Leaderboard

1 to get started.

Dave, Understood and thank you.

Fishorfie - I will not release the file until it has been fully tested. Dave

I heat plastic in the basement. If I plan on heating a lot to pour the same color plastic in different molds I open the window above and put a small fan facing outside. If the smell is a bit too much, I take that fan out and use are very large, circular floor fan directed toward the window. Never have found the need for a face mask. (Of course the wife bitches about my pipe smoke and I have to do it anyway at least 5 minutes every 30 minutes.) One thing I found extremely important was to NEVER overheat plastic and to accomplish that I heat 30-45 seconds at a time until injectable which is usually 300 degrees or less. Even once a good temperature is reached doesn't mean the plastic won't yellow especially when over 5 years old or crap plastic to begin with. I don't sell lures and don't have to worry about keeping stocked up on different designs in different colors. Besides, I use parts of plastic lures to make totally different lures fusing the parts together using a candle flame. Been doing that for over 10 years or more and happy knowing I can reproduce them at any time.

Hello Mark, thanks for your comments!! ... trouts get crazy when they see the lures. Of course, as they are very cautious i always try to be stealthy to avoid spooke them...

Thats pretty much the lureworks type. I even mixed plastic in a small jar with the hardener and shook the snot out of it, mixed into my pouring plastic and stirred some more, then stirred some more began heating, stopped, heated more stirred, and I still got lumps. even heated slow. I also poured a few dozen wacky worms the other day, and I though they were too soft. I bagged them today. What a difference once fully cured. It doesnt help either that I have two bottles of something that its contents took the writing off off the bottles. Turns out their both softeners. One sinking. Baits were wayyy too soft.

a little pricey ( all their molds are ) but they do have some great stuff. Its a half inch shorter and I know there is a cnc mold out there 3/4 inch shorter, for half price. I dont mind spending but I'd want to be sure of the closeness of the finished bait. If I could get my hands on sample baits poured from both mold makers to compare it would definitely help. Body contours, weight action etc.

Try this one https://fatguysfishing.com/5-75-cut-tail/

Just charge the customer for shipping. If you are selling one pack of baits, after deducting plastisol, color, scent, flake, heat stabilizer, cost of molds and equipment, electric, and your time has to be worth something, there is no way you are going to make a profit if you pay shipping.

If you already haven't done so, talk to your tax person. You need to fill out and file Form 720 every quarter and pay 10% of your sales. You might also need a business license, depending on where you live. If you're going to sell, do it right, you won't like the consequences if you don't and get caught and/or reported.

i have some 4.5"flat side wood blanks cedar,oak,and pine cut outs!

LPO has quite a few. Not sure what you are looking for. https://www.lurepartsonline.com/Lure-Making/Shop-By-Product-Category/Crankbaits-Plugs-Hardware/Plugs-Wood-Bodies?page=1 .

Something like this:

In my opinion, aluminum molds are clearly better than stone, that really is a pretty obvious given. But, he did not really put forth any effort to make the stone mold work. No oil at first, then way too much oil. He kind of did it in a way that made poor results a guarantee. The only time I have had that much difficult with opening a stone mold was a new 8 cavity ring type one that I did not spray first. I treated all my stone molds with. KBS diamond coat and have not needed to oil a mold since and all the baits turn out nice and shiny.

Sound like the etex and devcon may not be playing nice together, or maybe the etex is not fully cured before you go on to your next step. You can glue in the lip with superglue. That should hold it in and it cures very fast. Also the slot should be kind of snug.

I've found that hitting my black sharpie with a hair dryer helps it to not run. With red and chartreuse sharpies, they will still run, unless I shoot a coat of Createx gloss clear over them. When I dip and hang a bait by the nose with red sharpie gills without the gloss, the red bleeds down a little, and makes a neat bleeding bait effect. This old photo shows some bleeding on the right hand bait. At the time I was using AC1315 concrete sealer, and evidently didn't heat set the red well enough, because it bled a little. I did other baits at that time with more pronounced bleeding, but I evidently didn't take any pics. http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/5484-5-inch-gliderwalkers/

I will give the eraser Idea a try for sure. I like the idea of using something softer vs a handle or toothpick. It still turned out ok in my opinion Oh Wayne those stands worked out good. Cost effective, simple, and I can break them down to store them even

I used a cut off round toothpick to make these trout specks.