Tiderunner

That may have been part of the problem. I was infecting stick baits, using salt, and glass beads, and I prefer my stickbaits soft and wiggly, so I may have added too much softener. Plus multiple reheats may have burned the plastics, lots of glitter which may have changed the composition of the heated plastic. All I know is I want do that again. Lacquer thinner does NOT dissolve plastic stuck to a mold. Sure it will melt all other plastics, except the one type you need melted. It did however allow the heated stuck plastic to be lifted out of the mold. Not perfectly but at least its a good start. I'll have to give that a try. I get the polish, I got the Dremel.

so I finally got around to soaking the molds in lacquer thinner. Didi an ok job. These molds were the do it Yamamoto CNC molds. Seems now the baits don't come out shiny and smooth.I'll have to experiment with spraying Pam or something on the molds.

I’m fairly new to swim baits. I started a few years ago with Keitech Fat Impact. I was sold immediately! I ended up getting the FGF3.8”ribbed name I can’t remember what it’s called. I love ‘em! Like AP said. Laminate. I try to “match the hatch” Arkansas shiner . Mostly natural colors with the white pearl belly . But I tint the white pearl with a pin head amount of the upper body color. Or the tiniest amount of black so I get a smoky tint. I also add salt because I noticed that on sunny days underwater, the baits are transparent and hard to see. I like to show a little bit bigger of a profile. Transparent won’t give you that.

I always place my cup in the middle of the microwave. I do only cook the plastic in short bursts. No more than a minute each time. Then as I'm getting close to desired temp I only cook in seconds, and check temps. Never had an issue . Except this past time I guess. I also don't have a powerful 1000 watt microwave. Mine is 650 watt I believe. I'm wondering if the mica had more to do with the burning rather than placing cup in the middle.

This sounds interesting. I only have a mold for core shot stickbaits, but the tail color will still be the same as the core. I have enough variations of gold pearl because I tried a number of different ones until I found one I liked. And I even have a black gold liquid colorant that is different.

Didn't seem burnt. This was a reheat. Reheated multiple times. I'm wondering if the glitter had melted and added a different component to the plastic, as I kept adding glitter with each reheat. I didn't bother trying to save the cup. I let it cool and tossed it. Plastic was hard as a rock. Never, in all the years doing this have I ever seen plastisol do this It was stronger than any adhesive I have ever used. Couldn't scrape it out of the cup. Out of the mold. Even off the knife I was stirring with. Was going to soak molds in lacquer thinner. Which should dissolve the plastic. But I didn't have any. Had denatured alcohol, so trying that. Then heading over to a big box store with orange roof and paint. To pick up some lacquer thinner. I refuse to have this mess beat me. I hope to have these molds cleaned up by the end of the day.

Update. Tried softening burnt on plastic with worm oil on one side and WD40 on the other. So far the WD-40 is winning, but far from perfect. Today is lacquer thinner day! Update on this to follow. Advice to all here. Don't burn your plastisol, and if you do, don't inject it. I makes a really big mess that takes a lot of effort and time to clean. Let my stupid mistake help you prevent this. ( I'm sure this won't be my last fudge up )

I believe you're right. And both counts. Goop is like a glue. Stuck to the measuring cup, two Yamamoto Senko molds. Even the knife I was stirring plastic with. Being it was black plastic, I never paid too much attention to it. I mean how do you discolor black? Molds are now soaking in worm oil, and another in WD40 before I go to the solvent method. If the oil or the WD40 ( that is a solvent actually ) don't work I'm going right past acetone to lacquer thinner. So far both oils are working slowly. The measuring cup is over 5 years old, and I'm afraid of leaving micro scratches in it. I may just trash it. Or maybe lacquer thinner that and just relegate it to the garage.

yeah. Got that,but for some reason, when using something in the green family the green core doesn't show up well.

This should make a good small mouth bait. Thanks. What chartreuse do you use? Interesting....I do a lot of wacky rigging. My son swears by the black blue combo. And wacky rigging. Ive done silver shell, gold core, red with a black core.baby bass green with a black core. Baby bass green with a bright pink core. Interestingly, I have shot a bunch of different combos with a green core, watermelon, baby bass, etc, and for some reason the green core doesn't show up very well.

Been shooting a bunch of stick baits these past couple of days. I'm using MF medium with added MF softener, black, with lots of .062 glitter. Using the Do It Gary Yamomoto molds,. Heated my plastic, shot 8 baits, had dents in three. Molds and injector were preheated. Next run, 8 baits. I noticed plastic was kind of "lumpy", so I heated it some more. All looked good, though plastic was smoking a little. Shot this 8, let them cool, and tried to open the molds, and they wouldn't open. I finally pried them open, and the baits had more or less turned into, for lack of better description, glue. Rubber cement to be more specific. I got most of the stuff scraped out of the molds. The rest of the seized rubber is going to need a solvent of wire brush. In 30 years of bait making, this has never happened. Has anyone here had that happen? Too much glitter maybe? Maybe too much glitter turned the plastisol into some other compound? It's not easy getting flake to show up through black. Too hot? It was smoking. I usually don't worry too much about black plastics,it's not like black can yellow, and I've used too hot plastic before. It's weird because this plastic was a reheat, and I noticed when it cooled inside the measuring cup I removed the puck, and it was difficult removing it because it had stuck to the pyrex cup. I got the puck out, and couldn't clean the cup. I was/am going to trash that one. Like I had already said, never had something like this happen before, and in all these years I've made plenty of mistakes, but this one is a first. Lastly, does anyone have a better idea to clean this besides solvent and a wire brush?

