cadman

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I leave lead in mine as well and fill it up, then let it cool.

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Welcome aboard, I am a jig fisherman as well. You will see me hanging around the jig forum.

Unless you want to make a 1/8 oz Ultra-Minnow Spinnerbait, I personally do not think it's worth all the effort to modify a mold when you can buy them all ready to pour. Not only do you have to put a slot in for the wire form, but you also have to modify the area where the hook shank sits, because the jig mold is made for a 570 hook which is much smaller in diameter than a spinnerbait hook, which will probably be a Mustad 32608N hook. Also you will have to cut off the lead hook eye on the spinnerbait, that will be formed from the original location of the old hook unless you fill it. Finally you will have to check if the new hooks will clear on the bottom of the mold and if the wireforms will clear at the top of the mold. Just some things to check before you start cutting. In all honesty everything is do-able if you have the time and plan it out.

I agree with Jig man, lay out your profile on both mold halves measuring accurately, and get out the dremel. The only drawback is that it won't be perfect like store bought.

Cliff, I assume you are going the other route and putting the weedguards in after baking the jig? You will get many answers here. I use Lock-Tite Gel super glue and Devcon 2 Ton epoxy (D2T).

Hey flatsrat don't hijack this thread...........Doh sorry it's yours.........................Just kidding I know exactly what your problem is , you're not paying attention to your pouring instead you are looking at that gecko or lizard. Seriously though I have all three of those molds and these are my thoughts on it. #1 Are you ladle pouring? #2 Is that mold hot. This mold has to be really hot to get perfect pours, along with warm to hot hooks. The reason I asked it looks to me like the the lead is cooling before it gets in to the mold cavity. You said you were using soft lead. That should flow much better as I use hard lead. Also, I noticed at first when I was pouring I did not get full pours inside the cavity, and I think there are two reasons why this happens. #1 The cavities are small and the cold hooks won't let the lead flow #2 The air doesn't have room to escape on the bottom. If you notice the hooks fit really snug in the cavities. So what I did was pour with the mold cracked. Take a business card and tape it at the front of the mold between the two halves or you can use high temp tape, which is easier. This will allow the air to escape and lead flow better. However you will get some flash, but I found that it is better to get some flash and clean it later on this mold than to keep on pouring bad pours and re-melting and re-pouring bad pours and re-melting. I have struggled with these molds and nothing is perfect in life. If you need more help PM me and I can send you some pics of how I crack the mold. You can adjust the crack width by moving the card or tape front to back. The ideal situation would be to have cavities pour fully with the minimum amount of crack which = less flash. It's not that complicated. Also hard lead will give you craze lines or crack marks in your jigs, you can also try to turn up the heat. Finally, while you watch that lizard, he's probably laughing at you while you are getting frustrated....................................Good Luck

I will PM you so I don't hijack this thread.

These base hole pins are not for this mold. They will not work unless you modify the mold.

I don't believe you can brush on Createx, it is made only for airbrush applications. If you want a brush on paint go to Walmart and get some model paint enamel. As far as E-tex you can get that at Michael's craft store. Devcon 2 ton at a hardware store or on-line. I don't know of a paint you can dip and then let it dry without dripping all over the place. If you want you can use vinyl paint. I am not an expert at it and I don't use it because it gives me bad headaches. I don't know what Cabela's sells. Maybe others will chime in and give you some other advice.

Mark, Many guys use Createx, a water based paint with an airbrush. The colors are endless and you can get some beautiful colored jigs. The paint has to be heat set. I prefer to use Createx over a powder painted base coat jig. It will give the Createx something to grip to. If you want to paint over a raw jig, then you will have to put a base coat on or maybe a primer, probably white and then paint from there. Once you are all done painting, you must then clear coat. Yes the clear coat will seal in your eyes. To seal your eyes and jig, you can use E-tex (Envirotex lite) or D2T (Devcon 2 Ton) One final suggestion. You can go to a lacquer paint to use in an airbrush, but you will have to evacuate the fumes safely as they are hazardous to breathe.

