Bountiful Waters

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.

Charlie, I have a bunch of Crawcane. Give me a ring if you need it.

Did you not just ask for 502 in your opening thread? 502 is telling you that is is medium (softness).

I probably have (5) 5 gallon buckets full of 502 scraps.

Thin Ice Mike

Hey, thanks a bunch. Chad is a great addition to the company. With that said, I am getting out of the hand pour for profit business. Bigger dreams to pursue. More of a design and create kind of lure maker than a stand on concrete all day and pour guy. My body just won't hardly cooperate any more with pouring for more than a few hours at a time. Still in the plastics business, just on a larger scale. Still plan on hanging around here when I can.

I am one of those guys who recently made the decision to move into the mass production realm. I could not keep up with orders which caused much stress. I am a stock broker by day, so trying to find another 20-30 hrs a week to fill orders became intense. I took the leap and have been developing molds. I have been fortunate in life and had the means to move to the mass production level. Hopefully, this will still allow me to develope, which I really enjoy. The main difference is that once the design is complete, someone else is doing the labor. I get to spend my time selling, marketing, etc.. Good luck to you and please do not get to the point where I was last fall, which was high blood pressure, little sleep, and even less family time.

I have tried to keep up on this thread and I think, from a observers stand point, that there is basically a new movement happening. This section has normally been about "hand pouring" plastics. I do not believe that the hand injectors fall into the hand pouring category. Hand made yes, hand pouring no. It looks to me like a culture change if anything. Obviously hand injectors cannot do what a hand pour approach is capable of, but on the same note, I think there is a place for the hand injectors. Basically a bridge is being put in place between the garage type hand made injectors and the high production, high volume injection. I think there is a very distinct difference in concept and that there is a place for both. I congratulate Bear for fostering this movement. I think a guy can do both, depending the the need. I think there is an underlying distaste from some hand pour guys concerning this new culture as it seems to cheapen what the old school hand pour guys think of the art. I have done some soul searching and can honestly say, I see no reason why both hand injection and hand pour cannot coexist.

I would most definately use clamshells. Depending on the amount of time in a bag, the swimbait is likely to deform.

The only advantage I see here is that Stanley can possibly leverage some peg space. Other than that, Tommy will be OK, as there are plenty of fisherman to go around.

Majority of the time, I use LC 502.

Tee, the 3x4 waterproof label is Logo, website info only. I buy the Avery 8195's for detailing whats in the package. They come 60 to a sheet, are small, and fit nicely on the package.

I bought 10k 3x4 waterproof labels, 4 color, from Inpact for app. $650. .065 per label seems pretty reasonable to me.

Those are good prices 152. I ended up buying through a printer recently. I was not happy doing the labels myself because when the label got wet, it would stain. I bought the laminated labels which at 10k, were about .05 each.

Very well put and informative Pike.