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One Man, One Mold, Again...........

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Right now I have one! own custom design mold and have been hand injecting. My problem is that I heat the plastic up add my color, glitter and ect. Then inject my mold wait for it to cool to demold and then time to repeat. It seems that I have to re-microwave each time to get my plastic right.

How would you guys keep my plastisol hot/warm with out re-microwave.?

I did try a presto pot that I bought at wally world but scorched a lot of plastic and seemed to be too big for my one man one mold production. Anything smaller.?

Also has played with the idea of a beaker heater or a beaker hot plate with a stirring system?

P.s. mean while I'll be saving for jacobs injection press and more molds.

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You did not mention using a griddle. When all of the part are hot it will keep for 3-4 shots before a reheat. Then the reheat is for like 30sec. You will need to stir a little but it should work for you. I have an old presto that I cut the sides down and use that once in awhile, it get a little hotter that the griddle. Mostly because it is thinner. Frank

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A heat band, temp controller, and an aluminum tube with an aluminum disc welded or screwed into the bottom would be just the ticket. Kind of expensive when you add it all up, but it might work. I tried the Lee's Plastic Pots for small batches and I decided they sucked. They leak, and don't hold temp very well, take forver to heat up, and the plunger for hand pouring is just in the way.

Another suggestion when I was dealing with the small batch issues was a fondue pot. I never followed up on it, but if the temp range is good it might do ok to hold plastic, although I would probably still heat and kick small batches in the micro.

One man, One mold... is going to be a tough row to hoe no matter what you do though.

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How about using the presto pot to heat and maintain the plastic. Then pour off what you need to fill your injector into a pyrex cup, fill you injector from the pyrex cup and shoot. While you are waiting for the mold to cool clean the injector and throw the plug back into the pot. Then peel the plastic out of the cup and throw that back into the cup. Demold and repeat.

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How about using the presto pot to heat and maintain the plastic. Then pour off what you need to fill your injector into a pyrex cup, fill you injector from the pyrex cup and shoot. While you are waiting for the mold to cool clean the injector and throw the plug back into the pot. Then peel the plastic out of the cup and throw that back into the cup. Demold and repeat.

X-2 Get a thermometer as the heat dial on the presto is not all ways correct.

AND STIR if you do not have a motorized system.

Edited by JSC
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When I make up a batch I make about 3/4 C. As I am injecting I use a separate pyrex to put in my "waste." I keep using the liquid plastic in the one pyrex cup. You can inject, de-mold, stir, draw up more liquid plastic, inject, while de-molding throw cup into microwave for 15-30 seconds to heat it up again and do it all over again. When the liquid gets low, it is time to throw in sprues and other trimmings back into the main cup to melt down again. This method works out well for me.

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I use a hot plate i get my plastic hot in a egg poacher pan i bought a wally world. I can shoot about 9 shots form this pan. I wipe the tip off after injecting pull the plunger back set the end on the hot plate while i open my mold. I might have to clean my injector once during my 9 shots. If the plastic starts getting too hot i will set it off a min or so. Bought the hot plate at Freds for around $11.00 I wished i had of gotten the two burner. You could have one eye at a cooler temp and switch your pan back and forth also two colors at the same time. Cub48

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I would highly recommend more molds before more equipment. No matter how you heat your plastic, your still going to be waiting for your bait to cure enough to open up the mold. The other thing is that your one mold is going to get hot and you'll have to either let it sit or stick it in front of a fan to cool down. That = wasted time which makes for a long tiring day of making very few baits.

It sounds like you are looking at getting into more production then hobby, if that's the case you have even more reason to buy more molds. You need to find that fine line between not enough molds and too many. As an example, with one of my most popular baits I have 10 molds...with 2 guys, one running the machine to fill and the other opening molds, removing baits and re-clamping I only need 8 of those molds...BUT if I'm doing it alone I will use all 10 because I can heat up more plastic while I de-mold. The bottom line is, either way I do it there is no time wasted.

In my opinion, anytime you are sitting around waiting for plastic to heat up or a mold to cool down with nothing to do, your wasting time.

