Fern

his facebook if anyone is interested in looking at his work. https://www.facebook.com/pg/Rękodzieło-Wędkarskie-Iras1975-170559506617480/photos/?ref=page_internal

Actually, after reviewing his Facebook post a bit more, I found that he is making his masters out of some sort of hard resin I believe , however someone asked him what the tail in one of his masters was made of and he replied "polycarbonate". As far as his powdered pigments go, I think he is mixing them with some sort of varnish as he mentioned in one of his post that a dilution was made out of varnish. not sure what it is for. I have attached as many pictures as I could that could provide clues to what he is doing.

I’m pretty sure it’s soft plastic from the action in some of his videos. The website is here https://e-przynety.pl/ thank you for your response. How does pvc glue and MEK react with the soft plastic? Does it make a thick layer over the bait? Does it remain flexible? What does mixing PVC Glue with MEK achieve that you cant achieve with just using just PVC Glue or Just MEK? What exactly is MEK? I was wondering if he even clear dipped his baits because if you look closely at some of his baits, they have texture and all of the baits that I have with texture tend to lose it once clear dipped. Shat do you think? Is obtaining the texture possible with coating the bait with PVC glue and MEK?

I tried that before but unless you can get super perfect cuts, it'll look really bad.

Do you have an instagram, I make tubes and like seeing other peoples tubes. you can see mine at @id_eat_that_baits on instagram.

I would literally just take the mold and lay the rods in place and then place tin foil over the section of the tubes and close the mold and shoot it. when you open it, youll have two sides of the same color and you can remove one color and shoot again without the tinfoil. Just make sure you heat the mold so you dont get any cold cracking. I am at work right now but will try to take some photos for you when i get home.

I do not have that mold but sometimes I place tinfoil between the two aluminum blocks and shoot the bait and Ill get two separate pieces that i can use to make laminates. its pretty easy and works well.

Hey all! was wondering if anyone can help me figure out how to properly paint with mica powder. I follow this lure maker from Poland on facebook and his lures all super realistic looking. I know he makes his own molds from real "dead" bait and then he says he paints them with mica Powder, however that is as much detail as he goes into. Is painting with mica powder just dipping a brush into the bare powder and brushing it directly onto the cured plastic? will it wash off when wet or is a clear dip necessary? his facebook posts are all in polish so the translation is really bad but he mentions using varnish and resin as well but I am not sure how he is using both the varnish or the resin but i do know the bait is soft plastic from what some have posted. While i have you all here, what is the best way to make a mold from a real fish? I would like to try it with some threadfin shad. I have read that some people recommend freezing the bait before casting it and others have said to coat it in resin. I would like to make a mold that has several cavities, would this be possible with a silicone mold? whats the best method?

Looks like the btsmolds jerkbait shad but the patterns look different. Someone else on this comment thread had the same one so I’m pretty certain it’s for sale somewhere. Can anyone assist?

Cami, Thank you very much, this is exactly what I was looking for. I believe this will work extremely well for what I am trying to do. Thanks again.

Do you still make these? If so, how much are you asking?

Hey all! I started making these shad style swimbaits and I was hoping someone here could help me out with the best technique to adding a treble hook under the belly similar to the Storm Shad swimbaits. I thought about maybe threading fishing line through the nose and under the belly but I was hoping there was a better method or some type of wireform I could buy that would make this super easy.

These are really cool. Do you have a video of them in action? I would love to see how they move/swim/glide...

Thanks

Thank you !

I wanted to give everyone an update on my issue. I am happy to report that I have fixed the issue of my tube baits tearing open after inserting the 1 ounce ultra minnow jig in them. I did nothing but switch over from the Dead on Plastix "Tube/Craw" blend to the Bait plastics "Saltwater" blend and I have not had one tube tear open since the switch. From my understanding dead on plastix is supplied by the bait plastics manufacturer so i suppose the dead on plastix "saltwater blend" would also work, i just found it a better deal going through bait plastics as their shipping is free for anything over 40 dollars vs paying 22 dollars for shipping with dead on plastix. I attached a few pictures of my lures made with the new plastic blend. Thanks to all that helped me figure out the issue

I was on the phone with them yesterday and have been in communication with them via email so I will say they are open. I have had a few issues in regards to not getting what I have ordered but they seem to be taking care of it now, it has just taken a while. First mistake was I was missing a "Tail Splitter" for my tubes and I received a bent rod that goes into the 4 inch tube mold. I contacted them and they sent me the tail splitter and a net set of rods pretty quickly, however during this time I had ordered 5 additional sets of rods which never arrived, I contacted them and they told me that tracking stated that it was delivered, however they were referring to the tracking for the tail splitter and replacement rods. They went to work to fix this issue immediately. I was given an update on when I will receive my rods this morning. Although I have had a few issues, they have been professional and helpful the entire time.

