cadman

Yes, vinyl paint is very chip resistant. Actually better than powder paint. There are really probably only two reasons that it is not popular anymore. #1 It smells really badly, as I used to use it before and got very bad headaches from it. It is lacquer based. #2 You cannot do multiple colors with it. However if you are going to do just black, brown, blue as solid colors than no problem. Definitely paint these outside in a garage. BTW welcome to TU. One other option, and that is to pull the weedguards out, clean the holes, put in teflon pins, repaint with powder paint, bake and then glue in weedguards. However this may be more work than you want to do. I have more info on this if you need.

I have never had any good luck with plastic sleeves or metal sleeves over weedguards. The heat still curled the weedguard strands when I baked the jigs. I'm not going to say that, that will happen to you. I always put weedguards into a jig after it has been baked. Why not just paint your jig with nail polish, or lacquer paint and call it a day. JMO.

.029 Stainless Steel Spring Steel

Mark, all powder paint especially loose powder in a fluid bed, should be put away in an air tight container when not used, even for a day. Also all powder paint should be put in a dark cool location when not used. f you kept your powder in the garage and it was hot in there, then the powder probably started the chemical reaction with the heat. I am not a big fan of the plastic containers the powder paint comes in, because it can let moisture in, however at least it is covered. Now you can try to put in re-energized desiccant packs in the powder if they fit. Also if you have a really dry area in the house, you can put a piece of paper towel over the container and put the jar unopened in the room. Finally if all else fails, you can try to put the jar of powder unopened in a wood or cardboard box with a light bulb in it to generate heat to dry the powder. I can't give you specifics on this, because you want to make it dry and warm, however you don't want it so hot that the powder paint starts fusing to itself. You have to remember we need heat to liquify the powder paint, and if a jar gets too hot, well the chemical reaction will start, and then you will have to throw away the powder paint. PS: If you use a light bulb, monitor the heat, so you don't start a fire especially in a cardboard box.

That is the drawback with coil keepers. If you apply the powder too thick, then the paint will fill the coil wraps in certain areas and it is a PITA to get off the coils. It is also almost impossible to not heat the screwlok if you are heating the jig. I would suggest using a fluid bed, as the powder will go on thinner. The other thing you can do, and I do this although it is very time consuming, is to wrap the coils with alum. foil. Then once the jig cool, take the foil off before you bake.

If you are looking to do something like the pics below, we've been doing this for years before many of the molds with the screwlocks came out. Smalljaws' instructions are correct. No need to modify any mold that will accept a .125 weedguard and has accommodations for a .125 base hole pin. The screwlocks in the pic are copper,however now they make stainless steel ones and these don't break as fast. Also if you are looking for bulk screwlocks, Shorty's and Captain hooks sells them for a reasonable price. Finally to avoid taping the drill bit in place to keep it from falling out, use a drill bit that fits snug in the screwlock. The correct drill size should be around .081 +.002, -.000.

I do the same as smallmouthaholic. Also like mentioned maybe your oven was hotter than 350 degrees and burnt the paint and or maybe it had something to do with the glitter. All glitter will not work with powder paint, as it can't sustain the prolonged heat temp. JMO.

If you are looking for Netbait products or Strike King Brands, Bass Pro sells both. Also tackle Warehouse has almost every color you could possibly want on both products, and free shipping over $50. I know my Cabela's doesn't carry Net Bait products, however I do know that Dick's Sporting goods does carry Strike King. If you want to buy on line just go to Tackle Warehouse they will have everything you need plus some.

There has been a lot of controversy on another site regarding Netbait Paca chunks or craws vs. Strike King Rage Tail Craws. Stating that one is better than the other. Well this is all relevant to the person using it and also who is paying for ad space on the site. Here is "my opinion" and take on this. I have used only the above two products and then some custom made craws. I am partial to Netbait because of cost. Normal price for a 3-3/4" Netbait craw is $3.49 for 9 count. Rage Craws are $5.00 for 7 count. Now I have fished these side by side numerous times, and I didn't see a better catch rate with either. Guys say that the Rage Craw claws have more action and since their baits are compartmentalized in their package, the claws don't get disfigured like they do in a bulk bag. I found this statement untrue. I have almost every color of craws Netbait makes from different years purchased and I have never had an issue with the bulk packaging Netbait has. I love Rage Craws, but for me, it make no sense to pay more for less with the same results. Both are excellent products. I have also used custom poured craws and they as well caught a lot of fish for me. So my advice is to buy a bag of a couple of different brands and find what works for you.

I have over 600 lbs of powder paint in a multitude of colors.Most of it is in bags, then boxed. But the rest of it is in big empty, clean containers of Gatorade total of 100 containers. The reason I use gatorade (powerade) is inside the cap there is a clear rubber seal, and it seals against all moisture. I have had this powder over 15 years and never had any problems with it. Take out what you would need and leave the rest sealed up.

