Crankbait Bodies

[Paul Huff]

Hello All,

I have been making and selling baits for a while now and have made a good name for myself here in kentucky, and after seeing all of the vast information on here i thought I would ask a question. How would one go about purchasing the equipment to start making their own hard plastic crankbait bodies. I understand the cost would probably be very high and I will probably not jump into the equipment just yet but plan to in the next little while as long as things keep going the way they are. Any information you might have would be helpful, thank you and happy fishing,\

Paul

[Vodkaman]

Are you talking about molding resin bodies or injected hollow plastic bodies like the mass produced lures?

We can help you with the resin idea, but I do not know of anyone who has gone the mass production route, or at least they haven’t talked about it here on TU, certainly no one who actually does it themselves.

Dave

[rotorhead]

Are you talking about molding resin bodies or injected hollow plastic bodies like the mass produced lures?

We can help you with the resin idea, but I do not know of anyone who has gone the mass production route, or at least they haven’t talked about it here on TU, certainly no one who actually does it themselves.

Dave

[rotorhead]

Paul I think you are going to be dollars ahead by buying the bodies rather that trying to blow mold them. The equipment is very expensive and one other minor detail, you have to be able to provide cool water to set the plastic. The cool water is circulated thru the mold. As the water leaves the mold it is much hotter and has to be cooled again so either you have to waste a lot of water cooling the molds or you will have to povide a chiller (very expensive) to provide circulated chilled water. I buy my bodies from Janns and have been happy with the product.

Rotorhead

[VANNDALIZER]

Huff,

If your mechanically inclined and dont mind working with used equipment you can get started much cheaper. A few things that have not been mentioned are gluing stations which are time consuming to build,

You also need a way to make the lead inserts which if your going to mass produce I would reccomend a spin castin machine. As mentioned before a heat exchanger is required for most plastic injection machines.

Your shop will need to have a power supply of 480v/3ph to run the injector, heat exchanger and air supply. You may also need something to lift your molds with depending on what there made of they can be quite heavy. A good used injection machine can be purchased for less than 1/2 of a new one. Molds are anywhere from 4,000 to 10,000 depending on size, detail and capacity. If you have your own design you will need to have someone with a 3D scanner to make your mold prints or if your starting from scratch a designer to produce a mechanical drawing. I hope this helps, Good Luck!

[BobP]

There are lots of plastic molding companies in Japan and Taiwan and I think several small makers here in the U.S. who are known for excellent paint design order blank bodies overseas made to their design specs. Probably not cheap but probably cheaper than building your own plant. How they prototype plastic lures, tweak a design, or insure quality control from an overseas producer is a mystery to me.

[mark poulson]

If I had an original lure design that worked for me, I sure wouldn't send it overseas to be produced, or it would be knocked off in nothing flat.

I don't have the money to give a maker enough volumne that he would think twice about ripping off my design.

Copyright infringement, and patents, mean nothing overseas unless you have the money to enforce them.

If you're serious, I would suggest you investigate a local manuf. who might be able to help you, and with whom you could stand a reasonable chance of protecting your design.

At least in the U.S. there are laws against ripoffs.

I think most small makers who want to go big wind up selling their designs to a big company, and get a royalty. I'm thinking specifically of Bill Siemantel, and his BBZ 1. I think he sold it to Spro, but I know he is still involved with the further designs and development.

He has a website, http://www.thebbz.com/.

You can go on there and ask him yourself. He is a very approachable and down to earth guy.

[VANNDALIZER]

I have worked with several different factories in china over the past five years with mixed results. Quality is always a concern when the factory is on the other side of the globe. Theres also a huge language barrier unless you speak chinese and sometimes the lead time can stretch months past there due dates. China is definately the cheapest plase to get plastic baits made but not the best. A plastic injection mold in china cost a fraction of what one here in the states does but you can bet on the fact that within a year your bait will be spread all over the world if not by the same factory you hired to manufacture it. So all this being said the safest thing to do is pay a little more and keep it in the staes.