1. Molds For Soft Plastic Baits

I will show you how to recycle a few common household items and make them into new eye-catching fishing lures. I was thinking the other day about how much it costs to buy fishing lures, when I always lose or break them. I also thought it would be great if I could come up with a way to customize them somewhat and create a whole new, possibly better artificial bait. After some searching, I found that commercial molds and plastics are extremely costly. I was in dire need of an alternative. What I came up with works extremely well, and can be made for cheap using old lures for the plastic and a few recycled materials for the molds and injector.

To build the injector, which pushes the plastic into the mold, you will need to gather the following: 1.A hot melt glue gun. I got this from Dollar General Store for $3.00, and was the only thing I actually had to buy. 2.A small piece of copper pipe which acts as a plunger to push the plastic into the mold. 3.A cap from a plastic soda bottle. It is fastened onto the pipe to make it more comfortable to push, and to protect your hand from heat. 4.Car body putty (Bondo).

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I use this to hold the bottle cap to the pipe. I will also use it later for the molds. 5.Epoxy putty, you know, the stuff Bill Mays advertises on TV to hold stuff. This becomes the tip of the plunger and helps seal inside the glue gun element. 6.Vice grips to hold the heating element. Tools: Hacksaw and Philips screwdriver. You will also need a few odds and ends to make your molds.

After doing some research, I found most people in the bait making circle were using a couple of different methods for making their molds. They used Plaster of Paris and RTV silicone. I tried Plaster of Paris and had issues getting it apart, and the setup time is a little slow. I didn0019t try the RTV silicone, because it costs about $30 a gallon, which is way out of my price range. What I finally settled on that works great in my opinion is Bondo, for car bodywork.

So, with that being said, here are the items that you will need to make molds of some existing lures. 1.The artificial lure you want to copy. This can be about any lure, but the stretchy worms work best in my opinion.

If you0019re a fisherman, look in the tackle box. 2.Car putty, I had some lying around from a previous restoration. Wal-mart also sells it for a reasonable price. Ablebits license key free. 3.Some container to pour the mold into.

I used a TV dinner tray from the night before. It is almost perfect depth and length to pour a mold of a worm bait. 4.Vaseline, I found some in my medicine cabinet. Use this to put on your mold halves and pieces while you are pouring to keep them from sticking. 5.Something for a vent so the plastic can fill the mold.

Molds For Soft Plastic Baits

I used a stir stick I found in the cabinet. About any small plastic stick will work. 6.Small beads or marbles. These we will use as references so the two mold halves will line up.

Virtually anything will work in a pinch. I used beads. 7.Something to make a pour hole in the mold. I used the cap from window chalk, and it worked perfect. Use your imagination. I am sure you have some type of 001ctrash001d which will work great. 8.Something to mix the putty on and with.

I used a piece of cardboard box. And plastic spoon. 9.A c clamp for holding the two parts of the mold together. Okay, we will start by making the plastic injector.

Start by taking apart your glue gun. This is done by removing the screws on the side of the case with a screwdriver, and pulling the two halves of the case apart. Inside you will see basically two parts, the part which pushes the glue stick into the heating element, and the heating element itself. All we want is the heating element. It is the piece at the tip of the gun, and has red rubber pieces at either end.

Keep the rubber piece toward the back of the gun on the element, but remove the one on the tip. We won0019t use this. The rest of the gun can be used later in your own project, possibly an evil ray gun or something. So, you have your heating element. Now you0019re going to make the plunger for it.

This is what you will push down to force the plastic into your mold. Get the copper pipe and the epoxy putty. This doesn0019t require much putty. A ball about the size of a marble works fine. Mix the putty well, as according to directions. Next, place this on the tip of the copper pipe, and form it onto the pipe so that it kind of looks like the plunger of a syringe, and is slightly bigger than the hole on the end of the heating element. After you do that, gently push the pipe, putty end first, into the element so that it forms the putty to a tight fit inside the element.

Pull the pipe back out and let the putty harden on the end. Now get your bottle cap and a small amount of body putty, enough to fill the cap. Use a piece of cardboard, and put your putty onto it. Squeeze a little hardener onto the cardboard (it doesn0019t take much) and mix it thoroughly. After it is mixed well, spoon it into the cap, and press the end of the copper pipe that doesn0019t have the epoxy on it into the middle of the cap. This creates somewhat of a handle to push down and pull up the plunger we just made.

After this hardens, which won0019t take long, depending on how much catalyst was used; your injector is basically finished. Next get the bait you are going to clone and rub it down with the Vaseline as well. Place it into the putty until it is sunk halfway into the putty. Usually the baits already have seams where they were poured in the factory, so that makes a convenient half-mark. We also need to make a vent so that the plastic will make it all the way through the bait, and we will have no bubbles or dents when the lure is done. This is solved by placing a small stick, I used a stir stick, into the putty, sinking it halfway and touching one end of it to one end of the worm and the other end of the stick to the outside of the tray. Rub this down with Vaseline as well.

We also need a hole to inject the plastic into. I used the cap from window chalk. It is roughly funnel shaped, and is big enough to allow the end of the heating element to go inside.

Take this and again, rub it down with Vaseline, and press it halfway into putty on the opposite side of the lure as the stick. Make sure it is touching the end of the lure. Now take the marbles or beads and press them halfway into the putty to use as reference points when the two halves of the mold are put together. All we do now is wait for the putty to harden. This will take around 30 minutes.

Go watch some TV, eat a sandwhich, whatever. So there you are, now you can replicate your own fishing lures for very little money, using some common recycled materials. This is a very addictive and rewarding hobby. You can also mold your own designs and use other materials. This is not limited to lures; it could be used with many materials and molds. Wax may work as well. Next time you find all your lures are old and possibly torn up, before you go out and spend money on more at Wal-Mart, just look around your house and recycle some old ones to fish with!

Great idea, but you are working way too hard at it. Use your bondo to make your molds but sink the lure you are copying 7/8 into the bondo. Let it get hard and you have a mold. Make a bunch of them they are cheap. Heat your old torn, worn out, used worms etc in a cheap pan over an electric hot plate until the plastic turns to a liquid. Pour into the molds and let harden. No the worms will not be perfectly formed on the top but a fish will not notice.

Think, how big is a fishes brain. Its only thoughts I suspect are am I hungry or mad at it and will it fit in my mouth. I have only been doing this for about the last forty years. Your use of bondo to make the molds is a great idea. I made mine out of liquid casting plastic. Phalates are nasty chemicals used to make plastic soft and all those gummy, squishy plastic things are just oozing, literally, with the stuff.

Ever notice how there's a kind of greasy feeling on you fingers after handling fake bait or squishy toys? Well that's the phalates. I read about it as a dangerous chemical because it was being pulled from use in baby's toys (and if you'll google it you'll learn that it's apparently used in sex toys too =0). Nasty stuff for all of us, the fish that swallows it and us who swallow the fish.

Soft plastic lures are the easiest type of lures to make. All you need to make them is a heat source, some used plastic worms, a pan (preferably not your wife’s), and a mold. Here is a brief tutorial to get you started.