E5i50blitz

Frank, that's exactly what I'm thinking. It would seem cheaper to buy that type of mold instead of a tail mold and a body mold. Not even counting the time to insert everything.

Thanks for the ideas and input everyone. That's what's great about this site is that you have people who are hobby lure makers as well as professional lure makers that are willing to share some of their expertise that they have learned over many years. My reason for going towards more custom lures instead of something off the shelf is not that I think I am better at designing actions, sink rates, and all of the other properties that make a good lure enticing to fish. I am trying to work on some things that would work well for my hobby (small volume) lure making, that would set them apart from something I could buy off the shelf. For example, I've made 500 or so 7" ribbon tail worms, some with insert molded tails. When I look at the process I immediately want to add a hand actuated slide in the mold so I can shoot the tails, move the slide and then shoot the top. Looking in the forums there are some old topics about this but I can't find any off the shelf molds. (This must be how the big lure makers do this, I can't imaging insert molding a 48 cavity ribbon tail worm in the press) The hobby lure making volume should allow me to work on things like hand insert molding other materials (weights, rattles, hooks, eyes, Etc.) I guess I'm trying to find that happy middle ground between off the shelf molds (which are great, but they are deigned for a large volume of customers to do a specific task) and molds that allow me to play around with new ideas and concepts. Let's face it, making lures just for friends and family will never be more economical than just buying them off the shelf. Sure I have more color options, but I'm looking to create some really unique things that I can't buy. (I am re-living my entrance into fly tying the only way I could justify the expense in my head was by catching fish on unique patterns I could not buy off the shelf! ) Thanks for all of the feedback everyone, Blitz

First off, I wanted to say this is a pretty informative site, I've learned a lot already just surfing around. I started making some plastic lures a month or 2 ago, and I find it pretty enjoyable I started right off the bat with a couple aluminum injection molds and it was off to the races. I still have a lot to learn, but I'm making some serviceable looking lures and I want to expand on this. I've done a lot of searching on various molds from the major suppliers, and quite frankly I want to try doing some designs of my own. I don't really want to invest / learn all of the ins and outs of creating silicon molds from hand formed models. The reason for this, is that I have a strong background in injection molded plastic design as well as injection mold design. (small cavitation molds) I own the software (Pro/E) to created the 3d models of the lures I would like to create, and I understand how to split the models in half and provide the CNC shop the negatives that they would need to machine (I cant provide the cutter paths though) I understand the venting process as well as the alignment pins and other issues. My issue, is that I think the cost of machining "custom" molds would be a lot higher than the off the shelf molds you can buy due to the fact that they are one-offs. If I invest in these molds and the action of the lure is wrong, then it's scrap aluminum Should I look at machining plastic molds to lower the material costs for these tests? Is there another way to make prototype molds from 3d models? for injection molded plastic parts we would make 3d SLA models and then make poured RTV molds from them, but once again they are pretty expensive. Just curious if anyone else has gone thru these issues and if there were any other materials or prototype ways to get machined parts turned into molds. I understand that CNC time is going to cost me either way, but I wanted to throw this out there to see if I can keep my prototyping costs down. Frankly I'm just amazed at how low the costs are for "off the shelf" machined molds, I realize their polishing and fit time are minimal and the tolerances are looser but the cost of the aluminum blanks are pretty expensive alone. Once again, nice site and it's great to have a lot of talented people to learn from.