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DHC Foam Decoy Casting Weekend

7K views 69 replies 14 participants last post by  ScaupHunter 
#1 ·
OK Folks,

I have been getting a lot of interest in a DHC Foamer Decoy Casting weekend. I am willing to coordinate and plan the gathering. I am thinking sometime mid summer when we should have decent to good weather for the gathering. I would think that somewhere in the greater Seattle Metro area would be a good idea since most of the members live in that area. I have a DHC buddy that lives in Lake Stevens that will at least come to the gathering to learn decoy casting, and may be willing to host on his property.

Things we will need to get this off the ground.

1. List of individuals who are interested.
2. Place to gather and hold the event with enough room for tents and at least 10 guys.
3. We can do a families welcome weekend or it can just be DHC members. The group will need to decide that as a body.
4. Lots of Propane Camp Stoves - Large Burner types
5. Lots of big pots - 30 qt or larger for heads - 60 to 100 qt for bodies
6. Smaller steel watering troughs would be even better for casting bodies
7. All decoy mold owners to bring all of their molds - Marked with your name or initials so none get confused with others
8. Food Coordinated - Group will figure this out as we move forward
9. 25 to 100 lbs of beads for each person - I will secure the supplier and make payment on the bead - may be picked up by
another DHC member - I will work that out.
10. All DHC decoy makers show up with the intent to either learn or teach others depending on skill level
11. All decoy makers come prepared for long days and lots of fun.

I am willing to run this weekend with a low as 3 people. I can secure 100 lbs of bead for $300. That would be 100 lbs each at $100 per person. Compared to my normal cost of $4.50 a lb is cheap. If we have enough folks coming we can break that down into smaller lots of beads per person.

Any and all parties that are interested send me a PM and I will start posting up DHC names and keep a running tally. Once I get a good feel for how many folks will attend, I will start working a date up that all can make it on and we will lock something down. Anyone with property that might be willing to host, or folks who know of a place we can hold that gathering at, let me know and I will work with the various options to get a place lined up.

Once everyone gets their first couple of runs at making the decoys you will know what you are doing and will be able to move on to making your own decoys with full knowledge of the process.
 
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#4 ·
Between 120 and 200 as a mix of life size and magnum decoys. Depending on how many of each size. Super magnums would be 90 or so bodies. Heads take a finer bead and a lot less per head for obvious reasons.

I am waiting to hear back from the local sources with their pricing. Minimum order is 100 lbs so we can get smaller quantities than the full 1103 lb Gaylord at $3.00 a lb from at least one place.
 
#8 ·
Attendee's,

So far on the short list we have

Attendees :

Scauphunter
Stanwoodspartan
Star882

Potentials :

Cantshootwell

CSW, I am thinking we are most likely looking at a June / July time frame for this but that is not set, it could be earlier. If it is in July, I am sure we can make it so your wife and new baby could along and enjoy getting to know everyone. I suspect a few folks will want to bring their families along so the can enjoy the area we hold the get together in.

I will put together a list of molds I have and Stanswoodspartan just got a few head molds and a body mold in that he can bring. If we get a lot of folks attending, the more molds the better. I would love to see a large collection of molds so we can send folks home with a lot of experience on the mold casting with a good number of decoys in hand to put together.
 
#10 ·
I will have to check with the boss on this but I'm fairly certain I could host this if need be. Got plenty of room for casting rain or shine. I know she has a 4 day Vegas trip scheduled in a few months so maybe we can plan it for then.

Sent from my space modulator.
 
#11 ·
Tentative Location : Lake Stevens, Wa. Bknilivrs place.

Thanks for looking into this and letting us use your place Bknilvr. I included you and thought of your place since you mentioned wanting to make foamers and your pretty centrally located to most of the interested folks.

Attendees :

Scauphunter
Stanwoodspartan
Star882
Bknilvr
Otahjj
trippleb56

Potentials :

Cantshootwell

I am still digging around for large quantity suppliers for EPS bead for the bodies and heads. Right now I have a supplier in the Tacoma area at $3 a lb with a minimum order of 100 lbs. I have another dozen or so to call in the next week to see if we can find a better price. If we get enough guys and they all want 100 lbs I can order a Gaylord of EPS which is 1103 lbs from Randy at Polysource. Shipped to a business in Vancouver, or Seattle area will have a total cost of $2,345. If we have ten guys that want 100 lbs each that is $2.35 a pound shipped. Much cheaper than paying $3 a lb for local supply. We will also need to look at head foam and pricing. I am working to find a fine bead supplier locally. My hope it to find a local supplier that can provide both types of foam for $2.40 a lb.

It sounds like bknilvr is looking at a May / early June time frame. Memorial Day Weekend would be a great time to do this if folks don't have other plans. We will have to let bnknilvr weigh on days that will work for him.
 
#13 ·
I am super excited about the possibility of this working out, but want to make sure that you guys know my spring/summer are super sketchy schedule wise so I won't be able to commit fully until we figure out the dates. Sure hope it ends up panning out for me to make the trip over the hill!

