Thread: Just curious

Im thinkin bout gettin into makin some soft plastics to make some colors i think would be killer but cant seem to find anywhere. I like using 2" hotgrubs from Southern Pro. How much would it cost me to get a mold similar to the hotgrub and how much would i have to spend to get set up? If its gonna be too much work and money then i will prob pass on it but im just curious. Thanks fellas.

Originally Posted by Southern Young Gun

Im thinkin bout gettin into makin some soft plastics to make some colors i think would be killer but cant seem to find anywhere. I like using 2" hotgrubs from Southern Pro. How much would it cost me to get a mold similar to the hotgrub and how much would i have to spend to get set up? If its gonna be too much work and money then i will prob pass on it but im just curious. Thanks fellas.

depending on how many cavities that you're wanting in your hot grub mold the rest of their stuff that you will need. You can go online and price it yourself probably a couple hundred bucks for you to get a going and maybe more.

basstackle.com has a southern pro style 2 inch grub. I have the mold and it is excellent. It is a 30 cavity. I think it is around 179 dollars. Other than that, you will still have to spend a couple hundred more dollars in order to do what you want. You will need something to heat the plastic in and then buy the colors. It is not cheap but it is a lot of fun.

SYG, here's directions on making a mold that I'm thinking of trying.

Get a flat containter that can hold a handful of the worms you want to copy. Make sure the container is atleast 2 inches tall on the sides. First coat the sides and bottom of the container with some patroleum jelly (vaseline) Mix some bondo up and pour it in the container to make sure it is pretty close to halfway full.


Once you have it halfway full throw your worms down and sink them into the bondo halfway and then at the head of each worm add a 1/2 oz egg sinker and place the egg sinker at the head of the worm and ideally you want one end of the egg sinker touching the head of the worm and the other touching the edge of the container it is in. The egg sinkers act as a pour hole (sprue) for the plastic.
Now I like to sink 2 marbles halfway into the bondo in opposite corners to make it it easy to align the mold back together after you pry it apart later. Once the bondo dries very carefully pry out the egg sinkers, marbles and worms and then put everything back into their cavities except for the marbles (leave them out). Next coat the entire surface of the bondo, egg sinkers, plastic worms with vaseline very thoroughly and also into the marble cavity. This will allow you to easily pry the two piece molds apart. If you don't do this you will end up with a solid one piece mold that you can't pry open to get your plastics out(now you got to start over again . Now you want to pour another batch of bondo to completely cover up the surface you just vaseline. After the bondo dries pop your mold out of the container and pry the two parts open and carve out any areas needed in the sprue area and presto you have a mold that will make round plastic worms. I usually hold the mold together with some of those plastic vice grips you get at Home Depot or Lowes as the bondo conducts heat like a mother and gets fairly hot to the touch hence the plastic grips are the ticket. I have one mold that has 5 worm cavities just to give you an idea. If you happen to screw one up somehow you still got 4 more to try.

You can get the 2 part bondo at Wal-Mart.

The bondo way did not work to well for me on small baits. Some people do ok with it but it was not my cup of tea at all. It will make a mold, but if you ever get into the injection molds, you will surely love them, and go broke buying them too. The home made molds are extremely time consuming, and the injection molds are a little quicker, but if I do 3 color baits it is rather time consuming

thanks for all the info guys. Pontiac next time you get ready to make one give me a holler and i may ride over and check it out.