[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.

[Delw]

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.

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

[Delw]

Originally Posted by Zbass

Thought I read somewhere in these forums about the rtv breaking down after awhile. Is that true or is that just in high use situations?
Zbass

I dont know about breaking down, but they will start to give off a dull finish after a while. this can be fixed by sticking them in the oven for around 100º which brings out the oils and gives you a shinny finish again.
I think you can do it up to 5 times?
I have one at the house that is over 7 years old, it still looks new and is flexible

Chris with al's worms knows alot about RTV and the shiney finish, he has posted alot about it in the past.

[Bass-Boys]

the guys at Lure Craft tell me they replace there Resin Molds
1 each year..For the Poor Boys stuff.

[King Bait Co.]

Delw Your right twenty is a high number with prices going up these days. I think I paid $6 or $7 dollars for the last one's I got. That was earlier this year. You can get them cheaper from people who make them. Then the places who sell them for a living. I still get molds from them also but I can only get a few at a time when I order from them.

[King Bait Co.]

Sorry I forgot Delw you do make some pretty good molds that I can't live with out.

[Delw]

King are you sure you got RTV molds and not another type of resin or other mold? RTV is very expensive even if you buy it in 5 gallon increments.

Lots of people call other flexible molds RTV molds and there not the same type

when bobby and I were making them when back when for our personal use, RTV molds were costing us like 15-25 bucks each to make and that was just enough for 5 dropshot worms with a 3/8 of rtv between the bait and the bottom and 1/2" on each side.

[King Bait Co.]

Their blue if that helps.

[Spike-A-Pike]

The RTV I know was the stuff by Dow Chemical in the 1980s, it was orange and used on the jet engine insulation blankets and in the engine bays. After it cured up, it would stay flexible and was good at temperatures up around 700F.

Even back then, it was pricey, according to the manifested parts cost it was $28.00 for either 6 or 8 oz. The stuff wasn't cheap but it never failed and our pilots always bet their lives that it would work.

[Delw]

The company I used to buy all my fiberglass for boat work sold pretty much everything to make molds, they had hundreds of different products ranging from high to low. alot of it had to due with shrinkage as to how it was priced. as far as color its hard to say cause every product has a a few different colors. we used the RTV cause that was the in thing back then (2001-2002). it worked and served the purpose

we even tried the dental stuff ( cause we used it by the case for our inspection dept.) that stuff had very little shrinkage but after a few weeks it got brittle and cracked plus it was pretty expensive.

I have heard of guys using window silicon some say add a little water and its suppose to work really well.

Delw