, 36 hours if you do it when it is a little cool (like my man cave during the winter). As a long cure epoxy, it does not get rock hard or brittle. It gets hard, and like all epoxies, it gets harder with time. Still, even a year after it is cured, it seldom yellows and retains enough flex to withstand normal impacts that shatter short cure epoxies.

I don't have a dog in this hunt, but ..... when I was in college I use to test material samples for commercial and government agencies using the Electron Microscope. One of those materials was a silica powder that a mining company had found that they wanted to mine for polishing optics. This stuff was finer then talcum powder, felt like cream in your hands. Too bad the Electron Microscope showed that a high percentage of the crystals was too sharp for the intended use. In short, you can obtain silica (some sand is silica) in stuff so fine that you cannot really call it grit. Sorry, don't live near Soda Springs Idaho anymore so ....... I can't go out and shovel you a 5 gallon bucket of the stuff.

Interesting reading, don't think I will be using it for my personal soft baits anytime soon. LOL

Check out the River2Sea S-Waver. It also has a good sine wave action and the top and bottom are the same thickness, but ....... it is very bottom heavy. I like the idea of a V shape like Mark indicates. There is so much to think about......

I think the real issue is back to the Elaztec. It is not Plastisol. River2Sea is using a similar material on the back legs of their Dahlberg Diving Frog. I talked to a couple of people "in the know" and that material is so new, so secret, that it is not available to the home hobbyist at all right now. LOL, it is not even available to most big producers right now. I know that I don't have any real pull, but I could not get these guys to even tell me what class of material it was.

Just looking at the lures, I see that the bottom or third one is more robust, fatter, perhaps more buoyant...... If the bait is working when used very slow, but it rises on a pull or when speeding it up, check to see if the bait is rolling over on it's side then coming to the top. A video of the action would help. I suspect, but cannot know for sure, that it is not just more weight to the head, but keeping the weight as low as possible with that shape (almost a pot belly?). Something to think about at least. Like the third bait for sure, but all look like fish catchers.

Waterdogs????? Want to send me a couple of dozen? LOL Never mind, in my State that would get me a trip to jail. I do know that "Waterdogs" or "Bombers" or salamanders seem to be less desirable as the critters age later in the year. I was told that they get a toxin or bad taste to them, but how the person would know that is beyond me. I do miss Waterdogs, they were so much fun to fish with.

Froggerbass, Squirrel will have a tough job predicting the weight when the paint job you use, the hook types and quantities you use, even the clear coat type and thickness you use, are all variables. I hope he can provide you some ideas, but for myself, I could not. I have a swimbait that is a Sine-Wave (Slalom) swim bait, and it is finicky. It is so much more then total weight, it is about balance top to bottom, front to back, even subtle differences in the profile at the head that presents itself to the water. In fact, it is even more interesting that the balance is more important then the total weight. My baits vary a lot in total weight, depending on airbrush verses printable decal verses metal foil finish, and it simply does not matter as long as the balance point is correct. If I get the balance point wrong, my lure jumps to the surface. If I get it right, I can put it behind a downrigger and drag it at 3 to 5 MPH and it swims like a wild bandit. My preferred bait is a two piece, 4-1/8", and in my design, the bigger I make it, the more joints, the more forgiving it is. Good luck on your design, but IMHO, it will take more then just total weight. Balance is probably your problem, and using natural wood means each lure MAY need to be balanced separately. Good luck my friend, there are a lot of people on the site that can help you out.

You can google Plasticizer, but in short, it is what makes the plastic molecules bond together. It is in the soft baits when we pour them or they would not work. Adding a little softener with the Pro Cure might just work, but ........ I have never had what you are experiencing happen. Weird, I sure hope that someone else chimes in here.

When do you deploy? What you want is really easy to do and with an Etek or UV Cure Epoxy clear coat, it will be very durable, almost bullet proof. I will be out of pocket until 7/31, but ............... if no one else gets involved, send me a PM or email and we will find a way to make it work. There are a ton of better painters on this site, but ............... I don't want you to deploy without it. Steve PS, what branch? I was Army, Fort Carson runner-up, Soldier of the Year, in 1986. Seems like a good way for the old generation to thank the new generation for their service.