cadman

I have three of the lee pots, and I love everyone of them. I pour a lot of lead. My original pot is going on 10 years, and no problems. They all will leak some lead, so don't panick it's the nature of the beast. The only thing that this pot is limited to pour is spinnerbaits with the extended wire. I can even pour those if I want to, but for spinnerbaits, I choose to use the Palmer Hot Pot. You will be happy with the Lee, and they have an excellent warranty, even after 8years, they do a fairly in expensive swap. JMO. This is the Lee Pot. Barlows Tackle Shop: Browsing 10 Lb Production Lead Pot This is the Palmer Pot for Spinnerbaits I use. http://www.barlowstackle.com/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=1527&CATID=59

If you are looking for the screw in type keeper, that goes in the mold, then I use tru-turn keepers. After that Do-It came out with their own jigs and coiled spring keepers. I'll stick with my setup, as I never had any break, and they last almost forever, unless you bend them back and forth. The tru-turn also lets you use it on any Do-It jig, that requires the weedless pins. To me it's a better sytem, than what Do-It came up with. But then again it's your choice.

Big D, I want to congratulate you on getting into multi-color powder painting. It opens up a whole new world to colors on jigs. I know it’s not the easiest thing to learn, but with practice, you will get to love the outcome of all your jigs. I have been a big proponent of multi-colors since I joined TU, and have always posted here about guys going to multi-colors. When I joined TU, George Reeves e-mailed me one day, and said ok show me how this is done. That’s how my multi-color tutorial started, (Thanks to George Reeves). The only drawback to all this insanity is that now you will be buying more shades of red, blue, green etc. etc., and like me you won’t be able to stop, because you will mix and blend another color and another color. The possibilities are endless. As far as the Wagner heat gun that you bought, what model did you get? I found that when you do multi-colors, you have to add all your colors on a much lower heat temp., to your base color. Also you have to watch what colors go on first, second and so on. All colors blend really well, when they are applied, but when you put them in the oven, you may not get the results you wanted. Also not all colors can be put through an oven when you start getting into 6 colors. There is a solution for that though. Another thing I personally found out about heat guns is that no matter how long I keep my powder over my heat gun, I have yet to burn the paint when I do multi-colors. That is a definite plus for me personally. Lastly as far as chrome powder, I have yet to find the perfect chrome, like the one you get on a car bumper. I have talked to many powder chemists, and they say, that since we are using a powder paint, it will never turn out like we all want. I too have put a clear coat over some of the chromes, only to get a duller looking chrome. The next two solutions are your best bet for pure chrome finish. The most costly is silver plating or bright nickel. I had several hundred jigs done this way, for a customer, and the process when finished was beautiful. Cost….$75.00 lot charge. The second solution, is to pour your jigs flawlessly, so there are no imperfections in the pour, and if your jigs come out like mine do (really shiny like bright nickel), with in a day or sooner, clearcoat the raw lead. This has worked very well for me, and this is about as close to pure chrome as I can come to without paying an arm and a leg for plating……I hope this helps you and some others looking for some answers.

Gary, I have other hand held benders, that I use for really light gauge material 26 ga etc. But those won't bend 16 ga.(.060) stainless steel not that you will be bending anything that heavy. If you can't bend the material while holding the vise grips in your hand, put one vice grip on the table, and use it as a fulcrum, while bending the other one up. I's nice, because you can really clamp down on them, and they will bend a nice straight line. I know you will like these...........Ted

Champ198

I have both molds which I sell a lot of jigs from. Each one of these has there application. I like the Poison tail because the collar is rugged and can hold plastic grubs along with skirts. The jig is a good hopping jig and a swim jig. The Snootie although has a rounded collar, it can be used with a skirt, and thats about all. Since I hand tie all my skirts, either collar works for me, with no problem. Many guys I sell the Snootie jig to say that this jig also goes easily through weeds. Both of these jigs take two totally different style of hooks. I like the poison tail the best, because of its wide gap hook. JMO.

I have a question for you guys that someone here may have an answer to. I am looking for a way to make clear transfer decals like the ones you used to put on car models back in the day. I would like to take my inkjet printer, print a colored or all black logo on a clear film, and then peel it off or transfer this to a jig body or willow blade. The finished product must be supple enough to go around curves with out wrinkling. Then once it dries, I would like to clear coat this with DT2. I

rr316, is absolutely right on all counts, the 32796 has a short shank and will not fit without midification. Also I pour the bullet bass jig, and yes it has an extremely strong hook. Definitely football jig in the rocks.

Smallie, I personally use a Wagner (Model HT 3500). For my personal application, and the multi-colors I put on this has worked very well for me. If you are going to get into multi-colors, then I would suggest a dual heat gun, as you need the lower heat to put on more than 2-6 colors. This is just MHO. I have a pic of it in my tutorial. If you want to see it PM me your e-mail. This heat gun is a little extravagant, but it has suited me well so far, and so far no complaints, as I've gone through several brands, that aren't worth anything even if I got them free. Just out of curiosity, why are you getting away from a torch. I know quite a few guys here that do some beautiful powder painting with a torch.

