Making your own plastics - advice/tips for starting

[Memory Maker]

Lookin good ..........

[jet]

Great job!

[kevinfry]

Ok, great. Thanks for the reply. So I take it I shouldn't be doing this in the kitchen, haha. I have a space in my garage I would be doing this in and am comfortable with the dangers. Since it's not cost effective, I guess I'll have to decide if I want to make a ton of them and figure out how to set something up. Thanks again!

making lures at home needn't be about saving $$. u can just have fun. One of my best friends runs an injection molding plant in Guatemala and makes soft plastics for a variety of companies. I always liked it when he was experimenting with a new process or lure and I got the seconds or prototypes to fish with.
He also makes some hand-tied jigs.....all tied by Nuns! That little bit of hand assembly keeps this rural enclave afloat financially (they were starving when all they had for extra income was a bakery).
Lure making and lead casting is fun and only about as dangerous as fishing from a kayak in the Chesapeake. All u have to do is follow the rules and be alert....the world needs more lerts any way.

[HJS]

Results from my first attempt last night. All in all I'd say it was a successful start. I used some basic open pour molds to start out with and tried to match my favorite stick bait, a Yum Dinger in a dark watermelon. I missed a little on the color (added to much) and need to play around with other additives, but for the most part I learned a lot, didn't piss off my wife and didn't go to the hospital.

Jon - They look really good... good first effort. I use a very similar soft plastic worm with the flattened tail that are shown in your pic. Its made by Zoom. I rig it totally weedless/weightless and retrieve it across pads and heavy weeds for lmbass. Jeez do I love surface hits.