Colorant Brands

[chrisr]

I am a newbie in need of guidance. I see M-F colorants are the most recommended here, but something is up with them and most of their stuff is sold out. Anybody know anything about that? Is there much variance between Green Pumpkin colorants one brand to another? Is there another brand that is close to M-F 74? Thanks in advance for any help given.   -Chris

[Les Young]

I like lureworks colorants & glitter & they have good plastic too. 

[chrisr]

Thanks Les, so you would sub LureWorks 109 for M-F 74?

Sidenote: after some heavy research into this forum I plan to start with LureWorks 502 plastic.

[Les Young]

I've never used M-F stuff. I use the 109 myself &  really like it. 

Edited June 9 by Les Young

[Les Young]

As far as plastic goes I've used calhouns that baitjunkys used to sale, lureworks & bait plastics & have settled on baitplastics for the last couple years. I will say that lureworks is some good stuff. 

[DaveMc1]

On 6/8/2024 at 1:49 PM, chrisr said:

I am a newbie in need of guidance. I see M-F colorants are the most recommended here, but something is up with them and most of their stuff is sold out. Anybody know anything about that? Is there much variance between Green Pumpkin colorants one brand to another? Is there another brand that is close to M-F 74? Thanks in advance for any help given.   -Chris

Everyone's pigments/dyes are unique to that supplier. I have always found the majority of MF to be thin (watered down). The Lureworks line is great, I use them for the majority of my pigments/dyes. Their parent company (colortechnologies) supplies a good portion of the production industries so it is likely your favourite brands are buying the same pigments/dyes.

On 6/9/2024 at 6:33 AM, chrisr said:

Thanks Les, so you would sub LureWorks 109 for M-F 74?

Sidenote: after some heavy research into this forum I plan to start with LureWorks 502 plastic.

As noted above, every supplier's pigments are unique. As for Greenpumpkin, it never hurts to have a green GP like 109 as well as a browner version like 156 (both LureWorks colours)

I think you're referring to LureCraft, they sell a plastic labelled 502, not Lureworks. 

[chrisr]

Thanks for the input Dave. Yes, I misspoke and mean LC 502. I will take your advice and get a GPG and GPB colorant from LW. I have some more brown colors (craw) I am wanting to try as well, so this will come in handy.

Truth be told I am going to try and crack the GYCB GP code. I prefer this GP to Zoom GP, but it is just for my own confidence. A recipe listed here and one on YouTube I found call for/use M-F 74 as a base. M-F going out of business has set this pursuit back some.

[Les Young]

I use both green pumpkins DaveMc1 mentioned

[RedRum]

On 6/9/2024 at 3:33 AM, chrisr said:

Thanks Les, so you would sub LureWorks 109 for M-F 74?

Sidenote: after some heavy research into this forum I plan to start with LureWorks 502 plastic.

Heads up to lurecraft plastics! I got some very inconsistent plastic from lurecraft. So inconsistent and bad I would have never bought that again if that’s what it was like the first several times I used it. I got nowhere with her trying to rectify situation and it was 50 gallons worth of hell. She had no clue what was going on either with her plastic or how to manage her employees. 
Calhouns plastic is better and surprisingly considerably better priced. 
Calhouns cures way more clear and does not hard pack like lurecraft. 
If you can’t handle 55 gallon barrels direct from Calhouns, you can get it in gallon and 5 gallon from Fat Guys fishing. 

Edited June 26 by RedRum
Grammar

[alsworms]

4 hours ago, RedRum said:

Heads up to lurecraft plastics! I got some very inconsistent plastic from lurecraft. So inconsistent and bad I would have never bought that again if that’s what it was like the first several times I used it. I got nowhere with her trying to rectify situation and it was 50 gallons worth of hell. She had no clue what was going on either with her plastic or how to manage her employees. 
Calhouns plastic is better and surprisingly considerably better priced. 
Calhouns cures way more clear and does not hard pack like lurecraft. 
If you can’t handle 55 gallon barrels direct from Calhouns, you can get it in gallon and 5 gallon from Fat Guys fishing. 

A 50 gallon jug of LC will need to be mixed vigorously before even thinking about using it.  I've had some that have had an entire gallon or more of hardener separated from the drum. Once you figure that out, LC is pretty good stuff.  If you're someone going from MF to LC, you will be shocked the first time you use it!  I actually used an old wooden baseball bat to break up the hardener.  LOL.

