mountainryan

I use many of their products. I have used moldstar 30 quit a bit, easy to use but a bit softer then I like, and it’s pricey. In all the lines the higher the number ie. moldstar 30 the “harder” they are, they list them in durameter. It depends on what you want to cast, as silicone interacts with the tin cure silicone and won’t cure. Platinum cure doesn’t react to anything. I recommend to anyone using smooth on to contact Reynolds advanced materials, they deal and use smooth on and are super knowledgeable. Plus if they are close they have stuff made you can touch and play with. Ryan

Completely abandon anything alumalite. IMO their stuff is expensive and inconsistent. They also don't provide nearly enough details on their products to make informed decisions. Try Smooth on, they have an overwhelming array of products and detailed technical data on tensile strengths and densities. Reynolds advanced materials are a dealer and their staff are great resources about products. try using their urethane resins and microballons. the premixed resin (with microballons) is too soft to make really strong bait. I do what your doing and basically pour the same blank and cut different joints and sink rates. I only make wakes and wake and cranks so buoyancy is important. just as important is having a resin that's hard enough while having its density lowered by microbaloons. Sorry but it took many trials to find this and your going to have to work on that but a clue is to look for strong light resins to start. Next is your weighting question. there is not enough density difference between resins to make this work properly. Just pour one resin and weight with lead and your hooks. My process is I pour a blank then cut and assemble because you really cant modify what your hardware weighs. then I float test using the hooks and rings I want and hot glue weights till I get balance or sink rate. then drill and insert. you don't need to make your resin super buoyant for a slow sink just only add as much weight to get it to stay upright on the swim. good luck. Ryan

@Toxicbaits can I just dig up this thread a minute. Now your THE baits to get. Love to see your grind pay off.

Congratulations Dan!

This wait is literally causing me pain.

3lb is very soft, may not hold up. Also may expand too much. Less density= more expansion

https://www.smooth-on.com/products/flexfoam-it-17/ The silicone is pretty rad too but prep that mold well and pay attention to what materials it doesnt play well with like sulfur.

Sorry to drag up this old topic but i'm creating a pretty cool design for a large weedless rat swimbait using soft silicone foam. That foam in the frog appears to be something similar to this: https://www.smooth-on.com/products/flexfoam-it-17/ It amazes me that people will not pay $10 for one lure but waaay more to make it. The supplies alone for my build are currently at 300 but this lure doesnt exist yet. If Rago, or 3:16 lures made it i would probably just buy it. I just lost a $160 lure a few days ago. and I buy 2 10/0 beast hooks for $10. Swimbait game is no joke but worth almost every penny.

making it is cool but you probably cant beat the warbaits weedless underspins

MonteSS, this is husk's foil/ tissue technique. The hardest part was getting the image to fit so im curious how you made a shape and fit the image to it. If your careful and rub the wrinkles out of the foil it lays down nice. i used "mirror" to create a belly image which i applied. Tight lines

If you have a Microsoft package Microsoft publisher lets me resize, flip, mirror recolor ect. it isn't photoshop level.

Hello TU clan. Thanks for all the groundwork and experiments you guys have done. Soo much great information. So here she is, my first posted bait. Not my first bait. I used to make a ton of triple trout clones by pouring epoxy. Here is how she was made. PVC board blank hand carved, Foil finish technique posted by Husky- i based my blanks off of a picture and used that same photo to make the three separate graphics. one for the belly and each side. sealed with two coats solarez tail is temporary laminated plastic sheeting- any input on a permanent replaceable tail would be huge hook hangers are hand twisted wire where i live they just banned lead weights so i had to buy a mold and hand pour those too It is a suspending (almost perfect) wide S swimmer. pulls almost 1.5 ft turns with a slight roll like a sick bluegill.