My first experience pouring

Okay everyone. I finally got enough stuff to do a little playing. I realized a lot of stuff in my first try. I learned that you do not get great baits out of home made molds but you get some you can use. I know I need to make several modifications because some of them are not thick enough. I wasted a lot of plastic due to mistakes and learning the process. Well I did not learn it but I did gain ground. I hate the pouring hole on the 2 1/2 gallon jug. I lost plastic trying to pour from it. I also need a digital thermometer, the big glass one from bears is too big and takes too long to reach the temp. All in all I had a lot of fun but I have more questions for the pros here. One thing is, I think my plastic is too soft or I did not do something right. I bought the calhouns soft. I think it is just a little too soft and kind of has a sticky feel to it when it is cooled. Do they have hardener you can buy to put in it too harden it a little bit? About how much anise per ounce do you guys use? The colors are confusing to me. I used 15 drops in 2 ounces of plastic and I thought the color turned out well but just wondered if I really needed that much color. The black color seemed to seperate drom the plastic like it did not blend in or something. I put 15 drops of red thinking it would be a solid color with that much red but it is transparent. I want to dip my tubes chartuese and then tip them in a solid color but cant seem to get a solid color because the red is transparent over the chartreuse. The red color looks pretty dark when you drop it in but doesnt turn out dark. Maybe I need a different color red. I wasted money buying rods when I should have stuck with just hangers for dipping because the hangers would give me the size I want. Cutting the tails is what is going to be hard. I like really small tubes and it just dont look like the cutters they sell will cut the that small of tubes so that the tails have several strands. Here are a few pics of my first pouring experiment, i know its not good but it sure was fun. There is a lizard and cricket and grass hopper from my plaster molds and some of the others are from silicone molds. I found it as almost too hard to pour such small fine lines with a cup, or it was for me anyway.

if your plastic is a little sticky then you need to shake the plastic jug very well. some ingredients settle to the bottom and it will leave you a sticky very soft bait. to get solid colors add a few drops of white first then add your red.

crappieday, what colors give you a crystal shad type of color? I thought I shook the jug pretty good lol. I had a headache by the time I was done lol. Would one of those digital thermometers with a probe from walmart work okay? I think they are around 15 bucks. Do you think those tail cutters would work okay with such small tubes or are they mainly for larger tubes and wider strands?

for my crystal shad I add 1 drop black for 4oz plastic and add medium black and silver flake. sometimes I add a pinch of red flake for a bleeding shad. dont know about the thermometer, the plastic on the probe might melt. I have never used the tail cutters for tubes. the whole process is just to slow for me. lol

the tube process is very slow. the digital thermometer had a long metal probe, looked like it would work good. might just have to trial and error it. Did you mean one drop of black color and then medium black and silver flake glitter? Or were all 3 of those colors. How many drops of charteuse should it take to color 2 ounces. If you use just like a couple drops, I used over 10 on each color lol.

some colors it take more coloring, I have some that take 100 drops per 2 cups. 1 drop of black and the other 2 are glitter. make sure you mix up your color well too, it will separate in the bottle and the pigment will go to the bottom. shake your colors very well

that might be what happened to the black, I forgot to mix it.

Looks good for a first try, seeker. I don't understand what you mean by "wasted" a lot of plastic? All plastic can be remelted and used. I sometimes mix all my trimmings and melt them all together and get some real funky colors. Keep on pouring. Here's my latest. I call it the "Tail Dragger".

those look great bwill, how much color did you use on the chartreuse looking one? I lost a lot of plastic because I made a stupid mistake that I knew better than to do. Those tails are so hard for me to pour since they are so small and fine lined. I wish I had a small stream injector. I am going to modify my pop molds and then try another silicone mold later

That chartreuse is 2 drops per 2 ozs of plastic. Black is the same mixture. Blue is same mixture. Motor oil is same mixture. White is 5 drops per 2 ozs plastic.
The yellow looking one is the same chartreuse after it has been cooked several times.
Happy pouring.

bwill, here are a few moe I made today. I just have a hard time trying to get colors the way I want them and trying to pour in such small molds. I may just keep looking to see if I can find an injection mold like I really want and then just inject some baits. I have yet to find anything I really like yet though.

Nothing wrong with those, great job! I wish some one would make crappie molds. Keep up the good work

Man all this plastic pouring is itching my lure making itch!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I were to get into plastics my wife would kill me. Between spinners, jigs, tying, fly tying I spend way too much now.

Fatman

Thanks Mo Qwack. I had thought about giving up already on the plastics cause I though my jigs looked bad, however I tried them today and caught more fish on mine than I did store bought. I am like you, so many people crappie fish that I dont understand why you can find small panfish molds. I think there is a good market for the.

That's awesome that you caught some on your baits. I think it's cool when you can
fool mother nature.

i think those baits look plenty usable!id be glad tryin em!keep up the good work! :)

They look real good for 1st try. Keep on working at it and it will come together for you!

thanks everyone, they worked well. I caught lots of fish on them