Workshop Upgrade...

[t-billy]

 BT has some nice little critter molds. They have a hellgrammite mold, but I REALLY like their 2" and 3" centipede molds. There's definitely a 3" centipede mold in my future.

[CrabbyBass]

I have looked at all mold producing companies.  Bears has a "helgacricket" and Jacob's has a hellgrammite mold, but they were both different than what I was looking for.  We did wind up buying a bigger version of the Jacob's helgie and it works great.  I have looked at the centipede molds, but stuck with the helgie mold I made. 

[fsh4fun]

A few months back when I first started making baits,I made a few POP molds. They turned out alright,and they diffidently caught fish. Than I started getting aluminum molds,and of course much better baits. I thinking about trying some RTV silicone and making some molds. Has anybody made any molds with this stuff? Is it hard to use? thanks

[CrabbyBass]

A few months back when I first started making baits,I made a few POP molds. They turned out alright,and they diffidently caught fish. Than I started getting aluminum molds,and of course much better baits. I thinking about trying some RTV silicone and making some molds. Has anybody made any molds with this stuff? Is it hard to use? thanks

I have heard great things about RTV, but the cost of it keeps me away.  I am too afraid I might mess up and be out all of that money.   

[kipbass]

I've tried silicone and it came out a big mess. I've tried pop too, I kind of got that half right. I'll just buy  aluminum molds when funds allow it. 

[t-billy]

 I've made quite a few RTV molds. Most turned out great, some didn't. As mentioned, RTV isn't cheap. I'd recommend getting good with pop first,then move to rtv. Rtv is easy to work with. I buy mine from aeromarine on ebay. I use the purple catalyst. It has about a 45 min working time. You just mix the silicone and catalyst in a cup and pour into the corner of your mold box from about waist height in a thin stream. Pouring like this removes the air bubbles. Pour into one corner and let it flow over the masters to fill the mold box. This prevents trapping air and creating air pockets.
 The only time my molds didn't turn out well, was when I didn't have my masters adhered to the bottom well enough. They lifted up and the cavities were ruined. Also NEVER use a silicone coated pan as a mold box. I unknowingly did this once and the rtv bonded with the pan. I couldn't salvage a single cavity from it. Just about any other material is fine as far as I know. I believe silicone only bonds to silicone.
 Rtv molds are durable and make nice looking baits. It picks up fine detail. Because of it's flexability, you can make open pour baits that are closer to full round than with harder mold materials.----Tim.

[CrabbyBass]

Have you ever made injection molds out of rtv?  Also once you are done with the molding process, do you have to seal the cavities?

[pjmcla]

The forums -  Tackle Underground may also be a good place to look for answers.  I think more users dabble in RTV there.

[t-billy]

Have you ever made injection molds out of rtv?  Also once you are done with the molding process, do you have to seal the cavities?

Yes. RTV works well for injection molds too. No need to seal the cavities. Do a search on you tube on the subject. That's where I learned to do it. PM me or start a thread on the subject if you want. I'll help you any way I can. Threadjack over. Sorry bout that.

[matt]

Hey guys there some thing better then rtv here it is it's called http://compositherm.com/index.html
If you make a bad cut here it's not wasted unlike rtv, you just remelt and start over which is awesome wait to try it something