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I keep getting this ripple effect in some of my tails. It almost looks like the plastic might be getting too hot in some places. Or some how it is cooling faster in spots and caving in. Could it be air bubbles causing this? What am I doing wrong and how can this be fixed?
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I have never had that problem with that mold I don't know exactly what is going on there how tight do you clamp your molds and if you are running your plastic around 350 there shouldn't be any problems I don't see any indication of air bubbles and how much pressure are you putting on the injector remember you do not have to apply a lot of pressure especially on that mold but I have never ever had anything like that happen with that mold yet and I run my temperatures up pretty hot I run most like temperatures around 335 to 350 just make sure that the mold is a little hot and try that try what I mentioned and get back to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by DrNip
I use to two plastic 300 lb squeeze clamps. I get it around 350 degrees. Maybe I am shooting it too hard and too fast. I will try shooting it slower. Another thought is that this green has been reheated probably 10-12 times. I have only been keeping the tails therefor I am throwing back a lot of plastic each time to be reheated. Could that have something to do with it?
How long are you letting them stay in the mold before you take them out? When I got into tail making mode I saw similar things beginning to happen when I was really rolling along. I think that portion of the mold gets too hot and when the baits come out the cooler air causes un-even shrinkage in the thin tail. I'm seeing a little flashing going on there and in this mold I see that too when the mold is getting real hot, regardless of how well it is clamped or with what .
About a minute or so. Sometimes maybe more and sometimes maybe less. I'm out in the garage late a night with both doors open. It's been cooler at night.
Since you're not being concerned about the bodies try taking them out of the mold in 20-30 seconds, just keep the gloves on though.
Will do.
Way better results last night. I couldn't slow the shoot down or else the tail didn't complete. So I had to shoot it fast. This time I left pressure on the injector for about 10 seconds and then waited a little longer before opening the mold. Roughly 1.5 - 2 minutes. If I have to apply pressure every time I don't how I would do this if I were to shoot multiple molds at once. Also I was way more careful of bubbles. Took my time getting them out if they appeared. And finally started cutting the tail a little further up into the body so I could get a better bond between body and tail. End results were no ripples in tail, way less rejects due to bubbles and no rejects due to improper bond between body and tail. I have a few more tweaks I'll try next session. One being trim the tail just a smidge further back on the body. I had a few that I did this with and the bait flawless transitioned from the tail into the body. Red/chartreuse is a color I have had great success with on my local lake. The 1st pic is one of the baits I talked about where the transition was smooth if you just barely cleft a little bit of the body with the tail.
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drnip I believe you got the hang of it buddy they look fantastic you did a good job you never get through learning and working with this hobby is a learning experience each mold is different weight to you get into some of the other ones will be pulling your hair out I have when it was custom made for me and it is a pain in the butt we have to heat the mold of on that one no way to get away from it either. I haven't done much posting with my little squid but it is a lovely bait with lots of action we will have to do some posting with that one we can't do 50-50 on them impossible we use a dual injector works fairly well but you have to work with everything superhot . recently I have a little hot plate that we been put in our molds on and hitting them up before shooting if it is too cold in the shop the red did you use is that just plain red or is it strawberry red or one of the other many red colors. tried to use a fl blue and chartreuse also bubblegum and chartreuse FL green and chartreuse. and I do wish that they would make a 20 cavity mold in the mold that you're using or what I call the Texas wiggler.
bob.
Yeah I wish they had a large cavity mold too.