McLuvin175

Firetail 163 is a fluorescent. That being said usually as long as you stir while adding it shouldn't clump on you. If it does then add when cold.

Aquamarine like the gem stone? If so just use a smidge of a smidge of Phthalo Blue.

Haven't fooled with those two colors before so this is based on just looking at images on a computer screen: Zoom Mardi Gras looks like a standard Watermelon Seed with the addition of purple and gold glitter. I would personally use Grape and Yellow Gold in 0.015" Hex. Big Bite Tilapia looks like a Dark Green Pumpkin with the addition of Royal Blue Glitter, 0.015" and 0.040" Hex. Its hard to tell but the clarity of this bait combined with the dark surface tone makes me suspicious that they may actually be using a dye instead of a pigment. A simple bleed test could confirm this if you have a sample in hand. Using a standard Green Pumpkin should still work. Maybe a touch of black to darken it some. Those are my two W.A.G.'s. Good luck.

The phenomenon you are seeing is compression set. Meaning that your baits are bent under pressure long enough that they will retain the bend. You didn't make it clear whether you baits were "warping" hanging on your rack or afterwards when bagged. I assume that it happens when bagged. As mentioned above let them rest or hang longer than you are currently do before storing them. Also the addition of a little worm oil may help the baits slip and slide past each other when bagged thus reducing stress pressure when baits are confined in a bag. A more tedious solution is to perhaps layout your baits carefully in a hard plastic container for longer storage instead of throwing them into a bag. A better solution is to put those suckers on a hook and get them in the water! Good Luck.

Ultra Marine Blue would be a better choice than phthalo blue and give you a closer match. Ultra Marine Blue will be a bit cloudier in the undertone but will have a nicer blue surface tone. To get the most beautiful transparent sapphire blue you will need a bleeding blue dye if your willing to deal with that.

Go to Spike-It/LureWorks to find paint for dotting. Look under the SB Coat Solvent Based paint section in LureWorks for Dotting Paint. They have about 5 colors in the dotting formula. For small jobs look for Worm-N-Chunk paint in the Spike-It section.

It depends on what the grinder is made of. Salt will eat up the metal through corrosion. But other than that it shouldn't have an adverse affect.

Whether hand cranked or electric most meat grinders will do a good job breaking up scrap that can be re-used or recycled. Without some sort of lubrication though the scrap will look like ground beef and kind of stick together making it harder to re-use. Use some worm oil, softener, or even off-spec virgin plastisol you might want to off load to act your lubricant in the ginder and the plastic should cut up into decent pellets. You can either pre-lube the scrap and then dump it in the grinder; or dump it in dry and then pour in some lube. Just make sure whatever lubricant you use is compatible with plastisol. Sort your scrap if possible and re-use in the same color or look alike colors. For instance you should be able to use Watermelon scrap in some Green Pumpkin your pouring with no issues. As a rule I try to use no more that 25% scrap to Virgin Plastisol. Remember that your scrap has been through decent heat cycle and has probably consumed some of its heat stabilizer so add some if and only if needed.

Belly looks like what I call Hot Chartresue. Any opaque fluorescent colorant should do, just load it up. Back looks like simple Clear with Silver 0.015" hex glitter. Cant quite tell from the picture but if there is colorant in the back it will be a bleeding Chartreuse Dye at low level. Any bleed wont affect the belly portion since it is already chartreuse.

You will need a bleeding red dye for your base. Add black and/or brown to darken it up to your liking. LureWorks offers Blue Fleck Dye 157 already complete with no need to mix your own concoction. Dont drive yourself ragged trying to match the Berkleys' exactly. The PowerBait scent has a definite affect on the coloration of the plastisol; it isn't just a simple scent. That being said I dont think its worth the trial and error getting it exact when a portion of that color of that bait is affected by the scent product. But thats up to you. Good Luck and lets us know how you made out.

