Gator44

I just removed a large 12" POP Hogy mold from the mold box and it has several pinholes that need repairing. When is the best time to fill the holes with a little new POP? When the mold is still damp and soft, dry, somewhere in between, or doesn't it make a difference? I love this forum and really appreciate all the advice the experienced members are willing to give. Without it I would not have gotten very far pouring plastics.

It might work, but if your wife is home you will most likely not live long enough to find out.

What is D2T? Thanks

I'm trying to reproduce the white color of a Slug go which is called Albino Shad or Pearl White. It's a common color but the closest I can come is by just adding pearl powder. I've attached a picture (maybe as this is my first attempt at that operation)which doesn't really show the pearl but hopefully the color is common enough that everyone will recognize it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. [/img]

Hopefully I can shed a little light on the subject of patents which might be helpful. First and most important for anyone considering getting a patent is to get the book "Patent It Yourself" by Nolo Press Amazon.com: Patent It Yourself, 12th Edition (9781413305166): David Pressman: Books. The book takes you through the whole process and can be relied on as being factually correct. Although it is written for the layman, you will have to read some of the relevant sections many times to fully understand them, but when you do, you will understand Prior Art and if your idea is really worth pursuing to the patent search stage. Even if you decide that filing the patent yourself is beyond you, if you do a lot of the work before turning it over to someone else, you can save major dollars. I hold two patents both of which I filed myself and I could never have done it without the above book. My father also held the basic patent for all metal skis among others,so we have been through the process. The vast majority of patents are initially rejected and mine were too. This is where it gets complicated. How to redo your initial application so that it meets with the examiners objections requires someone skilled in the art and was beyond me. However, I found a person who wasn't an attorney, but who had a reputation for having his work fly through the Patent Office. Sure enough for under $5000, the patent was granted. If I hadn't done most of the work myself, the cost would have been between $30,000 - $100,000 and would have made getting a patent out of the question. Once I had the patent, let's look at the reality of the situation I was in. I looked at making the product myself but start up costs were $50,000 plus for tooling etc. and that was beyond me. However, let's say I got the necessary capital and produced the product which turned out to be a moderate success with say sales of $1,000,000 - $2,000,000 and a profit of half that. What was I going to do if someone ripped off my invention? It's fantasy land to think that I would have been able to get an attorney to take the case on a contingency basis because the potential gain just isn't large enough for the time involved. If it was a major corporation like Callaway that I was suing, they can drag the case out for 5 - 10 years and I'm looking at $500,000 plus in lawyer costs. Not doable. If it's a smaller company I'm suing, they can also drag the case out for years and if I win a big judgment they simply go bankrupt. Getting a judgment is one thing collecting is another. The patent did allow me to sell the invention to a major corporation which was really my only option. The main thing to remember is that a patent for something you are producing yourself is worthless unless you are willing and able to defend it. One other case study is also noteworthy. I was friends with the inventor of the wind deflector that you see today over the cab of every 18 wheeler. This was a Major invention and the inventor produced the product himself and made a lot of money on it. However, he spent the 17 year life of the patent in court defending it and in fact won most of the cases. I was talking with him one day after the patent expired and he said that it was the worst thing that he ever did. I asked him why and he said that it ruined his life for seventeen years because of the continual stress involved with the court cases. Certainly a cautionary tale. If anyone wants further info please pm me.

There is another option if you want an aluminum mold and have or can make one out of RTV or POP. Sand casting. There is a local foundry that has been making molds for someone looking to start a lure business. He gives them an RTV mold and they copy it in aluminum. He then uses the mold in his high pressure injection machine. I"ve inquired on the cost and am told it runs about $50 - $75 per mold. This may not be cost effective but for someone looking to do production runs, it may be an option to keep in mind.

