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Fern

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Posts posted by Fern

  1. 16 hours ago, clemmy said:

    Hey Guys, I haven’t been on in ages, unfortunately health curtailed my baitmaking. I got rid of all my soft plastic stuff, but am going up north on a fishing trip to LotW in Minnesota in a month, and I had a simple dipped tube color idea I wanted to try, and was wondering if anyone knew of any company still custom dipping tubes instead of molding?

    Thanks,

    Craig

    I hand dip tubes. maybe I can help you out.

    You can checkout my work at 

    Id Eat that Baits

    • Like 1
  2. On 7/14/2023 at 6:05 PM, Les Young said:

    Are these the carpet cutter blades? I have the beefed up  press that i made that uses the luercraft block but that looks pretty good too. 

    I purchased a replacement pack of rotary cutter blades on Amazon. Spaced out with washers. The blades are 45mm.

    • Like 1
  3. 4 hours ago, Les Young said:

    Nice job. I just got through rigging one of my tubes up for the tournament tomorrow night. That is if the weather doesn't screw those plans up. 

    best of luck on your tournament. What color are you going with?

  4. Saw an old video here from an old user “bojon” regarding his tail cutter. With the little information I was able to acquire I think I did a decent job replicating the basic function of it. While I do own the block tail cutter that lurecraft (I think) sells. I sort of prefer the ease of this one which does not involve a good hammering. Pretty easy to make although I think I’m going to add a few more blades to widen it a bit more. 

    IMG_3586.jpeg

    • Like 1
  5. I have 3 of them that i use to keep remelt plastic hot.  I typically hand dip tubes and I am left with a lot of scrap after I cut the tails so i have a ton of plastic i remelt in the microwave, place into the presto and keep re-melting until i fill it up. I then shoot the re-melt into swimbait molds. 

    I will say that it does keep the plastic from burning. I have not had any issues with the plastic burning, please note though that i don't typically separate the plastic by color when i re-melt so it usually turns into a greening brown color. I have attempted to separate all the chartreuse i had at one point and the time i did that, the chartreuse started out really bright and as i got towards the bottom, the green started getting kind of dull. I am sure i could've prevented this by adding heat stabilizer, however when it comes to burning the plastic, i have not had that issue.  

    • Like 1
  6. 15 hours ago, alsworms said:

    They sell it on their website for cheaper. 

    • Like 2
  7. Just now, alsworms said:

    Did it with garlic salt back in the day, never tried the shrimp.  Garlic salt was decent but heavy. 

    Im gonna give it a shot. They sell dried shrimp at a local mexican market, im gonna pulverize it into a powder and give it a whirl. I wonder if the fish will like it. 

    • Like 2
  8. 1 hour ago, Tlyons said:

    how are people making crappie baits with soft plastic body with feather tails?

    They stuff feathers into the tail ends of the molds. Open pour molds make this easy do do with a little modification. Some make their own molds with the cavities for it.  

    • Like 1
  9. On 7/26/2022 at 11:26 AM, OIR said:

    hand sanitizer 60-80% + distilled water

     

    hand sanitizer got gel+alcohol +glycerin so you just need to add distilled water

    the mix is 1/3 hand sanitizer + 2/3 water

    60% hand sanitizer make a thick mix

    80% hand sanitizer is close to being right (dilute or add alcohol)

    works well in paint :

    Golden High Flow Acrylics

    createx wicked colors

    x2.jpg.2ac4ef1f1f4bba63e4ea4c626dae3d83.jpg

    x3.jpg.225bb12acb17e3746a2281b12bb97ea6.jpg

    stupid question cuz i am over thinking this.  

    Are you saying hand sanitizer that is 60% or 80% alcohol? or is that the ratio to water? 

  10. 7 minutes ago, SwampCracker said:

    What would be a good beginner plastisol to use? I've seen Dead on, Lureworks and Bait Plastics but I don't know which would be best. I am planning on making paddle tails for inshore salt fishing to start out with. 

    Each of those companies have product line-ups in regards to density starting from super soft plastic (think ned worms and stuff you want to have a lot of wiggle) to hard soft plastic (think saltwater soft plastics that can handle the bite). using super soft will give you a lot of action but they will be ripped up easily while a harder density plastic will have less action but will be more dense and not get ripped up as easy. all plastic manufacturers will have a soft, medium and hard grade plastic. The plastic formulation is what varies from company to company. some companies like MF provide really clear plastic, however you pay for that in cost per gallon while other companies like dead-on offer the gallon at a cheaper rate but some might say the quality isnt there, however some like that it is phthalate free. I personally use MF and Bait plastics Saltwater blend as I need a more durable plastic. Bait plastics has been an all around great plastic to work with but some might say that the odor/fumes while cooking it is too strong and the plastic when creating a clear bait tends to fog up some while it cures. I would recommend you try bait plastics medium or saltwater blend to start with and as you have time and money, get a gallon or two here of the other guys stuff and see what qualities you like best of each plastic. You can see my experience with dead on in one of my previous posts about my tubes ripping up constantly. 

