Egg Casting

[Olash]

Has anyone attempted to make a cast of salmon or steelhead eggs? Or possibly a cast similar to the old okie drifters my dad used to use? I'm curious about wether it should be a 2 piece mold or if I should just pour the entire piece. I'm brand new to this so I'm needing to do a little research.

[aka anglinarcher]

I would suggest the HS3 would make excellent one pice molds for the eggs. The originals were two piece molds.

The originals floated, and were hollow, but I think that if you use microballons, you could get an excellent floating egg that would last longer. I also suggest that the alumidust would be perfect for the coloring.

[Olash]

Thanks anglinarcher. Didnt even think about the micoballons. I was defiantly gong to use the alumni dust along with the clear cast resin. My first concern Is that if I use the clear cast would I be over using the alumidust in order for it to not be opaque or should I just go with the basic white resin. Secondly, (and this may sound dumb) but if mixed pink alunidust with pearl wouldn't I get a pink pearl finish?

[aka anglinarcher]

The white will give an opaque appearance, but the clear can give a transparent look. To get the transparent look, just kiss the mold with the dust.

Because you want an opaque look, go with the white and that way the dust will not need to be put on thicker. If you want to use the clear, when you add the microballons it will cloud the clear resin, depending on the amount you add.

I tried to mix a tiny amount of pink and pearl dust and it looked excellent to me. Just keep in mind that a little goes a very long way.

[Olash]

Thanks again anglinarcher. Awesome information. Very excited to get started on this new project this April. A fun thing to do during the off season. Ooooo, I can hardly wait for materials to get here.

[Mike - Alumilite]

A good friend of mine here in Michigan and I made a bunch of different egg lures ... by sculpting our own roe clusters, individual eggs, wobble glow shaped eggs, and even chains of eggs. We then made some 2 piece molds with Mold Putty (use a thin layer of Vaseline in between the two halves for mold release) of the clusters (quickest and easiest way), and even some 1 piece molds with High Strength 3. With the High Strength 3 molds we simply put a small sprue on the bottom of the eggs so they look like they were resting on a small cone. This allowed us to simply pour the High Strength 3 around them. When the rubber cured, we simply flexed the mold and pulled the eggs out and we ended up pouring them with Alumisol highly filled with our Phosperescent Powder and a little orange which makes them the perfect salmon egg color but they glow like Kryptonite! They are really cool. When you pour them, you simply open them up with 2 fingers (being careful no to pour Alumisol near them) and fill them up. Once they cool, you simple pull them off and snip off the Alumisol sprue to have a perfectly round egg. I filmed the entire process but have not yet put it together to post on MakeLure.com. All the individual egg sizes and clusters of roe we sculpted we used Alumisol. All the wobble glow style bead shape pieces we sculped, we cast out of Alumilite White and added our Phosperescent Powder and some Microballoons.

I'll try to let you know on this thread when I have a chance to get the video done.

Mike

[Olash]

Fantastic Mike! Again, more great information for this rookie. Can't wait to see the video to give me even more ideas to think about. Hurry please!

[aka anglinarcher]

Olash, I still have some original Okie Drifters if you want to make a mold from them. I think they are the larger sizes. Let me know and maybe Mike can work as a go between for us.

Mike's method will give a great soft presentation.

[Olash]

Thank you very much for the offer anglinarcher. I really appreciate that and im amazed at all the help on this site for sure! I have a few of my own medium sized Okies already and I will be following Mikes lay out. I've been doodling plan the last couple nights on how I'm going to set things up. I think I've have some pretty good ideas on how I'm going to do these eggs. I haven't purchased any material yet. Waiting for the end of the month to roll around. Again, I'm very excited to get started. My mind starts racing when I think about the possibilities of products like Alumilite. Pretty much the skies the limit. Now if I can contain myself for a couple more weeks the fun is just around the corner.

PS: not that I need them, but I'll take free Okies anytime. LOL

[aka anglinarcher]

My supply is limited, so only when you need them. LOL

MAKE SURE you post them when you are done.

[Olash]

Absolutely!

[Mike - Alumilite]

Here is a video on the egg clusters that we made. We used the mold putty to make quick 2 piece molds and reproduce them. This entire process could be done in less than an hour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq8Ux3qaMKI

Remember to smear some Vaseline in between the two halves of putty so they don't bond to one another. You can also smear Vaseline 3/4 of the way around which would give you a book mold ... basically allows the rubber to adhere to itself in one area making it like a hinge between the two halves of the mold. Just be careful not to burn your fingers when pouring the Alumisol.

We also did some single eggs that we made using a small clay pedastal underneath and then poured a one piece gang mold of High Strength 3 of 7-8 individual eggs. When the rubber cures, you simply pop out the hardened Sculpey, open the mold up with your fingers nice and wide and simply pour in your Alumisol. With the High Strength 3 mold its easy to burp the mold to squeeze any air trapped so it escapes before it cools.

Mike

[Olash]

Nice Mike! Very interesting. These look exactly some store bought bait I already use. Thanks for posting this information. Knowledge is power. Gives me more things to think about. Would this method work for the hard plastic also? Think I'll need some heat resistant gloves.

[Mike - Alumilite]

Gloves are always a good idea. And yes, we've also made our own wobble glow style beads that work really well. Alumilite White, microballoons, and phospherescent powder and you are off to the races. Simply mold them with a wire sticking through them. I prefer to use the High Strength 2 for making that type of mold and will typically just use the flat side of the wobble bead as my pour side. Then wipe some Vaseline or mold release the wire, leave it in your mold and pour the resin around it. When the resin cures, pull the wire out, demold the bead, and your hole is already perfectly positioned in the bead.

Mike

[Olash]

Thanks again Mike. Pay day can't get here fast enough.

[Mike - Alumilite]

If you end up using the putty like I did. Only mix very small amounts. The best way to measure to make sure you don't waste any is to take one side of the putty and flatten it out to the thickness you would like the mold to be and make sure it covers up half of the area you want to mold. Then roll it into a ball, measure an equal amount of the other side of the putty which will give you enough to cover the entire area you want to mold without wasting any. Just make sure to mix more than that for the second half of your mold because you want it to wrap around and locate over the first half of the mold you made.

By using this technique, you will be able to make close to 30-40 egg molds of this size. Not saying you want that many but it takes very little material to make the molds which extends your dollar and the amount of things you can make with it.

Mike

[aka anglinarcher]

And in the case of the coveted Okey Drifter, which is no longer made, you will be the only one one the water with them.

[seamstart]

Very helpful! Appreciate your sharing............................................
















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[Olash]

Dang it! I knew I should have kept thing on the QT. Going to be interesting to experiment with these methods. Thank you gentlemen.

[Olash]

Here we go! Casting kit & powders ordered. Come on FedEx, do your thing!

[Olash]

Ok Larry, here they are. Pretty fun project that still needs some tweaking. I documented everything I did in the process. First pour look fantastic until I looked at the bottom half. Hear the URL from Facebook for all the photos you would like to share. Hope it works out. Thanks for all the help and I'll keep tinkering with it.


http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 295&type=1

[aka anglinarcher]

File says unavailable when I try it.

[Olash]

Must have to login to Facebook. I'll try another way. This is very exciting. I can pop out 3-4 of these in just a few minutes.

[Olash]

Does this work?

http://www.photoshop.com/users/bigpock/ ... 84348c4144

I have several other photos to share.

[aka anglinarcher]

Perfect, and the corkies are excellent.