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no one mentioned the l;ip slot. if crooked it will death spiral

I like working with foil as I can get some really cool effects with it. Here’s some topwaters I did in various paint patterns.

Being a fan of the Smalljaw channel on YouTube and enjoying his helpful advice here I was wondering where he had gone. Just saw this video he posted a few minutes ago updating us on what's going on. So here's the link for those who are also missing his great content!

Litterally has nothing to do with poor quality machining. The nose (ie the gate) MUST be 50/50 in the mold, which it is, and the part line is lined up as such. A proper fluke (zoom style) the belly extends deeper in the mold than the back does and has a hook slot (which is the issue at hand). The hook slot interrupts the flow of plastic and when injecting too fast causes both colours to mix more in the cavity as was seen. Hence when he slowed down with the injector he saw better results. Also why on many minnow style baits that have a larger belly cavity without a hook slot you are able to get clean laminates fairly effortlessly.

Temp & speeds are pretty crucial when shooting plastics. Heat it to 350 & shoot quick. Like said above heat the injector if it's cold. I mix in colorant & flake most times before heating unless i'm making a totally new color that i haven't figured out the mixture yet. This way i prepare the mix, heat to 350 & inject like a well-oiled machine more or less & seldom have any problems at all. The more you do it the more you'll get your system worked out & the problems pretty much become a non issue.

I picked up a cheap meat grinder from harbor freight. It works really good and I think it was around $30.00.

Don't ever, EVER lick melted lead.

Everything you folks responded with is what I've been doing. Experience I have. Been shooting my own stuff nearly 30 years. This is my first attempt with my dual injector. Up until now I've either use commercially made laminate plates, or made my own from heavy aluminum flashing. Wanted to leave that behind and speed the process up. I think my biggest issue is my plastic cooling too fast. There are those, for lack of a better word, condoms that form over the nozzles. They cool and prevent the plastic from shooting. Too much pressure and I make a mess. Nozzles are hot enough, so then its got to be my plastic temps. Viscosity to me is everything. After I get to temps, no matter what or how I'm injecting, I check viscosity first.And yes, salt or glass beads make a difference. Plastic and additives too. These really had an effect when I first started shooting core shot baits. I guess just as I had a learning curve with core shot baits, there's going to be a learning curve with the dual injectors. Sooner or later I'll get the feel of it.

I'll probably go with Bait Plastics. How about y'all?

When you start painting plastic blanks, you may want to put some superglue around the hook hanger eyes and line tie eye. Some of the blanks may leak around those spots. Sometimes your paint and clear coat doesn't get in around the eyes to seal those spots. You can buy 30 cheap small arts & crafts paint brushes for $2 at walmart to smear the superglue around those spots. There are several suppliers who make those types of blanks. You can check the pinned post at the top of the hard bait forum. Here are some links https://www.sheltfishingtackle.com/shelts-rap-ko-shad-blanks-p-100.html https://lurebuild.com/ols/products/3-flicker-minnow https://fishheadcustomlures.com/d7-crankbait-chrome/ https://fishheadcustomlures.com/d7-crankbait/ https://backwateroutfitting.com/product/rap-crank-unpainted/ https://www.sugartitcustomlures.com/product-page/basic-5-shad I find the narrow rolls of painting tape to be useful when painting small blanks. 3M makes 1/8" (0.125") and 1/4" (0.25") rolls. https://www.amazon.com/3M-2090-0-125in-60yd-Masking/dp/B007Y7GPQU/ref=sr_1_10?crid=3Q6MY49OQXCYU&keywords=3M+2080+ScotchBlue+Painters+Tape+–+0.125+in.&qid=1702823144&s=industrial&sprefix=3m+2080+scotchblue+painters+tape+0.125+in.%2Cindustrial%2C112&sr=1-10 https://www.amazon.com/2090-ScotchBlue-Painters-Tape-Preparation/dp/B0079NPE6G/ref=sr_1_4?crid=NOB3GQWOLAX0&keywords=3M+2090+ScotchBlue+Painters+Tape+-+0.25+in&qid=1702823395&s=industrial&sprefix=3m+2090+scotchblue+painters+tape+-+0.25+in%2Cindustrial%2C104&sr=1-4

Been there done that. Just bought 3 tickets for an upcoming concert. Taxes and "convenience Fee" added up to the cost of another ticket. There was nothing convenient about this. Can't print tickets, they don't mail them. I may be old, but at least I got to see the good bands! Cheaply! I can't be sure, but if the shipper is UPS, they charge a fuel surcharge. But I thought it was around 2.50 Maybe that's this charge. Agreed! I know if I have to pay a bit more for something, I automatically add stuff to my cart to get my money's worth. If I don't know in advance And I get to checkout, I just say nope, and buy somewhere else. There's a lot of suppliers nowadays all selling the same things we use.