To any of you that shoot core shot stick baits, what color combos are you making? Not looking to steal secrets, just looking for some new ideas.

Make sure you report back here pros and cons. Like I said, I can see more use for the vise beyond bait making. It seems like it could be a pretty good extra pair of hands.

and re-reading your OP I use a lot more than 7-8 drops of worm oil. I soak the living snot out of them, with added salt. But even then the bags are still as soaked as the day I packed them. I also mix a lot of salt right into the plastic before heating, so if anything my baits should be absorbing a lot of the oil.

What brand of plastic are you using? I have baits bagged for years that have just as much oil in them as day one and hasn't been absorbed. Those baits come fishing with me on hot summer days, spend winters in a cold garage. I have some baits from 20 years ago that are still as soft and pliable as day one. The first place I would look is your plastic.

I was wondering if this could be mounted. I was looking at the pic looking for screw holes. This vise could probably do extra duty beyond holding molds. Looks like it could be pretty useful on the workbench. Again, too bad they don't give the dimensions of the padded jaws.

Interesting item. But if you have a spot to mount a permanent vise, would that be better? Would this slide away if not held tightly and injector at an angle? And for less money, a regular clamp would do the same job. Same force too. How wide and tall are the padded jaws? It doesn't give that dimension, only the 6" capacity. Even though I had those questions, I'd still give it a try. If you get one share a review with us.

Same here. Used the last today. Mixed back together well, no greasy feel to baits. %" stickbaits hanging and curing now.

I was cleaning around my workbench and found an old gallon of Bait Plastics. It has to be pretty old. I mean a couple of years old. Maybe have a little more than a quart left. Anyway, I shook the livin snot out of the jug. left it,came back and shook some more. Then repeated it a few more times. Except for a little of the hard pack stuck to the bottom of the jug it all mixed back up. Gonna shoot some baits with it in a little while. Time will tell. Haven't used my LC medium yet, only the saltwater stuff.

Worm oil is DINP (diisononyl phthalate) or DOP (dioctyl pthalate), both of which are a pthalate used as a plasticizr. it's not a liquid oil in the traditional sense but a chemical compound that is mixed with the plastic resin during manufacturing. From what I understand it is basically the compound that is used to make the plastisol finished product softer ( more oil )or harder ( less oil ) Much as hardener is what we see as the hard pack in the bottom of the jugs our plastisol comes in. Is the white part a PVC compound? Maybe this is right, maybe I oversimplified it?

As I mentioned in my post some folks haven't had a problem with mineral oil some have. I personally have only used a scented worm oil. 50/50 mix of scent to worm oil.

You and I may be on the right track. You see a black paint, and I see black plastic skin in the mold. But whatever it is that black color is on the outside of the red. I wouldn't drive yourself crazy trying to perfect it. We've all done that. As long as you can get close, the fish won't mind.

Your title reads mineral oil, but you post reads mineral oil. If you're using mineral oil that could be the problem. Mineral oil is not recommended.Although some bait makers use it without issue. In all the years I have been pouring baits, I have only had one batch of stick baits end up bent like that. And that was before I bagged them. I never quite figured out why. The only other time I ended up with bent baits was when I made swimbaits and the tails were bent because I didn't hang them. They weren't really bent only off center. I do hang the majority of my baits while curing. And curing to me means whenever I get around to bagging them. I use zippered quart bags from Walmart, and when I bag I add worm oil,not mineral oil, mixed with whatever scent I want, right into the bag, and as you say I squish them around to make sure everybody is coated. Then sprinkle with whatever salt is close by. Could be powdered , could be table salt or kosher salt. And squish again. I have had literally hundred of bags made up this way, sometimes for a few years without issue. I'm not saying my method is the best you'll ever use, it's just what works for me, and has for a long time. Go back and shoot your baits again, making sure to mix the crap out of your plastic. Be aware of variables like temps, Pressure on the injector, are you adding hardener? After shooting consider hanging your baits to cure.. Then try the oil in the bag method. If it still happens again, Consider using a different plastic. It may take trial and error to get it fixed.

Finally had a chance to shoot some baits with the LC. No issues with hard packing though. It was a saltwater blend, the hard stuff sometime can be iffy to work with but other than a lot of micro bubbles it seemed OK. I hate bubbles. I can probably go to a less expensive blend, and get the same results. Still Looking into a vacuum chamber. Yeah, I'm that fussy. Need to install another electrical circuit before I do that.

the only way I get consistent laminates is with a laminate plate. Not very efficient. Can't do 3 color laminates either.