Types of molds

[fishinwire]

Is one type (material) of mold better than the the other? Durability. finish of the plastic, easier to use?

[Big Splash]

I have molds made of four different materials, silicone, aluminum, resin, and plaster. Some molds, for specific bait types are best made from certain materials. All the molds I have work well reguardless of the material. It really depends on the finish inside the cavity. If it is smooth the bait comes out shiney. I have one silicone mold made by a well known company that will not pour smooth worms, as it has a rough finish. I'm partial to my own hand made plaster molds with a good bar top finish on the cavity and top surface. I also like an aluminum mold I got in a swap, but one bait shape pours better than the other. On the other hand you can only do so much with plaster, like zipper worms would be dificult to make a mold for. Better if done in resin or aluminum.

[Travis]

Aluminum hands down. I have plenty of plaster molds that I still use but honestly they can't compare to the aluminum molds I have purchased. My plaster turn out great uniform shiney baits but bottom line they lack the detail present in aluminum, although they do give a less professional, as some guys have told me "hand poured" look, where as the aluminum look better than alot of the stuff you can buy at the store. Like the plaster (water puddy) because you can whip out a mold but if I where going to pour a lot of that mold or for sale I would have an aluminum mold made. Last water puddy mold I made I had baits poured after an hour great for making prototypes.

[woodsac]

I think that aluminum molds are superior in both uniformity and longevity.

One thing that I am unable to do with aluminum molds, is 'blend' colors. When your plastic comes in contact with the aluminum, it almost freezes in place. Even if your molds are already warm.

When I pour my crawdads for instance, I want the color of the claws to actually run down into the arms. It makes for a real nice transition. The aluminum molds keep the colors too uniform for some applications.

But, that's only preference. If you want all of your baits to look exactly alike, and you can avoid over pouring, then go with aluminum.

I also find myself having to reheat more often with the aluminum. I think it's because the plastic has to be super hot in order to place layers on top of each other. For example, I can pour 3 colors on top of each other without filling the width of the cavity. They just stack one on top of another. It's kind of a rounded effect to the plastic. If you try that with any other mold, the colors will lay flat on top of each other taking up all the space in the cavity. I could pour 2 drops of plastic from the same cup, the one that landed on the aluminum would be more round, the one on the resin or putty mold would be flatter.

It's not a big deal, unless you need the plastic to flow for certain baits like I do. Don't get me wrong, aluminum molds are nice. I'm ordering some more. But there are some of my resin molds that aluminum will never replace.

[Delw]

A tip for getting the alum molds to blend colors is to preheat the molds to about 125-150 degrees in the oven on a flat rack.

or you could use a griddle and keep it at about 150 degrees and pour the worms while its sitting on there.

I have alot of customers that do this both ways and they are very hapy with there success.

Once alum heats up you can pour very freely.

Pouring blood lines in a alum mold works really nice also.

dont forget I live in AZ where its always hot so my molds dont get a chance to cool, I notced that the people that are having problems blending colors are usually in the colder climates and work in thier garages/shops. this is where the griddle works best(taht way teh mold is always hot) walmart sells them pretty cheap and I believe they go up to 400?

Delw