DeltaMan

does it need to be thick or just an extremely thin layer?

Is it possible for me to use pam or crisco aerosal spray as a release agent when pouring a two piece silicone mold?

HOLY CRAP AGAIN WITH THE GIRLS!!!!! just knock it off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am in highschool mind you and i have never seen adults act this STUPID!!!! get over yourselves!!!!! and yes reef am talking to you,, you are continuing the arguing and slander, all of you knock it off!!!!

YOU GUYS SOUND LIKE THE GIRLS AT MY HIGHSCHOOL!!!!!! Ghost baits go back and read all of your posts again you came across way off dude

did i just here a whip crack? btw that allgey killing spray actually does kill fish so i think we need an overhall of all researches done on any one of these so called manegment things or green plastic they are totally rigged!

i have the same problem when i remelt old plastic worms, whats the deal with that? is it because i got the plastic too hot or am i not waiting for them to harden up long enough?

i am sixteen and i have been making baits for a year now and i have tried polyurethane finish, and now i am using an autograde clear coat finish that is a moisture cure( very cool and efficient). i started airbrushing about ten months ago and it is really fun and this place helps alot. i really apreciate it. my main focus is swimbaits and i have already sold some to neighbors and friends of neighbors but man it is really fun. you are going to have a blast. with the auto clear it dries thin and you don't loose alot of the detail in your carvings unless you use a lot of coats. good luck and try the autoclear, just dip the crankbaits. Sly

Have you thought about still using the dangerous additives but wearing protective gear like a face mask or something? I would also love to know how to make soft plastic float a 5/0 hook, hopefully we'll get some answers from some of the experts.

hey thanks man maybe i'll try that for the craws instead of wiring his legs straight i'll just soak him in that stuff then pin him. Sly

when i said that taxidermists do "it" all the time i meant molding fish cause i know that i may have only seen maybe one crawdad in an arangement. What solution do you use? could this solution also be used to preserve fish specimens?

just an update on how far i have come on this subject. this last weekend i took and made a two piece mold of a real crawdad from plaster of paris very difficult but doable impossible is not a word it is just a reason for someone not to try. Sly

you know i kinda have the feeling that you guys are a little more clever than copying some one elses lure name. If it is your own type or make of bait then invent a name for it. i don't want to sound like i am being a pessimest but come on guys. If and when i hit big time (hahahaha) i don't want people copying my lures or my name even if it is a completely different design. i feel like this is a very balsy move and i dont want any judgement passed along to me.

This past sunday i went down to my local creek to try and catch a crawdad that didn't have as many flaws as the ones in my fish tank did but i went ahead and use one of mine anyways because the local creek was high and hard flowing( Oh Well). I took and made a mold box and went ahead and killed my crawdad, this was very easy all it took was to fill up the sink with the hottest water that i could get and drop him in, he was soon dead and i was on my way to pouring a two piece pop mold for him. all i did was to take and pour the POP in three quarters of the way up and i put him in while not letting the tips of the claws get submerged in the plaster, this was a mistake because i could not keep his legs straight and so i resolve that next time i will attach wires to all of the legs and drill small holes into the mold box and pull the legs tight and then pour the plaster in all around him thus making it better and making it easier to pour the plastic in and remove the lure. but continuing i put the mold into the oven at 170 degrees to dry it more quickly and it was soon dry enough to put the wax on. to put on the wax i simply took a normal candle cut it into small pieces and melt it in an old aluminum pie dish and took a brush and aplied the wax in thin layers to the first side of the mold making sure not to get wax on the crawdad itself. i poured the other side of my mold a little bit wattery to make sure that it thouroghly covered everything well. got home from church and it was all dry so i went into the garage wedged it all apart and voila there was my cradad stuck in two sides of the mold ( yukkyyyy) man pulling apart raw cradads sucks it was so stinky in that thing but i got it done and if i could do it again i would and i wouldn't have done it the same way either partly because it was a pain to pick out and i didn't quite get the results i wanted. if i could i also would have done it in rtv cause then i could have used a slip mold and just cut the silicone to get the craw out instead of pick him out. plaster doesn't really work with hard subjects but i have yet to do a trout as this i could do with plaster i think that it would be much easier to mold a real fish than a crawdad partly because the crawdad is hard and a fish is soft and besides taxidermists do it all the time Remember impossible is not a word it is just a reason for someone not to try.

Gracias Senor. i apreciate the response cause i was worried that i would only get like ten lures out of my mold. cause i have never made a silicone mold and the stuff is really expensive. Was worried about money and how often i would have to make a new mold so at least now i have come away from this wiht a little more knowledge.

Anyone know???!!!!

Ok so i know that you've probably heard and listened to every possible combination of questions about mold making but one thing that i haven't seen talked about is how long a silicone mold will last in terms of how many lures that you can get out of it using resin intended for that specific type of silicone. I have TAP plastics resin( polyurethane) and rtv silicone from alumilite (HSIII). so my question how many lures will i get out of my silicone mold. I am making a one piece mold with three different pieces in it. its a swimbait. Also, what is the best company to buy silicone from or the cheapest.

Well I'm not a pro but maybe the other guys will chime in. First question, have you ever made your own mold? It is possible to take an original sweet beaver, cut off that beaver tail and with a lighter take and melt the curly tails onto the body and make your own mold. it would have to be two piece and you could make it our of a number of things like plaster of paris, RTV silicone, or something like gypsum. hope this helps Deltaman

have you tried e-mailing him. Heck i did and he reffered me here so that i could be telling you to e-mail him. The type of resin he uses may be a closely guarded secret but it is worth a shot ain't it.

If you use lead solder make sure that it is solid core not with the flux inside. The flux is the stuff that when heated allows the lead to melt more quickly. If it is painted over and the lead is only covered by the paint the finish that gets put over it turns yellow from underneath the finish.

Oh my bad, it's white cedar. In my opinion it's way better than pine.

Instead of going down to wal-mart and buying something you might be able to utilize some things that you have at home. I use carburator cleaner and soak only the parts that come in contact with the paint, also you could possible use paint thinner or lacquer thinner. I even use q-tips, to clean it out and after I spray paint I do my best to clean out the brush when the paint inside is still wet by spraying some soapy water through it.

With lipless swimbaits the amount of resistance that they create is crucial, for example: if they cut through the water cleanly and don't put too much resistance on it you should be fine, lexan should probably work, although i ve never tried it. In my experiments I used wooden fins only, that way i could make them thinner or just make them smaller in every way if it was necessary. With my first atempt at a lipless bait with fins on it the bait it did not swim correctly, but on the other hand with lipped swimbaits they didn't cause a problem. One other thing you may wish to try is making your fins out of soft plastic. It should give the bait a more realist look if the plastic is the right color. The fibetts i have not tried but want to. Hope this helps, deltaman

That was what i did and it worked great. I left about a half of an inch on them to make sure it really stuck in there.