Impressive results! I live in RI and the top water casting for strippers has really declined this year. I'm glad someone still has good top water fishing. I've got a couple of questions on the new HOT lure. Is it a 9" Slug go you are using or is it smaller? The color looks like pearl white with a golden tinge. Is that about right or is the true color distorted in your picture? It's amazing you got that color from just flake and hi lite. I need to get some gold hi lite and try it. When you rig with a single hook in the nose, do you have any trouble with the Slug go tearing when you cast? With your single hook rig, do you find that the Strippers suck in the whole bait from behind, or do they hit it from the front/side? Thanks for your help.

After using my first gal of Lurecraft plastic a lot faster than I anticipated, I just received a 2 1/2 gal jug of Calhoun. It's really heavy and hard to deal with. What is the best way to break it up into smaller containers (what type of bottles etc) that are easier to shake etc? Can I pour it into the gal Lurecraft jug or will the remaining residue contaminate it?

Husky- Thanks for the reply. I'm trying to copy a Storm Shad and will give it a try though it is more difficult as I'm working with a plastisol model. However, I've had success copying a different soft plastic bait with a paddle tail by inserting thin wire pins into the tail to give it stiffness. I then ran a thin pin through the bottom of the tail and gave it a couple of light taps with a hammer to embed it into the plastic board that I had glued the model to. That gave the tail vertical rigidity. Finally I coated the tail with a fairly heavy coating of quick set silicone and let it harden for more rigidity before squishing it into the mold box. It came out great. I live in Westerly,RI right on the coast at the Connecticut border. Where in N.H. are you? I'm using my soft plastics for strippers, false albacore, and bonito. Unlike most people my problem is to make baits that are hard enough so that they don't tear too easily in the tough salt water environment. Unfortunately no one else in the area that I know of pours their own baits so this forum has been a great help. Several years ago I started making molds to cast a plug called a Reverse Adams that was no longer produced. I was using RTV silicone and making the plugs out of epoxy. I tried many time to use regular silicone and always had the problem that the silicone towards the center would never cure so it was a real eureka moment when I saw this thread about water curing. It would have made my life a LOT easier.

Husky - I've been trying to figure out how to make a silicone mold of a bait with a very similar profile (rounded back and belly and paddle tail) and your post is a great help. However, from the pictures I can't figure out the orientation of the model when you pressed it into the silicone? If it was belly first, how did you get the curved back? If it was on it's side, how did you get the paddle tail formed? If it was back first which seems most likely as the flash is on the belly, how did you get the curved belly shape? I love your silicone method and can't thank you enough for all your posts and great insights.

Adding water to silicone for a fast cure is a huge advance in mold making technology and I can't thank those who shared the info enough. However, a word of caution for those who a using the silicone in home workshops as I have found that the acetic acid fumes given off by the silicone even long after it has cured are HIGHLY corrosive. Cast iron surfaces such as table saw tops are especially susceptible and can rust badly overnight. Make sure your shop tools are protected with Boeshield or some other rust preventative, keep your molds is sealed containers, and remove waste from the shop.

Has anyone found a dealer or maker that sells 3D eyes that aren't affected by plastisol? They must exist as they are used on Storm and Tsunami soft plastics. Also the Storm soft plastics have a great system in which one eye has a thin metal post and the opposite eye has a socket so the two eyes are locked together and can't come off, but I have not been able to find anyone that sells them. They would be a great solution if we could find where to buy them.

Both Storm and Tsunami mold lead weighted hooks into their plastic lures so it must be possible. I noticed that the lead was wrapped in holographic foil. Maybe that is the solution, I haven't found any similar foil, but maybe aluminum foil might work. My intended application is salt water stripped bass fishing where I've found the lures with molded in weight and hooks work significantly better than anything else. I suspect that they would also be more effective in freshwater bass fishing than the current solution of exposed hook shanks and weights. I'm new at this and am about to attempt to make some molds but hopefully someone will have some new insight on how to do this.

Some baits have more mold release agent on them than others and thus the need to wipe the surface down with acetone. Also, not all superglues are created equal. By far the best one I have found for gluing baits is the Loctite brand of superglue. It also does a wonderous job gluing wet felt soles back onto waders.