jigmeister

I found a bag of colored flat glass decorator "stones" my wife had out in the garage . I put a half dozen of ones just big enough to fit the opening of my gallon jug of plastisol for mixing before using . Works great and doesn't interact with the plastic and you can see them clearly on the bottom of the jug when mixed up .

"Do I get mad and send out letters tell people too stop making the Puffball jig that starting building back in 1985 or the Lion collar jig i started back in 1991 that answer is no " If you had gone thru the effort to get Patent on your jig designs they would already be expired by now anyway so you could send all the threatening letters you wanted telling people to stop copying your jigs but it not be legal nor enforceable. Patents take a lot of time ,money, and maintenance fees to protect a product or design but what you're talking about with your lures versus Z-man lures is apples and oranges . Posters here are actually trying to help you but your response is to get angry and insult them . Go Figure?

Tin cure is not only expensive it's very prone to reacting to whatever it is in contact with when curing . It is best to mix up a small amount for a test to see how it reacts to the surface of whatever you're trying to mold .

Braid will melt from the heat of the plastic so that's a no go .

You can still find Dacron line to use which has more limpness than heavier Trilene XT . Fly fishermen use Dacron line for backing on their fly reels and it comes in a variety of different colors . If you pour a light shade of worm like smoke you can use the colored dacron as kind of a bloodline . If you just want to try out the concept of rigged worms you can try some mono to see how it works out .

Mark typically with Do-it molds if you grab the finished poured baits by the molded attached sprue with pliers and move the bait back and forth by the hook the bait will separate and break off very cleanly from the sprue at it's thinnest point . A couple of swipes with a file is all it takes to smooth the head where the sprue was attached .

Aluminum is an excellent conductor of heat so it is used in high performance engine blocks and cylinder heads . It pulls the heat out of the molten lead fast so the hook is not exposed to those high lead temps for very long . Think about how fast the molten lead solidifies in the cavity it's almost instantaneous .

I just looked at the picture again Big Epp attached and zoomed in close . The hook in the left cavity looks dirty like it was dipped to remove lead after a previous bad pour ? and possibly not cleaned off good enough. I also noticed it looks like the lead cooled and blocked the cavity where the head tapers down to form the bait keeper of the cavity . The hook is not positioned centered inline with the sprue so as the stream of molten lead is flowing into the cavity it is going to have to deflect off the hook and head recess before having to splash into the narrower hook keeper part of the cavity . Tilting the mold slightly like M.T. Pockets suggested would make it more of a straight shot for the lead stream filling the bait keeper area first before the head of the cavity .

Big Epp looks like either lead is too cold or low flow out of the bottom spout . I always try to pour will the pot full of lead as this creates more pressure = faster flow (better stream )out of the spout due to higher static pressure . A test I do as the pot is just about up to temp is to turn the mold sideways and level under the spout and pour lead onto the side of Do-it mold in the depression with the mold name and model info just using quick spurts of lead to gauge how well it is flowing it also helps heat the mold up . After using your pot it will become second nature what a good normal flow looks like coming out of the spout . Another suggestion would be to fill the sprue for each mold cavity to the very top when pouring don't try to skimp on lead .

I am on my second Lee 10 lb pot and I have always run them at 6-6 1/2 temp setting. Not owning an infra red thermometer I have always set them where the lead flows best . Since the pot is new to you it would not be a bad idea to heat it up and pour the contents into a muffin pan to make ingots and then make sure there is no grit or impurities obstructing the blocking the bottom spout . Even with clean lead over time stuff can accumulate on the bottom .

