Leaderboard

I thought about this and felt I should add to what I said above. And that is that not everyone should work with lead. For instance if you live in an apartment or someplace where it isn't safe to work with lead then you shouldn't. If you have young children and you cannot separate them from your lead casting area then you probably shouldn't work with lead. If the only area available to you to work with lead is on your kitchen stove then I recommend you don't work with lead The ability to safely work with lead means you have an area you can work in that is free of pets, young children, etc. One that you can properly ventilate. For me it is my garage. Others may have a dedicated space in their shop, a work shed, or what have you. So having a proper place to work with lead should also be a consideration on whether it is safe for you to work with or not.

I've been casting lead for 15 plus years. During part of that time I also worked in a lead mine. I cleaned lead tanks that were coated in 18 in thick lead concentrate on all the walls and floor. We also shoveled literal tons of lead dust out of the concentrate storage building that had accumulated in areas it was not supposed to. I literally ended many days covered head to toe in lead Yes I wore a respirator while doing this as well as other PPE. We also showered in the locker room before heading back to camp and took various other safety precautions. Our blood lead levels were tested every 3 months. My lead level currently sits at 3.5 mcdl as it is part of my current job to get a full physical every year including lead testing. 3.5 mcdl is not very high. Back in the 1970s the average Americans lead level was over 17 mcgl. That of course was due to the use of Tetraethyl gasoline particularly in our major cities. If you take basic lead safety precautions while working with it at home you are not at serious risk of lead poisoning. Personally I'm more worried about burning my fingers while loading hooks into a hot mold or splashing lead on myself then I'm worried about getting lead poisoning. Obviously you are too scared to work with lead and should not do so because of that. If you cannot trust yourself to work with lead you certainly shouldn't be working with it. But a person can safely work with lead a fact many of us have proven. I know that I am smart enough to safely work with lead and that's why I continue to do so. But I understand not everybody can trust themselves or be smart enough to safely work with lead. We have had members of this forum whose lead levels became seriously elevated because they did not take proper safety precautions. As I recall one gentleman was smoking with lead coated fingers and that was the cause of his elevated lead levels. When I've let kids make jigs in my workshop I do all of the casting and all they do is paint them. So long story short some of us continue to work with lead because we're smart enough to do so safely in a manner that produces some amazing tackle unavailable anywhere else. Lead casting isn't for everyone though. And if you don't feel comfortable or can't trust yourself to do it then don't!

Hey Mark, wouldn't that be a great idea, if the reel companies sold an after market touch-up paint like they do for cars? Wow, now there is an idea for reel manufacturers to cash in on. I am sure many guys would buy it. The only problem is all the SKU #'s they would have to keep for all the years and models.

I just found this website through a search and it is really user friendly to use for creating or matching existing colors . Wish I had found something like this years ago and it would have saved a lots of plastic experimenting with colors. Online color mixing tool - free color blender tool! (trycolors.com)

I would test them before I went to the trouble of painting them, in case they don't work or have problems.

thanks for mentioning me! I own Fishheadcustomlures.com, I recently took over for Dinger Baits. Website launched back in August. I am slowly building up inventory. It is a process, but I will eventually have all the same high quality products that Dinger offered in the past. I am doing my best to fill Brian's shoes in terms of customer service. I understand the importance of good communication and timely shipping. I try to respond to messages same day and am I getting orders out in 1-2 days Next week I will have restocks of the Popper, Point5 dd crankbait, and new stock of the S crank ko with holographic foil and 4 and 5 mm split rings. Tracking says these will arrive Monday and hopefully can get them on the site that same day I also have lil john medium divers, 1.5 one knock squarebills in clear and holographic, 1.5 silent squarebills, and P78 medium divers all on order. I will be ordering more stock next week, not sure what that will be yet. Probably restock of other popular items that recently sold out. Most orders are taking 4-6 weeks to ship from the suppliers. The duo style baits (d100 and d120) will be a while as that supplier has a large minimum quantity I am not able to meet yet, but those blanks are high on my priority list Eric

I made a 3d printed squarebill if anyone is interested. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5553393