Making Own Silicon Strands - Is this possible?

[reecekennedy]

Right now I'm buying my skirt strands, and want to save money and avoid the stress of the supplier (lure parts online) running out of stock. Would it be possible to make my own silicone material? If so, how much would it cost? And how can I get started?

[Jeff Hahn]

Just a guess, but I would suspect that unless you are going to make thousands of skirt tabs, you would never recoup your start-up costs, compared to buying from LPO or fishingskirts.com.

[smalljaw]

First thing is you would need a large area, a separate building on your property somewhere. Then your property would need to be zoned for commercial use and then you'd have to either purchase or build an extruder so I'm guessing it would probably costs around $50K or better before you even got the material.  So the answer to your question is probably no, you aren't going to save money by making them at home if it were even possible.  Just so you know, there are a lot of other vendors that sell silicone skirt tabs, in fact fishingskirts.com has a lot bigger selection of material than LPO does and it is by a large margin.

Edited November 28, 2017 by smalljaw

[cadman]

If you have the money to make your own silicone tabs, then you should have enough money to buy in bulk and/or buy all you can so you don't run out. I'm sure LPO buys from someone like fishing skirts.com or a couple of other suppliers. Call them up and tell them you would like to order a bulk amount and see what they can do for you. Like mentioned above, making your own is not an option or even practical.

[reecekennedy]

Thanks for all the input. Didn’t know it was such an expensive task. 

[Anglinarcher]

You know, you have caused me to do some thinking.  LOL

It would be possible, in theory, to make an open pour mold of some tabs from Silicone like Alumilite HS3.  Then, in theory, you could coat the mold with petroleum jelly or UMR.  In theory you could them mix some HS3 (the softest pourable silicone I know of) with the appropriate dye, then, in theory, pour it into the molds.

Now, once cured, you would need to cut the taps into strips.  In theory, it could be done.  Perhaps razor blades set parallel to each other in a jig?

Lots of theory, but not one I intend on testing soon.  Still, for home use, it should be possible.  In this case, it is not a cost issue, but a trial and error issue.  Ugggggggggg

[mark poulson]

I was going to try a pasta machine, but I lost mine in my last move, thank goodness!

[Anglinarcher]

2 hours ago, mark poulson said:

I was going to try a pasta machine, but I lost mine in my last move, thank goodness!

There are cheep at Hobby Lobby in the molding section.  Go get one.  LOL

[reecekennedy]

1 hour ago, Anglinarcher said:

There are cheep at Hobby Lobby in the molding section.  Go get one.  LOL

 

You're trying to get him into trouble LOL

[FrogAddict]

I once saw someone cut open a bungie cord and use the white strands inside as a skirt, does that count?