Ron, The powder paint has a raised look and feel to it. It looks and feels like someone put sand on the jig.

Ron, I have been experimenting with textured finishes for quite awhile. These finishes are not your gold or silver vein colors. This is actual textured powder made for that purpose. Currently I have 3 beige colors, all a different shade, and a smoke which is gray. I currently purchased several hundred pounds of each, which in a month or so I

Ron, I have a lot of sources for you, and some more info on this. I will post the info later, as I'm headed off to work right now. Talk to you later.............

Hi Bruce, Well I

Hi Dave, Happy belated B-Day. I just turned 50, although my mind is young, and my body aches, as long as I can make jigs and fish, nothing else matters. I hope I can still say that when I'm 70. I hope you had a good B-day...Ted

EWG, Very nice. How did you make that straight yellow line in the last pic?

Thanks guys for all the help. I bought them at a electrical parts distributor....Ted

My, first guess, is it's an in-line spinner, with the (body) fish being cast from lead. How's it made. wire is put in a mold, lead is poured, lead body is painted, clevis with willow blade is put on next, loop and wire wrap on top of that at head. Tail section; hair is tied on body or wire shaft, probably another wire wrapped loop with treble hook in place or you can put on treble hook with a split ring. It's pretty easy to do if you have the tools. I have a mold similar to this. I'll post a picture later tonight. I see you're new here, welcome to TU. Sign up as a member and join in on the fun. Also this thread should be in the wire bait sect., as you will get more responses and input from there. Mod's maybe you can move this to the appropriate place.

A quick tip for all you guys that want to make bending steel, stn. steel, aluminum, brass, and copper sheets easier. These vise grips make the job a breeze. I have two pairs, and I use one on 1/2 of the material and another one on the other half of the material. Clamp material and bend. It's that simple. If you want a straight bend on the blade, just scribe a straight line on the blade, and put your vice grips on opposing sides of the line. If you don't understand you can PM me your e-mail and I can send more pics.

Ewg, Very nice, nothing wrong with that jig, or the overall appearance. As you can see in the picture below of the ones I've made for a customer, there are several ways that you can make these. I have done them both ways with a flat eye hook, you can use a split ring and like you did just re-bend the hook eye. The nice thing about this is that you can pretty much make these out of any jig possible. I personally hand tie all my skirts, for the plain fact of them just not coming off after repetitive casting. Some guys don't like hand tied. I also like the thinner looking jigs like the poison tail or the snootie. With these I can paint them more of a fish color pattern, plus I also like the 3D eyes on them. As far as bending the lip, that is a personal preferance. None of mine have bends in them. They go through the water with no problem. If you fish them slow they will stay deeper. If you want to rip them through the water, you can always use a heavier jig, and it will keep the lure down deep.

Hello TU members and all. This next question I

PSV, just some info for you. I currently have a order for 20 jigs, with wht basecoat, gold side flanks and black dorsal line. FYI I've done this hundreds of times, and you will never get each and every jig identical. These are hand painted so to speak. They all are close , but not identical. So don't sweat the details, you will do fine. Do the best you can, and if they don't like it, let them go somewhere else. Only you know your quality and limitations. Stick to your guns, and do the best you can, the rest is up to everyone else. You can't please everyone, and don't try, you will die trying. Jimbo, PM me your e-mail, with my and TJ's tutorial you should be up and running. I'm not saying that you are going to be doing this and taking the country by storm, but with practice, you should see some remarkable results, and I'm sure you will be satisfied. T'js prices are the best on the i-net, and everywhere else I've looked. E-mail, Benjamin, and you can discuss the details. He is a really nice guy to deal with hands down, besides myself . Jimbo if you need any help, you are more than welcome to post here, and everyone will help. Or if you rather do a 1 on 1 , you can PM me, and after that we can exchange e-mails.........................Ted

KB here is what I'm interested in, this happens to be a Craftsman (Sears Model).

Hi Sinbad, I've watched your progress throughout all of your posts of the pics I've seen you submit to TU. All I can say is you are one of my success stories. Very nice work, with very nice blending. I'm impressed. I still love your avatar. To all that want to learn how to powder paint. The key is to take it slow, less powder is better, you can always add more, ask a lot of questions, and practice, practice and as I always say, when you think you're good practice some more.

Jimbo, not to get off the subject, but I just took a 40hr/week job, just to get time to fish, make and sell my jigs, so I know how you feel. Before I got into powder paint, all I used was nail polish. I found Sally Hansen's the best, especially when you were done and then you used their clear. As far as durability outstanding, especially when you use their top coat. Nothing however is forever. One other nice thing is that drying time is fast. The drawback I found as I got hooked in this 8 years ago, was that you can not really blend colors together to make a more natural looking baits with nail polish. So I switched to powder paint, the color combinations are endless. Again if you are interested in starting powder painting, I have a tutorial, that can get you started. Just PM me your e-mail. Also Benjamin from www.tjstackle.com has an excellent tutorial, along with some excellent powder prices and fluid beds. If you need more info PM me and I will try to help you out......