topppher

Also, where do we email the pictures? Or...?

Ghost. This may be a problem that no one here has seen yet, please tell me the symptoms... is there paint missing in spots? Now, I don't mean thin, but totally clean looking lead, surrounded by powder coat. This is from impurities like silicone residue from a custom mold. I have had this happen with a new silicone mold before, but after about 25 pours, I stopped seeing the problem... I have put too much powder on before and never had it drip off, I have had some cone headed jigs... but never drip totally off. If it took a while for the powder to melt around, it does not sound like that is the case. Also, once the powder is cured, it will not do much good at all to try to smooth it out, but there are strippers that can take the stuff off. I use acetone, which takes a terribly long time, but after a while you can peel the coating off when it is still wet with acetone... don't soak and let dry cuz you sill be back to where you started. Good luck, and let me know... Chris Wolfe

I just use the slugs that you get with the mold, heat, dip, drill out the holes with a fixture that I made and a small drill press. I then epoxy the guards into place. This process works pretty good for me, but I thnk that I am going to pick up some teflon tube, and try that method. Thanks, Chris

I think that if we did smaller auctions with like $10 to $20 worth of stuff (retail) it would be best. I am going to go thru and pick out 10 ten packs of spinnerbaits and get a pic of each. Now, is this effort going to just TU members? The auctions that I have set up are going to the Red Cross, but want these 100 to be designated to members, is that OK?

I just went on ebay and set up auctions for some spinnerbaits with 100% going to Red Cross, it is pretty easy to do. You just have to get registered with missionfish, who will just bill you for the selling price after the auction is done. I will also donate a bunch to a TU effort too. I will do what I can for Joe and everyone else that needs the help. I know that we are not supposed to put links to ebay up, but I figure that this is for a good cause. This link will be good until Tuesday 9-6-05 at about 9 pm cst. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7180481951&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1 If you bid on these items, it helps those who need the help. If you want to do more, it is easy to set up auction on ebay for charity, and you can sell almost anything that you have lying around the house. turn that old record player into food and water for someone in Biloxi... Thanks guys! Chris

I am in. I made up a lot of extra lures this year, and I will donate 100 of those to any sort of relief effort. I think that we will need to get a moderator involved. Also, we should get a home page link set up for the disaster relief auctions, so anyone that comes to TU can find it easily. I can list stuff on ebay, and put a link in the auctions to TU relief auctions too. I would even make a special edition set of lures to auction off. I am sure that up to 10 of the TU members live in the disaster area, and one of them lived only about 15 miles from New Orleans... I retail my lures at $2.49 each, so that could raise up to $249, but if I made some special edition lures, I would have them retail for more.

The jig mold that I have is not set up for the weedguards, so I have to drill each one out. I made a fisture for doing this on a drill press to keep them all the same.

I picked up some white glow skirts from cd lures out of Canada, they were ok, here is a link. Shipping would take a month to get them thru postal though... and it costs about $30 to get them via UPS http://www.cdlures.20m.com/

I have tried, and never really liked them... it is tough, because everytime you catch a bluegill, you throw it back, or use it for bait...

I bought a regular household oven at an auction for $3... works great. I can only hold 560 spins at a time, which is why I am planning to rip the $3 oven apart and put the guts into a custom oven... about 3 times the size. I also want the bigger oven so i can powder coat bigger stuff like the rims on my truck, or the brush guard I am making, Harley parts... you name it.

I make a round head 1 1/2 oz. for Musky... I use a 8/0 mustad duratin hook 60 degree bend I think... and I have a xh weed guard that I glue in... I drill the holes after I pour, paint, then drill out again, and then glue... I can do some for you poured, drilled, and shipped... email for a pic topher76@charter.net

I really cheat on the eye paint... I use a paint marker. You can get them at menards, or your local craft mega store. You can even get them off of ebay. It is enamel paint, so as long as you cure it at about 150 deg for a couple of min. it will stay really well. You can also use fingernail polish, or get some laquer from Jann's, tacklecraft, etc... make sure that you cure the laquer too, about the same cycle... after curing you should not be able to scratch it off with your fingernail. If you let it dry on it's own, you can.

Many of the people that I have talked to like the living rubber for it's action in the water, it is a little more springy when it is new, but it fades and wears out quickly... not to mention trying to find the stuff now a days... I personally use silicone, last longer, and you can find it in about 500 different colors or more... and if you really wanted, you can have some custom made in about a million more... The Baitshops that I take care of have noticed about 3 to one ratio in sales of my lures over the rubber breather skirted spins... food for thought. This has been a really good seller for me this year, I have only been fishing once this year, and it did catch a fish, so I will keep it...

I put a bathroom fan abouve my melter, witha pvc duct out the window to pull out the lead vapor. This is the most dangerous part of lead... inhaling it... I have only been pouring for about 2 years now, never checked it.... I smoke, drink way too much soda, and I am a welder... I have bigger things to worry about as far as getting tested is concerned. I always wash hands after handling lead, and I will stop to wash hands every couple of hours... You can start to feel it on your hands after a while, kind of a numb feeling on your finger tips... Or that could be the glue that I was working with... not real sure on that. I have talked to someone that has had lead poisoning... he is a big time lead pourer, or was... He gives me orders for 20,000 jigs a year now... go figure, he must really like me huh?

I guess that I would be the other user that Richoc is talking about.... He drove 4 hours to twist my arm for the secret.... It is a much easier method, and you should not have to repeat it after you do it the first time. I wish that I had my camera working so that I could just take a picture for you, but unfortunately I don't, so I will try to explain. First, you will need some high temp masking tape. I use the green polyester tape that is normally used for powder coating. The best size is 1/2" wide. You can find some at here ... (ebay) (kinda spendy, but I have gotten some powder coat from this seller before, and they ship right away, friendly too ) http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=42927&item=7527827189&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW Or you can get some from Here... http://www.caswellplating.com/powder/powder_tape.html I have purchase this tape from these guys, shipping starts out high, but if you can buy other stuff it will make it worth while... Ok, now for the good stuff... Take your newly acquired tape and put a few layers on the bottom part of the mold where your hook is. do this on both sides until your hook is clamped into place by the tape. You don't want too much, or you will get flashing around the head... Also, with this method, you will need to crimp the wire onto the hook so that it stays where it should too. I use the H style head, and I have been using the same tape for about 15,000 to 20,000 pours... and it still does the job. I suppose a guy could use regular masking tape for only a few heads at a time, but I have found that in order to get a good head 98% of the time, you need to head the mold up to about 300 degrees or more before starting, so hence the high temp tape. I have also tried doing the dimple method, and I have tried using high temp RTV in the wire slot, neither will work for very long, bit it is an option if you only plan to make a couple hundred spinnerbaits for your tackle box. sorry for the book sized post, but I do believe that my ways are always the best... Hope it helps. I have attached a picture for your viewing pleasure. It is my Stars and Stripes lure. These Colors Don't Fade.