t-billy

Great idea weighing them Vodkaman. Thanks for the tip.

Good advice Mark. Fully cured/dried molds is extremely important. I pop mine in the oven at 150 for several hours with the door cracked open a wee bit to dry them.

I don't know about Gorilla glue. I tried a different brand from Lowes once ( Don't remember the brand. ) and the finish was dull and rough. Stuck with Elmers after that. Elmers is cheap, and gives a great finish every time with a single coat.

Nice looking baits. Like BuckeyeFishing recommended, I prefer a couple drops of white in my chartreuse. Really makes that color pop.

Elmers Wood Glue thinned with water works great with one coat. Mix 50/50, flood cavities, let sit a few minutes, brush out cavities with foam brush, brush onto rest of mold, bake at 150 until cured. Simple, easy, durable.

Good to hear. I ordered a 6.5" swim worm a couple days ago.

Thanks for posting Jeff. It's pretty neat seeing the old catalogs. I had no idea that hand pouring materials were available that far back. I would have taken up this great hobby back in the 80's had I known about it.

Well Mike...Have you tried it? I switched from salt to the HD additive because in my opinion it's superior in every way except for adding flavor and the effect on color. A drop or two of your favorite scent eliminates the flavor difference. It suspends in hot plastic better than even finely ground salt. It does make your baits opaque like finely ground salt, so I'd call them equal in that regard. It stirs in easier than salt. It makes your baits more durable, rather than less durable like salt. The fact that that you can catch more fish per bait offsets at least some of the added cost. It doesn't affect the action of your baits like salt. Medium formula baits with the additive feel and act just like medium formula baits without it. After using both, I MUCH prefer the HD additive. It simply makes a superior bait in my opinion. I'm not saying that to promote a product, or a company. I'm saying that because I believe it to be true. I think most people who try both would prefer the HD additive. That is why we're here isn't it? To share experiences and ideas. To help each other. I swear Jason isn't going to ship me a drum of additive for speaking positively of it. There may be griddles with enough power to heat pots. I don't know. Those I know that have tried it said the griddles they had didn't put out enough heat. That makes sense to me. They're designed to get the cooking surface to the temp on the thermostat. My hotplate burners get over 425 on low. I have no idea how hot they get when turned up to 2/3 - high where I set them to heat my plastic. I use different heat settings for different pots, and for different amounts of plastic in those pots. So after thinking more about it, even a griddle that does get hot enough won't work well for me. I'll be sticking with the setup I have. If it aint broke, don't fix it.

You can use salt in the cast pots, but make sure you wipe them out GOOD when your done,then give 'em a light coat of worm oil. If your making baits for yourself, I'd recommend ditching the salt and going with the CCM HD additive. If your making baits for sale, the HD additive may not be cost effective. As long as it gets hot enough, a griddle would work fine I would think. I've read posts from guys saying their griddle doesn't provide enough heat. I can't say. I have no experience with them for cooking plastic. I do know the surface temp of my hotplate burner set on low is too hot for my IR thermometer to read, and it goes to 425. The heatsource itself needs to get much hotter than what it's heating. Heat dissipates as it transfers from heatsource, to pot, to plastic. If the surface temp of your heatsource only gets to say 400 degrees, it's not going to get the plastic inside your heavy iron pot up to 350. If someone finds a griddle that works with iron pots, let me know. I'd definitely be interested in one.

I'd recommend making a couple batches of darker colors first, just in case a little left over oil from the seasoning process cooks out of the pots. After that the iron won't discolor the plastisol. You can pour a really fine stream with those lodge pots. As far as cleanup, I just wipe the pots out with paper towels while they're still hot. The plastisol keeps the iron seasoned. You'll need a good pair of heavy gloves for this. Leather welders gloves work great. I got the 1100 watt GE hotplates at walmart. They were around $20 each. The lodge 14 oz pots are less than $20 each. A new cast sauce pan will probably cost you $40-$50. Shop around. You might be able to find one at a yard sale or flea market cheap. I got my 2qt at a yard sale for $3.

This thread motivated me. My hydraulic fitting tips over on me occasionally if it's not centered on the burner right. So...I made a trip to Lowes after my last post. I picked up a 1 1/4" x 4" pipe nipple and floor flange. The nipple is a perfect fit for a medium injector, and the floor flange gives it a nice stable 4 1/4" base. Cost about $13.

I stand my injector up inside a steel connector from a hydraulic valve on a hotplate. The connector is about 1/2 the length of the injector. I insulated the top 1/2 of the injector by wrapping it with an old sock. Works like a charm. Any piece of metal tubing with an ID slightly larger than the OD of your injector will work. I keep a piece of foil in the hotplate drip pan to catch the drippings. I pour in 20-30 degree weather all winter and my injector NEVER clogs or gets plastic buildup inside. I find something else to do below 20.

You generally get what you pay for. Spend the money for quality equipment, and you'll get quality results. I use GE hotplates with steel plate type burners and cast iron pots. I get nice even heating with no hotspots to scorch the plastic. I also have a cheap hotplate with a coil style element that I use to heat my injector. Lodge Logic makes some nice 14oz cast iron pouring pots. You can find them on ebay or amazon. They're what I use, and I couldn't be happier with them. Get a 1 or 2 qt cast iron sauce pan "preferably with a lid for the initial heating" for cooking larger batches. I inject straight from my 2qt pot, and pour larger batches 1/2 cup at a time from it into my pre-heated 14 oz pots for hand pouring. This certainly isn't the only method that will yield quality results, but I've found it to be the perfect setup for me.

If you can get the results your looking for with straight plastic thats great. I'd say thats the way to go. I have no experience with Lurecraft supersoft, but I have used Calhoun and Chemionics supersoft. Neither was nearly as buoyant as the baits I'm making with microbubbles. So, it's not just about how much money you want to put into it, but also the end result. How buoyant a bait do you want? How soft do you want them to be? I prefer medium for my bass size baits. Using the ratio I'm using, flexability and softness stay the same as straight medium plastic and there's only a slight decrease in durability. I started using microbubbles because I was looking to make some HIGHLY buoyant baits. I got the results I was looking for using the method I described above. Obviously I'm not having a problem with the glass spheres breaking or I wouldn't get the great results I'm getting with them. Even heating absolutely makes a difference, not just with the spheres but with plastic bait making in general. It's a heck of a lot harder to scorch plastic in a heavy pot that heats evenly than it is to do it in a thinner pot that heats unevenly. Anyway, I'm thrilled with the way my floating baits are turning out and just wanted to share the info with my fellow bait makers.

You can mix the microbubbles and worm oil and store it long term as a liquid. You just have to stir it well before each use as they will seperate. That way you only have to deal with airborn microbubbles once per container of them. Just make sure you're wearing a resperator anytime you handle the microbubbles. Breathing them is definitely not a good idea, however they're glass sphere's not nuclear waste. A little common sense goes a long way. As I mentioned in my first post, they'll throw your colors off, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You may find they give you new colors you like. I really like the color they turned my green pumpkin. I should mention, I cook my plastic on hotplates in cast iron pots that heat very evenly. I don't know how they'll work in microwaves or thinner pots that get hotspots during heating. If you cook on burners do yourself a favor and invest in some cast iron. Cast pots are FAR better than thinner cheaper pots. Since I got my 2qt cast pot with a lid my Presto is collecting dust.