I'm after a bit of advice please lads and ladies. I've been trying to make some crushed cork popups to match my own bottom baits. I'm using the same fishmeal basemix minus the crushed hemp and I'm adding 5% whey gel plus around 10% 2-3mm cork granules and titanium dioxide for a washed out appearance. These float perfectly but the problem is about half the batch are cracking quite badly when drying. The other half are fine. I've tried soaking the cork in the liquids before hand which hasn't seemed to help at all. I thought the addition of whey gel may have helped, but it doesn't seem to have. Any advice much appreciated
Try adding egg albumin to the mix to help it bind and be harder, 5% - 10% of the mix
In reply to Post #2
Ok thanks I will give that a go. Is egg white powder the same stuff? The stuff they sell in the supermarket?
Ok thanks I will give that a go. Is egg white powder the same stuff? The stuff they sell in the supermarket?
Yeah same stuff
I recently did some cork dust pop ups after years of failing and they turned out far bettt than I expected - my new method that seemed to work better than previous attempts was.
All base mix and cork dust mixed in plastic bag and shaken.
All liquids in a bowl the normal way, with 1/2 sachet of dr oktars powered egg
Make paste usual way - keep adding mix until just tacky, wrap and rest for at least 30 mins.
The game changer for me was gunning out the paste and using a table - I think the gun really helps regards compacting the mix and a bit of oil on the table and rolled 100 baits easily, no cracks, and boiled lightly are slightly spongey and how I wanted them.
I could be wrong but gun and table was the game changer for me.
All base mix and cork dust mixed in plastic bag and shaken.
All liquids in a bowl the normal way, with 1/2 sachet of dr oktars powered egg
Make paste usual way - keep adding mix until just tacky, wrap and rest for at least 30 mins.
The game changer for me was gunning out the paste and using a table - I think the gun really helps regards compacting the mix and a bit of oil on the table and rolled 100 baits easily, no cracks, and boiled lightly are slightly spongey and how I wanted them.
I could be wrong but gun and table was the game changer for me.
In reply to Post #5
I've been gunning out and rolling on a table as you said but it was still happening.
I tried again since I posted with better results. I looked at advice given on here regards cork balls and treated my cork granules the same. Coated them in fresh egg white and allowed to soak in, sprinkled egg white powder on and allowed to fully dry. Obviously these all stuck together but a quick whizz in the blender separated them. I then added these to the basemix and slowly mixed with the liquids.
Another step I took, once they'd been rolled from the table I gave them a good hand roll as well. Really squeezing them to get the cork to properly bind. Boiled for 90 secs and air dried for 24 hours. I now have 1 or 2 cracked. Major improvement but not perfect. I've since dried these bone dry and they're like bullets with no cracks.
Only trouble now is I'm not completely happy with the buoyancy. If add more cork now I'll likely be back to square 1. What a complete ball ache. Anyway, I'll be using the ones I've made for now and putting a bit of rig foam under them.
What size cork granules did you use, if you done mind me asking? I used 2-3mm from spduk.co.uk
I've been gunning out and rolling on a table as you said but it was still happening.
I tried again since I posted with better results. I looked at advice given on here regards cork balls and treated my cork granules the same. Coated them in fresh egg white and allowed to soak in, sprinkled egg white powder on and allowed to fully dry. Obviously these all stuck together but a quick whizz in the blender separated them. I then added these to the basemix and slowly mixed with the liquids.
Another step I took, once they'd been rolled from the table I gave them a good hand roll as well. Really squeezing them to get the cork to properly bind. Boiled for 90 secs and air dried for 24 hours. I now have 1 or 2 cracked. Major improvement but not perfect. I've since dried these bone dry and they're like bullets with no cracks.
Only trouble now is I'm not completely happy with the buoyancy. If add more cork now I'll likely be back to square 1. What a complete ball ache. Anyway, I'll be using the ones I've made for now and putting a bit of rig foam under them.
What size cork granules did you use, if you done mind me asking? I used 2-3mm from spduk.co.uk