deke95

152nd,...Your welcome, hope it helps a little,...(no more of that,...need some valium, for my seized fingers and neck.) : ) Travis.....You're right!,....the most chips will dominate this little game!

Hello Mike! Your post about the Tornado and Rattlesnake worm war is very interesting!..(.and thanks again for your referral of the "person you directed me to" for my lure project,..I have lookers from legit companies, but no actual offers as of this date,...he is really a quality guy, and has been very helpful, just like you said he would be). I hope I can contribute a couple of helpful thoughts and warnings for anybody on the TU board that is working on a patentable "next new hot lure". Understand, I am not a lawyer,...and am not giving legal advice here,....this is just my lay person's understanding, (right or wrong) of a tiny snapshot of some the complicated rules that could invalidate a patent. They are buried on the USPTO website, and all over the web, if you want to dig them out. From the early beginnings of our country, the U.S. has established a "first to invent" patent law,...as opposed to the rest of the world that has a "first to file" law. The "first to file" laws award valid patents to the "first person to file", regardless of who invented it first. Congress is currently in the process of trying to vote to change our patent law from the current "first to invent",.....to the "first to file" law,...and thus join the other countries in the world to further screw the little guy one more time! The big boys always have more resources to be able to file faster than the average joe inventor. Our "first to invent" concept was established hundreds of years ago, precisely to protect and encourage America's small inventors who naturally have fewer resources. O.K.....To obtain a patent in the U.S. you need to be the "true inventor", and of course, have a "patentable" invention, which has it's own set of legal definitions that must be met. But, first and foremost,... there must not be any "Prior Art" of your invention existing out there. If there is any "Prior Art" on your invention, your patent would not be valid. Now,..."Prior Art" can be many, many things, and it ranges from very simple, to very complicated and tricky. If there is a previous drawing,... picture,...or written or verbal description that shows the workings and essence of your invention, then it's most likely to be Prior Art and cannot be patented. Additionally,...If you, yourself, publicly circulate or publish an article or pictures describing your lure,...that is Prior Art..... If you speak in a public forum describing the your lure,... it's Prior Art. Even if you give your lure to a fishing guide to field test it for you,....and you are not present, and "in control of the invention",...that too, is Prior Art. If you show your invention to a company or individual,... a Non-disclosure agreement usually protects you from having created a Prior Art event against yourself. And that is just touching the surface. Interested companies, of course will try to discover any Prior Art on an invention, so they can be legally free to produce it themselves. That's the reason competing companies will do their own patent search on other companies inventions. This is extremely common among the high-tech companies and their inventions. Furthermore, if you ever make an actual offer to sell your invention to someone,... and you do not file for your patent within one year of the offer,....you may also LOSE the right to ever patent your invention. So, this the advice that was given to me by someone who has worked on a lot of different inventions, and I will pass it along: The most important first step an inventor should take (besides knowing how not to lose your invention because of tricky patent laws)....is to start, and keep current, an Inventors Notebook or Journal. (Check out the web, or the USTPO site for articles on how to do it right.) This notebook must be written in ink, in a bound book,....not looseleaf. Enter every fact about the inception, design, and development of your lure such as drawings, and descriptions of how it works, and why it's unique. Every time, you make a relevant change, or make field tests, or have conversations with people about your lure, emails, etc. etc.,....you need to enter these events in chronological order by date and time. You need to have a third party, who is not a family member, be a witness to developments concerning your lure, by signing, and dating that page in the book that contains the relevant drawings or descriptions.. All Witnesses must have at least a rudimentary working understanding of the invention and statement or drawing that they are signing. The reason that this Notebook is necessary, and valuable, if done right,... is that it might be your best and ONLY chance to offer proof to a judge or a jury,...in the event that you are ever involved in a legal dispute where the question is;... who really was the "first to invent"? It can also be helpful in preventing the many LURE THIEVES,...(some who may be reading this now,..if so, listen up!) from stealing your invention. The Inventors Notebook also might be exactly the thing that makes your attorney anxious to sue some of these THIEVES on a contingency basis! In my opinion,...U.S. patent laws are a lot like the IRS laws,...very complicated and brain freezing,...bloated, and stacked against the little guy who has few resources. I have been working on a lure that has two model variations, a shad type, and frog/creature type,.. this lure has several very unique design and utility features,...and I have several fishable prototypes and action DVD's. For this project, I have kept a Notebook on my lure exactly as I have described above,... it is super easy to maintain once you start it. The Notebook is not a legal document in the strictest sense,..but it IS evidence, ...that you in fact, have invented something, at a certain point in time!,... and that fact has been verified by witnesses. But,...in this "wild west" lure industry, I'm betting that my lure will STILL GET STOLEN in time!....because you always assume some risk whenever you reveal your lure,... even with a non-disclosure agreement! You either have to show it,...or leave it in your tackle box and just fish it yourself. That is the reality, so you need to arm yourself as best as you can, to try to defend yourself when you don't have deep pockets. Sorry this was so long,... I just wanted to strongly emphasize two points; the danger of creating any "Prior Art" against yourself,..and the importance of keeping good current records on your inventions. Good luck to us all,...we'll need lots of it. deke95

