Ed_White

Thanks Mark, I have a respirator, need to pickup some cartridges.

Travis, I had a look at the link you provided, great info but a lot of choices, I'd like to hear exactly what filter choices people are making for both lead and plastic, I much prefer ventilation to respirators, but when it's cold in my garage it's hard to maintain heat and ventilation at the same time, basically I cut back on the ventilation so a proper respirator would be a big help.

Thanks Cami, I'll give it a look.

Hey all, I'm looking to buy some of the material that is used in the bait shown in the pic below....I think that it is .5 mil holographic mylar sheet, which has been wrapped around the lead insert and hook before the plastic was squirted into the mold. I've been looking, with no luck so far. This particular bait is a Vision sandeel, but I've seen the same stuff used elsewhere, especially the Tsunami stuff. Any ideas, I'd love to hear them, Thanks, Ed

Bottom lines is that humans were designed to breathe air, which can be kinda funky all on it's own, but it's not generally toxic. Pay attention, don't scorch the plastic and use good ventilation. If you can feel yourself breathing the vapors, you're not ventilated well enough. I try not to put my trust in respirators, I use a strong window fan which pulls the fumes away from my work area to the outdoors, even in the wintertime, I just crank up more heat as needed. 40+ years as a mechanic/welder/fabricator on diesel trucks, I have breathed enough crap, I don't want my hobby to kill me.

Brakleen in the red can does a great job of removing the annoying bits from glass cups.

I made a sandeel mold, everything that swims around here eats sandeels, I'll post a pic in the gallery.

Thanks for the help guys, the Basstackle stuff does look pretty nice, I have to decide whether I should spend $100 on a mold, or just buy $100 worth of swim baits instead. Guess I'll keep an eye out for molds for sale.

Couple of nights ago, I had a black batch heating in the microwave, about 1/1-2 cups of plastic in a 2 cup Pyrex........I heard *tink* come from the microwave, and opened the door to find lots of broken glass and hot plastic, thankfully all contained by the rotating glass dish in the micro. Let it cool off, peeled it into the trash, and went on. I'm wondering what might have caused this? My usual process is remove heated cup from micro and set on a med temp hotplate while I stir, then back into the micro, been doing this for years. Don't think I damaged the Pyrex cup, but maybe there was something I couldn't see. Any ideas? Glad it wasn't on the hotplate when it let go, what a stink that would have made.

I can certainly see the appeal in what you're building, for anyone who is trying to maximize their investment, ie: in business. But this is my hobby, I don't want another job, I have one already, it's not that much fun. And if I used this app, then I would know, to the penny, what this little obsession is costing me, and I just don't want to know. All I know is, I need more molds. Just the same way, I never want to know what each fish I catch is costing me, or I'd have to take up something less expensive, like buying islands or building bridges.

Hey all, I have been perusing the mold manufacturers sites, and have not been able to find any large swim bait molds, mostly 4" is the largest I've seen. I realize that the vast majority of this stuff is all freshwater, but soft plastics can and do take plenty of saltwater fish, a 4" swim shad would be the smallest size I'd throw, and not often, that's like end-of-the-season stuff when all the good fish have gone, and we're fishing for schoolies and holdovers. Anyway, a 6" swim bait a la Storm Shad is what I'm aiming for, I'd like to be able to make my own colors, and I realize I would probably have to modify any mold I find to accept a hook with a lead insert, but I'm good at screwing around (and screwing up) that kind of stuff. Single cavity or double would be plenty, to keep costs down, I'm just making these for me and a few friends.

Any idea if lingcod are head feeders or tail feeders? Around here where I fish, the 2 fish most prevalent are stripers and bluefish, stripers are head hunters, they turn on their meal, suck in their prey whole, head first, they have no teeth......bluefish, on the other hand, are yellow eyed demons with a mouthfull of teeth with a bad attitude, they tend to chase the same prey as the stripers, but strike from the rear, biting them in half. That's why the rear hook on many striper lures are called the bluefish hook. If you know which end they are more likely to eat, might only need one hook?

Hey all, Just wanted to put up a good word about Enforcer bait molds, I'm a hobby guy who just bought his first ever machined aluminum 2 pc mold, a 2 cavity grub, and the thing works awesome, the order process was easy, and I had the mold 5 days after order. Not affiliated with the company, just a guy who appreciates good service when he gets it and is willing to spread the word.

