Thread: Cutting tails

I have seen where folks take a bunch of razor blades that have 2 holes in them and use threaded rods with washers to separate the blades the thickness you want and nuts to lock everything together. Then all you have to do is place it on your tube and press down to cut the tails all at once.

Thanks for the reply bama fan. I should have worded it differently. I was meaning on molds that long thin tails. Do people take them all out, put back in, cut them in mold?

Ahh I see what you are talking about. For me it depends on the mold. I have a couple of molds I was able to buy a separate tail mold for so I shoot them then insert into the main mold to inject the body. The other molds I pull the first shot out which is the tail color and then using scissors I cut at a specific point on each or try to at least then put back in and inject the 2nd color. I try not to cut in the mold as doing that too much will cause cuts in the mold itself.

I was just wondering how everyone does theirs, it is time consuming to put all the little tails back into the original place. I created a instrument to help, works most of the time. I took a small washer, and sharpened the edge, glued to a small screwdriver. I just push the little blade hard, cuts it for the most part, the very bottom I sometimes have to tear

Grady,

That's a good idea. I know the feeling on how hard they can be to get them lined back up in the right place. Another thing some folks do is called a core shot. They will place a rod or nail in the center of the mold and inject the body color then pull the baits out and remove the rod/nail then cut the tails off and put the body back in the mold then shoot the tail color. The new plastic will flow through the center of the body where the rod/nail was and fill in the tail.

Depending on the body color you may see the core color and it can add a nice touch having the color run all through the body. The image below is what's done via core shot. They are not my baits just a image I grabbed off Google to give a visual idea.

That is a great idea, I'm using little 2.5 inch crappie molds. I tried it one or twice, didn't work that good but I didn't know what I was doing. The thin wire I had stayed on bottom of mold. I need to play with diff size wires or nails I guess.