There are many iterations of Chicken on a Chain but matching a Bass Assassin's version would be a good start since i think he invented the color, or at least the catchy name. Watermelon Red Flake for the back color. The belly is a Natural Glow with Silver 0.015" hex glitter. And for the tail, if you want, an opaque Chartreuse. Here is my formulation using LureWorks Colorants for 1 cup plastic each. Other suppliers colorants should approximate to the below numbers. Back Watermelon 101----------20-24 drops Black 0.040" Hex----------1/2 tsp Fire Red 0.015" Hex---------1/8 tsp Belly Natural Glow 128---------1/4 tsp Silver 0.015" Hex----------1/8 tsp Tail (optional) Chartreuse 126---------50-60 drops Adjust accordingly to your personal taste or to what you have in your inventory. On a side note if you want a chartreuse tail without having to shoot a three color bait you might consider painting the tail. It was discussed here in this previous thread: Good luck and show us your results!

What two parts do you want Chartreuse? Is this some sort of twin tail bait?

I imagine the silicone negates the sticky effect since nothing really sticks to it. I tried substituting "Worm Oil" for mold release when I ran out one time and it made de-molding worse from aluminum molds; and these were decently polished production molds.

Its not a good idea to be using straight worm oil as a mold release. It can actually make the baits sticky on the surface or stick to a mold more so than normal. Softener would probably work better than worm oil if those are your two options.

What was that pressed used for before or did you do some horse trading to get one made for free? Either way its hard to beat free. Very nice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbi_DQjBKJM This video will show how works.

Glitter is sized in inches in the US so those numbers are standardized to 0.015" Hex and 0.040" Hex. There is not a 0.45 as that would be almost 1/2" glitter, YUGE Glitter. There is not a 0.045 sized glitter that I know of, there is a 0.035" and its shape is square. So 40 thousandths (0.040") is almost 3 times bigger than 15 thousandths (0.015"). There is only 5 ten thousandths difference between 0.040" Hex and 0.035" Square so visually to the human eye they look the same size. The only major difference would be shape. Hope that helps.

Here's something else to consider with that color. When you heat it or are working with it while hot it will turn a red/pinkish shade. It will then go back to its violet color when cool. It is one of those thermo shifting colors and it is normal. That being said what you are seeing in the picture is another unique phenomenon called "bronzing". This pigment at high levels will take on a reddish brown surface tone. The more colorant you add the more bronzing you will get. Try cutting back on the amount of colorant your adding. If the cut back formulation isnt dark enough for you while eliminating the surface bronze try adding a some black colorant to the recipe. Another possible alternative is to add your colorant and glitter after you heat the plastic. They both should disperse fine it hot plastic. This will decrease your dwell time for both glitter and colorant. Trying this will also allow you to visually see when your virgin plastic goes "clear and thin", meaning its pretty well fused. It will be easier to see if your cook time is scorching the plastic and thus maybe the pigment. However your best bet is to reduce your colorant amount to address your issue.

Looks like a weak Watermelon to me. You must remember that adding Red Flake to Watermelon will give it a brown shade look versus the same color Watermelon without Red Flake. Watermelon 101 is a good bet. Also the belly looks like solid Hi-Lite Red Pearl. Im sure some if it has "wrapped" over the back section during lamination. I doubt there is Hi-Lite Red Pearl in the back section.

Yamamoto's Cinnamon is all over the map in my opinion. Many different looks from one body style to the next all named Cinnamon of some sort. Two other options are LureWorks Dark Cinnamon 190 and Cinnamon 191. Looking at color 176 it would be the dark version of Cinnamon, although trying to gauge a color through an internet picture is a hard thing to do.

Lacquer Thinner may or may not work for clean up. It will depend on what the Lacquer Thinner is composed of as the blends can vary by manufacturer. You'll have to test what you have to see if it will work. Mild solvents will work when the paint is wet for clean up like Acetone. Once it has dried it is a different story you might need to step up to something more aggressive like Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK). It is best usually to use what the supplier recommends but those are some alternatives for clean up.

I think the bleeding shad color is a dye, meaning it will "bleed" into other areas of the bait. This is true of all true dyes. They are soluble in plastisol and will diffuse throughout a bait or even transfer to other soft plastic baits. You can beat the transparency and brilliance a dye but if you want to do a laminate that needs non-bleed colorants you will have to use a red pigment. Red pigments are not usually as good looking as a red dye so it will change the look of your bait. If you insist on using the bleeding shad color you will need to look at shooting a one color bait or have your second color be dark like black or brown which wont show much of the bleed. Or complimentary to red bleed, like a opaque fluorescent chartreuse which will turn orange. Good luck.