First injections

[fish_4_all]

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Those were done with old scrap plastic I got from a friend. Not too bad but had a ton of air in them so they didn't come out very nice.


This is my first batch with CC plastic, medium, and Fl Orange X2 colorant. They turned out awesome. The smallest eggs did not turn out so well but I can live with that. For some reason they got a lot of air in them but I doubt I will have much use for them anyway. Can salvage a few of them to tinker with in tying jigs and stuff maybe.
The rest turned out great. The skirts are perfect. The largest eggs and the clusters turned out very nice. The medium eggs turned out even better seeming to have the least bubbles in any of them and the nicest color.

I attribute the bubbles to the molds, not the plastic, and an inexperienced injector, namely me.

The color in the picture does not come close to their true color. I put them under a full spectrum T5 fluorescent bulbs and they almost glow. The color is perfect for what I wanted. Now all I have to do is a batch of each of the others and see how they turn out compared to what I expect.

So far you are one for one Jason. That fl. orange is PERFECT! If the fl. pink, chartreuse and purple are even close to that good I will be ecstatic.
You really need to set up a light box with full spectrum lighting to show the true beauty of your colorants.

Oh, recipe: 4 ounces medium CC plastic with 15 drops Fl. Orange X2

Next batch will be 5 drops to see if I can get a full orange color full transparent egg in all sizes. These turned out mostly translucent in the larger ones and semi-transparent in the smaller ones. Too much colorant for transparent but they turned out awesome anyway.

[andrewlamberson]

Microbubbles are a tough challenge during the humid months of summer. You really have to keep everything "dry".

1. Wipe your cup out before use with a clean, dry (!) cloth. I don't know why...but cotton cloths seem to work better for me than paper towel. Maybe the paper has absorbed some water vapor from the air?

2. Pre-heat your cup for about 15-30 sec. Not to long or the cup gets too hot. But think about this...the way a microwave heats is by exciting the water molecules...so why would an empty...dry..cup get hot?

3. Through experience, you'll know how long it takes your microwave to heat the plastic directly to 350 degrees. Do it all in one shot...NO stirring!

4. Use a CLEAN-DRY large stainless steel (a good one!) spoon to stir in your color. Stir slowly...don't whip in air bubbles! Make sure you keep the caps on your colors...or they could get water vapor in them.

5. Reheat for 20-30 seconds (take notes so you start to get it right every time! Search the posts about thermometers. You need a good digital thermometer! NOT an infrared thermometer which measures only surface temperature and can affected by the color of the plastic.

6. Add glitter and carefully stir (I try not to microwave my glitter for the first batch)

7. Hopefully you have no bubbles....if you have any microbubbles you have introduced water vapor somehow. I think the fans in the microwaves push the moist air from the house into the plastic...but I'm not sure how to fix that. I've considered putting a dehumidifier right next to my work area...or I can just wait for winter!

8. If you have bubbles you can try the next step if you a very...very careful... and wearing welders gloves (gloves with the extended sleeve): You can carefully roll the plastic in the cup (folding over) the plastic. The only way I can think to describe it is to roll your fingers (not really the entire hand) like you are drawing little circles. This is a cooking trick to get the bubbles out of gravy that my Dad used. I only do this when I'm making a 1/2 cup of plastic because you do NOT want to spill any! Actually if you are rolling it so hard as to spill/splash you are defeating the purpose.

9. Let the plastic sit for a few seconds (let it "rest") then microwave it for about 15 secs to bring it back to temp and burst remaining bubbles.

Hopefully you never need steps 8 and 9 and be VERY careful!!!

When you pull the plastic into your injector make sure the plunger is all the way down ...so you don't have air in it. Suck in the plastic slowly! When you get to the bottom of the cup...stop BEFORE you hear the sucking noise...that means you are sucking in air!

