To all you plastic lure makers, my name is Thomas, I'm a machinist and I'm thinking about making alum. molds. I'm interested in some feed back on whether there's that much call for a nother outlet. They would be on the fine workmanship order of a Del-Mart Mold.

thomas

All you would have to do is offer diferent molds and you would have an instant market. Both Bob's and Delmarts make excelent molds but they have almost the same product line.

Have some idea's to inprove some and creating some of my own. Hope to post a couple of pictures soon.  Thank you for the input.

thomas

There is serious market for machined molds.  If you do custom work, even better.  I am always looking for another mold source.  

Another Senko mold at a competitive price wouldn't be bad but as Matt said, Think about different molds. I would like to see a good drop shot worm mold.

Thomas, I am a former machinist and I think you may have something going.  There was another post, I cant remember right now, from a guy who is into CAD.  If you can get your design plotted in CAD you can mass produce your moulds with an astonishing degree of accuracy as well as each mould being identical.  CNC machining is great for that, but it takes jobs from the real machinists.  Just a thought.

A mold that I have not seen that you would sell a ton of would be a 4 or 5 in curly tail worm. Not a regular segmented one but like the Robo curly tail

Bingo Matt. I'd also love to see a Trick Worm with about 5 cavities.

Thank you Gentlemen,

My son is a CNC operator, so I think I might have the bases covered. You all should see something pretty soon. Again thank you all for the input.

thomas

Thomas,  If you really want to do well.  Make some custom Lead casting molds and you'll pretty much have the market all to yourself!!  

T Mike

T Mike,

I'll look into that.  Thank you.

thomas

If the price is right and the quality good, that only leaves service. Bob has always provided good service, not so for Del. I have some custom designs that you may sell on your web page to anyone, after I buy them from you. Plaster is okay, but not near the quality of metal.

(Anyone know what happened to Tackleunderground.com?)

SENKOSAM,

I purchased one from Del, that is why I've been thinking about another outlet. Del does wonderful work, but very slow to get. And being in the machining business, I know it's not always his fault. Also, he may have a lot of orders to fill. Which makes me believe there could be room for another outlet.

thomas

Exactly! What Bob and Del can't get out in a timely manner, you might be able to. If you're serious, I could send some one sided mold designs (mostly grubs and flukes) to see if it's possible.

http://zipperworm.blogspot.com/

I am very serious Senko,

I'm looking into purchasing a CNC soon. My hope, is to have things up and running within 60 days. I will certainly keep you informed. I'm also moving in a couple of weeks, so I'll PM you as soon as I relocate.

Thank you,

thomas

Thomas,  Let me know if you get into making lead molds.  I can send you TONS of business.  

T Mike

I would love to someone else make some quality lead molds. That looks like an open market to me.

Let us know when you start. I will help you out anyway I can.  

Are you gentlemen talking on the order of a Do-It mold? If so, I'll look in to it.

thomas

Thomas,  There is a huge market for custom lead molds similiar to Do It.  One mold that comes to mind is a hidden weight spinnerbait that NOBODY makes a custom mold for.  That to me is probably the most sought after mold at the moment.  

T Mike

Yea the Do-it Mold lead molds. The market is ripe for these things, as Mike said a hidden weight spinnerbait is needed. Also with all the new styles of jigs like the swimming jig, the finnesse worm jigs, and the standup jigs, there is a need for many different molds for the do it yourselfer. The do-it Mold company has a bunch of molds but they only scrach the surface of the available industry.

Soft plastic molds are great and a good way to go but anybody can make a silicone mold to copy a lure but not very many of them can make a lead mold.

I will surley do some research.  Also, as soon as I move to my new address, I'll e-mail you and give you my address. You can then send me some sketches of what you want. I thank you very much for the input.

thomas

if the quality is right i will be more than happy to give you some business...

Hey Guys,

I've machined a two piece Alum. mold. It's a 5 1/2" Senko worm. I'll post a picture of it in a couple of days. Want to make a few worms first, so I can take a picture of the worms and mold together. Would surely like some feed back.

Thanks,

thomas

The one at the bottom looks okay cast from a plaster mold, but a 2-part aluminum mold would be perfect. The design is the best jerk bait I've ever used and has caught many bass and pickerel this season.

I will say that you absolutely can't lose if you start making aluminum molds.  It's always a big run around to get molds, there's always a wait, and the product is something that is top notch.  Please do this.  I have been looking for someone with this ability on a local level due to the afformentioned problems.  And as far as the lead goes, what I wouldn't give for a jig mold that fits an ewg hook.   Specifically a worm weight w/ewg hook slot or even w/worm hook slot.  The do-it molds are so old school, we need someone on the cusp of what's going on to bust out some molds.  

Also, let's see some pics...

and if you don't have the time to test your product, I'd be happy to be a "product tester" for you  ;D