Quote:
Originally Posted by King Bait Co.
I think it is how you take care of them. In the long run lets say you dropped your two piece aluminum mold and it cracked or broke a half. You would have to spend a $100 plus shipping to get a new one. If your RTV mold wears out you can get ten to twenty or more for that $100 you spent on the aluminum mold.
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an aluminium mold you won't crack or break one in half, UPS even tried to run one over and the only thing that survived was the mold. they won't bend either unless you use a press.nor will they wear out, they will also bring about the same amount you paid for them 7 years later when you decide to sell them.
if you drop one the only thing you will do is nick and edge, then you just take a file and file it flat.
Molds are like tools the better the quality the more they will cost. that all being said there are some baits that alum wouldn't be justifiable to make and RTV or pop would be much better and cheaper.
as far as RTV being cheaper, its a toss up RTV isnt cheap and it takes a bunch to make a mold, getting 10-20 molds out of a 100 bucks worth of RTV seems like alot, most guys get 2-3 out of the $25 jar ( 16oz?). The cheapest would be pop and the baits are just as good if not better than RTV.
RTV does have its advantages and one being able to pour very small extremities with out the plastic setting up. RTV lets the plastic flow extreamly nice and into thin areas which with a aluminum mold maybe difficult or not able to do at all.
the biggest difference in a alum mold vs a pop or rtv mold is the perfectness of the bait and it being symetricle(sp) on pop and RTV and other stuff you have to pour over a master to make your mold its only as good as your master, if its crooked then so is you finished product. alumin is computer drawn and is symetricle through out.ie all extreamities match etc.
The detail on RTV doesn't come out near as good as POP becuase RTV is thicker.
if you want to make lots of molds for cheap use fiberglass resin, just dont drop them cause they will shatter but for 100 bucks you can get alot more than 20 molds. Also fiberglass will give you very good detail if your master has it.
I've made quite a few molds with fiberglass and RTV a long time ago and the fiberglass was the one I liked best
