Tube Jig Help

[Fern]

Hello Everyone! I am new to this group and new to the hobby although I've read pretty extensively through this forum to help get me on the right track so thank you all for the wealth of knowledge you all share. 

I started pouring plastic for the first time yesterday and I've had a blast. I came into this hobby knowing that I wanted to create a really cool "Rainbow Trout" patterned tube because the striper in our river "Colorado River" (Nevada) eat the stocked trout and everyone uses trout swimbaits out here.  So after watching endless videos on pouring plastics and mixing colors I started off with dipping the rods that came with my lure craft mold in a neon pink color, once cooled I placed the rods back into the molds and I used a dual injector and block to inject a chartreuse and a color shifting purple into the mold. Finally I dipped the entire tube into plastisol with no color added. the baits were coming out better than I hoped.

The problem that I seek help for occurred when I decided to pour a dual color without dipping the rods first. I figured it would just fill up, however the few times I did this, I realized that the plastisol wouldn't make it all the way down to the tail end of the mold like it did when I dipped the rods first. I feel that maybe the plastisol is cooling and curing before it reaches the end. I am not sure if I am right but I feel that maybe this is happening because as the plastisol goes into the mold with rods that I have dipped, it is not touching the metal rods so the plastisol doesn't cool as fast as when the rods are not dipped and it makes direct contact with the metal.

If this is the case, should I be heating my mold before I pour everytime I pour is am I doing something else wrong? I also noticed that this would cause air pockets to form in the finished product as well as some tubes having dents in them. 

I have attached a few pictures of tubes that I feel came out of the mold right and a few of the ones that did not. 

 

Aside from that, I look forward to learning from you all. If you have any ideas to make my trout pattern better, I would love to hear your ideas. 

 

best, 

 

Fern

 

Edited May 6, 2020 by Fern
Added pictures.

[Fern]

The tubes that did not come out good, have a green head because I attempted to shoot the mold again to try and fill it with the green color. I did this by moving the rods back so that the head would be thick but I figured it would leave enough space for hot plastisol to make it to the end, however it did not and just gave the lures a green head. 

[mark poulson]

I can't help you with your dipping problem, but those are some really beautiful baits!

 

[Fern]

56 minutes ago, mark poulson said:

I can't help you with your dipping problem, but those are some really beautiful baits!

 

Thank you! I’m hoping I can figure out my errors so I can start making consistent batches. I’ve also found that I have a lot of air bubbles in the Hot plastisol so I think I’ll end up getting a vacuum chamber soon To alleviate this, however I’ve read everywhere not to put hot Pyrex on metal and the chamber that I’m looking at has a metal bottom. Do you know if this will be an issue? Or should I put a piece of cardboard on the bottom of the chamber to set the hot glass? 

[Les Young]

17 hours ago, mark poulson said:

I can't help you with your dipping problem, but those are some really beautiful baits!

 

Yes they are       I've done tubes both ways & never had that to happen.I've done single injection, hand dip & i've also injected & then hand dipped to make two color tubes & haven't had anything like that to happen, but i have an angling ai tube mold too so i don't know if that could be the difference.

[Fern]

1 hour ago, Les Young said:

Yes they are       I've done tubes both ways & never had that to happen.I've done single injection, hand dip & i've also injected & then hand dipped to make two color tubes & haven't had anything like that to happen, but i have an angling ai tube mold too so i don't know if that could be the difference.

When you fill inject your mold, should the mold be hot before injecting or should it work Even if the mold is cold. I ordered 3 angling AI tube molds that should hopefully be here soon, I’ve heard great things about them. The lure craft mold makes nice tubes when it works but so far my experience with Lurecraft hasn’t been pleasant. I got the mold I am using this past Friday and one of the rods from the mold was bent and the tail splitter I ordered didn’t come in the package so I’ve been cutting these with a single razor blade. I emailed them on Friday and I hadn’t heard from them till today after I wrote back asking for an update. They’re shipping it out today but didn’t even bother with an apology. Oh well I guess, on to make more baits. Are there any cool tricks or techniques that I can try when making tube baits? Any neat effects? Cool things to try? 

[Les Young]

I've never heated any of my molds at all, but after staying at it i did  have to take a break to let them cool a little until a started  stacking them  like one not being shot then one i'm shooting then another not being shot etc. that completely ended the need to let the molds being shot cool because the ones not being shot were absorbing heat from  them.Oil  the rods  every time you shoot. I just lightly brush some on with an art brush.  I've also done laminate tubes with the  4" double dipper tube mold & had good luck. If you inject & then hand dip make sure the color your hand dipping is a little cooler then what you normally inject at which will let it build up quick. To thin & it will run  & let the bottom color that you injected show through pretty easy When  I was making shorter tubes i  injected then attached a little spring clip to the ends that would be cut off  later since i was making shorter ones anyway & then hand dipped & hung up on headless nails to cure after drying. I've got around 50 green pumpkin colored ones that need the tails cut now. My cutter is lurecrafts block attached to  a heavier duty  home made beefed up version similar  to their press. I dip the end to be cut in worm oil then lay it under block, press handle down a couple times & the tails are cut & seperated pretty good. Doing hand dipped i just dip & spin around until plastic sets up then hang up to cure.  Also look up horizontal dipping tube lures. There' s a video by get bent kayak fishing  using  dollar tent stakes from walmart & using very little plastic to do it that way which i'm thinking about trying myself.