Rock the injector back and forth between vertical and a slight tilt to help any air bubble rise to the top of the injector. PURGE a tiny bit of plastic back into your cup to clear any air you might have at the beginning of the injection. Some people...and we won't mention Jim's name....don't think this is necessary...but it seems most of our do a slight purge at the beginning.

Inject SLOWLY with even pressure.  You want to do everything slow and evenly!

Resist the temptation to try to get just one more mold injected than you have plastic! Otherwise you'll short a mold ..and/or...inject air into your plastic. I think this is why some people have problems with air in their baits...

Make sure you "top off" the sprue (the injection hole) as the plastic cools...or you may get enough shrinkage to get the mold sucking in air. REALLY important on big, think baits like Senko style worms.

Practice this 250 times....and things will start working perfect!!!

An Observation: I get a LOT less microbubbles after I've been working for awhile...Ummm...wonder why? Maybe the cup has no moisture in it? Maybe the microwave air is dryer?

Also...scrap plastic can have lots of moisture in it....especially if it has been fished.

Good luck and practice...practice...pr actice!

[412BaitCo]

Microbubbles are a tough challenge during the humid months of summer. You really have to keep everything "dry".

1. Wipe your cup out before use with a clean, dry (!) cloth. I don't know why...but cotton cloths seem to work better for me than paper towel. Maybe the paper has absorbed some water vapor from the air?

2. Pre-heat your cup for about 15-30 sec. Not to long or the cup gets too hot. But think about this...the way a microwave heats is by exciting the water molecules...so why would an empty...dry..cup get hot?

3. Through experience, you'll know how long it takes your microwave to heat the plastic directly to 350 degrees. Do it all in one shot...NO stirring!

4. Use a CLEAN-DRY large stainless steel (a good one!) spoon to stir in your color. Stir slowly...don't whip in air bubbles! Make sure you keep the caps on your colors...or they could get water vapor in them.

5. Reheat for 20-30 seconds (take notes so you start to get it right every time! Search the posts about thermometers. You need a good digital thermometer! NOT an infrared thermometer which measures only surface temperature and can affected by the color of the plastic.

6. Add glitter and carefully stir (I try not to microwave my glitter for the first batch)

7. Hopefully you have no bubbles....if you have any microbubbles you have introduced water vapor somehow. I think the fans in the microwaves push the moist air from the house into the plastic...but I'm not sure how to fix that. I've considered putting a dehumidifier right next to my work area...or I can just wait for winter!

8. If you have bubbles you can try the next step if you a very...very careful... and wearing welders gloves (gloves with the extended sleeve): You can carefully roll the plastic in the cup (folding over) the plastic. The only way I can think to describe it is to roll your fingers (not really the entire hand) like you are drawing little circles. This is a cooking trick to get the bubbles out of gravy that my Dad used. I only do this when I'm making a 1/2 cup of plastic because you do NOT want to spill any! Actually if you are rolling it so hard as to spill/splash you are defeating the purpose.

9. Let the plastic sit for a few seconds (let it "rest") then microwave it for about 15 secs to bring it back to temp and burst remaining bubbles.

Hopefully you never need steps 8 and 9 and be VERY careful!!!

When you pull the plastic into your injector make sure the plunger is all the way down ...so you don't have air in it. Suck in the plastic slowly! When you get to the bottom of the cup...stop BEFORE you hear the sucking noise...that means you are sucking in air!

Rock the injector back and forth between vertical and a slight tilt to help any air bubble rise to the top of the injector. PURGE a tiny bit of plastic back into your cup to clear any air you might have at the beginning of the injection. Some people...and we won't mention Jim's name....don't think this is necessary...but it seems most of our do a slight purge at the beginning.

Inject SLOWLY with even pressure.  You want to do everything slow and evenly!

Resist the temptation to try to get just one more mold injected than you have plastic! Otherwise you'll short a mold ..and/or...inject air into your plastic. I think this is why some people have problems with air in their baits...

