Dents in Senkos

[DiscoDave]

New here great forum can't wait to learn a bunch of stuff from everybody, I do have a quick question I just got my first mold (5" senkos do-it essential) I have made about 10 sets now and every so often some of the worms have dents in them. I have read this could be due to injecting to hot/fast or clamps in certain spots, it typically happens towards the back end of the worm..any help with be appreciated. 

Injecting these in the pictures at 330, but I have injected at 345-350 and ended up with dents as well...also I am topping off at the end.

Using the soft plastic(152) from baitplastic.com if that helps

Edited June 5, 2019 by DiscoDave

[Jig Man]

Try injecting slower and keep some pressure on the injector for a few seconds when done.  That has been better for me than changing heat.

[bridon]

I shoot my stick baits at as low a temp as possible. Try 300 or less also help keep your salt evenly through your bait and not settling to one side. Also ill let my mold cool down if I'm shooting a bunch and it gets hot. Hope that helps.

[Baitjunkys]

That is a never ending issue with that particular mold.

 

[DiscoDave]

18 minutes ago, Baitjunkys said:

That is a never ending issue with that particular mold.

 

Guess I'll just go with trial and error and see if I can get a pattern....

[McLuvin175]

Topping off may not help if the gates are freezing off. Try and de-mold the baits as soon as possible after shooting. Cooling and shrinking baits do so more evenly when not in the mold. If they "shrink" while still in the mold during the cooling process they tend to do so unevenly and dents can occur at the softest spots. Toss them in some cool water to finish or lay them out straight on a level clean surface. See if that helps.

[DiscoDave]

30 minutes ago, McLuvin175 said:

Topping off may not help if the gates are freezing off. Try and de-mold the baits as soon as possible after shooting. Cooling and shrinking baits do so more evenly when not in the mold. If they "shrink" while still in the mold during the cooling process they tend to do so unevenly and dents can occur at the softest spots. Toss them in some cool water to finish or lay them out straight on a level clean surface. See if that helps.

Seems like a simple test, how long do you typically wait before removing them, I'm never in any type of rush and usually wait about 10 minutes.

[Jig Man]

7 minutes ago, DiscoDave said:

Seems like a simple test, how long do you typically wait before removing them, I'm never in any type of rush and usually wait about 10 minutes.

I usually don’t wait more than a couple of minutes to demold.  I pull them out and toss them into a pan of water.

[wallyc14]

From my personal experience with that mold ,or at least the CNC alum. version of that mold. 300-310 degrees , hold  pressure 10-20 seconds. Do that and you should be good to go. What baitjunkys was eluding to and what mcluvin said was spot on . The gate design on that mold just plain sucks. No ifs, ands or buts.  To hot and the gate cools before the bait. I demold and hang mine in about a minute assuming the mold is not heat soaked. 

Ps

 If you feel ambitious you can open up the gate a little bit and it will help . 

Edited June 5, 2019 by wallyc14

[Apdriver]

The gate doesn’t look too restrictive. It’s almost as big as the worm judging from the pics. Not like some where the gate necks down to less than 50% of the worm diameter. 

[McLuvin175]

17 hours ago, DiscoDave said:

Seems like a simple test, how long do you typically wait before removing them, I'm never in any type of rush and usually wait about 10 minutes.

if your having issues with that mold 10 minutes is way too long. Depending on how warm your mold is you should be able to de-mold about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes after shooting; maybe sooner. You'll have to experiment a little to find the sweet spot for this mold. 

[DiscoDave]

30 minutes ago, McLuvin175 said:

if your having issues with that mold 10 minutes is way too long. Depending on how warm your mold is you should be able to de-mold about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes after shooting; maybe sooner. You'll have to experiment a little to find the sweet spot for this mold. 

I will report back later tonight when I give it another test, I was waiting 10 minutes to just be on the safe side lol. I will take out at 2 minutes and see what results that gives me and go down from there.

[wallyc14]

11 hours ago, Apdriver said:

The gate doesn’t look too restrictive. It’s almost as big as the worm judging from the pics. Not like some where the gate necks down to less than 50% of the worm diameter. 

After looking really good at the gate on that mold.Its bigger than mine. Do-it must have made an adjustment to the es mold

[Baitjunkys]

I think you will find, denting is a combo of gates and venting in hand molds. I have took my exact senco mold, and eliminated half of the venting and it dented to beat hell. I think this is the issue you will find with this mold is the venting is insufficient. Now we can argue about venting all day, But don't expect me to argue back, As I know what works for us..

[mark poulson]

43 minutes ago, Baitjunkys said:

. Now we can argue about venting all day, But don't expect me to argue back, As I know what works for us..

Man, you're no fun!  

[wallyc14]

The man knows what he’s doing.

[DiscoDave]

Update:

Made 6 sets last night injection at 290-300 and removing the worms after 3 minutes (instead of my usual 10)

I didn't have one dent in my first 4 sets and only 1 out of 4 had one on my last 2 sets which I believe was due to the mold getting warm and me not waiting long enough to take them out....I'm going to go ahead and say my case and say I was injecting too hot and waiting to long to remove from the mold.

Thanks for all you insight everybody.

 

[Apdriver]

Glad you got it worked out.

[Elf]

 

On 6/6/2019 at 9:06 AM, Baitjunkys said:

I think you will find, denting is a combo of gates and venting in hand molds. I have took my exact senco mold, and eliminated half of the venting and it dented to beat hell. I think this is the issue you will find with this mold is the venting is insufficient. Now we can argue about venting all day, But don't expect me to argue back, As I know what works for us..

I would highly recommend people skip Do-It's Senko molds entirely after my experiences with them and I don't have to be asked in order to recommend Baitjunkys.com for stick molds.

[Covid19mademedoit]

Can the mold also be cooled by dipping in water between injections? I figure if it’s done each time it wouldn’t have too much of a shock.

[Big Bob75]

If you guys are saying that you should skip the Do it molds ones. Which ones are you recommending to get? 

[Elf]

3 hours ago, Big Bob75 said:

If you guys are saying that you should skip the Do it molds ones. Which ones are you recommending to get? 

Batijunky's Stick 'em molds. There are no better stick bait molds.

I'll make it easy to find them.

https://www.baitjunkys.com/Stickem-Stick-Baits_c_172.html

Edited April 27, 2020 by Elf

[Apdriver]

12 hours ago, Covid19mademedoit said:

Can the mold also be cooled by dipping in water between injections? I figure if it’s done each time it wouldn’t have too much of a shock.

You could try it, I guess, but This would introduce water to the cavities and I doubt you could get it all out without heating it or a drying period. Water equals moisture and moisture equals bubbles when working with plastisol. 

[Jig Man]

On 4/26/2020 at 9:12 PM, Covid19mademedoit said:

Can the mold also be cooled by dipping in water between injections? I figure if it’s done each time it wouldn’t have too much of a shock.

I wouldn’t.  Hot plastisol and water don’t plat well with each other.

[Covid19mademedoit]

After more thought, I would not do it either. This isn't only about speed for me but satisfaction of adding to my overall experience of my passion for fishing. Thanks for the input.