Tiderunner

I'm using the Do It CNC cut 5" Senko Mold. And using the MF Medium Plastic. I was using tons of salt to achieve the weights I wanted, so I switched to glass bead salt combos. While the beads game me the mass I wanted, and the sink rate. there is two things I didn't like. One is I find it takes much higher temps to heat the platic than just salt by itself. Maybe that's just my imagnation, I found the repeat heatings discolored the plastic more with each reheat. I also found that my glitter melted and further discolored the the plastc. Especially the black glitter. I also add the heat stabilizer. However that has a yellowish tone to it, maybe thats what causing the yellowish discoloring in my clear baits? Yes I use a thermometer. I had temps around 340* where without the glass beads I could pour with temps as lows as 300* without any change in the baits, And the second issue I had with the glass beads, I us an 8 oz. hand inject from Do-It Even though I am always using pure silicone lubricant to lube the tube, it is badly scored from the beads. When injecting you can hear the glass scraping against the tube. It has made it a little harder each use to push the knob down because all internal parts are scored. What I've done is instead of using a higher amout of glass beads, and a smaller amount of salt I reversed the recipe. I use less glass beads, more salt, which is still a lot less salt than using salt alone. My original recipe was 4 oz plastic. 2 oz beads. Tablespoon salt, couple drops of stabilizer. Couple drops of softener. I've reversed the salt and glass now. Approx 2 oz salt to a table spoon of beads. Seems to be working better. But still seems I need to get the plastic hotter when using glass beads. I did try something one day. I was playing around with some glow in the dark pigments, and when I weighed the Senkos made with phosphorescent pigments. The weight was over 13 grams. To say that the pigment is heavy is an understatement. It's only a powder, dust, yet the density adds weight quickly. Bit of advice though. If you're making glow in the dark baits. when you shut off all the lights in your work area, there is an eerie glow everywhere you put the baits. paint, powders etc. Creepy with all the glow in the dark floating in mid air.

I probably should have asked some questions beforehand, but I just ordered a gallon of M-F Manufacturing Soft Sinking Plastic. Has anyone tried this product yet? Is it soft, say soft enough to feel like Yamo Senkos? If it's not that soft, if I add softener to it does that affect its sinking properties? And does it actually sink better than other plastics. Most of my stickbaits weigh between 10.0 -11.5 grams. Can I expect the same weights from this plastic? I was using glass beads, and salt combo to achieve sink rates. I decided to use the soft sinking plastic to eliminate using glass beads ( not impressed with them ) and to minimize salt to keep my baits more transperant

Because of this thread, I just ordered a "trial size" of the glass media. 3lbs to start. When do you add it to the plastic? Before you heat it? Before you pour? Any time in between whenever you feel like it?

Ok...So I tried all of the suggestions here. Checked temps, cut sprues at 45*, I had never molded one side then removed and added back and repoured the other half. My success rate was about 50%. Not much better than before. The cutting to 45* helped increase success. But- I decided to try pouring halves removing them and replacing to pour the other half. Strangely, that actually worked pretty good. Would I make a habit of doing that? No. But it worked- better than I thought it would. For a laminate I've only tried to make a red shad. The nice thing about that color combo is you can take all your boo boos, and remelt them, and you still get black.

Thanks everyone I will try these suggestions later today and post the results. I will say. The laminate plate method is S-L-O-W. I think the double injector may be a future investment.

my first attempt at making a laminated senko (red shad) started out ok. The first pour came out perfect. After that something changed. In the first photo you see the red absorbed the black, or so it seems. Second photo is beyond all explanation. The rings around the black side of the senko don't exist. Bait is completely flat on one side Third photo shows once again the red seems to have absorbed the black and the red is missing at the tails. Only the black part partially exists. you can also see some flashing around the edge of the bait as I loosened the clamps up a bit on the mold thinking that may be the problem, Just made it worse. Recipe is for both colors 4 oz med plastic maroon lurecraft color for the red. LPO for black 3tablesppons extra fine salt per color. teaspoon of softener and a couple drops of stabilizer. I heat my molds and injector first. Microwave my plastic. Mold is Do-It CNC 5" senko mold with a laminate plate. plate and mold are held steady in a small vise while injecting. Seems the more I pour the worse my baits get. Seems the problems began when I added enough salt to close in on the 10.2g that I measure in a senko. Weight of the completed baits was 9.7g Any insight? Advice?

In the video he masks off the mold area. I couldn't be bothered. We're talking a layer of paint a couple of microns thick. I also used clear engine paint. Makes it hard to see where you painted. Using color might be better. There are also other auto paints that can handle higher temps. After about 4 coats, I scuff the flat areas lightly with sandpaper to remove those couple of excess microns. I've made a couple hundred without having to recoat. My senkos come out super shiny. I also have the CNC mold, and I hate to say it, but at times it seems the essential mold works better. But what a difference in quality of the molds.

Has anyone tried keeping their poured soft plastics in the Berkley Gulp Recharge juice? Most of my soft plastic homenade stuff is saltwater, and I have the Plano Bait containsers around and use the liquid. The bottle states your other soft plastics can stay in the liquid. Can our home brewed plastics be stored in the Berkley Recharge Liquids? I may have to try it. Its a $25.00 experiment. If nobody here has an answer I'll try it and let y'all know how it goes.

New member her as well, but long time bait maker. I just got into the injection molding stuff though, but been doing hand pours for years, as well as lead, lead. plastics, and blades. This past month when I decided not to attach a vise to our kitchen counters I stopped using the kitchen micro as well. Went to Target, hoping to find a lower priced micro and found one there on sale for $39.00 700 watts. Fits a 16oz pyrex no problem. May take a few seconds more to heat the plastic. Shop around you'll find a cheap micro.