Pouring white baits

[LewysLures]

Hello,
Recently I have been trying to make some white swimbaits, but everytime the white turns to more of a creme. How do I keep it bright white? I use essential series plastic and colorant. Thanks in advance!

[bassinfool]

Monitor your temps and get yourself some heat stabilizer.  White does not tolerate multiple reheats well.

[Botanophilia]

Monitor your temps and get yourself some heat stabilizer.  White does not tolerate multiple reheats well.

X2. Heat stabilizer is your best friend for light colors. Heat in smaller time intervals if needed. I start with 30 sec for white, 45 sec for most everything else.

[WALLEYE WACKER]

White is one of the tuff ones something that already been said.

[Mike J]

Same as these guys said and when doing white make small batches or shoot more molds so you use it up in as few heat cycles as possible.

[efishnc]

Heat stabilizer is your best friend for light colors.

Indeed... I have had some rather brown looking ES plastic bounce back (by roughly 50%) to cleaner looking colors when adding liberal amounts of stabilizer.

[rucker]

make smaller batches that you can get rid of quick without a reheat and add more molds if a small batch is still to much plastic

[REDGUN]

Indeed... I have had some rather brown looking ES plastic bounce back (by roughly 50%) to cleaner looking colors when adding liberal amounts of stabilizer.

What/how much are you calling "liberal"??

How much heat stabilizer do you need to start with, per 4oz of plastic?? How much do you add per re-heat??

[ctom]

Stabilizer has no "standard" measured amount. You have to use it in batches to find out how much is enough. In 4 ounces of plastic and making white I'd say maybe 25 drops from the Yorker cap to start. Add it to the raw plastic with the colorant and stir the heck out of it so it gets fully involved before the heat hits it.

I'm going to assume you are using a thermometer to determine the plastic temp. If you are not using a digital probe type of thermometer you maybe won't get anywhere real fast with the browning. Bottom line....get and use a thermometer if you haven't got one.

 White has a huge amount of pigment in it and those pigments heat at different rates than other colors and the pigments themselves allow the plastic to continue cooking AFTER its been removed from the microwave. I'd suggest getting the plastic ready to cook and then do so in half minute bursts, stirring between each burst. After the third burst I'd check the temp and stop cooking at maybe 330-335 degrees. The plastic will continue to heat and could go past the 350 degrees recommended for full conversion but with stabilizer in it at the amount I noted you should be good. If you are needing to re-heat that cup of plastic, stir in a few drops of stabilizer BEFORE the plastic sets up, then re-heat.

[efishnc]

I'm with Tom and not really measuring the amount I put in... sometimes I might forget to put in a few drops with regular re-heats, but when I notice it starting to tint a little, I just squirt some in and stir (watching the color to see how far it goes)... it's pretty much all by the eye.

[andrewlamberson]

I don't do white anymore. I do "Mo Milk" instead. Looks better, better heat tolerance for some reason.

[olsarge]

I agree Andy.  I do the white thang with stabalizer for maybe 2 re-heats.  Then I will add the black glitter to convert it and I am able to reheat as much as I can until it is gone.

[Tiger_Basser]

Most everyone has said it correctly... Nothing more to add, just to reinforce. I am fortunate that my system is based off of the Presto Pot builds everyone has seen but with the addition of a PID to control the temp of those archaic rheostat heat dials they have. I have had fairly consistent results heating just above 300 degrees for about 45 minutes in my pots.