cadman

I know a guy that has done a full skull head jigs on another forum with a hook in it. I know the creator, but I can't get into the details about it. Good Luck with your efforts.

You can also try O'hare Spring. 930 Lee St, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007 They have a wide variety of wireforms. He may have some he wants to get rid of. (847) 298-1360

Usually you can go up or down one size on a Do-It mold. If you need to go really big, take the hook place it in the mold, close the mold and lightly tap the mold with a hammer. This will give you an impression on the mold halves on where you need to cut. The you can use a Dremel as mentioned above or a hand file. The mold is alum. and soft, so go slow and steady.

Welcome to TU. Some shipping charges from certain vendors are high when shipped to Canada. I sell a lot of jigs, but very rarely to Cananda, because many guys don't want to pay the high shipping charges.

Do-It mold has the mold sand casted. They do not do custom molds for customers. You will have to find a machinist to do that for you. Unfortunately machinist time is expensive.

Read up on smalljaws powder air brush painting in the wire baits forum.

Raven , first of all welcome to TU. Second of all powder painting takes practice and the more you do it the better you will be at it. I don't want to be rude, but there are pages and pages of powder painting tips in the forum. So I would start to read up on it here, try the different methods and then ask some specific questions. I could write pages on how to powder paint but I have already done that here. I can tell you this. You will need: Powder paint Toaster oven, and toaster oven racks Fluid bed if you are doing a lot of jigs and spinnerbaits Some small brushes if you are going to use the brush tap method Powder air brush if you are going that route. Member (smalljaw) has been the one that started that process here years ago. He might chime in, but if not there is a lot of info in this forum as well from him. Finally, depending on how well you want your jigs/spinnerbaits to look,you will need good pours, clean heads and heads that are polished. A great looking jig is all in the prep work. If your raw jigs look crappy, unfortunately the paint won't cover it up, it only makes it look worse. If you are looking for powder paint and fluid bed instructions, PM me your e-mail and I will PM you some info There are many other things involved, but this will get you started. Good Luck..................Cadman

I can tell you this I have the Ultra Minnow mold up to 8 oz. This is not the spinnerbait mold, as that one has issues with it being poured with harder lead. On the regular Ultra-minnow, ( the one you have I have poured 50/50 lead and sometimes 30% soft and 70% hard. The lead will pour into the mold with no issues: So don't sell yourself short. Try the lead you have in the picture above and you might be fine. Here are some things I would do first: Make sure you coat both side of the cavities you are going to pour with "Drop-Out", This will make your pours fill much easier and you will get very few bad pours. When you pour make sure that lead is hot. I don't know what your pot is, but when I pour 8 oz ultra-minnow, I use my Lee bottom pour pot for short runs (about 20 pieces). Any quantities bigger than that I use my RCBS pot. Reason Being, is the RCBS hold twice the amount of lead than my Lee. I would constantly be filling my Lee pot and waiting for the lead to melt. When you pour the big heads, keep you spout close to the sprue hole when you fill, this will keep the lead from cooling as it goes in the mold. Finally, after 10 or 15 heads, you mold will get really hot, to the point of the wood handles being hot. So wear gloves, or let the mold cool or get two molds if you are doing large quantities. Hope this helps some..................Good Luck and let us know how it goes for you.

Yep Eagle Claw Lil' Nasty a much better hook. Also if you buy by the 1K, you will rarely get any bad hooks. Unlike the Matzuo's. You won't find many people say that they miss Matzuo hooks.

You can use the lead, that should not be a problem. Why do you need pure soft lead?

Can't tell from a photo, but scratch it with your fingernail, or bend it by hand. If it bends easily it is soft. If it scratches shiny with your fingernail easily it is soft.

Unfortunately, everything isn't perfect in life. I have powder paints from 20 companies and some work really well, some work OK and some you have to stir like slamminjack mentioned.Even if you buy all from the same company like Pro-tech, each color has a different chemical make up and some just work better than others. I believe smalljaw (on this site) mentioned , that if you add clear gloss powder to your current powder it will work much better in a fluid bed. He will probably reply here as well with his experience.

Allen, I only have the tube molds by Do-It. If those work I can pour you some.

Out of curiosity , did you have any glitter on the skirts? If you did, did the glitter fall off when you stuck the skirts in boiling water?

I would like to know the answer to that as well. I get quite a bit of this and it is really annoying to get them this way. I think this happens is when the package is broken, and they have to repackage it. It really is a pain to straighten out. What I do is cut one end and run a wire thru the strands. It's slow but it works.

Yep like mentioned. Lead sheets are usually soft. If you want to know how soft it is, take your fingernail and see if you can scratch it to the shiny stuff underneath. If it scratches easily it is soft. As far as anything with lead acid batteries including posts, I would pass on those. Take the sheets.

What size and how many are you looking for?

Worth has gold blades as well. You could buy steel blades and have them gold plate as well, however there is a lot charge for gold plating. A lot of options out there, just do a google search.

Very Nice tutorial. Job well done.

You can use any head you want as long as the hook eye will allow the split ring to move freely. I personally like the Trokar Pro Swim jig as well. You can get nice heavy sharp hooks with big hook eyes. However, find what works for you.

Yep too much paint. try a fluid bed as mentioned above, or when your jig is hot quickly swish it thru the powder paint. Better to have less paint than too much. You can always reheat it and swish thru again. Also make sure you fluff the powder paint frequently if you are swishing from a jar. This will put on a lighter coat. Good Luck.

yes they make something like that w/o barbwire. Send a sample to fishingskirts.com they have some colors that are not listed. They will help you out.

It probably catches fish. However if you are trying to resurrect it, that will be a tough sell. There are sooooo many baits and jigs out there that catch fish. Most of the groupies (followers) will buy a bait as soon as a Pro wins a tournament with it. Guys are always looking for that magic bait. I've seen this time and time again with the advent of the chatter bait, Ned rig, Tokyo rig and so on. The truth is many of these guys that buy all of these supposed fish catchers will never throw it, or if they do maybe give it a couple of hours at most and if they don't catch anything it will sit in the tackle box. But like all baits, they come and go. They all have(had) their day in the sun unless you can market it heavily and have a Pro sponsor it.

When I got the the Midwest finesse head, I was very unhappy. To this day it is not the the best mold I like to pour, but it is what it is. You have to adapt if you want to pour the really small size. :Like mentioned above harder lead and cured powder paint. On this mold I pour straight hard lead, however this is not for everyone. You have to pour the lead really hot. By doing this you will get really good pours and the hook seems to hold better. Also I noticed the hotter the lead, the mold has a tendency to get really hot and tends to deform a bit. So if you are only pouring a hundred no problem, but if you pour 500 at a crack or more, it is a good idea to let the mold cool. Anyways, good luck

Very Nice, Hope you do well.