yet again a couple questions

[Brent]

I got my 5" carrot from Ghostbaits yesterday tried my first injection this morning, first one, I had air, and bubble is the baits, chopped and redone, second time I had good looking baits but they felt "soft" near the head, maybe air?
I injected the plastic and held the injector with light steady pressure and then topped of the sprue and let cool, is there anything else I should be doing on these larger baits?


COLOR question... I have the pearl smoke purple and really like the color but would rather have a solid color in the tails of my baits than a light translucent any suggestions? the body of the baits is great and really don't want to darken that part but on smaller baits like the 1" ice pick you can hardly tell its purple muchless has any pearl

[pjmcla]

I do not have the 5" but have the 3.5 which is a larger volume carrot mold.  On air; Are you purging your injector? --  after sucking up plastic hold the injector nozzle up at a 75 - 80 degree angle over the cup of plastic; wait a few seconds for the air to rise,  then slowly push the plunger until plastic just starts to come out.  Then invert and inject.   You can check for entrapped air by holding the baits up to a light.  You will see the air bubbles on non opaque baits.  Often the baits will feel soft in the head area right after you remove them from the mold because the plastic is still cooling and curing is just barely getting started.  The larger the bait mass the softer it will feel.  You can deform the baits by mashing them at this time; I am prone to do this.    Color --  The thicker part of the bait will appear more opaque.  The thinner tails will appear paler when compared to the head area.  This is when you have to strike a "happy medium" between  "Too pale a tail"  vs.  "Too opaque a head".  The other way to solve this is to do a laminate tail to head ( not real practical if using the same color ).   Remember; you are probably more picky than the fish.  You want the fish to see the tail, but a real minnows tail is naturally lighter in color than it's head anyway.   

[BassDetective]

Purging has really helped me too.

I also found that I was overheating my plastic and creating some air bubbles.  The plastic wouldn't discolor so I wasn't overheating by a lot but enough to create air.  So I have learned to go low and slow on the heating process and keep my temp down to 325 ish.  Seems to help with plastic shrinkage too in the multi-cavity molds.

[MonteSS]

As stated, try this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTVqWME2tNc

....Bill

[ghostbaits]

Never purge my injector(s) prior to injecting but overheating the plastic has caused bubbles for me in the croaker feet before.

Get your plastic around the consistency of runny pancake batter or thick syrup (breakfast time here!!!) and you will be good.

Jim

[andrewlamberson]

Jim (Ghostbaits) and I have a running debate on this one....I always "burp" my injector before injecting!

My advice is to get a good digital thermometer. Maybe after you have been injecting for a few years you can do it by look and feel...but.....(there are a couple posts where I recommend the one I use).

I had bubbles in the feet to....until I followed Jason's advice of temperature (350) and inject slow and steady (note the SLOW). Now they are perfect...darn near every time.

[ghostbaits]

Jim (Ghostbaits) and I have a running debate on this one....I always "burp" my injector before injecting!

LOL!!! I have removed all the onylnyx (sp???) from my work area so this allows me to forgo the burping process with my injectors! I highly recommend all pursue this so burping of injectors can subside!!!!!!!!     

Jim