I finally got around to doing this. The borosilicate 4 oz pouring cups work well for 3 & 4 color open pour molds. Wanting to keep the cups warm to extend open time, I molded this hi-heat sandy clay in a griddle with lid. Keeping the molds warm on the flat griddle really helps the colors blend slightly “fuzzy” instead of sharp defined lines. Just getting started; will update after more use.

Best way for me is to have bait disassembled, but if you can't/won't do that...I wrap rubber bands in the joint(s).

No one doubts that fish use the sense of smell and taste in determining what is or isn't food. But I have never been sold on the marketing sales pitch that fish are "attracted" to a presentation that utilizes a particular scent. After 40 years of angling for bass, my experience tells me that my catch ratios do not go up or down because I use (or do not use) manufactured scent on my baits. What I DO believe is that there are human-made chemicals that will turn fish off - especially those often found on the anglers hands. (Gasoline, sunscreen, etc.) So in my mind, what organic scents sold in bottles (or gel form) may actually accomplish is "Masking" the human chemicals that are transferred to our bait through our handling of them. Having said that, I also understand that the key component for success as an angler is "Confidence". Should someone use scent and it mentally provides them with additional confidence in their presentation, then just that cognitive advantage makes the smelly product valuable to that individual. So far the scientific studies and research have contradicting conclusions and have yet to satisfy the angling community with definitive means of settling this scent debate. However, whether the scent actually works or doesn't, the thing that most of us can agree upon... is that it can't hurt.

I build various size baits and a store-bought stencil kit wouldn’t be very useful, if that’s what you’re talking about. I went to an art store and bought a roll of FRISKET, which. Is paper with a peel off plastic backing. After using it awhile, I realized it was best if I didn’t take the adhesive backing off and instead just held it against the lure. Added benefit, you can keep the template and build a library of them. Frisket is easy to cut with a razor knife.

While you're waiting for your blanks, use the time to practice painting on some white PVC plumbing pipe. You can learn to paint curved surfaces, blend colors, and control your air and paint ratios and pressures.

Have not used the gel to seal a bait did use to seal a few pens I turned when ran out of the regular super glure. It won't be absorbed as readily as the liquid due to viscosity. Personally I find the liquid easier better to coat things and the gel reserved for applications where I need it to stay put (mounting coral frags for example). A finger cot or vinyl glove makes short work of coating a bait. On my lathe I have sealed much larger pieces (bowls) with superglue in no time. Apply in low humidity settings and cure times will slow dramatically. A dehumidifier in a bathroom or walk in closet will let most get down to much drier conditions, even in humid environments. One year we had a small lab space 8 ft x 8 ft approximately that the AC had issues in and had to do some work on some materials that were sensitive to humidity. I could start out in the mid 70% range and get down to near 12% quickly running two run of the mill big box store units.

LureWorks Cotton Candy 165 Purple Flake, some green flake, and what looks like a small amount of silver flake. Maybe you can adjust the color to your liking using a tiny bit of the florescent pink as alsworms said. I have a bottle of cotton candy from MF I think from some years back. Used it once. And like the rest of us I have a bunch of colors I've only used once.

Saw this thread was revived recently. I now own a few molds from Angling AI. Happy with the product and their customer service. The only problem is I don't know which mold to order next.

Easiest way to figure out if it's lack of weight ....put some weight on the front hook and try it.

When this happen to me with some lipped baits it was not enough weight in the front to point the lip downward.

yup, that would certainly work. The only advantage the the Plum dye and a drop of black would have over the Black Plum would be that you could control the amount of darkening made by black. The Black Plum advantage is it removes the guesswork.

I found that with stick worms you need to use soft sinking, or super soft and add a lot of salt until you get the sink rate you want.

I think so.... I buy from many. https://easykasting.com/ https://www.siliconetabs.com/

M-F has been a supplier of my favorite plastic in different grades for 20yrs. When a good product become unavailable, for whatever reason, I watch for its return. A popular company that has supplied thousands of gallons over many years should be given a break -no questions asked. When a good company + products is back up - for whatever reason sevice was suspended - I'm ready to resume ordering and relieved that I can. There is a need to stay with what fulfills one's needs and M-F has always done that for me. Bad companies on the other hand, due to inconsistent quality either in service or product, I will not recommend and in fact will warn others about MY expericences. Two strikes and they're out! To each his own. No argument necessary.

X2 on the JB Weld. I was drilling out some cavities in one of my molds and got one too deep. I fixed it with JB. It has held for close to 20 years and untold pours.

A quality wire former will make it so much more enjoyable and your spinners will be of a much better quality. I'm sure glad I bought mine! I have a Hagens, a twistech, and a twistech magnum. The Boggs didn't make my list of wire formers to consider as it was too limiting on size and required buying too many adapters to accomplish what I wanted. I think with all the adapters the Boggs cost more than my twistech. But making your own spinners is a lot of fun.