Mark, I guess the questions comes down to this. Do you want one color to blend(fade) into another color or do you want a crisp line separating 2 colors. If you want a fade then that is do-able (don't know if that's a word) with powder paint . If you want a crisp clean line separating 2 colors, then I have yet to see that be done with powder paint. You have to understand that powder paint needs heat for it to stick to anything. That heat has to be hot enough to hold paint, however it will be too hot to hold tape so that won't work. If you want a clean 2 color separation, my suggestion would be to do the whole jig in powder paint, cure the jig and come back tape what you don't want painted and air brush the rest on. Now you will have to clear coat because if you use water based airbrush paint it will come off. Your other choice is forget powder painting and air brush everything and then mask off as above. Finally you can powder paint the whole jig and then dip half of it in the other color. As far as how perfect it will be, well depends on how perfect you want it. I personally like to fade my paint it looks more natural, then clean crisp cut lines. But naturally this is your choice. I'm sure other will join in here to give you more ideas.................Good Luck

PM sent. You need to click on the red/white box which will auto load unless you don't have adobe acrobat reader.

Matt, Thanks for the reply and all the good info. I personally like Kistler, maybe I can talk him into one of those.

Your best bet would be to look at Barlow's catalog. They group hooks well in their catalog. If you don't find an answer there, post it in this forum someone will let you know if the hook will fit in a mold, or if there is a close match.

Go to the post above yours and there is a PDF file in there. Open it up and you can print it. All the info is in there if you have any questions you can PM me......................Good Luck

Well I'm glad it worked out for you. Now you will have more time to paint more jigs and go fishing.

Floridanative, I don't have an answer to your question, but those are some nice looking jigs

First of all I don't paint any jigs with weedguards in them. I find it very difficult to get good paint coverage with weedguards in them and also my weedguards seem to curl from baking (curing) them in the toaster oven. But this is just me, there may be others on this site that have better luck doing this. With that said, this is what I do. On the mold you mentioned, I put in a #46(.081) or a #45(.082) drill bit shank first, in the space where the weedguard is supposed to go up to the hook. What this does is when you pour your jig the lead will fill everything in the cavity except where the drill bit is. So when you take the jig out you will have a jig with the drill bit in, then take the drill bit out of the jig and you will have your weed guard hole. If you want to use a bigger weedguard, you already have a pilot hole for a starter so just drill it out. If not you can just paint your jig and bake and then glue the weedguard in after baking. I hope this answers your question.

Try here, this is the only place that I know of that would be close to what you're looking for. http://www.hiltsmolds.com/BulletSlipSinkerMolds.htm

I have a question for all of you custom rod makers. My cousin is dead set on this rod see link http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_10203992_100002000_100000000_100002000_100-2-0. I'm asking you guys what your thoughts are on it. I've never used Garcia rods and I told him to get something else. He is looking at the 6'6, MH, XF model. He is going to use this for throwing a jig and pig, with a Revo Premier Reel. Couple other questions for my own info. I guess this is called a split grip rod? If so what makes these so popular now versus one piece grip. Finally EVA versus cork handles. I have always liked cork handles is there one better over the other.....................Thanks for all of your help.

Smalljaw, No big deal. We're all here to help each other that's why this forum is so good. Everyone pitches in with their knowledge and know-how that's how we all learn. BTW I like the round bend as well for the same reason you mentioned. I just could never get used to the look of the O'Shaughnessy hook. It looks like it's missing something.

Widowmaker, As far as I know they are identical except for the hook bend like in the Barlow's catalog pic. I have the 32798 in stock but I don't have the 32893, so I can't compare wire diameter, hook length or hook eye distance. I called my contact and they said the 32798 is a round bend hook, and the 32893 is an O'Shaughnessy bend hook. I believe O'Shaughnessy was started by Eagle Claw but don't quote me. Hope this helps

A fluid bed will make your life easier for one color applications. You will be a happy camper.