Leaderboard

The main problem is the cool hardware blocking and solidifying the lead too quickly. Lay hook and figure 8 link in mold. Heat hook, figure 8 link and collar area with a propane torch. (quick blast) Close mold, pour jig. Your percentages are going to be a lot higher after heating your hardware. Give it a try. Good luck.

I would put it in the middle of the lower barb on one half of the mold.

I meant 5/16" deep.

I agree with Mark. I'm in the process of doing exactly that right now on a bunch of musky lures. I mark out and cut the lip slot when the blanks are still a block, then shape the lure. The lexan I use has a film on it, so I mark out and draw a center line on the lure and the lip and line it up by eye. I only make about 12 lures at a time, maybe it would be different if you were making 100. There is some risk of chipping out around the lip slop for sure. Two of my blanks have small chip outs on the edges. I'm not too worried about it as those edge areas will be filled with epoxy when I glue the lip/wire in. It can be worse if you are going to use a router and the router bit grabs the lip slot, I've been there. I just didn't run the router up to the slot, I left it just short and used my sander to finish the edges of the lip slot.

thanks, Mark. Thank you for saying that, that was what I was going to try next, however I didn't think about the center line on the lip, thats so obvious, yet genius. My concern (probably unnecessary) was chipping the edges of the slot in the shaping process, do you see that as an issue? if you don't mind, another question; on a 1.5-2" flat sided square bill, how deep do you cut the lip slot? thanks.

I cut my lip slot on my bandsaw, while my blank is still rectangular, so it's square to the blank I mark a centerline on my lip and on my finished blank, so I can line them up when I glue them together.