I have not tried to hand pour my tube mold but I do have a dual injector as well so that is what I typically do. I also have the do it molds tube mold with the two splines but to be honest with you, I didnt care for it too much. I have not tried cutting the tube in half but what I have done is dipped the rod that comes with the mold into some hot plastic in one color and then removed the sleeve that formed and then dip into another color and cut that sleeve in two and placed one of each color back on the rod and then shot the mold with a more transparent color of one of two sleeves so you can see both colors through the main body. Its a pain in the butt but its interesting to do. I attached a picture of one I did with one color strip under neath, just imagine a second brighter color underneath like a chartreuse lime or green. I also made a bait where I drizzled some bright color on the side of the mold, closed it up, heated the mold really hot and poure a black over it. It came out looking really nice.

I am trying to figure out how to add different color layers without adding too much thickness. Any tips for this? I am using a mold and it came with rods i am suppose to use with it. I dont know how to modify it to use thicker rods/mandrel. I still need to get a reading of the rods that I am using to answer your first question. Sorry I was not prepared.

Yeah, I agree and think the thickness is what might have been causing it, however other tubes from the same batch pour of the same thickness have yet to tear. My mold makes 5 tubes at once and out of those 5, 1 of them will tear open and the others are perfect for use so I guess I just dont understand why the thickness would affect 1 of 5 tubes from the same pour. The thickness comes because I like to dip the tube in clear to seal in the eyes. although, I have had some tubes that i did not dip in clear that have also split. This doesn't happen to all my tubes, just a 1-2 from each pour which is enough to drive me crazy. lol. You mentioned I can use anything metal for a core? I am using a mold with rods that were made for it. can I add girth to these rods somehow? I am assuming your comment was intended assuming I hand dipped my tubes so just wanted clarity on if I can somehow add more girth to the rods that came with my mold. Thanks again for your help, I will def keep trying and If I find out what caused it, I will report back. I have ordered some hard and extra hard plastisol from baitplastics.com so hopefully that helps some too.

That is a really nice looking swimbait. Did you make that underspin weighted hook? mind sharing what mold you used for it?

I am using the dead on plastix worm oil. usually apply it right as i put them off to the side to cure. would the worm oil weaken the plastic? I use the black bucket tube craw blend from dead on plastix so its already pre-mixed with hardener/softner so I just agitate the gallon for about 2 minutes by shaking it back and forth with my hands. I heat in a 1 cup glass pyrex for a minute at a time till the plastic reaches 350 giving it mixes in between minute to ensure its evenly heated. due to the fact that out of 20 only about 15/16 of them are usable with nothing wrong noted with them, I feel like there has got to be something affecting the 4-5 that rip that is the others are not affected by like maybe one of the slots got too much air and formed an air pocket i cant see but upon inspection before putting the jig heads in I don't see anything wrong with them and the plastic feels sturdy. Could it maybe also be that when I clear dip them it is making the plastic thicker and less stretchy? maybe the ones that break are the ones that I am double dipping in clear plastisol?

I am using the black bucket (tube/craw) and I am using dead on plastix colorants as well. I add about anywhere between 12-24 drops of colorant into 1 cup of plastisol to get it to the opaque-ness that I want. The pink tube in the picture was just one of the ones the didnt tear from that pink batch but some pink ones def tore. I usually make a batch of 20 of each pattern that I make and out of those twenty, 3 to 5 of them tear and the rest are ok.

These are a few others that have torn. These are single color poured so there should be no seam to split at yet they are still splitting.

Thank you for your input. While I agree that the tube head might be a little big for the tubes, I just cant wrap my head around how other people are doing it just fine. as I mentioned before, I use to get my jigs from ultralight heavyweights (hopefully user Jgzee1 can provide some input as he owns ultralight) and they use the 1 ounce minnow head on the same size tube as I do. side to side comparison they are identical. Also, this is not happening to all of my jigs only a handful from each batch but the fact that I dont have quality control is bothering me. I have attached a picture of two of my jigs, one of which that has withstood the 1 ounce jig head for over a week, the other which ripped after 2 days of just sitting there and in the middle is one of the ultralight jigs for comparison. @Jgzee1 can you help me out? what am I doing wrong? is it my choice of plastisol (dead on plastix) is it micro bubbles? Why do some of my jigs tear liek this, both solid color pours and dual color pours. If you can provide some insight to how you make it work, I would really appreciate it.