Pouring your own plastic jigs?

[TAE73]

Does anyone pour any of there own plastic jigs? I have been doing some reading, and price shopping thru several companys and websites. Looks like it would be alot of fun to do, and doesnt look very hard either. Just sounds like it would stink up the house some what. I mostly want to do this to pour up custom colors that I cant buy in certain types of jigs.

[crappieseeker]

where can you buy the supplies to pour your own and do they have molds for tube jigs?

[TAE73]

I have yet to find any small molds for the skirts. Mostly curly tails and shad bodys. There are several places to buy the supplys, just need a good ventulation system and hot plate to melt the plastic in a pan or microwave. Here are they places that sell the supplies. They both have a how-to on making the plastic pours sounds really easy.

http://www.lurecraft.com/catalog.htm
http://www.barlowstackle.com/plastic-worm-molds.html

[Roberta]

I bought some supplies from Janns Netcraft (http://www.jannsnetcraft.com) because I wanted to design my own plastics from start to finish. The biggest problem I had was keeping the dang plastic from setting up while I poured it.
If you buy their molds, you can get an injector that forces the stuff in, but I was making my own molds in plaster.

- Roberta

[Jumping Cholla Jigs]

Pouring your own is how we got started doing the custom colors and scents. Its cheap and easy to do and if you need any pointers let me know and I'll be happy to help.

[crappieseeker]

Roberta, I would like to try and design some molds myself. Do you have any suggestions as what to use and how to make the mold?

[TAE73]

I am curious to what brand of plastic you both are pouring. I know of M-F Manufacture and Calhons. I found a very good website about pouring plastic jigs the other day that has tons of info on molds and color recipes.

Roberta, I have seen the injectors but after reading what a few people say about them, I think I will stay away because of problems. Some talked like the have had nothing but problems with them and getting burned.

I think in the next few days that I will buy a small amount of supplies just to try it. Not trying to spend alot of money up front incase I dont enjoy doing it.

Here is the website with the info
http://www.tackleunderground.com/boa...wforum.php?f=9

[Roberta]

I tired a couple of ways to make my master - cobbled together pieces of existing jig bodies, scupted things out of clay that can be hardened. I probably should have used wood. What I wanted to make were crappie sized versions of some of the bass plastics - tiny newts. bugs, etc. I also made and was fairly happy with some "amoeba" bodies that just sort of jiggle on the end of the hook. Those work pretty well for cold water conditions.

Any way, I made up some plaster of Paris, poured in into a greased shallow plastic dish and placed the oiled (so it doesn't stick) master into the plaster half way and let it set..I was basicially using the same technique, but on a smaller scale, of casting a plaster piece that I used in art school. I tried making two-piece molds so I could have round plastics, but the plastic gets too many bubbles and it never quite matched up. Bubbles are the main problem. If I get an itch to try it again, I'll use a stiffer plaster and take two steps to make my mold.

After it set a while, I pulled out the master and let the whole thing dry thoroughly. Coated with Modge Podge and then poured some hot plastisol in it. Follow directions on the plastisol bottle . - Roberta

[crappieseeker]

Roberta you are much smarter than I am. I wouldnt even know where to begin even with the info you gave me lol. Guess I'm just a dummy huh. Oh well, maybe I can figure out something.

[fiddlefarter]

You can make tubes by getting the plastic and taking some small thin rods ( kinda like small push-rods or heck I bet you could use nails rounded off) and dip them in the plastic as deep as you want them long, then let them set and repeat until tou have the desired thickness. You can use alternate colors. Then you slice the tenticles into the tail. Well at least I know that you can purchase custom made bass sized tubes in custom colors and this is how they're made. It'd be tough to do 2" tubes this way. IMHO its not worth it. Curly tails aren't as tedious but I think I'll just keep on buying them. If I need a custom color I'll call Prowler or Hoppy's and see what they'll do for me. Now making lead head jigs is not that bad. My uncle makes all that we use. Which is good cause if I get hung up I just snatch the line and break it, the jigs are free,LOL. You also get whatever hook size you want and you can experiment with different ones. I have one uncle that likes bigger hooks on his heads so he gets different than what I get. But he tried the skirt making and he doesn't think its worth it.