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Mike, I think you did well on starting this conversation. More than anything, I think you may have instigated some of the members to look more closely at their botom line. I have literally made every mistake in the hand pour business possible before we went to the high production molds. I became very streamlined before I made the switch, including running a the shop on it's own meter, etc.. The bottom line was it was very difficult to justify putting 30-40k a year into a handpour business to clear after expenses 10-15%. The biggest mistake I see is that many people start as a hobby and then think they are going to make big money handpouring/injecting baits. It is ok to keep it small and simple and enjoy it. I can remember when I had just a corner of a garage, 10 molds or less, a Lees pot, and a few bottles of color and glitter. Today, as we were packing for the big show in Indy, I looked around at 100k plus worth of packed plastics, boxes of new rods we are releasing, hats, shirts, the smell of anise, and recall those days in the corner of the garage. The moral of the story......if it were not for my day job, I would still have a little corner of the garage with $100 or less in materials. Just enjoy yourself, whatever path you take.

Thin to milk, or even skim milk consistency. A little too thin is far better than too thick. Thin, multiple coats, with each coat heat set, is the key, especially for beginners. Thin coats heat set faster, and you can build to whatever thichness you want without worrying about uncured coats, and trapped moisture under your top coat. It's a good idea to go online to the Createx website, and read up on heat set paints, and how the heating process actually changes the molecular structure of the paint, making it waterproof. It's really T shirt paint, and is meant to be heat set with an iron to make it survive washings. Not heating it enough will result in a more fragile paint scheme.

Awesome, new tricks to get me in trouble. Haha I like it. I had been doing mine by hand but they look nothing like the above picture. I guess I am still a newbie at this. Thanks for the tips guys, I will try them out soon.

If you are trying to reproduce a plastic hollow body bait try and sacrifice a lure and split it down the center. then make a mold (pos. and neg.) of both left and right sides this is how I get a hollow plastic bait then add weight and rattles or what not I hope this vid helps it sure helped me