Don't forget the difficult-to-paint patterns such as the all-white and the all-black. And if you want to get truly artsy, you could add a bit of red to throat.

I am a pretty unimaganative painter, probably has to do with primarily fishing for pike. It's scarry how fast they can ruin a lure. So I have a standard set of colors ranging from "natural" to loud Perch Blue/Perl Silver/white (Moving towards Silver Foil) Pike Rainbow Trout (sometimes) Walleye Green/Gold/white (sometimes depending on the lure) Flo Purple/Pearl Gold/ Flo Orange (Moving towards Gold Foil) Fire tiger Flo Green/ Flo Yellow/ Flo Orange - Black stripes Tiger Tiger Black/Flow Orange/white - black stripes (Sometimes) Pink Lady Flo Purple/Flo Pink/White - black stripes (Sometimes) I 3d print most of my lure now so anything that is a pattern is painted with a stencil

One eye tied behind your back? Eww! Nice visual. He lost me as a long time customer. I always liked the product quality but if its unavailable, then the quality doesn't matter anymore. Quality will always matter to me. I have bought supplies from other sellers that were pure garbage. Wasn’t worth the few pennies saved. Don’t know who I’ve talked to at MF, but the few times they called me to correct my orders. That spoke volumes. They got my business. I’m just bummed because I have to wait. Even though I don’t need anything for a couple months, I’m a man and I want my toys. This will be a lesson in patience. Good things are worth waiting for.

Sooo, since you are the cosumate "insider" would you be willing to volunteer to update his website or do you just want to be the snarkey, pompous ass constantly posting about not having "time" to properly inform your customers of what's happening?

That video is over 90 minutes long. At what point does he say they are closing down?

Don't Limit yourself to Protec paints. There are lots of other paint manufacturers out there and some of them do specifically have fluorescent powder paints. If you want a good glow powder paint Protec makes some excellent glow powder paints though. If your looking for UV they sell a clear coat for that as well and it works good too.

I'll probably take crap for this, but I never used a thermostat. When the plastic is ready, it's ready.........and you'll learn pretty quick when that is. Not sure what type of plastic you're using, but I used MF and that stuff poured like a gem rather I wanted the colors to sort of run together or just a straight laminate. For a laminate, I would wait about 20 to 30 seconds before adding the top pour, but you don't wanna wait too long or they won't connect properly and you'll have gaps in the worm. Dangit......there's a term for that, but I can't think of the name right now. Maybe someone can jump in and save me. LOL. I would just keep my hot plate between medium and high at all times and just keep an eye on the cup you're warming up. I worked with cups almost exclusively and I would add everything to cold plastic first. Your color, glitter, hi-lite......whatever's going in there worked best with cold plastisol. When heating your cup, you want the plastic to be at a nice thin pourable stream........kind of like synthetic oil. From that point, you want to keep it just about there without burning it. Once you get the hang of it, you can do split veins as well, especially with MF. Pouring that second color will actually force the vein to the sides of the mold, giving it that "split" effect. Really cool stuff!! Oh and just to be clear, I'm sure other brands will work just fine. Many of those brands were not available when I poured, so I can't say either way, but MF was my go-to brand. Your worms looks really nice, especially for a first run!! Most of the answers you're looking for you will stumble on yourself as you continue to pour. Just keep at it!!

My idea was to go back a step. Instead of annealing your hook eye and making it dead soft. Maybe try to temper it so that is just a little less hard. It is a distinction. It will be harder to unbend and to bend, but slightly more bendable (maybe) and still harder than dead soft. If you put the entire hook in the oven you will change the temper of the entire hook. ie Make the whole hook less hard. I was thinking maybe heat just the eye with a near, but not direct point heat source like a small torch until its a yellow straw color. You obviously need to clean the hook eye so you can see the temper colors. Hold the rest of the hook between two metal plates to act as a heat sink to prevent it from tempering to a lower hardness also. Aluminum would probably work fine to keep it from heating up. If its not enough try to a dark straw brown color. If that's still not enough you could try brown to blue, but hooks are such a small mass of steel you would probably soften more than just the eye and that would be a hard temper to hit. (no pun intended) I may be over thinking it. If annealing isn't causing issues with the hook shank getting to soft, maybe the plates to heat sink the shank are over kill. Yeah, I know I lectured Curt about using colors and it just being a rule of thumb, but to be fair its a decent rule of thumb. Remember, "Tempering is the process of making it "less hard" until it hits your hardness target." Annealing, which is what I think you were doing makes it dead soft. (as dead soft as that alloy is capable of which can still be pretty hard) I've never heat treated a hook before. I'm kinda just guessing. Like I said before I think I would try work hardening your soft eye hooks first. Maybe as simple as clamping them hard in the flat direction between smooth vise jaws on a big vise. I'd use my arbor press or maybe even my hydraulic press because I have them. When I temper in the oven I am working with an order of magnitude more mass, and its okay to temper the whole thing. Custom ground drill or special shape cutter made from drill rod (W1), punch press die made from O1, hammer forged knife made from 5160 or 1080, specialty hammer made from 4140. I quench and then temper in the oven to make it slightly less hard. I always seem to spend 30 minutes looking up the material and checking online to see if anybody else has done the same thing first before I start, because I don't do it every day. I have a dumb question and I don't really need the answer. If you unbend your annealed hook eye, bend it closed, and then for some reason need to open it up again, is there a noticeable difference in how easily it unbends and recloses the second time? If there is that is likely work hardening.

