2marshall8

would this work? https://www.amazon.com/StirMATE®-Smart-Pot-Stirrer-Rechargeable/dp/B076HH4WZM/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=pot+stirrer&qid=1609627875&sr=8-2

I got the bella mini deep fryer but I'm having issues with burning of the plastic aruond the heating element. It burns the plastic and than there are chunks of burn plastic floating amoung the "good plastic" ruining the blend. any ideas?

ha. real men where pink lol

awesome. I just got one on amazon. thats exactly what I needed. length is good at 12.5" and the end is perfect for the injector. perfecto

On this note, what brush do you guys use to clean out your injector?

wow yah, so that was what I was thinking. love it, love it, love it. thanks guys. good ideas.

great advice everyone. I definitely think more molds would provide the largest speed up in production from what Travis said. If I had 2 of the same mold I could shoot both at the same time, doubling my speed, the one concern for me here is when shooting single cavity molds with dual injection, I find by the time I get to the last mold the plastic has cooled to the point where if I had to shoot another 5 the plastic wouldn't be hot any longer. I usually shoot dual injector at around 299. so you actually leave the injector in the hot plastic between shoots so the plastic all around it and inside the injector stays hot? am I understanding this correctly?

I'm trying to increase my efficiency/time in production across all my molds and I know buying higher cavity molds is one way, but what are your other ways to increase efficiency? my biggest time suckers are cleaning the injector between shoots, waiting for plastics to cool before I can pull them from the mold, and re-heating plastic. thanks

How many baits are you putting into a padded envelope this big? my struggle is I sell more bulk quantity and customers will buy more than one pack (60ish baits) so this size envelope won't work, things will be too squishy in there and quality may be sacrificed. I'm still figuring out the right size. .13/c each is awesome. I'm looking at around 8.5 x 14.

could this have to due with the type of plastisol being used? I was shooting chartreuse tails for some drop shot baits on some super high floating (low resin) plastisol and have seen all the tails fall off just sitting in the bag. just another thought to consider.

Yah. this is what I was finding as well after further research. bulk is best. thanks for the guidance. cheers

yah. this was a concern of mine, but yah $30/gallon plus $18 for shipping. so yah bulk will be key. what plastic do you buy to keep these costs down and buy in bulk?

very good points. I guess this is part of my discovery here and making me think closer about my goals in bait making. I've stopped buying main stream plastic baits and vowed to not buy another but rather buy a comparable mold, so long term maybe 10 years down the road I may save using using my own plastic. regarding the costs. I'm just calculating the actual costs to make the product and ship it and still seeing I won't make anything on this. I'm in it for the hobby but hoping to at least break even by buying the supplies and selling them. my calculations may be off, let me know what you think. 2.8" Swimbait Bag - .16 Each Glitter - 0.36 3x 1/4 tsp Plastic $48/gallon shipped. 16 cups per gallon. $3/cup. 1 cup makes 30 baits. .10/bait. 15 baits is $1.50 Envelope - .66 Each Shipping - 4.00 Ebay Fee - 1.20 My Cost = 7.88 This many baits might sell for $7.99 if I'm lucky

Latest update. I've attempted to ship large envelope and added the baits in such a way that they lay flat. This cost me $1.40. I somehow have a feeling it will be rejected but I needed to know if this would be a solution. If not I'll be stuck with the small package option around $4.00 like you've said. How many baits are you adding to your packages and how much are you charging for them? the margins are super tight on this stuff so I'm starting to think I can only do bulk sales. How are you making any profit on this?

I found that around 310-320 is the ideal temp for when I've been shooting these dual laminates to avoid bleeding. thanks for all the advice on here.

I think there is a lot of assumption here regarding charging more for selling baits and this might work if you have an established customer base who buys from you regularly. If you are like me and starting out with tons of competition, I'm forced to bring down my prices to make a sale. I just sold a pack of baits on ebay for $4.99 today. I thought I had bought the correct packaging to put my item into the large envelope category. The dimensions were correct but there was a bulge in the middle of the envelope so it wasn't an even surface across. So they categorized it as a package and I was charged $4.65. If I had spread out the baits into a package which kept them even across and stayed within those large envelope dimensions: "The maximum size for large envelopes is 15" x 12" x 3/4" thick. The maximum weight for large envelopes is 13 ounces." I would have been charged $2.00, drastically helping my margins. I'm going to return these 6x10 padded envelopes to amazon and look for an padded envelope which is close to that 15x12x3/4" thick allowing me to spread out the baits more evenly and stay within their required dimensions to bring me into this large envelope category.

Something makes me think that I do need to lower the temp to thicken the viscosity, that way when the two plastics hit they can’t meld as much together. I’ll keep trying things . So since I been shooting at 325-335 should I get down into the 310’s ? When u are troubleshooting how wide do u usually jump in temperature tests ?

First off thanks everyone for just your awesome support and help in helping me find the root cause for this issue, this is amazing advice that y’all gave me. Take a look at the attached picture and you’ll see this recent shoot I did actually was very well distributed between the top and the bottom colors where the runners are located, it’s not until you get towards the last inch of the bait near the tail section that you see the colors blend. I shot these around 326°. Do you still feel that all you said applies or should I be shooting at a lower temp?

what was that "something" else? I'm still not getting perfect double laminates to the standard I want to see them.

So lowering the temps to 320 made a difference and I also slowed how fast I push down on the injectors. I also verified that the plungers were aligned. All these suggestions helped. thanks

k lots of good advice on this one. I will say I inject fast and hard, so I'll change the speed, this is another important variable I forgot to test. The other injector alignment suggestion is something I can check.

https://baitmold.com/plastic-bait-mold/soft-plastic-bait/aluminum-mold-v23-5-cavity-2-8-inch-70-mm-separate/ good idea. I'll try this later today. I own the bass tackle dual injector, and when I do shoot I have one hand stabilizing the blending block and one hand applying pressure to the dual injector. do you normally use 2 hands to push down on the injector handles? that might be another idea I'll try.

Anyone know why I had some of my dual injection blends right on and others bled over? I've tried 350, 330, 320 degrees and tried to match the 2 blends of plastic as close as possible within 5-10 degrees when shooting at those temps, but haven't found a super consistent dual laminate. I think the bass won't care since nature has all kinds of imperfections in how baitfish look but people will. thanks.

the paddle on the tail will be correct but the bait will still bend right where the tail meets the table.

regarding curing swimbaits which you can't lay out on a cookie sheet has anyone used mini clothes pins and hung them out? I can use the runner but it's a lotta wasted plastic which I need for additional baits. thanks