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Just getting started! Obviously I am an amateur. I know I don’t have to start with the very best airbrush, I can work my way up. Has anyone ever used a Masters bran air brush? Also as an amputee, I sometimes have over use issueswith my hand. Has anyone used a trigger style hairbrush? Beginners question. Do I need an air compressor with a tank or can I just run off the small 1/5 horsepower compressor? How loud are these honey type compressors? Sorry for silly questions, but as a double amputee I don’t get to go see everything. Have to trust in others

I am just getting started pouring. I have some questions about some things that I think are important. My first question is If i was to pour one 3 cavity molds of 3 inch grubs out of a do it mold, where about should i fill the pyrex cup to and how much coloring and glitter to put in? My second question is how long should I let the plastic sit in the mold before taking the plastics out of the mold? My 3rd question is when heating up my plastisol should i heat up the plastisol a little then put coloring and fully heat it or just stir the platisol and put coloring in and heat it up to around 350 degrees? My final question is how should I heat up the mixture.Like to get to 350 degrees do I heat for 1:00 then stir and heat again or in different time intervals? I am looking forward to starting this hobby and much need the help from the experienced guys on this site. Anything else you think is important feel free to send. Thanks!

Want to get into pouring soft plastics, but am interested in mainly hand pouring. however when I look at molds they are all injection molds, can I hand pour into those? if not what type of molds are for hand pouring? thanks,

Hi all, I am new to the site and hard bait building. Last year I started lure making but stuck to easier lures like bucktails, spinnerbaits and some other hair/fur type lures. This off season I have decided to try my hand at some deep and shallow crankbaits and some dive/rise jerkbaits. These are for personal use only, I may give the odd one to a friend but I have no intention of selling them. I have spent the last several months reading a lot of material, includign a lot on here, and trying to figure out my plan of attack and have finally come up with the following process. 1) I will be using primarily cedar, western red and eastern white. Both easily accessible and reasonably priced. At some point I may try some different types of wood but chose cedar as a start. 2) I will seal the bait with a couple dips in sanding sealer. Sand with fine paper after it dries. 3) Apply a coat of primer paint. 4) Paint the lures with acrylics. To start we will just be using brush on paints, we used to paint for a hobby so we have the paints and brushes etc. In the future we will look into an air brush. 5) Insert dive bib on crankbaits or dive tail in the jerkbaits. I will be using 5 or 6mm Lexan for my dive bibs, and I have dive tails from lure parts online. 6) Coat with a couple layers of ETEK as the clear coat. I will build a turner. I will be using primarily through wire construction, by cutting the lures down the centerline and glueing the two halves back together once the internals have been put in the correct places. I may build a couple with screw eyes just as test specimens. I have found the template for the Grandmas so as a starting point I was going to try some minnowbait style lures, thickness of baits will likely vary from the originals so I plan to modify my lip accordingly, I acknowledge this will be a trial and error process. As it will be with all crankbaits in determining the best bib shape, angle, size, line tie location etc. With all this said there are still a couple of factors I am racking my brain around and was hoping some of the builders here could provide some insight. Q1) Any recommendations on a decent primer paint to use. I am not sure I even need this, maybe a white base coat will be sufficient over the sealed bait. If I need primer specifically I would prefer a brush on or dip as I do not have the room to be spraying aerosol paint cans. Q2) What is the avg thickness or weight addition of the clear coat when using ETEK. I will likely do 2 layers, more if needed, and I know this will vary by bait size and builder but is there a general thickness I could use to try and estimate the weight I will be adding with the clear coat. Off the top of my head I was thinking around 3 mm additional thickness, on each side. In my view determining the weight addition by the epoxy, which on a 10-14" bait can be a few oz, is more important than the actual increase in dimensions. I figure the extra size can be overcome with a bigger bib, only time will tell with some trial and error. Q3) Has anyone ever discovered any type of relationship between bib and lure size, they are willing to share. For example the minnow baits I am attempting will be similar in shape to Jakes, Grandmas, Shallowraiders etc. However my bait width/thickness will vary from these, especially until I figure out the additinal thickness I add from the clear coat and paints. I intend to use similar weighting locations as the named baits do, I found the Grandma templates online, and I will adjust the bib size according to the lure width (potentially add more width on shallow divers and more width and possibly length on the deeper divers). I plan to use linear extrapolation to come up with the starting bib sizes. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I will post any findings I make as I embark on this adventure. Thanks Mark

Just curious if there are any other suppliers out there with plastisol, additives, colorants, etc. besides the basic Lurecraft, Baitjunkys, and Mudhole. Looking for decent prices for a beginner! Thanks!

Hi! I want to get my brother a gift certificate for Christmas to somewhere online that sells lure-building supplies, but I don't know where to start.... Came across this forum and figured you all were the people to ask! Ideally, I'd like to find somewhere where he can pretty much get all the basics to make at least one lure. He's into fishing (obviously) and knife-making, so he may have some supplies and tools already from those, but I don't know what. I think he's most likely to be interested in making metal or wood lures... Also, he wants them for bass fishing, if that makes a difference. We're in California. Any suggestions? I'll make sure to tell him about this forum too

So I need a little help from all the soft plastic legends out there. I want to start making my own soft platics but I dont really know where to start. I found two websites that offer kits. http://www.caneycreekmolds.com/Kit--Injection-Wacky_p_252.html http://www.bearsbaits.com/Stik-Bait-Kit-Worm-Mold-Kit_p_170.html Any help you guys can offer me would be great. Thanks