Hand Crafted Angling

I heated it to the 400 degrees and injected it super slowly. That solved my air issues. Thank you very much!

Thank you, Ill give all of that a try

Finally got around to trying out the flex x 200 bait plastics makes. Stuff is extremely stretchy but I'm having some major issues with voids and dents. Out of 15 baits I had 2 that were functional. Not too many dents but massive hollow parts in the baits. I'm trying to figure out the issue. All my molds are made by me so it is definitely possible its just a venting issue however it works fine with plastisol so I don't think that's the issue. This is my first time using a pot instead of a microwave so maybe I'm doing something to add bubbles but I hardly saw any inside the plastic before I injected it. The only thing I can think of is a temp issue. I was shooting at 350-370. I don't think it would shoot any colder than that. They recommend up to 400 degrees but I would think going hotter would give me more issues. The only other thing I can think of is the outside temperature. Not sure if that makes a difference but it was 28 degrees in the shed where I now pour. If anyone could help me out I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you

Picked up an ear ball lure mold and want to star making some of those silicon skirts for them. Tried my hand at bucktail but I need some serious practice with that. I'm having issues with finding the skirt materials. I want to make something like this. I cant find any info on the bands though. All I can find is the band that just clamps around the skirt. I like the look of what I think is called a hub skirt where all of the skirt points back from the jig and none of it goes forward. I found what it looks like I need but for some reason I cant find it on any of the real deal tacklemaking sites. I only found what I am assuming is cheap Chinese ones off of amazon ebay and alibaba. There is no info on how to make skirts with them, what tools to use or what size they are. They will be used on large saltwater jigs. I would also like to know where I could find those large fins that would be a nice touch but not as important. Thanks

Posted back here a while ago about making some jig molds and what material out of. Decided on bondo as it seemed middle of the road on cost a durability. My plan is to make a mold of the mold on my 3d printer and cast that with bondo to make the jig mold. I did my first test run the other night. Mold was unusable anyway because I missed part of the mold box but I had an issue with air bubbles. There were holes in the finished mold right on the cavity of the jig. I’m not really sure how to eliminate them while pouring. I used bondo cut with fiberglass resin and Pam baking spray as a mold release. When I poured it I went slow and poured it in the empty space of the mold box. I didn’t really see many bubbles going in. Is there something I’m doing wrong?

I picked some up for personal use. Is the heat a problem for storage in a tackle bag? I wanted to make some large internally weighted swim baits and some saltwater stuff with it but if it melts that easy it might be a problem.

Never used this stuff before seems interesting though. Wonder how well it would work as a clear coat. My baits are plastic but as far as i am aware neither petg or polycarbonate are soluble in acetone. Wonder how well the paint would hold up though. I have no idea what I am talking about but isn't this what you are looking for? https://scipoly.com/shop/cellulose-propionate-cat-1077/ https://scrapo.com/p/27534/cellulose-acetato-propionate Also this topic did peak my interest and I did some reading about people using plastic cups for this. Polystyrene is what solo cups are made of and I know those pellets are readily available. I know abs is soluble in acetone that may work too.

I went way down the rabbit hole of trying to figure out how to make super stretchy and durable soft plastics and I've hit a wall. I figured id post what I have found here. All of these baits are made out of a thermoplastic elastomer. (TPE) This comes in the form of a plastic pellet that is melted down and injection molded. I've seen some different theories on here before that they are either two part plastic or made of some kind of thermoset rubber but this is not correct. I don't have any specific formulation but the plastic pellets are a mixture of some kind of oil a heat stabilizer and sebs plastic (Styrene-Ethylene-Butylene-Styrene) There are commercially available pellets with the correct hardness and elasticity but they are all made for traditional injection molding. They only need to be stable under heat for seconds rather than hours and they are injected under an order of magnitude more pressure than we use. I have tried testing some of these commercially available pellets and they do not react to heat well. Within 10 minuets the plastic turned yellow and my shop was filled with smoke. The only commercially available forum of this that I can find is Bait Plastics flex x 200. This is the same concept as the commercially available pellets it just has enough heat stabilizer to survive being melted for long durations and have a low enough viscosity to be hand injected. I wonder if large companies like zman use traditional injection molding or they have a formula similar to flex x 200 that would work in something like a Zorn injection machine. It is beyond me how you would get laminates as well as suspended flake through normal injection molding.

Are you topping off the sprew when it shrinks back in?

I had that issue caused by air getting into the mold. Are you sure you aren’t mixing any air in when mixing up plastic. Also burping the injector before injecting will help greatly

The softer the plastic is the more action the tail will have at the cost of durability

No seriously. Idk if anyone else had these as a kid but the material would be perfect for making soft plastic lures.

Interesting the molds I have are usually 5-10 minute demold times depending on size

I’m just curious how long you guys normally have to wait to demold your baits. I’ve only shot molds I resin 3d printed myself and I’ve never owned an aluminum one. I would imagine aluminum would cool off the plastic quite a bit quicker.