My best Mold ! (my best design that is)

[Piscivorous Pike]

"Meow" That's me the sound of a copy cat (fish) ... TU had given so much maybe this will give some back:halo:. My best mold, well it aint on blue cheese, it is made of DWP and is Vacuum Injected, a Vodkaman promotion:worship:. I need to thank many more as I have copied injectors and molds. I have a jerk bait with a fluke tail and a narrow shaft that is murder to get the hot molten plastic to the end. Again I refer back to my beginning here:

TU taught me this, its long, pics too.

for picts. and ideas and things I did.

I have tried to get the plastic to the end of molds by using injection, I don't like it, hard to handle and sprays all over, I built three injectors, kinda copied a Bear . I made with home maded RTV molds that I could squeeze and pump the molten plastic and force it down, I thought. I made POP and DWP molds that used metal rods inserted through the sprue to stir the plastic down. What worked best was vacuum to draw the plastic down. So this mold was designed to use the vacuum method in a continuous easy procedure.

This mold was built by gluing down on two sided tape 4 models, (the models are in the above refered link) using vinyl glue to hold them to the tape. Plastisol is a vinyl hence the compatability of the glue to hold the soft plastic models. I made a two piece DWP mold. On the main body side I put in hook slots by using brass shim stock from the hardware store and across them dropped a 14 gauge copper wire tacked in place with epoxy (Thanks, Longhorn ). From the top to the head I used a piece of 14 gauge wire insulation as a marker to where I would drill the sprue stepping down the drill sizes when the two halves are together. I also drilled index holes in to one side to align the molds. Over the models I dropped a section of chicken wire before adding the DWP for strength.

The important function of this mold comes from running from each tail fluke tip a piece of the wire insulation downward and on top of that I glued a soda straw that transverses the mold to make a manifold channel across the mold that connects to each tail fluke. It is a tunnel in the one half of the mold. Once cast, by hand I connected a thin channel from the fluke tips to the vent channels with a knife and drilled the drains into the soda straw. On one side I enlarged the straw hole to take a plastic tube that runs to a vacuum cleaner hose. Three plugs made from the plastic were put into three of the sprues. After aging and finishing and coating with 50% white glue it was ready. I unfortunately was in a hurry and poured the DWP in 107 degree heat , ice and vinegar didn not help much so bubbles did get trapped some even while vibrating the mess . It has some air bubbles in the mold, nothing big, very fine grain, like sand, fish dont care and I do not sell this stuff, I fish it. They can be filled and sanded if need be:?.

Holding the two halves together with a ratchet clamp, one clamp holds a paint stick to which is taped the plastic tubing. The tubing is place on the manifold. When I pour from a pyrex cup out of the microwave I put a finger over the opposite side of the manifold and close it until the tail fills, you can hear it and see it. I release my finger and fill the body then pull the next plug and close the manifold and pour again until all 4 are finished. The picture shows the result of the first pour. The system works well and there is no plastic flying around, it is easy to handle. You can see how the look when finished in the link about my first molds.

Click this thumbnail picture ---->

this is the same critter the new

mold makes.

Edited August 15, 2009 by Piscivorous Pike

[Vodkaman]

Great job. Thanks for posting.

Dave

[longhorn]

Good work and good fishin':)

[bojon]

Good job.All your work paid off.

[HJS]

Great job! As I read I recognised an assemblage of helpful hints summited by many on TU. You learned and applied them well. I've made several molds that have a narrow waist to them, like paddletail Bass Assassins. And yeah, getting the tail properly filled is a crap shoot sometimes. Looks like I need to read up on a vacuum system.

[Zbass]

Nice looking baits and molds! God job Pike!