jigginpig Posted December 23, 2012 Report Share Posted December 23, 2012 Hey gang- I was wondering if any of you had tried rotocasting a mold to make a hollow casting, then injecting the hollow of the resulting cast with resin to fill it. My idea here is that you could get a flawless, bubble free cast surface using a pure, un-filled resin, maybe a resin with a little longer pot life, and then shoot the cast full of a resin filled with, say, microballons. Sounds plausible to me, but what do I know? SS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdeee Posted December 23, 2012 Report Share Posted December 23, 2012 I saw a YouTube video of a guy making musky baits that had a spinning tail. He did something that was similar to what you are thinking of doing but he filled the inside with spray foam. Can't find the video but I am sure someone on here knows about it and can post a link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdeee Posted December 23, 2012 Report Share Posted December 23, 2012 Found it part 1 whopper plopper http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=GfNEMT_pntk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jigginpig Posted December 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 Yeah, thought about that. I am interested in doing baits of varying densities and I would prefer to keep my materials list as short as possible. I suppose the only way to find out if it will work for me is to try it. I just wondered if anyone could speak to the strengths and weaknesses of the method. Cheers all. SS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlowFISH Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 The issue will be that you will not get a uniform wall thickness and you'll likely have a heavy spot "somewhere" as the resin finally kicks and stops rolling around the inside of the mold. This likely would mean multiple baits would all look the same, but react very different in the water. I made a small machine when I was in college with some leftover gears and steel that you could mount in a metal lathe to rotate a mold in 2 axis.... it was pretty cool and I thought I could roto-mold small parts with it.... it worked to some degree, but all parts where heavy one side and that's with a machine turning the mold for 15 minutes... by hand you'd likely never have a chance. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jigginpig Posted December 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 Well, by gosh and by golly, I guess I will quit while I am ahead. Forgive my sarcasm, but the implacable logic of your assertion notwithstanding, I do not believe I will be so easily turned aside as that. I intend to make large, muskie sized baits, and the larger the bait is, the less likely it is affected by the sins of minor imbalances and imperfections. I think it is just possible that assuming I make a good "skin" of the casting I will be able to offset the imbalances intrinsic to my clumsy technique with ballast and microballons. Then again, maybe I will have some aesthetically agreeable and cunningly manufactured paperweights. Cheers. SS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdeee Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 You gots musky in Colarado? I thoughts ya only had dem freckled trout! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayburnGuy Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 You could always float them after casting to see where the heavy side was and then install your ballast on that side. Of course that's assuming the baits your building will float. Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jigginpig Posted December 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 You gots musky in Colarado? I thoughts ya only had dem freckled trout! LOL I wish we had muskies here. Our illustrious Division Of Wildlife is scared to death of anything that is not a snail darter, sucker, or (invasive) rainbow trout, kokanee, or walleye. The only gamefish native to Colorado are channel catfish, a subspecies of cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki stomias) which may or may not still be in extant, depending on who you ask, and green sunfish. We have hybrid muskies, and a fair pike population, with specimens a fair bit north of thirty pounds turning up every few years, but I angle for another trash fish... the largemouth bass. There are at least a dozen bass scattered across the state, living a life of fear and loathing. Ben, you raise a good point. I do plan on building some floating and some sinking baits. I will think on your remarks. Cheers all. SS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobP Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 Not that I do it myself buy if you stop rotating the bait in an upright position so any unhardened material collects in the belly, forming a kind of ballast, I don't see why it wouldn't work. I've finished a few bass size baits made from Alumite and even with max microballoons they had limited buoyancy and it was hard to build small bass baits because the hardware made the bait heavier than I wanted. Maybe that wouldn't be a problem with a larger musky bait but I'd be looking to cast a shell and fill it with foam to get more buoyancy and make the lure more lively. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
