cadman

My first question is how often do you pour? Even if it's once a year per mold you should oil the hinge. I believe the mold at the hinge area is held together by roll pins. You need to oil those hinges, I even put in oil down the roll pins on both hinges. Then I wipe off the excess. Even if you use used motor oil, some oil is beter than no oil. I'm with you on this. I oil before, during, and after. This may be overkill, but when it says " OIL HINGES OFTEN", it must be there for a reason.

Hey Guys, I didn't really mean to de-rail this thread, and go off on a personal issue. My feeling about what happened to me is water under the bridge. I don't hold any grudges. Life is too short. I try to live for the future and feed off of positive things, to keep me motivated and focused. I still love this site, and will still help all who ask me if I can. I've met and know a lot of great guys here over the years, one bad apple isn't worth worrying over....Ted

It sure is pure. The lead pieces I get from my dentist are about 1" x 1-1/2" (rectangular) x .016 thick. When I take the whole bundle of lead from my dentist in my hands, and I squeeze it, it compresses together real easy, and it stays in that shape. However, a 5 lb chunk of lead, you will not be able to squeeze. Soft lead is very dense. Do a comparison test for yourself. Get yourself a chunk of really soft lead, and then take a tire weight. Take a sharp knife, and try to cut a sliver from both. You will see which is soft right away. The soft lead when cut with a knife will start to curl, as the blade attempts to cut it. You won't do that with hard lead Believe it or not, it's not that un-common of a thing. I'm sure your dentist takes x-rays of people's teeth. Just ask him if they can save you the little x-ray packets. Odds are he will, if he isn't already saving them for someone else. My dentist even takes the lead out of the plastic seal for me. I pick up the lead every time I or my wife goes to the dentist. Then at Christmas time when my wife bakes cookies, I drop a tin off for the whole office, to show my appreciation.

I agree with you, like Delw also said, there are two sides of the coin, if you are the mediator, you would definitely want to here both sides of the story. Then as a mediator, your next question would be, is if both parties are telling you exactly what happened. I'm sure someone would be adding something more to the story to have the leading edge in their favor. Guess I'm glad I'm not a mediator...................

Before, I give you a scenario of what happened to me on this sight and a couple of members. I understand your point of view. I do not want to start any arguements, because to me we all drop the ball sometimes, and things don't go as planned. Anyway this is why I feel that bashing businesses is not really helpful, until all the information is put on the table, and the right information is there to make an honest judgement. I and a few other members exchange information. I go out to try to help everyone that asks me. I had an experience with a member, that I gave all my prices to from my catalog and he took all my prices, and started under cutting them, so he could get more business. Did it tee me off. Hell yeah, I thought I was going to help him out, and he goes into business using my prices except cheaper. He was even dumb enough to tell some of the people that I new that he can beat my prices. Yes I did lose a few customers, because I couldn't justify to them my price versus what he was telling them and charging them. The only thing I told them was that my quality was excellent. Now the big question I have for you. Do I have the right to expose him on this site, or should I expose him on this site, so everyone here knows who he is and what a snake he is? Wholeheartedly I would love to, and I hope he fails. With that said I woudn't expose him, because I would gain absolutely nothing from it, other than starting a feud. That's not my style. It's a hard lesson learned for me. **** happens, and life goes on. I'm sure I'll run in to other situations. I know if you ask some of the members that have been here awhile, they will tell you similar stories............This is just my opinion. Wouldn't it be nice if we all just got along.......................Ted

Guys, I don't know if it's better than any other oil. I got it free from a friend, and I've been using it ever since. He got it a Menard's. I know I have never seen it smoke. I found this out, when I was pouring weights from really hard printers lead, and I had my Lee pot up all the way, man was that mold hot, when I was done. Yet I didn't see any smoke, not that, that matters. I apply a drop on the top and one on the bottom of the hinge every time I start to pour. I open and close the mold a couple of times, and I'm good to go.

Pop, I use 2 in 1 oil also. My personal opinion is this. Any kind of oil is beter than no oil. When the molds get so hot, that you can not touch them, all oil will start to become watery and liquid. I've used 2 in 1 oil for going on 8 years, and I've yet to spring a hinge on a mold. I pour all year long, with no problem. If you are paranoid, just ad more oil. JMHO...........Ted

Hollywood, are you guys serious? A drying wheel for Jigs? Come on now. Actually I'm just kidding. I really never thought about it. It sounds like a good idea. However, when you do 200 jigs at a time, I think mine would be faster. I always stick the jigs in hook first in the styrofoam, so the jig doesn't fall over. Also with it shown like in the pics below, any and all epoxy will run down the hook shaft, and not bulge up, if you turned them upside down by the hook to dry. Below are some pics of what I do http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg271/cadman58/IMG_0316.jpg http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg271/cadman58/IMG_0315.jpg Moderators is this the correct way to use photobucket? If not delete my post, and I will have to re-do this the correct way. I don't want to take up TU's bandwidth.Thanks Ted

Wow Dude, Are you looking to re-create the wheel. Realistically, anything can be done, like the good old days. The question is do you have the time and the knowledge to invest in this. I would think, that stainless steel would not be my first choice of hook. Depends on what grade you get, SS is very brittle. If you use it and harden it, it will probably snap. My first choice would be cold rolled steel hooks or spring steel. You will probably end up making tempered hooks, because I do not believe you can forge hooks at home. Just my guess. Then you can oil quench them or water quench them for hardness. Then the question comes in, what hardness is going to work correctly on the brinnel scale. To me this is way above my head. I know the process, and how it's done, but like anything else, there is a lot of inside information that needs to be obtained to get to this point. Then you have barbs and sharpening the point. This is way beyond my scope...........Good Luck...Ted

You bet I do. Go to TJ's tackle website. Benjamin carries all the powder you need. It is Pro-Tech powder, and his prices are the best anywhere. Real nice guy to deal with. He also sells complete fluid beds. Here's his link www.tjstackle.com. You can speak to Benjamin.

