Local suppliers for soft plastic moulds

[JanoSA]

Dear All

My first Thread here on Sealine Whoohooo!

I have a bit of experience in making my own jerk baits and lipped swimming lures and really enjoy making those. Have had a fair amount of success doing so and actually catching fish.

I'm keen on starting to make a few soft plastic lures. I have had a look through most of the old threads here on Sealine and some of the other forums, but most of the threads are from 2011 to 2014 and very little current info. This leads me to my questions:


1. Are there still no local suppliers for moulds?

I found a thread where a user by the name of LGF experimented and made a few moulds, but it seems like that was just for personal use and not commercial in nature. It seems Tugboat sells plastisol and sometimes have injectors in stock, but over the last few months of checking their site, they don't seem to have moulds in stock.

2. Aside from tugboat, does anyone else in SA sell injectors?

3. Does anyone have experience ordering from Angling AI or similar places in the US? Interested in the import duty rates applied on these moulds as this can vary widely depending on the classification. (luxury good vs machine parts)

4. Aside from Tugboat, are there any good suppliers for plastisol pigments/colours? I will likely order Plastisol and glitter from Tugboat, but their range of colours is a bit basic.


I have the tools and abilities to create my own open-pour moulds and will likely experiment with this in the next 60 days, but am just keen to see what else is out there and possibly learn from you kind ladies and gentlemen out there that have gone down this route before.

Thanks in advance for your input. It is greatly appreciated.

Regards
Jano_

 

[Fly-aholic]

Hi JanoSA,

I have bought my plastisol from Colin previously (zero8three28zerodouble5zero8.
With the ZAR/USD RoE, you will pay through your neck.

I have made my own open moulds and closed mould with plaster of paris, it works very well for personal use, not series production.

Marchem in Cape Town sells glitter and pigment for plastic applications, speak to Gary.

Kind regards,
Pierre

 

[JanoSA]

Awesome, Thanks, Pierre! Appreciate the info and will contact those suppliers.


Yeah, the prospect of purchasing from the US is not a pleasant one. Thus I was hoping there might have been some developments with local mould suppliers. Otherwise, I will likely go the DIY route with silicone or urethane moulds for a start. But the idea of dual colour injection or core-shot mould just appeal. Those Angling AI moulds are super sexy

I have a tendency to obsess a bit and overdo things, so I might end up producing my own aluminium moulds in the next few months. It just helps greatly if you don't have to re-invent the wheel right off the bat.

 

[Fly-aholic]

I have also made silicone 2 piece moulds, however I like the open moulds as you can do any amount of layers/ colours and glittered layers. I also have not found that the closed mould designed plastic performs better than the open mould soft plastic. I prefer the open top as the belly has more weight and swims very nicely.
I have however casted my soft plastics' tails with the soft plastisol and the body with the medium plastisol, much better tail action.

 

[Fly-aholic]

Fly-aholic wrote:

I have also made silicone 2 piece moulds, however I like the open moulds as you can do any amount of layers/ colours and glittered layers. I also have not found that the closed mould designed plastic performs better than the open mould soft plastic. I prefer the open top as the belly has more weight and swims very nicely.
I have however casted my soft plastics' tails with the soft plastisol and the body with the medium plastisol, much better tail action.

Where is use glitter I used a 2/3 soft and 1/3 hard in the tail to have a slight wobble/rolling action. This lets the glitter shine on/off during a retrieve.

 

[JanoSA]

Fly-aholic wrote:

.
I have however casted my soft plastics' tails with the soft plastisol and the body with the medium plastisol, much better tail action.

AH! That sound like a brilliant idea. I'll be sure to give it a go! I'll be sure to add 1L of the soft stuff when I order. Thanks

 

[JanoSA]

Fly-aholic wrote:

Where is use glitter I used a 2/3 soft and 1/3 hard in the tail to have a slight wobble/rolling action. This lets the glitter shine on/off during a retrieve.

Very useful information, Thanks, Pierre. I would not have thought of trying something like that for ages if at all, now it is high on my list of things to do! Really appreciate it.

I'll be sure to update once I've finished my designs and cast a few.

 

[Fly-aholic]

Give it a good go. Seeing that you are inland, it is not so easy to balance the soft plastic with the jig head you are using as fresh water density is different to sea water.

However, I have found that jig heads with a wider profile give much better results as it is easier to keep the lure horisontal in the water. That is if you need it to be as for paddle tails.
With the normal of-the-shelf jig heads, the profile is too narrow and the lure descends head down and too rapidly in the water column. With paddle tails, the slower the retrieve the longer you can stay in the zone. This is especially applicable to estuaries.
For cob you would need to retrieve along the bottom, so does not matter much, the more you hit the bottom the better. This is where I apply a soft tail and a medium body.
For all other fish i.e. leeries, elf and yellow tail I only use hard plastic or spoon type lures.