Greenhornet

Let me know what you need bro.... I'm here to help. This is to push creativity for the community. I'd be happy to print some things for anyone needing to do some prototyping!

Printing with 20% infill molds have held up just fine for pouring both hand poured and injected plastisol. I think silicone is a better option for larger runs with injection molds. Standard printing will not hold up to lead. DMP or Direct Metal Printing may be a better option. I don't have any experience with DMP as base models still run $50k and up. A cnc milled aluminum mold seems to be more cost effective at this point than DMP for simple lead molds. I priced having some jig molds DMP and it was several hundred bucks. Machining is still expensive but I would rather have a experienced mold maker (machinist)to possibly catch a flaw in my drawing vs a tech just printing it. Hope this all makes sense. Any more questions?

This is my first post. I've been browsing around for quite some time and I felt like it was time to give back to the community who helped get me started in soft bait making. After much trial and error I have been wanting to put out some info about 3D printed molds, First, you don't need a super high tech printer to make a good bait mold. The printer I started with was less than $170. Most CAD software worth having can be had for FREE to a hobbyist( I recommend Autodesk Fusion 360). With that being said, most frustration for me has come in the form of learning to design in a virtual space. If you can do that you have it licked. If you are new to CAD, youtube is a wealth of info but I promise YOU CAN LEARN!!!! On to the details: (Steam-lined) #1.Printing open pour molds is surprisingly easy. PLA is very capable of holding up to the rigors of pouring softbaits. Settings that seem to work well for me are 1.4 mm wall thickness with at least 20% infill. Perhaps printed molds have a shelf life however with over 125 documented pulls on my double cavity, open pour, chunk mold I think for personal use it more than does the job ( I have the file stored to print a new mold if needed, which takes roughly 2.5 hr print time). #2 If you want to make a custom mold for yourself the cost to quality cant be beat. #3 I have found injection molds I printed to be less than stellar. I have had more luck designing a 2 piece mold in two sections and the making a silicone mold of each side, then injecting. With this process it allows you to have a mother mold which you can reproduce as many times as you would like. #4 Sometime printing a actual model and then making a silicone mold is a good option #5 If you don't own a 3D printer their are plenty of 3rd parties that can print you design at reasonable prices I'll be happy to answer any questions anyone might have. Attached Pics are my chunk mold with a printed chunk that I made silicone molds off of as well as a two piece mold with masters