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Plaster is a cheap way to get into mold making and it is available locally. Go to Home Depot and get water putty. It works like plaster of Paris but is stronger. The bull worm is a good worm to start with because it has a flat side. This is what I do but there are variations that will work as well. You will develop your own process if you keep making molds. My process may take longer than others but being retired, I don't rush anything. Go fishing if you can't keep yourself from fiddling with the mold. Superglue the flat side down to a container. I use the Styrofoam containers meat is packaged in at the supermarket. Mix up the putty and cover the glued down bait. Let it dry overnight and carefully remove the mold from the rest of the pieces. The mold has to dry and then be sealed. Some people put them in their vehicle this time of year to do this. I usually set the mold on top of my oil fired furnace and wait a week. Once dry, you can seal it in a number of ways. I prefer to use Elmers white glue that is thinned with water to a 50 - 50 mix. Pour it in to fill the mold cavity, let it sit five minutes and pour the glue out. I like to take some of the glue being poured out and wipe it on the surface of the mold with my hand. I set the mold upside down on newspaper with wooden skewers as spacers to keep the mold off the newspaper. Let it sit overnight and remove the now stuck on skewers. Roll them to release rather than pull them off. Let the mold dry another day and it is ready to use. As I implied above, you can find ways to speed it up if you want to.

Its been on my mind lately, and wanted to start a thread about safety regarding our various resins we use with hard baits. I personally have developed a sensitivity to certain resins and upon further research I fault myself for not using better precautions. The fastest way to end one's lure making days is to develop a sensitivity to one of the chemicals used in bait making so I will give my lessons learned with safety and encourage others to give their lessons learned. First, polyurethanes use a toxic chemical known as methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) which is usually the yellow or darked tinted liquid in two part mixes. The clear liquid is usually a diol compound similar to antifreeze and is less toxic. Studies have found nearly everyone can eventually become sensitized to MDI with enough time. 2-8 years of low chronic exposure to MDI will result in 25% or higher likelihood of sensitization. Of those sensitized, 60% will retain the symptoms of sensitization for life, even when permanently removed for ALL exposure. Recently it has been learned that dermal contact with isocyanates can be as dangerous or even more dangerous than inhalation. You may not have realized that spraying an auto clear without a mask is as dangerous as spilling uncured resin on your skin. Second, epoxies usually contain triamines and/or formaldehyde and have caused even worse sensitizations than with isocyanates in studies with Guinea Pigs. Everything above applies but even more severe. Third, microballoons are borosilicate glass and when inhaled chronically can cause silicosis (permanent scarring of the lungs). I work in the abrasives/grinding industry and have personally viewed ceramic dust under a SEM, and have seen many particles often as small as 1 micron by 4 microns. Hence, your dust mask and/or filter is not removing them. When you sand microballoon filled resin your dust mask is not enough. To protect yourself when pouring resins, at a minimum, you should: [1] Work in a well ventilated area [2] Wear nitrile gloves and long sleeve shirt (no exposed skin) [3] Use a vent hood when pouring/sanding/mixing resins or use a full air supplied respirator [4] Never heat any resin without industrial equipment designed for such a purpose [5] Forget about "it won't happen to me" because it will, given enough chronic exposure [6] Remember that even organic respirators do not remove isocyanate vapors Any other stories/suggestions?

Ya I would guess an amber and darken to match

1. Nobody on here was the first person to paint a crankbait. Get over yourselves. You started at some point too. 2. You should be glad that custom baits are gaining in popularity because you have more competition on the equipment/supplies side. More competition means more innovation and possibilities. 3. Do you discredit an artist because he didn’t handcraft his canvas? What about a sculptor because he didn’t make his own clay? Where do you draw the line? If I cast my own crankbait blanks, can I call them custom...even though I didn’t invent the resin I used? Bottom line, you’re mad because other people are taking a piece of the pie. Welcome to capitalism. Like skeeter said, be the best and don’t worry about the rest. Row your own boat.

So much butthurt, frankly it cracks me up. Anybody on here whining about Farcebook groups and "too many painters" need to just shut up. Probably angry because when they started the help available wasn't as easily attainable.I wonder how much help this forum has been to them over the years? I guess it's OK to get help and info here but no place else on the internet? And as far as the sale pages, THE CREAM RISES TO THE TOP! Plain and simple. Are there a ton of guys doing crappy work? Yes there is, same as before, always been hacks in every business however. There are also a ton of folks putting out some amazing work, hell yes there is. As I said before, the damn cream rises to the top, the hacks sell few and when they do it is at low prices, the quality folks sell plenty at premium prices. crankbaits, jigs, spinnerbaits, plastics etc. Someone brought up "cheap blanks from china", guess what dude, damn near ALL manufactures source the blanks, painting and packaging from China as well, not much to bitch about here either. Well, if there is a bitch its that it all comes from there, and we are responsible for that as a whole, but discussing that issue further is impossible without it getting political. So, my recommendation is, quit the whining and get painting. If your work is good, it will rise to the top too. let the hacks be hacks, they don't sell hardly anything at much of price anyway. Try embracing the shared knowledge and adding to it, instead of whining about it, after all you are on THIS site and I was under the impression that's what this site is about. Its no different on Farcebook, just more of it. Have a wonderful day and try not to be bitter.

And the basketball courts are a joke with all of the players out there. Just like the golf course, the football fields, and the baseball diamonds. But the cream always rises to the top doesn't it? Most of us recognize true tallent, don't we? "How bad you want it?" Skeeter