Measurement Questions

[Deerak]

I just got going and everything is going great. It is addicting once you get some good colors going. I know that there are a lot of people that have been doing this a long time and needed a question answered.

The question I have is, what are the amounts of softener, salt, and heat stabilizer should I be using per 4 oz. of plastic? I know the salt is a preference thing but I normally use the Yamamoto's and would like something similar to the action that they have. I know, order 6 gallons of salt now huh?

The main thing is that I want to make sure that I am not over or under doing anything and wasting materials.

I just would like a basic guideline and kind of tinker from there. Living in Idaho, I don't have the luxury of heading to the lake to put them in the water since most lakes are frozen.

I am using Calhouns soft plastic if that will help you in letting me know what would be an adequate amount of materials to use. I appreciate your guys help.

[Richard Prager]

The so-called "standard" for sticks is 1 cup plastic 1/2 cup salt 1/4 cup softener. That's a good starting point. Unless you are do allot of reheats or pouring allot of white or grape colors, or keep the plastic hot in a pouring pot for more than 30 minutes or so, you really shouldn't need stabilizer. It is already in the plastisol.

You can use salt right from the market or feed store. Non-iodized works best. You can use a blender or coffee grinder if you want to flour or make the crystals smaller. I always used morten's pickling Salt right out of the box. You can buy salt from a vendor but you'd have to pay for shipping. Salt is salt is salt.

[Deerak]

The so-called "standard" for sticks is 1 cup plastic 1/2 cup salt 1/4 cup softener. That's a good starting point. Unless you are do allot of reheats or pouring allot of white or grape colors, or keep the plastic hot in a pouring pot for more than 30 minutes or so, you really shouldn't need stabilizer. It is already in the plastisol.

You can use salt right from the market or feed store. Non-iodized works best. You can use a blender or coffee grinder if you want to flour or make the crystals smaller. I always used morten's pickling Salt right out of the box. You can buy salt from a vendor but you'd have to pay for shipping. Salt is salt is salt.

Thanks 152. Like I said, I just kind of needed a guideline. I am very picky about what I use and want my baits to be as good of quality as possible. I would hate to go through a gallon of plastic before the summer and then come to find out they are all garbage.

With using Calhoun's soft Platisol, will adding 1/4 cup of softener make the lure too soft to where it will fly off my hook when I toss it? I guess I could go in the street and test that out huh?

While I am in the question asking mood. I noticed that there are some significant differences when pricing the different plastics. It seemed the stuff from Lurecraft was more expensive than anywhere else. Are there huge differences in the plastic that justify the increase in pricing? I bought the gallon of Calhouns just because it was cheap and figured that I would waste a ton while learning. Come to find out, it is pretty easy to use and am actually making good looking baits. I just want to make sure that I am getting the best stuff. I would be willing to pay the extra cost if there was actually a difference.

Again, I appreciate the help.

[jesse1378]

if you are starting with calhounds (like i did) and then you buy a gallon of plastic and split between two brands....i did chemionics and bbpc ultra. you will see the different characteristics of each of them. the calhounds smokes, and bubbles more bbpc ultra med is thicker than chemionics and chemionics pours like water and is better for layering colors.