Sent from my XT897 using Tapatalk
 
#14 ·
bknilvr00 said:
So the wife is gone april 11th through the 14th. Which works for me. But if we want to push it out, lets decide on a date so I have plenty of prior notice to make arrangements here.
I have some prior commitments through the end of April. I would think a weekend in May might work better. That will ensure the passes are clear for Otahjj and should give us a little bit warmer weather to cut down on the propane use.

I am thinking the weekend of May 17th, & 18th, or possibly the Memorial Day Weekend which is May 24th and 25th. This one may be tough since families and folks may have plans.

What does the rest of the group think? Any weekends that will work better for you?
 
#17 ·
getemducks said:
If there is room for one more I'd like to join
Plenty of room for anyone who wants in. The attendees need to start thinking about how much bead they want if they own molds or plan to buy some. I have one local source. I have a second checking prices on fine and medium bead. I have a third local source checking on prices and availability as well.

Swood. My plan is to pick up the beads early on Friday morning in Seattle. Then heading to bknilvrs place. We can work a bunch of decoys on Friday. Then hit the mornings as well.

I plan to show the process from raw beads, molding, clean up, head mounting, through restle coat, and base paint to those that want to learn it over the weekend.
 
#19 ·
MarvinT on WorkingDecoys and Burpy Frog on fleabay is the guy for goose molds. He is really the only supplier of a wide variety of decoy molds in the country.

I have a large Suc Duk style Floater Goose mold, a large puddler decoy mold that works perfectly as a snow goose or cackler mold, and plans to buy a mid size mold between those two sizes. I also use a Herters 72 type body mold for making my Brant Decoys.

Marvin doesn't have any molds on Ebay right now. He is making a large run of custom molds and then will get back to posting up some of the options he sells on Ebay.

Hop on WorkingDecoys.net and join up, it is free. PM MarvinT and tell him you would like to know what options he has for goose molds. He has body, and head molds for large, medium, and small geese available. Tell him Clay sent you, he and I have done a lot of business.
 
#21 ·
If DHC folks just want to drop in and say hi they will be welcome.

If you show up we can play with some bodies and heads to get an exact idea of the Harli decoys you want to match the pictures you sent of them looking down.
 
#23 ·
Lets see here,

Body Molds

1 teal
3 divers - small - standard - magnum
1 mallard / small goose - magnum
1 large goose - super magnum
1 pintail mold - between standard and magnum

Head Molds - To many types and positions to list individually - The count is getting ridiculous and growing. :help:

Golden Eye
Canvasback - Large and Medium
Blue Bill - multiple small diver - alert and resting standard
Buffle Head - Hen and Drake - Small
Harli and OS - For small diver - medium for pintail body for OS
Scoter - White Wing / Black and Surf
Redhead / Mallard
Merganser
Hooded Merganser - Hen and Drake
Snow Goose - feeding and alert
Cackler - Alert
Wood Duck - Drake and Hen
Pintail - Resting and Alert
Widgeon - pintail body

I am in the process of another head mold order so this is going to expand a bit before the casting party.
 
#25 ·
I have been working the foam options and dates for the weekend decoy cast in. Pending Bknilvrs buy off and more importantly the house bosses buy off I am thinking May 17th, and 18th will be the date for the DHC Cast In.

Scauphunter
Stanwoodspartan
Star882
Bknilvr
Otahjj
trippleb56

Potentials :

Cantshootwell

My plans on the foam are as follows. Anyone who wants in on the bulk order for foam can gat ahold of me and let me know how much they want. I will get the cash up front for those and put in the bulk order for body foam. If you plan to show up and learns without taking a bunch of decoys or foam with you, I will have 100 lbs of medium bead body foam at the start of the weekend. Head foam is going to be a different deal. I plan to bring 25 lbs of fine bead resin EPS for the head casting on the weekend. If you want me to put foam into that order let me know and we can do the same thing as the body foam. Or you can order the amount you want direct from IASCO TESCO.

My plans are pretty simple for the foam. Every one who comes to the weekend to participate and learn will leave with two two decoy bodies and a head for each of them to work with. Done right you will have the decoys restle coated and the heads mounted at the end of the weekend. If you are there Friday afternoon or evening you may have them base coat painted with one or two coats as well. If you want to take more decoys home then you can pay the price for the foam based on weight and actual cost for the extra decoys, buy into the larger foam orders to reduce costs per lb and cast your own foam, or just take the two decoys home.

I plan to have keel pieces at the weekend, some Gorilla Glue for mounting them, etc..... I will also have some glass bead eyes there to go with the decoys. At a minimum I want each attendee to head back home with the components to finish out two decoys and a full understanding of the core process.

I am planning to put in the foam order on April 15th. I have to find out one or two things to decide if I will be ordering local or from Polysource in the Midwest. I should know the things I need today to finalize that information.

Plan for a fun weekend while learning the process from step one to base paint over the weekend.

Clay
 
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