Soft plastic newbie question

[Bassbme]

Hi Jig Man. Thank you very much for your response. I appreciate it. I am using Anchor Hocking containers. They're listed as micro wave safe and I haven't had any problems thus far. And I kind of figured that the hot plate idea might be hit or miss. It's gotta be better than nothing, especially if I need to let the first color set up for longer than a minute. Since it's not that big of an investment, I may go ahead and give one a try.

In reference to letting the first color set up before pouring the second ... when you say set up, do you mean almost completely cooled, or a little under a minute or so? My thinking was it should be poured as quickly as possible after the first color is poured, because that would give it its best bonding. Not that it wouldn't bond well anyhow. The heat of the second color's plastic is going to be hot enough for the two colors to bond. Just curious what the thinking is behind your suggestion? Probably something I'm not thinking of.

I tried a couple of two color pours with some junk colors just to get an idea of the amount of the first color I need to pour. I about to head down and pour a few with the colors I really want to use. I think they're going to turn out pretty good.

Thanks again for the continued responses. Very much appreciated.

[Jig_Man]

If you pour too quickly you will get a mix like when doing a core shot instead of a laminate.

[Bryanmc57]

If you pour too quickly you will get a mix like when doing a core shot instead of a laminate.

And if you pour too slowly (first color sets up too much) you will get a cold crack and the colors will not bond well...

[Jig_Man]

And if you pour too slowly (first color sets up too much) you will get a cold crack and the colors will not bond well...

So true. It was always a crap shoot for me.

[Bassbme]

Hey there guys !!! Thanks for the responses. As I mentioned above, I went down and did some pours with colors I actually wanted to use. I tried pouring them two different ways. One way, pouring the second color probably a minute after pouring the first color. so that the first color was still hot. And another after letting the first color cool a bit. I pretty much waited until I started to notice the first color shrinking a bit.

The baits I am pouring are goby baits so for the most part I am only pouring a thin layer for the belly color. I didn't have any problems with the colors mixing. Just not enough weight in the second color. But I can definitely see how the potential for the colors mixing would be there.

On the baits I poured after letting the first color cool a bit, I had no problem with the colors bonding in the main body, but I did get a little of what Bryan called a cold crack, at the tail. My thinking for this is that the body on the bait is fairly thick, so it was still holding some heat, while where the tail joins the body is thin and doesn't hold the heat. Pretty simple fix for those baits though. With the scraps of the colors I had left, I just poured some tails and then used Mend It to glue them to the bodies. Below is a picture of a few of them. Other than a little under pour of the first color in the tail area, I'm pretty happy with them.

Oh and Jig Man, I started using an exacto knife to help trim the excess off the edges. Much faster !!! Thanks for that suggestion. I still use my small scissors to clean some stuff up. but that knife works great.


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[Les Young]

Very good job for a first time pour. Are you addicted now?

[Bassbme]

Thank you Les !!! And oh yeah, I was addicted before I even started to pour. lol The bait I used to make the mold for them, was a bait from a now defunct company named Ouzo. The original was the paddle tail version of the baits I'm pouring, but its' tail was vertical, versus horizontal, like it is in the picture. It would have been tricky trying to make an open pour mold to keep it like the original. So I cut it and used Mend It so it was flat. For the curl tail I just used the tail from a 2" Mister Twister grub. Mend it is a great thing. lol

In the picture I purposefully pulled the fins off that one. It's going to make a great little flipping and pitching bait in that configuration. One of the baits that I use to go back over an area I've fished already is a 4" ring worm. The problem with it is the body isn't thick enough for a heavy hook. The body in the baits I'm pouring is though :) I'll be pouring that in black body with a white tail. It's gonna be killer. I've got some ideas for some other Frankenstein baits as well.

So yeah ... I'm addicted lol And thanks again for the compliment. Truly appreciate it.

[Bassbme]

A picture of some baits I poured today. This is one of the color combinations I really wanted to pour. The local lakes are full of small perch. I'm thinking this one should be pretty darn good on those lakes. I used Zoom magnum trick worms in a straight watermelon color for the main color, and Culprit ribbon tail worms in their Trophy Gold color for the belly. In cutting them up, the Trophy Gold color appears to be a core shot. Gold core with a heavy amount of small gold metal flake, inside an outer layer of what appears to be copper. Although it could be a darker orange that the gold core is making it appear copper.

It's definitely a color combination I am going to want to duplicate once I put together an supplies order.

Would anyone by chance know what Culprit's Trophy Gold color actually consists of?


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[Les Young]

Cut one of the culprits into to see what's actually in it.

[okiemoman]

And if you pour too slowly (first color sets up too much) you will get a cold crack and the colors will not bond well...

I use a heat gun on the first color to get it back to temp on top, then pour the next layer.

[Bassbme]

Les, thanks for the reply, and that is exactly what I did. That's how I determined it was a core shot bait. I'll just have to buy a bunch of different colors and see what I can come up with. I can see this has the possibility of being even more addicting than rod building. lol

And Okiemoman, that is a great idea !!! Kind of feel silly that I didn't think of that on my own lol Thank you for that tip. Very much appreciated.

[Jig_Man]

You better to get ready to buy or build some storage cabinets. It wont be long before you have baits running out your ears.

[Bassbme]

lol Jig Man. You aren't kidding. And this is going to be more addicting than rod building. And I can see it having the potential of being just as expensive. I'll be giving some of my baits a try tomorrow. I think this latest one below, has some serious potential. My tournament partner already wants me to pour him some in this color. Oh and I also see what you were talking about the mixing if I pour the second color too soon. Learned that on the bait at the very top. It's more brown on top, than the green pumpkin it's supposed to be. Actually I got quite a bit of mixing in the tail sections, but I like how it turned out. It looks very natural to me. I may try and develop that as a technique.

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[Les Young]

Something i have done to do a sort of a coreshot is to heat either new plastic or used baits & after letting it cool enough to stick to a cut off section of an oiled pin flag i dip it & build it to the size i want. I then stick it into the mold & inject my second color. When ready to demold i hold bait between finger & thumb & pull pin flag section out. Redneck core shot. Hey it works.