I had the work shop warmed up for a project and when I finished it I thought "why waste the heat" so I got the Crappie Fluke mold out. I've been wanting to try so e-cores and some color drop baits so that what I did.
First thing was to grab some small nails to trim to fit the mold for the core. Then I shot a run of junk plastic in to get the runner filled and cut off at the top two cavities. After injecting a clear/purple hi lite in the top cavities with the nails, I pulled the baits and trimmed the sprue end and pulled the nails, then trimmed the tail off where I wanted it. The baits went back in the mold and clamps were applied. The second, or core, color was simply clear with blue and gold micro glitter [sold in the catalog in the powder paints area]. This plastic was injected with light pressure.
The second bait was done using clear plastic and was done by hand pouring one side of the mold's cavities, then dotting purple colorant in a couple places along the hand poured plastic. The mold was close flat and clamped to the bench top and injected with the top coat of clear.
The color dot worked really well as can be seen here. The e-core would have been better done using clear plastic without the hi lite and/or using a more stand-out core color. I think clear plastic or less hi lite would take care of the cloudiness in the body color.
The mold does real well with both techniques and is a super easy mold to do tail colors with. The mold was shot "cold" for the first run with the trash plastic and every cavity filled completely and cleanly so I don't see any hidden challenges with it. The mold fills nice with only light pressure and I haven't seen and bubble or dents issues with it. Bottom line....its a very versatile mold. AND, the crappies do love chewing on the baits. I used straight essential in making these shown here, no softener, and the baits are water ready.