On the skirt I would use either #106 white chrome series and black strands or #194 black silver scale chrome series with white strands. If you are going to use the #106 I would do a darker wht/black jig, and if you use the #194, I would use a lighter white jig

The three main colors that I throw are blk/blue, grn pumpkin and brown. You can throw in a mix of all black, watermelon and brown /orange. I have also thrown blk/red, blk/purple and white as far as jig colors go. When my standards don't work I start throwing the other colors. As far as plastics go. I will always have a Netbait paca chunk (crawfish bait) a sweet beaver and/or a twin tail grub on any one jig. This is my go-to bait all of the time. All of these can be used on a stand-up football jig. I use a senko type bait on a shakey head. There are no rules when it comes to getting a fish to bite. Try to find a pattern for the day and let the fish tell you what they want. Experimenting is sometimes the key to putting fish in the boat. There will be a lot of opinions on what to use, as everyone has their favorites.

Unless you are going to start selling jigs, they don't have to be perfect. The fish really don't care what pot you used to pour them, how long it took or anything else, they just want a meal. BTW that is a nice looking jig.

Thank God you don't have 10,000 jigs to pour. Then I would find a new hobby. LOL. Just kidding, I am always willing to help if I can. Just trying to lighten up your mood.

There are a couple of things you can do. #1 Remove the pin in the mold, providing you have enough material on the outside to hold the hook eye in place. #2 File down the pin to make it smaller in diameter #3 Use The Eagle claw version of that hook. I have never had any issue with Mustad hooks as far as hook eye goes. The eye size varying doesn't surprise me. It seem ever since Mustad took their product to China well quality isn't as tight as it used to be. If you return the hooks you will probably have to pay for return and shipping all over again. I personally would file down the pin and call it a day. Just my opinion. On another note just thinking about this, the 32798 is a flat eye hook. How is this pinned in the mold??????? Collins must do this differently than Do-It Molds does, because Do-It never pins a flat eye hook?

You will get a lot of responses to this question as well. I have been pouring over 10 years, and I always leave a full pot of lead when I'm done. about a 1/2" below the top. To me this eliminates rust along the walls of the inside tub. I pour year round and leave my pot in the garage all year long four seasons. The top of the pot will get a little surface rust but that is about it. I've had pots run this way for 15 years never an issue. I only clean it if and when it physically does not pour. Usually by that time the pot doesn't heat and needs repair. You will get a lot of replies on pot maintenance. Read a lot on this forum and make your own decisions. Everyone is not you or me and you are the one that has to deal with the way you handle things. Good Luck and let us know how it goes. Finally lead to me is a factor as well. Couple of guys here myself included buy lead from Roto-Metals, I have not had any problems with their lead. You can use whatever you want, but learn the basics really well first, and you won't have many issues

If it were me, I would get the Lee IV bottom pour pot over a hot pot. The bottom pour is 100 times safer than a hot pot. Now there is a current thread running about some problems one of our members has had with his. You should read that and make your own choice. Even with the problems listed, I would still get a Lee IV pot hands down. It is still the easiest pot to use on the market at a really good price point. I've had one for 15 years and it still works. I've had another one for 6 and that still works.

Ken, If I am correct many of the heavy Gami hooks have flat sides on the hook shank, they are not round. What I have done to open up the area where the hook shank lies, is I take a small jeweler's round file and file a deeper groove onto both halves of the mold. It doesn't have to be perfect, as most people are not going to notice that the hook shank is off .015. There is more slop in a Do-IT mold than that when you buy it new. Also if you have the guts to do this, is I've also taken a drill bit in a pin vise that is slightly bigger than the current opening in your mold and hand drill it. To find the correct bit, you should roughly know what size diameter you have in the mold. Take a slightly bigger drill, place it in where the hook shank should lie. Close your mold. If your drill bit falls out it is too small. If the drill bit does not fall out, then check to see how much gap you have between your mold halves. If we're talking .015 +/- then take the drill bit out, close your mold and clamp it. Next take your drill bit and slowly with the pin vise, turn it into the cavity to drill it out bigger. With you going slow, the drill bit will follow the original cavity, and drill out the new hole. make sure you don't go through the other side of the cavity and ruin your mold. Now open your mold and see if your hook shank is looser, than pour your head. See if that made a difference. If it is still too small, go up a little more. You shouldn't have to go up too big in drill size. I would say a max. of .020 cumulative should be the most your mold would need. If you have a lot of small drill bits, than it is better to use those incrementally than one drill bit. This is like step drilling to get the hole size you want. Every time you enlarge the hole, pour a sample head, so you don't go too big. This is tedious, but it does work. Finally if you are really gutsy, you can do this as well with a cordless drill, just go slow. PS: I assume your mold is aluminum.

