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dark star

mold and lure pics

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Right on Dark Star :)!

Nice lures and molds. Can you tell us more about the green one? I've seen that "hunchback" style quite a bit in aussie crankbaits. Do you know who originated the hunchback?

Nice work on the key registration :) I've seen that done with electrical chord. It looks like you used silicone caulking? :) With a shore of 40 those seams will stay aligned no doubt. sweeet !

That feller I told ya about.. "The Luresmith", his name is Greg Vinall. His site theluresmith.com went offline about a year ago and haven't heard from him since. He had a collection of downloadable pdf's called "Deceit & Deadly Lures". They were full of plans for wooden crankbaits. I was able to find a copy I had on disk. If you know anything about him or where to find him please let us know. Here's a copy of one of his 1.3 MB ezines...

http://www.tackleunderground.com/tutimages//DDLApr03.pdf

Featherlites a pretty good product for 2 part rtv molds. Ive used it in squishmolds as well. It's nowhere near as adhesive as 16lb foam so it's less abuse on your molds. A good wax/white oil based mold release will greatly extend the life of your molds.

I did a video tutorial to answer a few of the q's I get about featherlite.

http://artbrushlabs.com/lures/files/featherlitevids1.htm

There's a few things I want to tweak on the tutorial but the basics are there. Sorry for the poor image quality. I plan to reshoot it.

You had mentioned you put out 200 foam lures a week when you were in full swing. How many molds and people pouring did that take? Where the lures finished for packout? Sounds like ya had a small assembly line.

Welcome aboard,

Shawn

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I have heard of Greg Vindall but i dont know him personally,nice tutorial he made as well,there is another brand called deception shrimp they are beautiful Handcrafted timber lures .The green lure is similar to some designs made for Murray River Cod a freshwater fish they like a lure that dives deep with a slow wide wobble action.My lure dives to about 12 Feet and replicates that wide action.Yes making 200 a week was full time and more i used to stick with basic paint patterns and would alot my time to casting 3 days painting 2 days putting rings and hooks on and packaging 2 days.I worked 7 days a week i had about 20 or so molds on the go the urethane i used could be demolded after 5 mins ,i used dipping trays for under coats and topcoats which saves time.lol i remember putting the hardware on lures as i watched tv.I was Flat out.I will go with the feather lite as adding Qcell for bouyancy is a real pain its also very sensitive to moisture making the urethane fizz out of the mold ruining the cast.Thanks for the links to the tuts as well.

Regards

Dark star

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For the under coat i used a 2 pac timber sealer made by wattyl,it was cheap i would spray the first coat on with the hardener in it after about 10 minutes i would come back and give it a quick sanding to rough it up then i would dip twice about 15 inutes between dips but the dip did not have the hardener in it and was thinned down a bit ,i could paint on this after about 4 hours ,it kind of gave the the paintwork a bit of give but the initial undercoat was hard as rock with great adhesion to the lure body.The top coats were done with a automotive acyrlic lacquer ,i would give the lures a fairly heavy coat first with a gun after 30 mins,i would then dip in a thinned down solution of the same clear,i would dip 4 times with about 30 mins between coats.it was really important to get the clear properly thinned between giving a good enough build or ruining your paint work ,thats why i put down that initial coat of clear with a gun so if its going to re wet the paint it will only do so to that first coat of clear.Lures are ready to put tackle on the next morning.with an ambient temp of about 25 C

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Dark Star,

would you mind explaining the benefit of the key ways on your molds? Does it do more than help align the mold?

Also, could you explain your process of running that many molds at once such as clamping the molds and filling them and what you used to clamp them and how you filled them and any more info you might consider insightfull. Did you mix up a large batch of foam at once or did you just mix up enough to fill up a few molds at a time?

Sorry for all the questions but my mind is enquiring. :D

Thanks

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That pretty well sums it up for the key registrations ,only to marry up both sides equaly,I syringe inject the urethane and i would use rubber bands to clamp the molds together nothing fancy.So my process was prepare molds with a spray of thinned beeswax or paint enamel or acrylic ,place the bib and figure 8's in ,clamp the molds together with rubber bands.For the urethane i would have little mixing cups and a syringe in front of each mold in the cup would have the required amount of Part A with Qcell for bouyancy.Then i would go along with a big syringe full of Part B squirt in the required amount into each cup 50:50 ratio ,mix it then suck it up with the other syringe and squirt it in the mold,i would work down the line till i did the last as i was going down the line i would reach back a couple of molds and knock the caps off the sprue holes to let some gas and urethane out so the cast didnt flash the seams.I would make up a stack of the Part A in little cups before hand and bring them out as needed,You can clean the syringes out in thinners and get a few uses out of them until they start sucking in air around the plunger seal>the urethane i used could be demolded in about 5 minutes .I hope that helps

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