cadman

Thanks for the reply I have a similar problem with wire stiffness. Although I do not use many of these, I need to make about 100 of these for a friend of mine once I figure all of this out and he wants a double wire weedguard. See pic below. I have tried to stick the wire in the mold and then pour, but the mold has already been cut several years ago, and no room for a wire to stick out of. Also not a lot of room behind the hook eye and the lead body.

When I say polishing jigs, I should clarify myself. I don't mean to polish them till they're baby smooth. What I do is this. Once all of my jigs are poured I then do the following. I cut off all of my sprues with side cutters. The reason I don't twist them off, like some do is because if you twist them off (depending on lead composition) you may get divots in the head. If you get a divot that is too deep, you will almost never polish (file) it out without taking too much lead off. Anyway once my sprues are cut, I then take a smaller pair of gate shear and cut off the remainder of the sprue left. Next I take a bastard cut half round file and round out the left over sprue, until it conforms to the jig body. If there are any other marks or nubs on the jig head, I file it down. That's it .When the jig is done, it is really not smooth, it has file marks from the file I used. However paint will have something nice to grip to, and also any and all powder paint I've used covers up the jig perfectly. As far as powder paint being old. I have powder paint over 10 years old. if you keep it dry , out of the sun, heat and temp changes it will be fine. I can't comment however on Boss Armour paint, since I've never used it. Anyway this is what I do. Everyone on here has their own method, so I'm not saying my way is the right way but it works for me.

On powder paint although I don't use that paint, I can tell you this. I your jig is not polished well and if you have cuts or dimples in the lead, it will leave voids in the paint job. Typ. example is if you pour a jig, and you have a pin hole or a small void from an incomplete pour. You can try this, as I've fixed many blems this way. I will assume the jig has already been painted and baked, and now you see a pin hole, like missing paint. Take and reheat the jig (don't burn the paint) make sure your powder is fluffed, and swish it through the powder paint again. It will gloss over take a look at it to see if the pin hole is covered, if not try again. This should solve your problem. If it does, you don't have to bake the jig again. Note: you will add layers of paint, however if you do this quickly, the layers will be thin. Also note this is for one color jigs. If you have multi-color jigs, you'll have to strip and start over again. Paint stripper will take off all powder paint. I buy the stronger stuff. I bought Zinseer from Menards.

I already make something like this myself, however always looking for an easier way. Do you have a tutorial you would like to post on how this is done?

I plan on using offset worm hooks. I got some free Trokars, so I'm going to try them out.

Painter, To me it mixes well with flat silicone skirt tabs. I think the skirt looks fuller and has more bounce in the water. The strands on this are .032 dia. round. PM sent.

Mark, The product I mentioned that I buy, to me does not feel like rubber. What I want to say, it is more like round silicone. But I can't say for sure. I will tell you that it doesn't smell like rubber. Also I personally like this material. If you want a small piece before you buy, PM me your mailing info.

Yes, I have that mold. Since they have corrected the wire form that goes in there, the overall appearance is much nicer. Never had any problems pouring it. I have not fished it yet, but plan to this summer.

The brown round rubber you can get from Lure Parts On Line or Jann's. The other strands mixed in don't look like round rubber, maybe flat silicone. It also looks like its crème colored. If that is crème color, and flat silicone, I know for a fact that fishing skirts.com has it. If you want fast service get your round rubber from LPO, can't beat it and shipping is reasonable.

Thanks

Your pic has the exact answer I was looking for. One more question, what is the width of the drawer in your pic? Thanks for all the help.

Smalljaw is correct, those of us that have been doing this for awhile (about 10+ years for me) have a lot of stuff. You have to have it because you need to be ready for almost any situation. To this day, I still don't stock everything, because there is someone that always wants something just a little different. I currently have about 120 give or take Do-It molds, lots of skirt colors and probably 600 pounds of powder paint. It's just a little extreme, but I got to have it. LOL. Stating that it's an addiction is putting it mildly, it's more of a compulsive disorder to have more, on the verge of being locked up in an institution. But what you gonna do?

I like your idea seems like it would take up a lot less space than all my Plano boxes. How much was each set of bins? Also can you put two packs of 100 in each drawer? This would cut down all the Plano boxes I have The only reason I put it in plastic bags is to identify them when I take the bags out of the Plano boxes. However with so many Plano boxes it gets to be a pain. But the way bass100 does it, all I would have to do is take out only the drawer I need. Seems easier for some reason. I have to look into this further for ease of use.

I have all of my skirts in small zip-lock baggies (each baggie holds 100 tabs), then they are labeled with color number and color. Then they are put in Plano boxes, and the Plano box is marked on the outside what color numbers are in the box. All of my skirts are from fishing skirts.com easier for me to track. I have about 40 Plano boxes. All duplicate surplus colors are put in a plastic shoe box and labeled how much of each color. See pics below.

Nice looking jigs

Yes, what dlaery said. 2 part epoxy

I seen some on e-bay and craig's list about 3 months ago. Don't know if they are still available, but you can check there from time to time.

Bob, You are absolutely correct. The biggest I currently pour is 1 oz. and have been getting a lot of orders for bigger jigs However, the last couple years, I have poured a boat load of raw jigs. Last year I went through 600 lbs of lead.Then this year, it all started off with them being all painted. Currently I'm swamped with orders. I have enough work to last me until June. It's going to be a busy Spring. Then throughout the rest of the year I get quit a few orders, and finally November through January it gets busy again. In some ways I like it because I stay busy, in other ways it gets to be like a job, but I only do what I can handle, and I can afford to pick and choose what I want to do. So, I stay busy to stay out of trouble.

No I have not. Are you the person who suggested to use that to fill cavities temporarily instead of JB Weld?

Bob. I was just on the site today. I see they have lead pig ingot 52-55 lbs 99.9% pure for $115.99 w/ free shipping. Also they have Antimonial lead ingot (4- 6% antimony lead) $10.45 for approx 5 lbs per ingot. w/ free shipping. It also says free shipping for website orders over $99.00 with the green truck icon. Last year I got about 800 lbs all w/ free shipping

Mark, I buy 99.9% pure and also lead with 5-7% antimony. If you want to have minimal problems buy the purest you can afford.

Roto-Metals. Will have all the lead you need, and if you buy enough, shipping is free.

Just my opinion, but with those jig sizes you should be fine. I just tied up quite a few 3/4 and 1 oz jigs, and a 55 strand skirt looks skimpy, but then again a 1 oz jig in my book is really big and it does have a bigger collar to tie around. BTW, really nice looking jig.

If my memory serves me correctly, the YG-1 is 1/8" diameter and the YG-4 is 1/16" diameter. So the YG-3 will be somewhere in between. So with smalljaws info, you will be pretty limited to what jig head you are going to put a .062 weedguard in. Maybe 3/16 oz, but probably 1/4 oz and up.

Yes, it is a personal choice. All my jigs have 55 strands (2-1/2) tabs. The more strands the fuller it looks and the slower it will fall especially on smaller jigs like 1/4 oz.