Adding Color to Plastic

[bwmatthews59]

Stupid questions maybe, but I have to ask it. I'm new to making soft baits, and was wondering if you can use Createx Candy Colors or any other Createx Paint to color the liquid plastic?

[ctom]

First off welcome to the Do-It forums.

Second, do not use any water based paints [many of Createx's paints] or water based / water borne colorants to the plastic either raw or re-melted. Big time dangerous and sever burn hazard. Water anything and the hot plastic are not good company. As a rule, any colorant shown on any of the mold/plastics access sites can be used with any brand of raw plastic. There may be one or two brans of plastic that conflict but they are generally labeled as such.

You can use the ProTec powder paint in the powder form to color your raw plastic but it takes some getting accustomed to mixing as the colors may not come out as you expect. I've also heard of people using the powder form of Rit fabric dye to color the raw plastic so I'm sure that other powdered forms of fabric dye would achieve the same.

Again, welcome aboard.

[WALLEYE WACKER]

Welcome to the family

[basscatlildave]

Welcome to the board.

[olsarge]

How about powdered kool aid?  Tom you might have started something.  Do crappie like cherries?

[ctom]

Yup. Koolaid works too as long as its a powder. Self scented too.

[andrewlamberson]

As Tom said:

Hot Plastic + water = BOOM!  (steam explosion) 

[Shaunm81]

Hello and  welcome.  Personally I would recommend you to just buy the do it x2 coloring its cheap and goes a long long ways. 

[olsarge]

Yup. Koolaid works too as long as its a powder. Self scented too.

I remember as a kid, when Tom Mann first released his jelly worm, they had an incredible grape smell to them, so a friend and I went to a local tackle store and bought a bunch of cheap plastic worms and soaked them for a week in welch's concentrated grape juice.  Smelled just like them and worked the same.

[Lines]

Tom Mann was my bass fishing idol when I was young. Jelly Worms are still awesome!

[hawgthumper]

Another option is to use crayons or oil pastels. The colors aren’t as vibrant but it does work.

[DF]

I remember as a kid, when Tom Mann first released his jelly worm, they had an incredible grape smell to them, so a friend and I went to a local tackle store and bought a bunch of cheap plastic worms and soaked them for a week in welch's concentrated grape juice.  Smelled just like them and worked the same.

Upper Hand Scents has a grape shad scent that smells just like grape soda. I like to use it when making baits for the kids.

[bwmatthews59]

Thank you for the response. I want thinking about them being water based paints.

[Walking Dead]

Additional question on using Pro-Tec powder paints for plastics; since the plastic reaches 350 degrees, what are the effects on that powder? Will it not harden?

[ctom]

The Pro Tec seems to dissolve into the raw plastic. There's really not much Pro Tec in the plastic and in the small amount of time I've messed using the powder as a colorant I haven't ever felt that is did anything weird to the plastic. One thing I have noticed is that what the Pro Tec does on a jig head may not be the same in color as what the soft plastic might be.

The Alewive powder paint in plastic yields a super nice natural color if not mixed too strong. The dragonfly does some interesting things if kept on the less than strong side when mixed too. My advice is to try small batches and use measuring spoons and record the amounts of both plastic and powder so you can get back to a color if its a keeper for you.

Honestly I look at the plastic colorants, powder paints and the airbrush paints as they come when bought as grassroots beginnings. I seldom use any color straight up from the bottle or jar. I mix colors very close to 100% of the time. This is especially so with my airbrush paints and plastic colorants. I'd encourage you to step outside of the box and play with colors and ways to color your plastic....expand your mind and playing field.