I think just about everyone has this experience pouring lead at some point . Try all of the suggestions offered first and if still not happy ... A trick I learned with difficult to pour mold cavities was to lightly tap (nothing crazy you don't want the hot lead to splash out )the mold on the base plate of the lead pot for each cavity immediately after it is full of hot lead . This seems to force the molten lead further into the cavity around the hook shank . For someone pouring baits for production this is too slow a process but if making baits for yourself it seems to work fine . As mentioned this always seem to involve a mold modified to accept a bigger /different hook

I read on another forum a post someone made about making their own scents using a blender and from the title thought that's where this was going . Instead of cricket scent this guy was experimenting with "Frog Scent " to get bass to hold onto his topwater hollow body frogs longer . Apparently the frog puree he created did not actually work for it's intended purpose . He said not only did he feel bad about the frogs he ground up alive but he also had to buy his wife a new blender after she asked why the blender was out in the garage .

Wally , Are you heating up your plastic in the pyrex cups in the microwave first then transferring to the griddle or doing the whole heating operation in the griddle ?

Durham's would probably be OK for this just a more expensive . I have used Durham's for making limited use lead molds for prototyping jigheads . It will burn a little on the surface of the cavity from each pour of 600+ hot lead . After a few pours with lead the Durham's will start degrading messing up the detail of the cavity . I have heated up the hardened Durham's molds in the oven with no ill effects to sweat out any remaining moisture before using it for lead pouring which is about the temp of heated plastisol .

I just found this website through a search and it is really user friendly to use for creating or matching existing colors . Wish I had found something like this years ago and it would have saved a lots of plastic experimenting with colors. Online color mixing tool - free color blender tool! (trycolors.com)

Mad man craw was an anatomically correct bait that looked just like a real crawfish but I think the problem was it didn't move like a real crawfish in the water . From what I can remember from reading about the Berkley testing was that they made a bait to look like a crawfish that the test fish did not respond to in the manner they expected . In an effort to figure out why they started removing the bait's appendages to see what was putting the fish off about the bait . When the claws and all of the legs were removed the fish finally took interest . I remember one theory was that the fish weren't sure what the bait was having never seen anything like it before so curiosity made them bite it ? I think ambiguity could also be a factor . If a lure can be thought of by a bass to be a crawfish , baitfish , or other potential food item they will be more likely to bite it . A tube bait doesn't look exactly like a craw or bait fish but it could be close enough to be interpreted by a bass to be one and a bass typically doesn't want a for sure meal to get away . (Disclaimer : Thats what I think but I get skunked a lot)

I like to Texas rig a square of toilet paper on the line ahead of the bait for realism . Big Bass usually slam this rig up as soon as it hits the water with strikes that sound like a toilet flushing .

John boat easiest (100% welded hull will have least problems and no leaking rivets to contend with )

The manufacturer says to run the down scan /side scan with a forward boat speed of up to 5 MPH for best imaging (Idle speed) allowing you to mount it slightly above the bottom edge of the transom . This will protect the transducer from hitting debris in the water when driving at faster speeds .

are you wanting to make them just for your own use or sell them ?

It is most likely they are "Masters" used for making the molds to produce the baits or for a reference of the lure dimensions

Mister Twister made the first floating worms I had ever seen in the late 1970's . They were extremely soft and spongy baits with a twister tail that tore apart easily . If you tore one in half the plastic was full of tiny bubbles molded into the plastic . They quit making them and I had heard it was because of something that was toxic (or not "environmentally friendly "they added to the plastic to produce the bubbles. I have often wondered just what that was they were using .

Before modifying your mold I would suggest taking one of the poured paddle tailed baits and trim the boot tail down to a straight tail so you can try it out as a twitch type lure and make sure it performs to your liking before making the changes to the mold .

From what I have read People who paint plastic baits with airbrushes have to use retarder to eliminate the spider webs that form due to the paint drying too fast . A little but of mica goes a long way I am wondering if you are putting too much mica in the paint cup causing clumping in the tip ?

I tried this with the air brush spray set pretty light and sprayed multiple coats until I was happy with the coverage .The acetone will dry in seconds after being sprayed on but the mica will stay in place . It looks like this is how Basstrix painted their swimbaits using this method then final dipping in clear coat which both seals the mica powder and brings out the color(s) . Give it a try and see what you think