I use a lead insert in a 6" sand eel, with the lead attached to the hook, like a Storm shad. I made a mold from Bondo that I can lay the bare hook in, and pour the lead in, like a jighead mold, and then take the lead/hook insert and put it in my plastic mold, and shoot the plastic over the insert. To make the hook mold, I used a piece of wood and worked it to get the shape I wanted, put a slice in it for the hook to sit in, epoxied the hook in place, and used it to make the mold from.

Mark, sorry it took so long for me to see this, but yeah, the Colure paints are what I meant, not sure where I came up with the 2.

Yeah Mark, the color you put on is the color it stays till you rip or melt the plastic off it. I've been using their Colure2 paints to paint the inserts and to finish paint baits. Once in a while if I'm taking one apart I'll see the paint come off with the plastic, and the lead has that white, dusty color to it, but the bait was still "all together", the insert wasn't loose in the plastic, that's why I do it, so when you're trying to get a snap onto the bait, the insert isn't wiggling around inside. They have clear too if you don't want a color.

Excellent Mark, I will try some of theirs, but probably the hard formula, and see how it goes.

Bruce from Spikeit taught me a little trick, paint the lead insert with their plastic paint and the plastic bonds to the insert, I will occasionally try to remove an insert from a bait that the tail was ripped off, and it's work to do it.

Hey all, I have a problem. No, it's not finding enough time to make more baits, we ALL have that problem. What I am having a hard time doing is making a cup of crystal clear, bubble free plastisol, which I can then shoot into a 2 cavity mold, and, if it doesn't turn amber (BIG if), then a cup allows me 5 shots = 10 baits. Currently, I am lucky to get 3-4 shots before it changes color, and that is if I can get a clear cup of bubble free plastic. I currently have a microwave and a hot plate, the microwave is fast, heats up the material quickly, and creates foamy cups of plastic that just **** me off. The hotplate does a better job if I go low and slow and stir very frequently, but as often as not it will just go amber even before it reaches 350 (using a digital heat gun), like it's getting too much heat. Heat stabilizer or no stabilizer, it doesn't make a difference, with either the micro or hotplate. I do not want to start a plastic war, I won't even say which brand I'm using, other than it's a reputable brand which sells lots of plastisol, it's the saltwater formula (hard), and it works great if I put any colorant or glitter into it, I can shoot baits all day so long as they are colored, one of the best patterns is black with red eyes, easy-peasy, but one of the patterns that works so well is a clear bait with a little color along the back (It's a sandeel bait). I'd guess that 2 out of 20 that I'm making will be acceptable, meaning, it pleases me.....no bubbles, clear plastic, and even though the fish don't seem to care, I do. If I'm going to spend my time doing something, I want it to come out the way I want it to. So, if anyone has a recipe for a cup of clear, bubble free, non-amber plastic, I'd love to hear it, or see it, post a pick in the image forum. I'll post a pic of one of my baits in there so you can get the idea. I have also done a lot of reading here using the search function, and have mostly just read a bunch of bitching about plastic. Can we please avoid that? But if you have a specific brand which has allowed you to get really clear plastic, I'd love to hear it. Thanks, Ed

Yup, make the halves fairly thick to keep them strong, and use pam. I used the clay base method last time, where I lined the bottom of my mold box with modeling clay, then cut into it to allow half of my master to stick up out of the clay....I also cut in to allow half of the runners and sprue, and a couple of alignment pins (I used marbles). It's important to take your time with making sure the clay is up tight against the master and everything else, to get a good parting line between the 2 halves. Spray everything with Pam, just a light coat. Mixed the bondo up, and began by applying bondo all over the master first, used an acid brush to actually push the bondo down against the surface of the master to avoid bubbles in the mold cavity, then filled the rest of the box with the remaining bondo. After it had cured a while, broke everything down and re-sprayed the master, runners, sprue and alignment pieces the made the second half. Worked pretty well, I've made hundreds of pieces so far. I've even used the bondo for small lead molds.

Don't know about the too big thing, but Spikeit makes Clearasol, a clear soft final coat, I usually just dip the heads on the baits I make, locks in the eyes. A large enough pot should allow you to dip an entire bait.

I'm no expert but I do fool around with making molds, PoP will work, Bondo will work, or RTV will work...I hope, I just ordered some Oomoo 60 to try out. PoP works and is cheap, but it's delicate, Bondo is a bit more durable. As far as the shape of your swimbait, I'd try ovalizing the tail more, less square.

All good ideas, I do have 2 of these molds, covering the cup is another common sense idea I should have thought of, and the silicone cups sound pretty cool. Are they easy to clean?