Fish On!

Will you take $35?

I want all similar information. I, as a little man with a big idea, fear being roadkill. Are there talent scouts for creative lure designers that could present your ideas to the big money marketeers under some sense of security and confidentiality? Is it worth Trade Marking your lure line? Is it worth patenting a lure system? To reveal a new lure, what would be the best steps taken when? I want to know??? I am so new I've never heard of Icast, what is it? Is it THE annual mecca meeting of lure manufactures, revealing their new lines to retailers? All Do's, Don'ts, & Intelligent Insight are welcomed!

Jig Man, I want to make the smaller jigs for soft plastic baits that have a small weed guard. What molds are you using? How do you modify them? Can you post pics for details? Thanks for helping a fellow fisherman. Fish On!

Where there is a will - there is a way! Keep up the good work!

If the danger doesn't come from a splatter of hot foaming plastisol, the steam from the expanding vaporizing water can burn you. Common sense...

Recently I have been inquiring about injectors under another another post, titled "Injectors Blues", where you received some constructive criticism. Maybe a larger thread design would prevent some failures. Making it idiot proof is always a good designing guideline. I think, I want a small workable tip for some of my designs. Is it feasible to have having an electric heating blanket with an outer insulting surface that wouldn't melt? Or possibly a resting holder which is electrically heated that includes multiple tip capacity might be a good alternative. A one-hand-operation on a small injector sounds like the way to go. Possibly the three ring design, if the tube is wide enough to shorten the stroke. The ratcheting one-handed-gun sounds good, but maybe the simpler the better. Would the design work with two color laminates? I would rather choose quality and ease of use, over most everything else. The thicker, beefy'er, heavier and larger the better, over thinner, skiny'er, lighter and smaller. This appears to be the rule for tools, unless special purpose functionality dictate otherwise. But, what do I know? I don't even own an injector. But rest assured, if when I do and there is any possible way to misuse or break it, I will find my way in short order! I believe "Murphy's Law" was written by one of my ancestors. If you need some one to field test it, keep me in mind. By the way, I have health insurance and my own worker's comp! Good Luck.

Frank, thanks for your experiences. Your descriptions of the different injectors appear to be factual and to the point. No pun intended. And for the other readers and replies, its not that I want to inject POP molds, but my drive is to create my idea of and ideal bait. POP has been interesting to work with, cheap and quick enough that I feel I can try any design I want. It does present a problem not being able to inject with the smaller baits, mainly because I can not get the extra details, fine expendiges, and fully bodies. As I described earlier, I was able to get crisp clean baits injecting using a cover plate on a POP mold. The mold was cast on a glass pane or slick metal sheet giving the mold a super flat surface for the cover plate to seal off the cavities. With larger baits this will probably work good using a standard injector with a small tip. I haven't tried a two part POP mold yet. And I don't understand air escape design aspects. (I welcome any and all replies.) So far, I have had a lot of flat sided ideas to experiment with before I move on. Most of which are the ways not to make a great lure. Once I finally get a great working prototype, then maybe, I can get a professional mold made. (Who do you go to? How much does it cost?) For now I still learning as much as I can. I find it frustrating not being able to spend more days and nights creating my designs. I have had many bad days, where it seems I'm getting nothing new accomplished and then there is the few days I get a break through. The excitement overshads all, but the gitters from waiting try out the new design and being able to pass the ultimate test - Fish On!Any thoughts?

Hello Guys, I'm fairly new to pouring and also wish to purchase a set on injectors. I want to make an educated decision. I don't feel I know enough, so I'm relying on your responses. My experiences have been making due with what I have. But, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. Believe it or not, I have produced good quality prototypes of different small baits using an antique glass syringe that I soldered to the end a short piece of a air pump needle for basketballs. I injected one sided POP molds, that I pored, carved and sealed, then using a clamped down cover plate with a central larger injector hole per cavity and smaller air vents on all extremities of the bait. I had to preheat the syringe and work swiftly to get six injections. I left a little extra plastisol over the main injection holes for the shrinkage draw-in. My baits came out clean and crisp, no trimming! You have to have good dexterity with gloves and the cleanup of the syringe was a bit tedious. Any who, I broke it after a month's use. Then, I moved up to my large stainless steel meat injector with less favorable results. How do you get the finer details of small creature baits using POP molds and injectors? Why small, medium and large injectors, other than just for producing large baits and/or large volume of baits? I want a two color system, what is the best size, style and quality? I would rather wait and save up my money to buy the right stuff the first time. Are all nozzles the same and are they universal to most molds? Wouldn't a slip-in-nozzle slip out with higher pressure from cooling plastisol? Why would you buy replacement nozzles: are they easily damaged? Do nozzles come with a fine tip to do the style of injection I described above using a cover plate?

I would like the answer to the ABOVE QUESTION.

I don't know about the swim bait issue, but I did learn by mistake with the POP drying on 325 for over and hour. They do crumble. You can't hardly carve any further details. I had to do any adjustments softly as possible, reseal, pour a new master bait and recreate a good working POP mold. I first thought I had mixed to much water in my POP and weakened it. Mixing a thin POP solution and pouring in from the corner makes for good results.

I'm new to making soft plastics. I'm up to only about 100 now. I am trying to make 1 1/2"small to 1" or so micro size crayfish. I tried the 1 cup plastisol (Ozark soft) to 1/2 cup salt to 1/4 cup softener. At first, I was stirring with a thin narrow stirrer, salt wasn't well suspended, lures seemed cakey and would tear too easily, now a wider stirrer, more suspension, and the cakeyness has seemed to go away. I need the baits to be heavier and stiffer for the performance I'm looking to achieve. The arms and claws are to weak. Without adding counter balance weights, my desired heavier mix for a faster sink rate maybe more important. I am short on money, any my "To Oder Wish List" is growing. Short of buying a recipe book, can any one lend any assistance? I've read about MF's sinking bait plastisol, but I need to experiment with what I have. Can you just keep reheating the plastisol forever, or at what point do you start losing desirable properties? Thanks in advance for your reply. I'll check back this evening.

Back searching - I got a generic ratio. Thanks

Hello Help To one cup Delmart Plastisol how much salt how much softner to start???

I've recently ventured into making soft plastics. I am working out of a one cup Pyrex. Are any guide lines to adding salt for weight. Can you laminate a floating plastic on a sinking plastic?