Make sure you "top off" the sprue (the injection hole) as the plastic cools...or you may get enough shrinkage to get the mold sucking in air. REALLY important on big, think baits like Senko style worms.

Practice this 250 times....and things will start working perfect!!!

An Observation: I get a LOT less microbubbles after I've been working for awhile...Ummm...wonder why? Maybe the cup has no moisture in it? Maybe the microwave air is dryer?

Also...scrap plastic can have lots of moisture in it....especially if it has been fished.

Good luck and practice...practice...pr actice!

You gave me these same exact tips not to long ago and I have to say the bubbles haven't been a problem for me since! I think you're spot on with the moisture humidity and ways to help with it. Thanks again and Fish_4_All I think you will love the result of his tips.

[Botanophilia]

3. Through experience, you'll know how long it takes your microwave to heat the plastic directly to 350 degrees. Do it all in one shot...NO stirring!

4. Use a CLEAN-DRY large stainless steel (a good one!) spoon to stir in your color. Stir slowly...don't whip in air bubbles! Make sure you keep the caps on your colors...or they could get water vapor in them.

Using a large spoon and not stirring both give me more microbubbles than using a small utensil (bbq skewers in my case) and stirring every 30 sec for remelts or every minute for new plastic.  I have to try pre-heating my cups yet, that may take care of the rest of the microbubble problems I have. 

As for a good strong color transparent orange using X2, in 4 ounces start with 6-8 drops.  On a bait by itself that my be plenty bright enough.  Laminates need a more opaque color so the other color on the bait doesn't show through and darken the orange.

[Billmo]

its wierd, i have an egg mold also and its the old mold that causes meissues with air bubbles and some denting.. i dont tend to mind too much as I am using mine to creat "mouse tails" for trout fishing and need them to float so the extra air is like a little added bonus.   

[fish_4_all]

I did a lot of things "wrong" but all this advice is going on a check list for when I do it again.

When I mixed the color it took forever! Stirred and stirred and stirred to get it all mixed up. I used the end of my digital thermometer which of course is thin and had to really stir hard to get the last drops off the bottom of the cup. I think that very well could have introduced a lot of micro bubbles. I will have to make sure I don't add the drops all in one place again and stir with a bigger spoon.

I think I got the time figured out but I won't be satisfied until I do this a dozen more times and have the exact timing down. I know it is okay to get the plastic to 360-370 but I am not chancing having a toxic bomb go off.

The humidity here is ridiculous right now. Could be the cause but I did stir rather fast and long to mix the colorant.

Lots to learn, small things make a huge difference at times.

The smallest eggs having the air bubble problems and not the rest still has me a little baffled. 1 injection, none of the other eggs have except for 1 large egg and 1 cluster had any air bubbles in it but the smaller eggs were riddled with them on the end of string furthest from the sprue.

Resist the temptation to try to get just one more mold injected than you have plastic! Otherwise you'll short a mold ..and/or...inject air into your plastic. I think this is why some people have problems with air in their baits... When you get to the bottom of the cup...stop BEFORE you hear the sucking noise...that means you are sucking in air!

I did that wrong and the injection looked like Swiss cheese with way too many holes. The remelt turned out 10x better than that one but I knew I had screwed that one up. Sucked up too much air and I knew it was going to be a mess. I also shorted on mold, didn't get the air problems but added to my remelt.

Who knows, maybe the smallest eggs I need to get the plastic a little hotter or make sure the mold is good and warm for them to turn out right.

Thanks for the helps and tips, keep em coming.

[fish_4_all]

I tried slow and steady on the egg mold and it didn't go well. This one is a really finicky demon I think. Have to hit it hard and fast to get the entire thing to inject at all. Even after the 4th injection slow and steady lead to the bottom eggs full and the rest 25% at best. But it did fill the bottom eggs perfect so I guess that was a bonus.

So why would the bottom, smallest eggs fill perfect on an injection that I don't get 25% of the rest of the mold to fill at all? And no air bubbles in them either.