Just keep asking questions...there are a lot of guys on here with more knowledge then me that could provide you some very valuable insight and significantly cut down on the learning curve, you just need to listen and be humble enough to admit when your making a mistake.

Jeff

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I would highly recommend more molds before more equipment. No matter how you heat your plastic, your still going to be waiting for your bait to cure enough to open up the mold. The other thing is that your one mold is going to get hot and you'll have to either let it sit or stick it in front of a fan to cool down. That = wasted time which makes for a long tiring day of making very few baits.

It sounds like you are looking at getting into more production then hobby, if that's the case you have even more reason to buy more molds. You need to find that fine line between not enough molds and too many. As an example, with one of my most popular baits I have 10 molds...with 2 guys, one running the machine to fill and the other opening molds, removing baits and re-clamping I only need 8 of those molds...BUT if I'm doing it alone I will use all 10 because I can heat up more plastic while I de-mold. The bottom line is, either way I do it there is no time wasted.

In my opinion, anytime you are sitting around waiting for plastic to heat up or a mold to cool down with nothing to do, your wasting time.

Just keep asking questions...there are a lot of guys on here with more knowledge then me that could provide you some very valuable insight and significantly cut down on the learning curve, you just need to listen and be humble enough to admit when your making a mistake.

Jeff

Dead on. I can't see any substitute for more cavities when wanting to increase production. Then you also need to consider number of molds and cooling time. Again. Dead on. I have one bait I make a lot of that I have 6 2 cavity molds. I shoot them in twos and get a cyle going. I have another bait I make a lot of in a single 20+ cavity mold. For the first couple shots the 20 cavity is faster, but after the molds start to get hot the 6 2 cavity molds are faster. The obvious answer of course is I need to make more of both of those molds, but I like making new designs too...

Anyway. I agree 100% Cavity count is number one for increasing production. When you are cycling fast then cooling time becomes an issue also. At some point your ability to cook and maintain plastic also becomes an issue, but I doubt it matters all that much for just one mold. (Just my opinion.- LOL)

I can set a Pyrex cup fresh out of the micro on my wooden work bench and shoot a small mold (except for some of the tricky ones) two or three times before I have to reheat the plastic. After the mold starts to maintain more heat then I can only shoot it once or twice because the plastic cools slower. I can usually only shoot it once though if I set the cup on the cold steel table of one of my drill presses. LOL. Of course after the plastic cools my drill press table is really really clean. LOL.

Of course there is another perspective. If you only have one mold and you are struggling to make it pay because you can't afford another one then do whatever you can. To go a little further though. If you only have one mold, and you have enough money for a second mold or for a small appliance, buy the second mold.

I sold a few crappie jigs as a kid with just one mold. It was better than selling zero crappie jigs.

Nostalgia Moment Here.

My dad found my old jig mold and brought it to me the other day. Wow! I can't believe I was able to sell jigs made in that crude mold. It was a commercial mold too. Now for some real nostalgia if he could find a couple of the burnt out wood blocks I used for pouring my own muzzleloader conical bullets...

(Straight undersized and patched. Not minis or maxis.)

Edited by Bob La Londe
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I'm finally caving in and buying 10 more molds! I know, I know it's about time. I'm 27 years old and still think I know everything. Thanks for the input. Maybe next time I can post one man and 10 molds!!!

I don't know what bait you are making, but I knew some guys who made money just producing one popular bait in quantity. They would sell bags of 100 and lot orders of 500 all the same color. They could produce that one bait in one color at a time more efficiently than I can 10 different baits or even the same bait in 10 colors. The negative of course is they often had to sit on a couple thousand of a color for a while or blow them out on FleaBay cheap.

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Bear's new two-color system( also works w/1 color) and stops all the run-around and extra equipment to double(and even triple) your production output.Complete w/ 2 Presto pots w/ stirrors you need to invest 1k- if you already have the presto pots complete $500.00. That is one cheap investment if you're in the business. My wife helps out in the shop occassionally and she was really impressed as she was continuosly busy hangging newly de-molded baits on the drying racks w/ this new system vs. sittiing and waiting inbetween injection rounds w/ my old method.

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