The only problem I see using scent is that it takes a while for it to diffuse into the water whether the lure is still or moving and even less when it is oil based. Attacking a lure and holding on longer are claims scent advocates insist are factual and maybe so for vertical presentations, but in my case I always cast and retrieve horizontally to cover water. My shapes and action designs are the only thing I have confidence in even at the slowest retrieve.

Make your own wire forms, that are way better then the open hook eye method. Get some Do-it Poison Tail Swing Wire Forms (STW155) and don't look back. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Do-it_Poison_Tail_Swing_Wire_Form_100pk/descpage-DIOTSW.html Use the wire forms with your favorite flipping or spinnerbait hook.

He is a member of the forum “CNC molds N stuff”. He has been a great guy to deal with and has been very helpful. I just provided the design (we did make tweaks through discussion too) and he took care of the computer work. The one thing to remember is it is custom work and he does not do knockoffs(big respect from me for having this rule). You also need to be patient as it takes time and will not be fast as he is busy. I just respect that it’s custom work and he does a good job with the mindset it will be done when it’s done Bob has my recommendation anytime as he is straight forward and has been honest 2 traits that go a long ways in my books

Stick baits first made the scene with the Senko which introduced the wacky rig. I found other the stick shape amazing when used as a jerk bait. This white perch and 4 other fish species have pounded it in the last month. It was made using part of a plastic stick from a mold and rigging it on a light jig. With a combination of rod twitches and reel handle turns, the lure quivers and/or darts. I've had fish strike it 4x on the same retrieve and fish I missed slam it off the bottom. Soft plastic was used to get the best finesse action. The other suprise this year was a stick in the shape of a carrot. Same type of action except smaller in size. 5 colors did well.

If you put a PID controller on your pot you will never burn your plastic. Th PID controls the temp of the element in the bottom of the pot. The plastic can never get hotter than the element.

I originally used one of the LED nail lights with varying results. They are generally 395 - 405nm. I switched to one of the fluorescent tube type nail lights that are 365nm and they cure the Chinese resin in about 6 minutes. I also found some Chinese resin on amazon the claimed to be "fast cure" but it actually cured slower than the regular Chinese resin from amazon.

Carmens soft plastic supplies will have bait plastics in a month or so, Browndog's custom tackle also has BP which is of industry standard. why waste your money on no name rubbish from TS? Unless you wish to fund his meth addiction. All you guys have talked about no chemical company in Australia that makes lure grade plastisol which is correct. Yet TS claims his "pretty good" plastisol is wholly Australian made ? Makes one wonder

i use the thin super glue a lot when prototyping and building test baits. and use the gel on stuff like eyes, if using screws or twistwire. not sure how long the superglue sealing will last, but some of them baits are getting up there now.

Private group, gotta join, best I can do...

we use dollar store adhero epoxy. remember scuff the lexan lip .it holds very well.

Doesn't sound right as I don't see pumpkin being in CC, but you can buy basic pumpkin at any lure parts place. I would recommend NOT getting pumpkin from MF as it's very weak.

Hook rash is normal.... trying to balance weight to function is something your going to have to determine yourself. Description to explanation to actually doing it is almost impossible to replicate from area to area because of temperature, humidity, storage and type of finish... So the more time you put in the better you will get. If you have any exact/direct questions, there is a lot of experience here to answer.

It gets difficult because guys use so many different things. "Solo" cup gets mentioned but individuals were using various different plastics. The same for the "virgin" lacquer thinner. Those also end up being different chemical compositions depending on location and brand. Reason so many hit and misses with the solo cup method. Propionate was easier for most because they were sourcing the same product from Swede or Palmeto Balsa for instance. Even then I was never sure what exactly propionate they were using. I assumed cellulose acetate propionate based on the initial Rapala reference and coming a few sites across the pond with google translate.

I do reheats with softener all the time. Hardener is less forgiving

I think this is a case were a photograph is justified. A picture will provide a lot of information. To make a judgement give length and weight of lure. How does it float. What body material, weight and position of ballast weight. You should not be wasting time and effort painting a new lure until you have proven the design works. Dave