rhahn427,...... The only address on the package is: Webster Group, Redlands Ca. 92373. The Webster Group, Inc. - A Creative Arts & Crafts Company. Good luck on finding some! Ghostbaits,.....I don't need to add any release agent or vaseline between casts. The baits do not come out shiny. Shiny isn't a factor with me yet, as I am only doing prototype casts and field test swimming action. When my plastic hits the water it's shiny to the fish though,...like spitting on a stone : ) ,...but if you need cosmetic shine for production casts you will probably need to seal. The hardness of the cavity area is what I like about Strong Cast,...the cavity is very hard and difficult to scratch,...but the non-cavity, untreated area is fairly easy to scratch. Like I said before, I am new at this,...and these being my first two molds,.. I have more questions than answers about molds and pouring plastic baits. I don't know about the durability, or other characteristics for 100's or 1000's of casts as I have only done a few dozen protoype casts. Also, I am remelting some old plastic worms, so I don't have experience with new plastic. Deke

Reminds me of the hard tempering process of heating metal and then immersing metal in oil. Maybe there is some kind of similar action with the vaseline and heat that changes the hardness of the plaster surface.

Smallie I had exactly the same thought about the heat reacting with the vaseline. I don't know if it was because of the Strong Cast plaster or not, because it's the only plaster I've ever poured plastic in. Before I poured the plastic, the surfaces of the mold were kind of soft and chalky like regular plaster looks and feels like. After a few castings, the cavity surfaces became hard and glaze like. I know there is some kind of reaction happening between the heat and the vaseline, because I coated both surfaces of the 2-piece mold with vaseline and wherever the hot plastic squirted out in between, the same thing happened to those areas. I always thought vaseline was the release agent that you guys used for plaster molds. What release agent do you use? Deke

I'm kind of new to TU, and to plaster casting, so don't know if this has been posted before. I bought some POP at the hobby store (Michaels) and tried making my first two molds (2-piece) which came out perfect the first time I tried. The plaster is called Strong Cast. The label touts it as the world's strongest Plaster of Paris. It says it has micro fibers in the plaster which makes it stronger. It is more expensive,...5 bucks or so for a two pound box, so might not be feasible for some who are making many molds, but for me it works great. It mixes easy, I used wooden ice cream sticks to mix. Stirred slowly, and poured SLOWLY, and had zero bubble problems. I used vaseline as a release agent and noticed that the cavity surfaces became very smooth, shiny and glaze-like hard after removing the injected hot plastic. The lure cavity appears so shiny and hard that it reminds me of fired porcellin. I have not sealed the lure cavity with anything yet. I don't know if this is normal to regular POP or not, as this is the only product that I've ever tried. I will probably seal the non-cavity area but am thinking I will leave the cavity area alone, as I am getting great detail with no noticeable wear. I carved a hard wax model, and set it in clay. I used a knock apart wooden mold box that I made out of scrap pine (four sides and bottom),.... clamped together with small pony clamps. After the pour hardened, I removed clamps and just tapped lightly on the box sides to knock apart and remove mold. Pouring the the other side went equally well,...makes a great 2-piece mold. On one mold I wanted to add plaster to change the design a little bit. I scraped the shiny glaze down to clean plaster and mixed a small bit of new plaster and applied it to the scraped area with a modeling tool. After the added plaster hardened I sculpted in the new design and sanded it a little with 1000 grit paper. The added plaster has withstood many castings, and you cannot see any telltale marks on the castings. Seems as good as advertised,..will keep using it until I find something better. I have lurked in here and received many tips,...hope this can help someone else a little bit. Deke