DaveMc1

It generally takes a couple weeks to fully cure. I try to wait as long as possible before I bag, if I can hold off 72hrs I will.

That sounds about right. You have to realize that when you buy a stock off the shelf mold from any one of the mold makers, you aren't directly paying for the design time, they are banking on selling a large number of that particular mold. When it comes to custom molds you now have to pay a $250 - $500 design fee as well as the mold (which you will pay a per hour rate for machine time)Custom CNC molds aren't cheap.

I'm almost 100% sure you will find it is a shade of carolina pumpkin with green highlight. The silver flake in the back is from the belly colour.

I'm trying to figure out where you would find a cup that is 2" diameter for the middle injector to fill out of.

Straight up Med has worked very well for me.

Bob was referring to the PVA Mold Release......NOT PVA Glue. 2 totally different things. http://www.fibreglast.com/product/PVA_Release_Film_13/Mold_Releases

It's Spike It's Sparkle Violet

It's all going to depend on the baits you're shooting and the number of cavities. I routinely load 2 gallons per pot. I will note I am not using their 20rpm motor on my mixers, instead I am using 36rpm motors which does help keeping the plastic moving, you can see it churning (they also sell an additional add on paddle that mounts up higher on the shaft to help keep the whole pot mixed, I have them but don't use them). I have twin pot setups to cut down on time when changing colours, instead of waiting for the pots to cool enough to clean them out I just swap the entire setup out for one that is ready to go with very little down time. Depending on the particular baits I am shooting I can empty upwards of 2 gallons of plastic in roughly 1-1.25 hrs. I have shot 15 gallons through the pots in the past, an average day is 6-10 gallons.

I would love a pressurized version of the SS (full size), it would require heated lines and some sort of "gun" to inject most likely. On a side note, they did make a smaller version for the guys that feel twin 2.5 gallon pots is too much.

With these volumes a machine isn't what you are after. Ultra Molds has a shooting star setup featuring 2 pots that can safely hold 2 gallons each hot. With this setup and enough cavities you can shoot upwards of 15 gallons a day easily.

isn't anything available that I am aware of. There really is no readily available small machine that I have seen (been looking for a year or so). I have spoken with Ray at Zorn several times and when I mention a smaller machine all he will suggest is their pie mold machine (still $25k plus the molds) which can be extremely difficult to laminate with as they have to shoot one colour through the other to laminate. Zorn's vertical machines aren't really all that simple ($40K - $60K, plus $4K - $10K per mold)

Ive never seen one, probably because of the costs.

It starts to turn very orange/yellow/amber, after that it burns and the chemicals it releases when it burns aren't good!!!!!

Clear VPI from Spike it. It's their clear paint.

I'm currently running 2 of their large shooting star setups. They can be touchy when you first start with them but you will figure it out after a couple times using it (just figuring out temps etc that the setup likes) and then you will be off to the races. Great setup once you learn what it likes. I will say that the large pots are more geared to the higher volume operations as each pot is 2.5 gallon capacity. They have a mini setup that is better suited to the hobby crowd. My suggestion, get a couple pyrex cups and a standard hand injector to see how much you like it before you shell out for a pot setup.

a clear dip solves that issue.

HMMMMMM, pretty sure there are quite a few people doing this with very small baits.

Nope.

I personally think it would. I have a few 16 cavity 5" stick molds (custom design) and the gates are tiny, yet I have zero problems with hollow baits or dents. As long as they are designed properly to suit the mold and layout you shouldn't have an issue. One trick I have found is to keep the bait close to the runner, the closer it is the less chance you have of the gate freezing early on you.

Yes, I believe that was it.

That was a stretchy additive for a specific plastic. The elaztech material is nothing like plastisol, does not work the same etc. I heard from a buddy that one of the plastic manufacturers tried to offer something similar to our market but it was an absolute pain to work with and dropped it.

The bait factory doesn't use large molds, really close to our standard hand injection molds. A large production machine will run 45k-60k and a single mold will run 6k-12k on average.

This is what I am finding.

They most definitely are, the company behind this is a very large company supplying a lot of manufacturers. If i can recall correctly I believe it was between 15k and 20k.

Nope, that's the closest.