Fish_N_Fool Posted December 8, 2005 Report Share Posted December 8, 2005 I have a customer that is looking for a 6" or so crawdad bait with 3" long pichers, anyone making anything this big? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mojo Posted December 8, 2005 Report Share Posted December 8, 2005 Check out my website for the Monster Craw. The pinchers aren't quite 3" though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basskat Posted December 9, 2005 Report Share Posted December 9, 2005 A crawfish that size would make some GOOD gumbo! That's more the size of a lobster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COBRA Posted December 14, 2005 Report Share Posted December 14, 2005 the biggest craw that i pour, is about 5" in length, i havent seen any other craws much bigger. its the actual size of a ct river craw from up here in ct, thats where is came from. email me for a pic of it, i couldnt get the pic to work posting it unless someone else can tell me how. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrawChuck Posted February 20, 2006 Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 the biggest craw that i pour, is about 5" in length, i havent seen any other craws much bigger. its the actual size of a ct river craw from up here in ct, thats where is came from. email me for a pic of it, i couldnt get the pic to work posting it unless someone else can tell me how. To post a pic you need a host like www.imageshack.us . After they upload your pic they give you several link options. You can copy the direct link to image one and paste it here between img tags. I can custom make a mold from any size live cray if somebody can catch one that big! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millsryno Posted February 20, 2006 Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 Hey CrawChunk, How do you make a mold from the actual crawdad? Do you freeze it or anything first? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrawChuck Posted February 20, 2006 Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 Thought nobody would ever ask! It's tricky to say the least. Laying aside cruelty for the sake of a new lure you can freeze em or cook em in boiling water or just get downright nasty and gut em alive. See my mold pic in the All Aboard forum for starters and it will help explain the rest. When the killing is done however it is done, the claws with arms need to be removed at the body. All the walking legs can be discarded since they don't pour well and perch will drive ya crazy. The claws w/arms need to be pinned to a board or piece of foam to dry with pins holding the claws open as well as the body needs to also be pinned straight till dry. This can take several days for the body but you can use a dehydrator to speed it up. It also helps to remove the guts in the body section prior to pinning. After the parts are sufficiently dry and stiff the body needs some work with wax. I use a candle to drip wax into the body cavity then use a blade of some sort to trim it to the coutour of the body. A hook groove can then be carved out of the body cavity so there's less plastic to set the hook through. The arms are also beefed up a little on the very thin parts with wax to make for better pouring and are attached to the body with wax. Depending on the type of bait you can form the tail section however you like with wax. I prefer to remove the flared tail sides and attach a section of plastic worm for the hooking part since it needs to go through brush and stuff. Then I proceed to make the master mold from plaster. It has been many years since I did this alot and like the idea on here somewhere about using lego's for the mold frame. But I used to use a box made from wood with countertop material laminated to it. The plaster was poured into the box and shaken to level it out and the cray was placed halfway in. The plaster needs to be just right, kinda thick, so the body sticks in and no plaster flows over the edge of the tail. A piece of plastic worm is laid in between the tail and edge of container to make a pour space. Pay close attention to the claw tips that they don't get burried. If they do you can scrape away the undesired foul-ups after the plaster has hardened. For alignment humps I would twirl the end of a butterknife to make a perfectly round hole. Then the entire surface needs a coating of paste wax but don't get any on the craw body. A thin coat is sufficient for release. Then pour the other half. Alot of shaking and bouncing gets the air bubbles out. I guess you do need a box or some other container to do the bouncing! After that's cured, I would give it a night, remove it from the container and insert the butterknife carefully into one corner and I never broke a mold, it should release but no guarantees! Might require a little effort but it will. The cray body will likely be stuck in the first half. This takes some tedious effort sometimes to remove and may come out in pieces with the tip of a sharp knife and tweezers but it will come out. You can then enlarge the pour space into a funnel if desired. For coating the cavity, I used Envirotex One-To-One Clear Plastic Finish from Wal Mart in the crafts section and some hobby shops have it. I guess the epoxy mentioned elsewhere here would work. For this master I would only apply one coat just to seal the cavity, the plaster need to be dry and apply the sealer with a fine brush allowing the plaster to soak up as much as possible without any excess standing. Don't allow any outside the cavity or you'll have flash. To make the master I would use a firm plastisol to pour. Sometimes you'll get pours with dents from the plastic cooling and pulling away from the sides but sometimes not. I would use the baits from these pours to make the production molds. The only additional step is a second, very, very thin second coating inside the cavity to make the baits shiney and release easily without losing detail. If ya can't see the little bumps it's no good!!! Hope I didn't leave anything out. the molds I made 20 years ago are still in use by my old buddies although some have developed cracks over time. The tolerance is very good and no flash at all if done right. I have been out of this for about 15 years and am wanting to get started again. Glad to have found this site...it's woken up the old bug!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthworm77 Posted February 20, 2006 Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 Nice response Chuck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrawChuck Posted February 20, 2006 Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 Nice response Chuck! Thanks and I like your website! What type RTV do you use for custom mold work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthworm77 Posted February 20, 2006 Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Product&ID=82083 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrawChuck Posted February 20, 2006 Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 Thanks for that link. I'm going to get some of that and try some stuff with the real crays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millsryno Posted February 20, 2006 Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 CrawChuck, Sure would be neat to see some pics with your tutorial. ;-) Nice how-to you posted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrawChuck Posted February 20, 2006 Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 I've been meaning to do that when I get all set back up again, thanks for the interest. I just ordered some of the RTV...that ought to be interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