    • Like 1
  11. On 5/31/2022 at 3:12 PM, jigmeister said:
    On 5/31/2022 at 3:12 PM, jigmeister said:

    I tried this with the air brush spray set pretty light and sprayed multiple coats until I was happy with the coverage .The acetone will dry in seconds after being sprayed on but the mica will stay in place .  It looks like this is how Basstrix painted their swimbaits using this method then final dipping in clear coat which both seals the mica powder and brings out the color(s) . Give it a try and see what you think 

    Thanks! This is exactly what I have been doing. up until now I have been brushing the mica on in both wet and dry form using a traditional brush and then sealing them in with a final dip (as seen in the pic above). I got my airbrush a while back ago but just started using it recently but have been using clear 3000 which is just way too expensive so looking for an alternative cheaper solvent to use. I did try the acetone and mica mix and while it worked, I found that it was clogging my air brush way more than using the clear 3000, not exactly sure why yet but i think maybe it is drying up too fast so maybe a retarder should work to sort this issue out, right?  

  12. 10 minutes ago, jigmeister said:

    If those are dipped baits you can air brush mica powder mixed with acetone on a finished bait then do a final dip with clear plastic to seal the mica to the bait

    They are hand dipped. When using clear 3000, the paint dries quickly and I am happy with drying time (just a few seconds). If I use acetone will it dry just as quickly? Is there something I can add to the acetone to make it dry quicker, like the opposite of a retarder?

     

    Thanks for your input

  13. So I finally decided to give airbrushing my soft plastic baits a try. I just kinda jumped into it not really knowing much about air brushing. Let me be clear that I know nothing about air brush paint, solvent, and retarders, I only know these are words that often come up when reading about air brushing. I do understand that a retarder is some sort of thinner and slows down the drying time of the solvent (in this case (clear 3000). For safety, I wore the exact M3 mask with the organic vapor filter while spraying and had an exhaust fan next to the baits as I painted, do I need glasses when spraying? 

    A few things that I am looking for assistance with, the first being the spider web like strands that are produced while air brushing. I am currently using Lureworks Clear 3000 and mixing some mica powder in it. I didn't use any type of ratio, I just filled a tiny 1 ounce glass jar half way with clear 3000 and then scooped about 1 tsp of mica powder in, shook it and poured it into the airbrush's color cup and sprayed it on my baits. The color came out great but I noticed that a web like material started to form as i sprayed and it would get sucked into the exhaust fan and eventually the exhaust fan's protective cage would get completely covered in it like a spider web. I read somewhere that this might be caused by the solvent used and that I might need some thinner (retarder)? does this sound correct? If using sb 3000, what is the recommended thinner?

     

    Lastly, any tips on air brushing would be greatly welcomed and appreciated. Is there a cheaper alternative solvent to mix mica powder with for air brushing? Should I be using some sort of ratio of solvent to Mica powder? for cleaning the color cup and the air brush parts,I used 100% acetone nail polish remover, is there any warning against this practice? is there a cheaper alternative solution for cleaning? 

     

    These are some of the baits I made yesterday, I think they came out ok for it being the first time air brushing, what do you guys think? Blue Mackerel and Green Mackerel. 

    baits.jpg

  14. I saw someone mentioned that eye make up works, I will also add that any Mica powders will work. It is what i use mainly. Im sure you can find mica powder suppliers in africa. I heat the plastic and add then mix in the powder. 

  15. On 4/3/2022 at 9:29 PM, basscatcher89 said:

    F4E30916-F2DA-43E8-8A1D-59B7E0CA705F.thumb.jpeg.92db9f0e078f1fdadb1c9cbd27ec8800.jpegI’m in the middle of cutting this mold on my cnc router. I use the Shapeoko from Carbide which is about 1500 last I looked. The 200 machines may not be rigid enough for aluminum but then again they may work great. I haven’t had to worry much about cooling or chip clearing. I have a compressor with a nozzle near by if I do need to clear something quick. They a fun to play with, I’ve been cutting jig head molds as well.

    Wow. I just got a X-carve Pro and know nothing about it. Do you think it would be powerful enough for something like this? How difficult is it to go from design to product? Are you using fusion 360? 

  16. 20 hours ago, G D Beck said:

    Hi folks,

    I was shopping on Lureworks and saw their product called Gel-A-Lure™ 4504.  They only say "Gel-A-Lure™ is a new gel formula for making multi-colored lures using a cold pour process. This allows you to make a lure with dozens of colors and unlimited pouring time." 

    Has anyone used this process?  How does it cure?  Does it use the same pigments as plastisol?  I can't find much about it.  If anyone likes this process for a particular lure advantage, would enjoy hearing about it.

    Cheers & good fishing!

    Interesting, I wonder if you can cold pour color patterns and what not and then fill it in with hot plastisol. 

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