Edited May 7, 2020 by Les Young

[Fern]

1 hour ago, Les Young said:

I've never heated any of my molds at all, but after staying at it i did  have to take a break to let them cool a little until a started  stacking them  like one not being shot then one i'm shooting then another not being shot etc. that completely ended the need to let the molds being shot cool because the ones not being shot were absorbing heat from  them.Oil  the rods  every time you shoot. I just lightly brush some on with an art brush.  I've also done laminate tubes with the  4" double dipper tube mold & had good luck. If you inject & then hand dip make sure the color your hand dipping is a little cooler then what you normally inject at which will let it build up quick. To thin & it will run  & let the bottom color that you injected show through pretty easy When  I was making shorter tubes i  injected then attached a little spring clip to the ends that would be cut off  later since i was making shorter ones anyway & then hand dipped & hung up on headless nails to cure after drying. I've got around 50 green pumpkin colored ones that need the tails cut now. My cutter is lurecrafts block attached to  a heavier duty  home made beefed up version similar  to their press. I dip the end to be cut in worm oil then lay it under block, press handle down a couple times & the tails are cut & seperated pretty good. Doing hand dipped i just dip & spin around until plastic sets up then hang up to cure.  Also look up horizontal dipping tube lures. There' s a video by get bent kayak fishing  using  dollar tent stakes from walmart & using very little plastic to do it that way which i'm thinking about trying myself.

Wow, I really appreciate all the information, tips and techniques. is curing the baits necessary? they feel pretty dry and sturdy right out of the mold. I'vce left some on the table overnight and nothing happened to them and also I have just been tossing them in water overnight. I have not seen any issues. What kind of issues can happen from doing it this way vs hanging them?

I've ordered the 4 inch Angling AI double dip, tripple dip and XL just to play around with to see which I like better. I figure I will use the XL when I go saltwater fishing.

You mentioned horizontal dipping. Is there any benefit from dipping this way vs vertical dipping? any effects that can be done using this method? Ive been just tilting the pyrex glass slightly and dipping only one half of the rod horizontally to coat only half of the rod.

I am pretty pumped to get fully started making the jig heads for them too, just waiting on my lees pot to arrive so I can start melting led and making the Ultra Minnow Jig Heads in 1 ounce with the "Do-it molds" mold.

I'll look for that guys horizontal video now. Thanks again.

One last thing. Is it possible to make topwater lures out of tubes? I was playing around with the idea with one of my reject tubes and I came up with this. I was thinking of pouring some with dead on plastix floating plastisol mix. What I did here was take a 5 inch wire shaft, I poked it through the nose. Before I did that, I attached trebles on a oval split rings rings, poked the split ring through the belly of the tube and ran the wire shaft through the rings to secure the trebles in place and then I secured the end by tiwsting the shaft to keep the trebles from sliding off. It will need more manipulation to make it work right, right now I am just hoping it handles well as a topwater. Mostly this was just me being bored and trying new ways to fish tubes. 

[Frank]

On 5/5/2020 at 9:55 PM, Fern said:

Thank you! I’m hoping I can figure out my errors so I can start making consistent batches. I’ve also found that I have a lot of air bubbles in the Hot plastisol so I think I’ll end up getting a vacuum chamber soon To alleviate this, however I’ve read everywhere not to put hot Pyrex on metal and the chamber that I’m looking at has a metal bottom. Do you know if this will be an issue? Or should I put a piece of cardboard on the bottom of the chamber to set the hot glass? 

Vacumn before you heat it. Save a lot of errors like you mentioned. 

[Fern]

46 minutes ago, Frank said:

Vacumn before you heat it. Save a lot of errors like you mentioned. 

Any suggestions on what vacuum to get?

also, If I understood correctly, should I not be vacuuming when it comes out of the microwave?

[Frank]

7 hours ago, Fern said:

Any suggestions on what vacuum to get?

also, If I understood correctly, should I not be vacuuming when it comes out of the microwave?

Look on eBay most are very usable for what we do.  Get one bigger than you think you need it will help in the future. Mine is a 4 gallon one. And yes vacuum when it is cold not hot. 

[Les Young]

Some plastisol seems to take longer to fully cure than others. I’ve made lures out of lureworks & Baitjunkys Calhoun both & used them the  next day, but i’ve let the Baitplastics cure for a few days because what I used of it seems to    Be stretchy & put off some oil for a few days until  fully cured. They said they’d never heard of this happening & i’m going off of my experience only so I don’t know if anyone else has or not. Could have just been the batch I got. However I will say that after it  fully cured that  the lures made with it were excellent. Not for sure which brand I’m going with next time Baitplastics or  Lureworks.