hillbilly1 Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 (edited) For starters Love this place and all the info, so on with the show. I was casting some crankbaits the other day when I had a blow out on a mold. I thought to myself "What in the blue bloody blazes is going on". So I picked up the mold and demolded it before it had cured (first mistake) well resin was a drippin all over the place so I started rocking the molds to keep the resin from making a mess. In my distraught frame of mind I noticed that the resin had set with a concave profile. I took a solid bait mold and poured half of the normal amount of resin and plugged the fill hole with petroleum jelly and began to turn it off axis to coat the inside of the mold till it set. So low and behold I made a ! peace hollow body. So I started a new mold that has a solid plug with a modular type bill slot that can be inserted for cranks or removed for top water baits and a pin system to keep the line tie and hook hangers in place. The line tie pins are in 3 differant angles so I can adjust whether a crank chugger or a stick bait. I built a lure turner type rig that spins the mold in an off axis fashion to flow the resin evenly in the mold. Has any one had any luck with this type of spin casting? A enquiring mind wants to know Edited February 8, 2011 by hillbilly1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark poulson Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 I have not done any of that type of casting, but I really appreciate your "out of the box" thinking. Sounds like you've discovered/invented a very unique lure-making method. Larry Dahlberg does something similar on his website, where he makes a mold of a lure body, fills it partially with some hard resin, rotates the mold by hand to coat the inside thoroughly, and then pours off the excess resin. Once the resin has set, he fills the inside with softer expanding foam, and lets that set, too. If you google his site, you'll see better than I can explain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redg8r Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 Has any one had any luck with this type of spin casting? A enquiring mind wants to know Google "rotocasting" or "rotational molding" for some good reading. Jed (Riverman) & I worked on a couple machines a few years back. I was able to mold enough poppers to participate in one of our earlier lure swaps. It's definitely a viable method, but we both had issues with repeatability. I was using typical urethane casting resin and later learned that most resins "Snap cure" meaning they change from liquid to solid quickly. Smooth-on Inc, now offers a specialized resin called "ROTO" they claim will "gradually cure" over the course of being rotated, improving the possibility of a uniform thickness of the casting. I tried it out with with a homebrew machine I built, but haven't had much luck. I personally think you need a machine in which you can independently control the RPM on both axi's, which is tricky to build. There's a few different homebrew designs to be seen on youtube, or I'll try & thaw out my shop & snap a few pics of what I threw together. Good luck with it & welcome to TU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vodkaman Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 I did a few hand rotating tests too, using polyester resin. Like Jerry found, the liquid to jel phase happens in seconds, this results in a very uneaven and random cavity. A speedy rotation would be better, but it would only work for concentric bodies and even then, the resin would gather at the widest part of the body and thin out at the nose and tail. It needs some kind of 'figue 8' rotation pattern, turning at about 120rpm. I have not figured it out yet, so this is just opinion. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hillbilly1 Posted February 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 (edited) Thanks guys for the reply's Im still tinkerin with it. Dave The rig together i made dose turn it in a figure 8 kind of with the full rotation looking more like an hour glass. Full rotation from top to bottom while raising and lowering opposing ends. I will tey to get a vid posted this weekend work permitting of course. redg8r Im keeping my resin cool to all most cold to give me a little more work time and to help with the plugging and starting the rotation steps. Edited February 10, 2011 by hillbilly1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vodkaman Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 Sounds like you are well on top of this technique. I gave up way too quick on this one. I would really like to see the video, I want to see the rotating mechanism. Good project. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiverMan Posted February 11, 2011 Report Share Posted February 11, 2011 Years ago I built a "rotator" that would spin on all axis a lure and experimented some with hollow baits. I never could get the wall thickness to be even and eventually gave up on the idea. I wish I had taken a picture of the rotator, I got the idea from someone else online and built one similar. It worked really well though and ran with an electric motor. Good luck with your project. Jed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vodkaman Posted February 11, 2011 Report Share Posted February 11, 2011 Years ago I built a "rotator" that would spin on all axis a lure and experimented some with hollow baits. I never could get the wall thickness to be even and eventually gave up on the idea. I wish I had taken a picture of the rotator, I got the idea from someone else online and built one similar. It worked really well though and ran with an electric motor. Good luck with your project. It seems that quite a few engineers have worked on this one, but not quite cracked it. I would want it to work for asymmetric lures, not lathe turned concentric lures. This would require an 'odd ball' rotation. Jed, sounds like you were on the right track to a solution, but like me, may be you gave in too quick. I would really like more details of your rotation system, maybe a solution can be found. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiverMan Posted February 12, 2011 Report Share Posted February 12, 2011 I wish I had a pricture of it. I ended up disassembling it to make a lure dryer. I think I saw a picture of one here on TU and then I built something similar.......it worked perfectly but I could never get the result I was looking for. Jed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hazmail Posted February 12, 2011 Report Share Posted February 12, 2011 I wish I had a pricture of it. I ended up disassembling it to make a lure dryer. I think I saw a picture of one here on TU and then I built something similar.......it worked perfectly but I could never get the result I was looking for. Jed Jed Was it this one??? It will do a 'figure 8', just needs a faster motor. I have made a few improvements since posting this one Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
