cadman

I don't know if I sent you the fluid bed instructions. If not PM me your e-mail and I'll get it out to you. Yes coffee filter will work on some powders.

Here are my answers to your questions. I'm thinking about pouring my own jigs and have everything except a melter. I have enough "Cabela's Cash" saved up to be able to not have any $$ outlay myself. They only offer the Lee's Hot Pot model 2 and a Lee's Production pot bottom pour type. There is not much of a price difference; so I'm asking for advice/suggestions. I plan on only pouring jigs and spinner bait bodies, not big weights or other "heavy items". If it were me, and I could afford both I would buy both. The reason being is this. On the Lee IV bottom pour pot, I think this is the best choice for pouring any and all jigs. It is safer in my opinion than using a ladle or a Palmer Hot Pot 2, because you don’t have to worry about over pouring in a mold cavity while you are holding the mold. The lead stream from a Lee IV is a lot smaller than pouring from a Hot Pot 2. With that said the Hot Pot 2 is better for pouring spinnerbait heads with the wire form sticking out in my opinion. Also if you have both, in the Hot Pot you can keep softer lead for pouring spinnerbaits, and harder lead in the Lee IV for jigs. However if you only have one choice get the Lee IV bottom pour pot. You can also pour spinnerbaits with that as well. I have (3) Lee IV and (2) Palmer Hot Pots and they all have their use for me and they are all work horses. Can the Hot Pot 2 be used with a ladle or MUST you pour from the melter itself ? Yes you can put a small ladle in there. I have done that and it does work. Lastly, The Flux powder that is used to get rid of the junk. Is that put into the melted lead then allowed to cool or does it coagulate the bad stuff immediately? Once your pot and lead is hot (melted) leave it on and flux with the heat on that is the whole point of it. Put your candle wax or beeswax (that’s what I use) and immediately throw a match in the pot. The wax (beeswax) will flame up, so be careful and don’t burn your hair or anything around you. While it is flaming up gently stir it with an old spoon until the flame dies out. You will then see a bunch of black crud on top of your clean lead. Carefully spoon it out and put it in a dry, small, empty soup can. Leave it there on the side for the next time you flux. I flux about every to hours, and repeat the cleaning process. How do you seperate the good lead from the junk ? The bad stuff as you will see will float on top of the clean lead. Take an old junk stainless steel spoon and skim it off. Then what do you do with the junk, if anything ? Leave it in a small can until you fill it up. You can then take it to a recycling area in your neighborhood. Being enviornmentally conscious I'm inclined not to put it in the main stream trash. Good idea. I hope this helps some. I’m sure there are some things I’ve forgotten to put down, also you will get a lot of good ideas from others here. These are just my opinions, so others may have some better ideas. Gather all the data you get here and make a decision based on what info you get. If you have more questions just ask here and someone will always help with an answer………………..Good Luck

RS, I don't know if your jigs have skirts, but this is what I do. On my flippin jigs that will have skirts, I use the rattle collar and put my tabs or loose skirt strands through the rattle collar. This will hold all the loose strands or tabs in place until I get the skirt over the jig collar, so I can tie the skirt on the jig. Once the skirt is tied, I slide the rattle collar over my thread wraps, and this finishes the jig. This is a two-fold purpose system. #1 to hold the skirt tabs together, and #2 it's easier to slide the skirt with the rattle collar over the existing jig collar.

Tony, You will have many responses here as far as how everyone paints their jigs. There are many ways to heat a jig, before you swish it through the powder paint. I use a heat gun. There are other members that use propane torches, candles, alcohol burners, lighters and some even heat them in an oven. You will have to find what you think will work for you. I would stay away from candles and lighters. Just my opinion. As far as powder paint there is a wide variety of powder paint to use, from Pro-Tec the most popular by some to Columbia coatings, to others. They all work very well even the cheaper powder paint. It all depends on how stubborn you are and how much you want to pay for powder paint. The final process which guarantees you a hard chip resistant finish, is you must bake all of your jigs after they have been powder painted in a oven or toaster oven. By baking the jigs, you are curing (hardening) the paint. This is just a brief summary of powder painting in a nutshell. The rest takes a lot of patience and practice.

What size wire are you going to use, will determine what size rivets you will need?

I was going to suggest the same thing Smallie did. If you don't like to look on the computer, call them up for their catalog. It is the best source of information anywhere I've found. Like Smallie said their hooks are grouped together in the catalog as well. You will find that Mustad and Eagle Claw are very interchangeable. Gamakatsu is usually not and rarely fits any Do-It mold unless the mold is modified. For all other questions ask them in this forum, and somebody will have an answer, as someone probably has already tried it. I have over 100 molds and majority of all the hooks in Barlow's catalog, so I can always check to see if a particular hook will fit. One other thing, you can also take many hooks that are 60 degrees and bend them 90 degrees and vice-versa if you like a particular hook. A list of all the hooks that will fit certain molds, would take years of work to compile.

BIGDOG, thanks for the field test and the update. You gave many people some good hands on info here. I have said many times that there are other more affordable sources of powder paint than just one company. Your field testing and info has confirmed my past statements. Many guys get so hung up on product names, yet they will complain about price when there are so many other options. Thanks again for posting your results.

