New Alumilite Foam - Alumi Foam -- great stuff

[aka anglinarcher]

OK, I know I may be getting ahead of the game, but I have had the joy of testing a new foam for Alumilite. This stuff expends at a 2:1 ratio and has a final density of .47 g/cc, the same as Alaskan Yellow Cedar. The good news is that is is tough, very tough. This stuff is far tougher then any foam I have ever seen and far tougher then cedar.

Now, as you can guess, Mike will most likley post the engineering data, but what does that mean to us????? I did a video of my tests that I think you might find interesting. Check it out at the following link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydF7ZCHu ... tube_gdata

I don't know when it will go on sale, but I know that when it does, it will become one of my favorite lure making materials. My fishing partners will never be able to destroy my lures again.

There is a bit of a learning curve. The Foam 610 will expel extra foam out of the pour hole if you over fill. This stuff tends to set up at the pour hole and expand your mold, so you need to be a little more careful about volume. With the Alumilite White and the 610 foam, it is easy to twist the excess off at the pour hole so that your pour hole does not need to be on a mold seam. With the Alumi Foam, I am re-designing my molds so that the pour hole is on the seam.

I hope you all get the chance to try this stuff soon, it is awsome!

[GMan]

Fun stuff, Steve! All of us lure builders love to see just how much abuse our creations can take. So you are saying that the AlumiFoam is tougher than Alumilite White, correct? Secondly, do you need to pour a shell of ALW before filling with the new AlumiFoam?

[aka anglinarcher]

Hi GMan,

Yes, the effect of the foam is that it IS tougher then the Alumilite White. From what I can tell, the foam absorbs the impact and springs back; it is somewhat flexible. The White is more brittle. Keep in mind that both are so much tougher then wood or hollow plastics that calling the Alumi Foam tougher is in no way a put down on the Alumilite White. I did not film it, but I only got 58 pounds on the pull test on my White for a similar screw eye in the tail. Only, right I don't think any big lure name can say that.

Keep in mind, there is a difference between stronger and tougher, one I won't get into here, but...... tougher is what we want in a fishing lure.

I have poured up a dozen of my wandering taildragers in the new AF. Because I pour # 9 lead shot for a very low center of gravity, I had to play with it some. First I poured a touch of the AF in and followed it up with shot. The foam expanded so fast that it raised the shot above the cente of gravity. The next time I poured the shot in first, then poured in the Foam. That did not work as well as I expected. The foam did not cover all of the shot. The third time I was ready with the shot and I mixed the foam fast and poured the shot fast. That was the trick. All of the remainder were just as I wanted. No shell was necessary.

I did pour one with a shell to see which was easier to paint. The White is, well, white. It is easier to cover with the primer paint. The foam skins over well, but it is yellowish. It is much tougher to primer coat. LIke all of the foams, where you trim it it leaves open pours that need to be closed if you want a "factory smooth" finish. For my own use, I don't care and don't bother, but a little epoxy rubbed into the open foam "sores" takes care of it pretty well.

http://www.alumilite.com/ProdDetail.cfm ... ry=Casting Resins&Name=AlumiFoam