DaveMc1

Then take your marbles and go play somewhere else if all you're going to do is complain about them. I'm not 100% up to date with this stuff. Fat Guys would be a solid place to get it though. I believe Jeff stopped because of that and they jacked his pricing up on him. I do know that anything Calhoun is the previous formula they've had for years. when they tweaked it everyone complained, including the production customers.

They're buying it directly from Calhoun so I would assume it is theirs. The "OG Blend" part is is referring to a tweak they (Calhoun) made to the compound that resulted in an undesirable outcome, so they reverted back to the original formula.

Just add softener (plasticizer), Then you can carry one plastic formula and make it suit multiple applications. Realistically that is all you're going to get from a manufacturer, a formula that has more plasticizer in it than a firmer compound.

It is too thick. Even at 360* it doesn't seem thin enough to be cooked 100%, It will work in a microwave but it's very tricky to get the heating down properly and doesn't pour well. The tiny nozzles in the SS injector makes this not work that great in the SS either. It is meant for production equipment.

Some of our baits (Angler's Choice) are available on Tackle Warehouse. Our tubes are produced on the big machine. Sorry, not going to post pictures. It looks and operates VERY similar to the machines in the video CNC Molds posted (Southern Plastics)

Robo's machine is entirely different, they use MANY single cavity molds on a carousel that rotates to the 3 nozzles and the 4th salt dispenser, their baits are definitely made in house out in CA. Caught just enough in a video clip a few years ago. Southern's is a CNC deal Zorn built them and they copied (5 times). Funny tidbit of info, that entire MASSIVE operation was moved to Costa Rica in the last couple years. They lost something like 80% of their customers, including Zoom and BPS (their 2 largest clients).

I rebuilt a stripped down old machine myself, with a lot of help. If you're in the market for one you're either going to look at BaitJunkys (1000% what I would buy if I was in the market for a new machine, It is just built better with a lot better control) or Zorn. costs I've seen are anywhere between $55k - $80k depending on who you get it from and the options you go with.

A friend of mine was buying quite a bit of plastic from Polysol (The manufacturing side of BP) and had the issue of it dulling bad and they didn't seem to want to fix it it seemed, this was several years ago. I am having them make me a specific mix for running through the machines (doesn't work that well in a microwave and won't work in the SS setups) and don't seem to have this dulling issue (for the last 2 years).

Something UltraMolds stopped making YEARS ago. It sucked!!! No. That was being worked on around the same time I believe. I tried to buy the "Big Blue" (It's a vertical pie machine at the end of the day) many many years ago (8-10 years) and couldn't wrap my head around having to pull the molds out and move to another bench every cycle. Chris acted like I had 3 heads when I wanted to bolt the molds in. Fortunately I didn't buy one way back then, I have talked to quite a few that own them and they all had the same kind of issues getting it running the way it should. I am running a full size vertical injection machine now and am VERY happy I held out.

Bear started out buying the centre rotating manifold and injector from Chris Archer at Ultra Molds, adapting it to a pair of presto pots with his stirring setups on them. It had its issues for sure. After that rotating manifold it changed to the current style on the UM SS's and then his health took a horrible turn and he shut his business down. By that time UM was selling their first version of the SS (I had 2 of them and one of Bear's prior) At one point Bear was marketing a bench top injection machine designed and built by Chris at Ultra Molds. It used small heat exchangers with pressure pots that held a 2-5 gallon pail of pre mixed plastic and used the Bear's/Ultra Molds hinged molds. It had all sorts of issues with it, went through a re-design as salt and glitter had a tendency to settle out and plug it up. After that it didn't really go anywhere. I know a few guys that had one.

never seen them issue any before

Unfortunately it is an issue with some of their mixes. I am shocked they havent fixed it yet.

No, but if I invested in the "pump" end of the machines I could use it for sure, If I could buy the raw materials and mix it here LOL. I do believe all the other TPE/TPR baits being sold in North America other than ZMan are produced in China or Japan (I haven't seen any that are made in the USA other than ZMan).

The vast majority of those skirts you see for saltwater use are silicone.

Man I wish I had your level of expertise in this hobby, I guess I'll stick to the production side from now on @Jinx Keep it up, it looks like you're getting this figured out more and more. Typo, sorry, we all can't be perfect like you.

Litterally has nothing to do with poor quality machining. The nose (ie the gate) MUST be 50/50 in the mold, which it is, and the part line is lined up as such. A proper fluke (zoom style) the belly extends deeper in the mold than the back does and has a hook slot (which is the issue at hand). The hook slot interrupts the flow of plastic and when injecting too fast causes both colours to mix more in the cavity as was seen. Hence when he slowed down with the injector he saw better results. Also why on many minnow style baits that have a larger belly cavity without a hook slot you are able to get clean laminates fairly effortlessly.

Temperatures are EVERYTHING when it comes to laminates. It is how viscosity is controlled and if your temps are off you will experience exactly what you did there........although I do believe the hook slot has a hand in that as well (as is seen in a lot of flukes) C-Block is a Camo Block, kind of a swirl block ( but not a real swirl) that will never laminate, why your use of the word caused confusion. Blending block or laminate block is the correct term.

2 obvious would be Southern Plastics and D&J Plastics. Over the last year Southern has moved production out to Costa Rica and D&J was just recently acquired by GSM (company that bought Yamamoto a couple years ago. Since D&J's acquisition a lot of customers have been trying to get out of there) I am not sure if Leonard over at Baitjunkys is taking on any more injection work, its worth contacting him though. Another option if he's not taking any more clients would be James over at Samatis Baits, last I saw he was taking on some contract manufacturing. If you haven't looked into it much you are going to have to get some production molds made (depending on how many baits you are setting up) BaitJunkys and Zorn are the 2 top options. Both have a significant lead time. Whoever you get to manufacture will be able to provide the mold maker a mold layout for their machines. You will also be looking at 5K - 10K piece minimum production runs per colour as well. Good luck, Hope you find someone to set you up.

ZMan does use a vertical injection machine like Zorn's, except they use a proprietary delivery method to push the material through the heat exchangers and into the molds. In these machines the plastic (or TPE in this case) is only hot for a few minutes before it is in the mold. Their molds are just standard production molds for Zorn style machines. I went down this rabbit hole a few years ago myself, SEBS is just one of 3 styrenic elastomers in ZMan's formula. I do not know much about Flex-X 200, I would imagine it is just another TPE/TPR but I could be wrong.

They're printed using a VERY expensive printer and very specific ink. I don't know the specifics but numbers I have heard from someone close to another company doing this was $35k - $45k per printer.

It's a laminate, the tail colour is same as body. I would want that one in my hand to even try to take a crack at it. Pictures aren't accurate at all with colours.

Hematoma is black with purple flake/blue pearl swirl

That has nothing to do with denting. Plastic expands when its heated, contracts when it cools, as the cavity cools it needs to draw in more plastic from the runner to prevent dents (why you see it suck down after injecting it). When the gate or runner freezes off (solidifies) before the cavity solidifies it has no way to pull in plastic and sucks in on itself. In other words it is a flaw in the mold design itself, it's always been an issue with that mold, from the day they released it. Whatever you are doing other than how you fill the injector (it's always baffled me why its been promoted to fill that way, seems like an accident waiting to happen) is helping mitigate the dents.

In all honesty, small or large Shooting Star is more than likely what you are looking for. You're going to spend $2000.00 - $3000.00 to get one. Other than that to get into higher volume you're into $30k - $75k machines with large production molds ($8k+ each)

Post a video, I want to see this.