In the pic you posted those are the old style screwloks. The paint will definitely solve your problem temporarily. When you use up your old stock of screwloks get yourself the new style, you will be happier. Also when you buy your new ones ask whomever you buy your screwloks from to check and make sure you are getting the new style. There are lots of places with old stock.................................Good luck and let us know how it worked

I just poured another hundred of these last night, and I've never had the problem you mentioned. I've had my mold for 2 years and poured several hundred through this mold. I believe that this question came up awhile back when they first came out with the mold. Apparently the first version of the screwlok they made for these made the heads loose. The newer version of the screwlok with the rounded bend works much better. I use the rounded version and have no problems. I also use harder lead, but that should not affect this in my opinion. BTW painting and baking the jigs will lock everything in place.

Correct,. There are usually 3 common colors, gold, copper and silver.

Darren, Just buy the powder paint and apply it like regular powder paint. PM sent.

Welcome to TU e-mail sent

Cub, I would agree with Gdille. I started about 7 years ago with nail polish. Yes it is durable, and it does smell. I don't think it's as durable as powder paint though, and you can't do multicolor worth a darn with nail polish. If you want more info on powder paint PM me and I can give you some tips.

Casey, I don't know why guys get hung up on tungsten. I've been using lead punch skirts for about 2 years now. They are easier to get and easy to powder paint. If you are interested in more info PM me and I will try to help you out.

EWG, I have never sooted my molds as I never found that to help. However I have found something that does work exceptionally well for molds. It is used by bullet makers, it is called Drop Out by Frankford Arsenal. I should of used this years ago. Once you use this you will not use anything else. here is a link http://www.opticsplanet.net/printable-frankford-arsenal-6-oz-drop-out-aerosol-763758.html I bought mine at Zeiner's as they were the cheapest.

PM sent

Rob, If you have a 2010 Barlow's catalog, check out all the hooks on page 42. If you don't have their catalog I suggest you get one they have a world of information about hooks and they are grouped together. What mold do you have that you are looking for bigger hooks? Now I know Owner, Mustad and Eagle Claw will fit most Do-It molds and Gami fit a few. You may have to do some mold modification when you go to a 2x hook.

There are several things that I did that solved the problem. #1 When you put the hook on the wire form, smash the wire form with a pair of vise grips with the hook eye in side the wire form loop. This will keep the hook eye and the wire form from separating. #2 I take a piece of high temp tape and stick it over the wire form where it rests in the mold. The tape will hold the wire form in place. Close the mold and pour. If you put just the edge of the tape on the wire form you will never have to move or reposition the tape. The wire form will just move the tape out of the way when you take the poured spinnerbait out of the mold. #3 I used to lightly peen the slot in the mold where the wire form sits. By doing this with a sharp centerpunch, it will hold the wire form in as well. I don't do this anymore, because now I use different wire diameters, and the tape works much better for me. Hope this helps some. If you don't understand the tape idea I can send you some pics. PM me your e-mail.

Read post #12 on this thread.

This is my take on this as this is only my opinion. I have no intention of buying this product. There are a lot of things on the market that are for the people to buy. Between all of us I lose more jigs when I fish than it's worth putting this stuff on. I sell a lot of finished baits and I do not or will not offer this as an option whether it works or not. To me it is a waste of money. I know a chemist that does powder coating paints. He mentioned that there probably is some UV formula in the powder paint that could help with UV in it. But let's face it, anything that is left in the sun will fade. No matter what you put on it. Will this stuff slow it down maybe, but the question remains to you as a consumer is it worth the money for the application. If it works for you by all means use and and buy it.

Hoghunter, I understand how you feel and many people would re-act the way you would like. The way to handle this is to PM the person who posted this thread and ask him. He may or may not tell you who this person is. The person who posted this handled this very professionally. No matter what the circumstances are, it is not really a good idea to bash anyone or company on an open forum. It is bad business and unless you have all the details it can get you in trouble. Every situation is different with every person. There are many people that have ordered from him and have nothing but good things to say, while others ordered things and were forgotten about with no calls back or acknowledgment. So like I said for whatever reason every situation is different. It's not up to me or anyone else to prejudge him unless you have an issue with the person in question. If you do than you address it with that person. I don't want to sound like an a$$, as I do agree with you on certain aspects, but forum bashing even with vendors is usually not tolerated on many sites.

George, I'm glad you posted this. My whole point was that every time us tinkerers go back to doing what we "do best" there will always be setbacks. I have bad days as well, and on those days I do get frustrated say a few choice words and walk away. My wife knows when that is by my voice and demeanor. Although this next comment doesn't help at the time of disaster, look at it this way if everything was perfect it would be boring. " We can't know success if we don't have failure", or something like that. Finally the nice thing about the whole scenario, is if you're stumped and have questions you can post your questions here. I don't know how old you are but if you go back 40+ years, you were on your own with all the trial and error with no one to help. Now you have the internet and TU and all of these people with all of this experience to give advice. So it could be worse, you could still be making pyramids with a hammer and a chisel. BTW hope it all works out for you.

E-mail sent.

George, I don't know if any of my dialog among tackle makers here has helped you out. If it did, then I'm glad you're on your way to what you like to do best. Congratulations and drop us a line here sometime on how things are going..................Cadman