Ken, I'm thinking air trapped. One other thing you can try is enlarging the area where the hook shank lies just below the keeper. Many times if the hook shank varies in diameter, and the mold halves close around the hook shank, it will not leave any air out. However if you do this, you will get some bismuth seepage down the hook shank if you ever go back to a smaller diameter hook. But to me I would rather have this and trim it, then melt and re-pour again in hopes of maybe getting a good one. I've done this in the past with oversized hooks in lead and it does work.

Ken, I'm really surprised you have an issue with bismuth and tin. I pour quite a bit of this as well, and have never had an issue with bismuth and tin. It pours just like water for me, to the point that sometimes if I have air reliefs it fills everything. It is very fluid. Are you mixing the two together to come up with your own alloy or are you buying Roto-metals blend? Actually, turning up the heat is not going to solve your problem (just a guess). You know as well as I do, that bismuth melts at a much lower temp than lead. So I think something else is going on, however I really don't have an answer for you. I have never had an issue pouring bismuth, other than it is so hard, with sharp edges and sometimes very difficult to get out of a mold. I am thinking that you might need air vent lines to relieve the air from the mold to get the bismuth down to the keepers. This is just a guess. Is this the first time you have poured this mold with bismuth? I do know from pouring lead, that if you pour for too long, the aluminum molds do expand a bit sometimes, and when I let the molds cool a bit, they pour better, but I don't think this is your problem. Let me (us) know what you finally do to solve this problem. I am extremely curious, in case this happens to me.

I tried WD-40, and it eventually evaporates. I also used to coat the top and the insides with oil. That worked better. The only drawback, is you have to watch what you put in the pot. As it warms up it can do two things. Smoke like crazy with the oil in there as the oil burns up or flair up and start a fire, like fluxing does. Anyway you should always be at your station when the pot is warming up just in case you need to pull the plug. I found the best way to eliminate a rusted bowl is to keep a full pot inside. About 1/2" from the top. Everyone has their own ways of dealing with this.

That's what I use, the big sheets you buy during X-mas time. It works really well. You just have to remember not to get the bulbs too close to the tissue paper as it will ignite.

Thanks for the compliment. Once I put my background cardboard in there, I will experiment, with composition, and whether I want to just have a plain jig, or put it on some gravel, black mirror, or something else. I want to make my jigs stand out, but I don't want to make it too busy. I still have to buy three light-bulbs and reflectors for my lighting. Lighting is key. Like I mentioned You can take impressive photos with a $100 camera, if you light your subject well. If you need more help down the road, just send me a PM.

This is just my opinion for what it's worth. I fish all of my jigs whether snootie or poison tail or any other jig with weedguard capabilities three ways. #1. Like a Bitsy Bug with 8 strands of .018 weedguard. #2. With 15 strands of .018 weedguard #3 With no weedguard. Now I'll give you my logic whether you agree with me or not that is fine. Since I always wanted to make a better Bitsy Bug jig, I felt their jig was what I wanted in a lightweight jig. Except their banded skirt was poor along with their weedguard falling out and also a poor hook, which at the time was a bronze hook and it would rust. So the snootie jig fit the bill to a tee. I do believe that with me not using a full weedguard or a heavy weedguard, I catch more fish because the weedguard does not block the hook point from penetrating. So you may ask, then why use any weedguard at all? Here is my other theory. I do use a jig with out a weedguard, whether the weedguard hole is in there or not is irrelevant in my opinion. With no weedguard, you must keep the fish on a tight line, if you do not, the jig may fall out. This brings me to then why I use a jig with 7 or 15 strand weedguard? The reason for this approach is twofold. First by using 7 or 15 strands instead of 31 strands(full), I do believe that the hook point has less resistance, to penetrate, when the fish clamps down, and I can set the hook with no problem meaning mor hook-ups. Secondly, by using some weedguard whether 7 or 15 strands, the little bit of plastic strands, pushes against the inside mouth of the fish, keeping the hook embedded. The reason I know this works, is that when I fish with no weedguard, and I am trying to take a hook out of a fish, many times the hook will fall out. When the weedguard is there, it digs into the side of the mouth holding the hook in place. Since I only fish weeds, weed edges and open water I never ever use a full weedguard. This is just me and my theory. It works for me is all I can say.

Wow great photo. I do a lot of exterior insect shots as well, and nothing like the sun to capture true colors and a flash to highlight the shadows. I only mentioned a light box, because I have 100 jigs to take pics of for my website and catalog, and it is not feasible to take these outside and make them all consistent, so when you flip the pages they all look similar. This may look staged (which it is), but I can't shoot all of these outside as I would never get the same sun, shade and composition as I would in a set up environment. For one or two pics no bigee. Just my opinion. I guess the question to the OP is are you doing one or two lures/jigs or are you doing a series for a catalog or website. then you will have to go from there.