[DaveMc1]

On 6/26/2024 at 12:07 PM, RedRum said:

Heads up to lurecraft plastics! I got some very inconsistent plastic from lurecraft. So inconsistent and bad I would have never bought that again if that’s what it was like the first several times I used it. I got nowhere with her trying to rectify situation and it was 50 gallons worth of hell. She had no clue what was going on either with her plastic or how to manage her employees. 
Calhouns plastic is better and surprisingly considerably better priced. 
Calhouns cures way more clear and does not hard pack like lurecraft. 
If you can’t handle 55 gallon barrels direct from Calhouns, you can get it in gallon and 5 gallon from Fat Guys fishing. 

One of the reasons for the consistency differences is the batch sizes, LC last I read is mixing drums at a time where Calhoun (Lureworks & Polysol too) will batch thousands of gallons at a time. 

[Driftwood]

I would stick with lureworks for colorant. I would also add that if you use a paste colorant, you will be able to get a better consistency by weighing by grams.

[RedRum]

18 hours ago, DaveMc1 said:

One of the reasons for the consistency differences is the batch sizes, LC last I read is mixing drums at a time where Calhoun (Lureworks & Polysol too) will batch thousands of gallons at a time. 

Yes that’s what she told me. It’s mixed/produced in house by her annd her only and not a plastics facility like Calhoun. No lot # or anything like that b

[RedRum]

On 6/26/2024 at 1:50 PM, alsworms said:

A 50 gallon jug of LC will need to be mixed vigorously before even thinking about using it.  I've had some that have had an entire gallon or more of hardener separated from the drum. Once you figure that out, LC is pretty good stuff.  If you're someone going from MF to LC, you will be shocked the first time you use it!  I actually used an old wooden baseball bat to break up the hardener.  LOL.

That’s not what happened. I do understand that LC hard packs instantly and needs to be mixed really well. The problem was the chemistry of what happened specifically to that batch of plastic that was nothing like any other batches of LC I had used in the previous year which was quite enough to have mastered the characteristics of the workability of the plastic. Hands down it was an unstable batch without lot/batch# or any QC/QA and the issue was never honored. 
I agree it’s a fairly good formula when it works right but it’s over priced and the hard formula lacks clarity.

[alsworms]

1 hour ago, RedRum said:

That’s not what happened. I do understand that LC hard packs instantly and needs to be mixed really well. The problem was the chemistry of what happened specifically to that batch of plastic that was nothing like any other batches of LC I had used in the previous year which was quite enough to have mastered the characteristics of the workability of the plastic. Hands down it was an unstable batch without lot/batch# or any QC/QA and the issue was never honored. 
I agree it’s a fairly good formula when it works right but it’s over priced and the hard formula lacks clarity.

She didn't make it right and send another one?

[RedRum]

2 hours ago, alsworms said:

She didn't make it right and send another one?

I don’t understand what you’re asking

[alsworms]

19 hours ago, RedRum said:

I don’t understand what you’re asking

I'm sorry, brother.  Maybe I misunderstood.  I'm not getting any younger! LOL

I thought that after everything you tried, it turned out just being a bad batch of plastic.  In which case, most companies will send another to replace that. 

[mark poulson]

18 hours ago, alsworms said:

I'm sorry, brother.  Maybe I misunderstood.  I'm not getting any younger! LOL

I thought that after everything you tried, it turned out just being a bad batch of plastic.  In which case, most companies will send another to replace that. 

Exactly!

[RedRum]

18 hours ago, alsworms said:

I'm sorry, brother.  Maybe I misunderstood.  I'm not getting any younger! LOL

I thought that after everything you tried, it turned out just being a bad batch of plastic.  In which case, most companies will send another to replace that. 

Most companies I would hope would cooperate better. It was deliberate stalling and several attempts at anything except just solving the problem. 
I gave up. She won! I’m sure that’s what she was pushing for because after she royally fukt the last attempt and didn’t follow up I knew she didn’t care about my problems. I don’t want to do business with someone who handles customers like that. She never followed up anytime again to see why I hadn’t returned for business, knowing that there wasn’t a solution. 

[RedRum]

7 minutes ago, mark poulson said:

Exactly!

You would hope after 4 months of going back and fourth on 1/2 measured attempts to solve the problem that  might be the case. It was not! It was clear and deliberate avoidance in dealing with it correctly in hopes that I would go away, which I did on simple principle that I don’t want to do regular business with someone who operates like that and don’t have the patience to deal with someone who sends insults as solutions to the problems they’ve caused me. After everything we talked about on the phone and she told me, it’s clear that they’re running an oaky operation without procedures, QC/QA or good manufacturing practices. 
I’m way more happy with Calhoun plastics.