I have (2) Lee bottom pour pots and (2) Hot-Pot, and I always leave lead in there. Yes, always keep your lead in the pot. Once it cools, you can put it away for next times use. Ps.... There is one down side to keeping a hot pot full of lead. If you drop it on your toe, it would hurt a lot more.

Yes once you put your lead in the pot, you leave it in there to cool, and next time just plug it in. Do you have a Hot Pot or a Lee bottom pour pot? My next question is why do you want to take the lead out of the pot after it cools? If you let it cool in the pot you will not be able to get the lead out unless you destroy the pot.

Vodkaman, are you into sheet metal. I remember a product called dye chem. (it was blue dye) back in the day before turetts and lasers. The shop guys use to brush it on or roll it on sheet steel. Then they would let it dry. Then they would scribe all their lines, and use and crossing scrbe line for center punching, for holes. Many other lines were notch lines or bend lines. Ah.... yes it takes me back to the day when life was easier.

I’ve heard that also, where you can hand lap the stem and the hole where the stem seats, with polishing compound. They do this for cylinder bores. My first question would be if it’s worth all the time invested, and if you do hand lap, you have to know what you are doing, so you get everything symmetrical all around. With that said, it’s a personal choice. I use bees wax as a flux to clean my lead. Candle wax will do, but some candle wax flames up so you have to be careful. Beeswax only smokes. Whether it helps or not, I think it does, but that’s my personal opinion. I pour a lot of lead, and I don’t seem to have too many problems.

I have two of them, and my oldest has a rectangular body, not like the newest, which has a rectangular hex. Anyway, mine always drips between pours. In your case, the first thing I would do is stick a paper clip in the hole from the bottom, something may be clogging your steady stream. If that doesn't work, empty your pot completely, and take a look at the plunger (the thick rod that goes into the pot and seats itself on the hole opening). With everthing cool, look at the plunger for any gouges or wear (there shouldn't be any) since lead always sits in the pot. Take some steel wool clean your plunger, then look at the pouring hole, and lightly clean it. Do not open the hole. Blow out the excess steel wool, plug in and fill with lead. Odds are you have something on the bottom of the pot that is causing uneven flow. Let us know what your final solution was, so we can all learn.

Welcome aboard, What is your specialty as far as tacklemaking goes?

I'll agree with you on some things. As we can see there are some happy campers and some not. This thread along with the other one I mentioned, seems to be only when people order from the i-net. Since I don't and always call my orders in, I never had a problem with orders. But when I do call in orders, I am very anal about them checking if it's in stock, if it's the right color, are the sizes correct etc. This may be going overboard with me checking their order I placed with them, but I don't want to be in a situation like stated here. Hence I never had any problems. Maybe all of us should go back to the old days and call our orders in, and verify everthing. Yes it would be a pain in the ***, but it would sure solve a lot of problems.

V-man, I totally agree with you on this. This type of information on this site adds no value for anyone. It has no relavance to anything anyone wants to learn on this site. I replied to a similar thread in the Hard Bait section about someone bashing Stamina. My comments on that thread still stands. I'm curious what the moderators have to say about this, maybe in the future threads like this should be deleted, immediately, with a PM to the person starting the thread, explaining the reason why it was deleted.

Here is the Tech data sheet on the Do-It mold finesse Drop shot, that I promised you guys. This might even help some of the guys in the Crank Bait section, for use as belly weights Do-It Finesse Drop Shot Tech Sht.pdf Do-It Finesse Drop Shot Tech Sht.pdf Do-It Finesse Drop Shot Tech Sht.pdf Do-It Finesse Drop Shot Tech Sht.pdf Do-It Finesse Drop Shot Tech Sht.pdf Do-It Finesse Drop Shot Tech Sht.pdf Do-It Finesse Drop Shot Tech Sht.pdf Do-It Finesse Drop Shot Tech Sht.pdf Do-It Finesse Drop Shot Tech Sht.pdf

Brian, I will agree 100% with LedHed in regards to " Seldom use the fluid beds anymore, except mostly for single colors". When you get to the point when you are doing 5 and 6 colors like myself and Ledhed, and when you are blending these colors to get special effects, the fluid bed at that point becomes obsolete. If you are only going to do one color on the entire jig, then you can't beat it. Just remember, the world is open only to your imagination.

Elken, I

Yep, works great for everything I use it for. It even works good on staining your carpet:lol:. Do it in the garage. Also buy some neutralizer, that helps tremendously for emergencies.

I use powder paint, and epoxy the weedguard after the jig has been baked in a toaster oven..

If that was a ARK-3-AFC, then they modified it for a different hook. The ARK-3-AFC takes a flat eye hook. It could be it's sister an ARK-3-AY which has the 60 degree bend hook.