robalo01 Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 I am thinking about ordering some alumilite resin for pouring had baits. Any suggestion as to which one to get? Regular, Clear, white? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robalo01 Posted July 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 One more question. Let's say you came up with a resin/microballoon formula that you wanted to consistently apply to a large series of baits. Could you pre mix the resin/microballoons and store for a couple of weeks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdr418 Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Robalo01, Check out makelure.com. That is alumilites site for using their products for lure making. Larry Dahlburg has loads of videos on how to use their products for both hard and soft baits and molds. They are on youtube under makelure. I have used the regular casting resin on some projects and it works well if you are going to paint the casting. Their clear product can be colored with the colorant they sell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglinarcher Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Alumilite can answer all of the questions you have, and of course the web site for makelure.com is a great way to get answers from Mike Faupal (owner of Alumilite) and Larry Dahlberg directly. jdr418 is correct in every detail. As for which to buy, that depends on what you are trying to do. The Alumilite White is the one sold in their lure making kit for hard baits, and it has the advantage of giving you a white color so you do not need a white base coat if you paint over it. If you go to the Makelure.com site and click on photos you will find a graph I did giving the density of Alumilite White with different amounts of Miroballons, the density of the Alumilite Foams, and the density of some woods. Alumilite Clear is perfect for making clear bodies, and I have done some lure lips with it, but you need a vacuum to remove air bubbles, or you need to cast it under pressure to crush the bubbles. Larry Dahlberg did a great Marlin lure out of it and he has a video of it on the makelure site. I also believe that he did some jigging spoons out of it for one of his TV shows and I know that last years lure build off used it for slow sinking inshore spoons. FYI, it probably is not the best for lure lips, but in a pinch I did make it work. Alumilite Regular is pretty good as well, but I have not used it myself so I cannot respond. One last thing, can you mix the microballons with the product and let it set for a week or so? My best answer is yes, but no. The best way to mix the microballons is to mix half in Part A and half in Part B, then mix the two together. Microballons do not react to the products so you could mix it and let it set forever without it doing any harm. BUT..... the microballons will separate slowly so I see no advantage in mixing it in advance. Still, if you mix it in advance, then remix it before combining, then it would work fine. I hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robalo01 Posted July 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 (edited) I found the pic: http://makelure.com/Lures.cfm As I read it, alumilte at 50:50 with microballoons weighs .69 grams per CC vs Balsa at about 18 g per CC. Correct? Stephen Edited July 11, 2014 by robalo01 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglinarcher Posted July 12, 2014 Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 Alumilite White with 50:50 microballons is about .76 g/cc. Notice on the left you go from .6 to .8, with the unmarked line between them at .7. Sorry about not marking each line, but I was in a hurry when I made it several years ago. Balsa is about .18 g/cc. I think you missed the decimal point. Hope this helps you some. Notice that Alumifoam and cedar are about .47 g/cc and maple wood ranges from .6 to .75 g/cc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robalo01 Posted July 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 So, what would you say the max amount of MicrBs you should mix with Alumilite resin could be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglinarcher Posted July 12, 2014 Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 First off, I made the stupid chart and I made a mistake when I read it. You were correct the first time. for a 50:50 mix (10 cc microballons to 10 cc Alumilite White), that is an equal amount of Microballons (MB)to an equal amount of Alumilite White (ALW). The density is about .66 g/cc. .69 g/cc is what I got for 92% volume of microballons per unit of Alumilite (9.2 cc microballons per 10 cc Alumilite White). I am sorry about that one. Now, how much? Mike Faupal, the owner of Alumilite, says that an equal amount of MB to ALW or your 50:50 mixture is about maximum. It gets pretty thick and sticky and it does not pour well if you get any more MB into the mix. I have observed that the density does not get a lot less with more MB. As you can see on the graph, the slope of the curve is starting to flatten out pretty fast. If you want, you can add more MB to the mix, especially if you don't need a mix that pours well, but I don't think you will benefit from it much. I have a bait that I make where I cannot get the bait light enough with ALW and MB alone. I pour a shell with ALW and MB, then fill the shell with Alumifoam 610. I did a couple of YouTube videos on that process a couple of years ago that I could direct you to if you desire. They were not very good, but ............ Again, sorry about my mistake. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
