smalljaw

Not if you are in a well ventilated area. I pour lead in my basement but I keep the window cracked and have a small fan turned on. Another thing is soft or pure lead melts at around 650 deg or so and that isn't going to cause any problems, the biggest problem is when you melt tire weights or other scrap lead they are usually mixed with other alloys to make them harder and they have to be melted at a higher temp. Lead doesn't vaporize until the temp reaches around 900deg so as long as you have some air flow you should be ok without the respirator.

I need some help here. I'm going to start pouring jigs and I've read about epoxying the weedguards in after paint and curing(using powder paint for this) but I haven't read anything about what kind of epoxy anyone has used. Also, how do they hold up as compared to casting them in place? Thanks.

What maximusgunn said. When I pour spinnerbait heads and use mustad ultra point hooks I get some minor flashing around the lower half but thats on a 1/2oz head the 1/4oz headsare a mess, I have to trim them up then spend a few min. on them with a dremel. if you get a needle file you can make the hook opening slightly wider to accomadate a slightly larger hook.

Cullinhogs, I don't believe robber was attacking you,all he's saying is that we are lure makers and that quantity of swivels would be use to make baits. I make spinnerbaits and form my own wire and pour my own heads so I don't need any of those but being I don't pour jig I'll trade you 500 worth bb swivels w/split rings for 700 1/2oz jigheads w/ 4/0 hook at a 60 deg. angle.

How many jigs, spinnerbait-buzzbait heads are you talking about? What your looking for is over $200 worth of bb swivels.

Just cure it in an oven, like cheeshead said it'll be ready to go in an hour. And if you're skeptical about how tough it is well I'll tell you. I fish shallow rocky rivers for smallmouth and I started using the stuff last year for my spinnerbaits and I hit rocks and boulders with the baits all the time and still have yet to chip the paint. I used to use vinyl jig paint and clear epoxy which worked well but after awhile the epoxy finish became "nicked up" and sort of dull looking. Yes the epoxy held up but the oven cured powder is easier and hold up just as good if not better.

How are you curing it? I assume you are using a tostar oven. If thats the case then your problem may be the temperature being too high. I cure mine at 350deg for 20min. and it's perfect but I have a digitally controled oven which automatically controls the tem to +/- 1degF so i haven't had a problem. The fluid bed the other guys were talking about is worth looking into as it will give you excellent painting result with better finishes but won't help you with your curing problems. You can also try curing to the instuctions of doing it with fiber weed guards which requires lower temperatures for a longer period of time. I hope this helps.

I make my own skirts for spinnerbaits from silicone from the same suppliers and have never had this problem but you may want to try a can of real magic, I spray my skirts with it to keep them limp when they aren't going to be used in awhile.

The only flat rubber I know of is from www.livingrubber.com but it only has 3 colors listed but they carry various types so you may want check them out and see what you can find.

The bottom feed brush is very user friendly especially since their brand of powder paint comes in jars that fit the brush and you can get empty jars very cheap to use whatever brand you like and as far as clean up goes if you set it up right it's not a problem. I use a big cardboard box that my workboots came in, cut a hole in the bottom cornor of the box and put the hose from the shop vac in and turn it on when I paint, it keeps all the powder inside the box.

I do the same thing as nova, I have pure lead ingots and tire weights and mix 50/50. That works well and you can scrape the slag off the top pretty easy. Melting just the tire weights were giving me alot of "incomplete" pours but after mixing in pure lead the problem has dissappeared.

I have 1 and I love it! I assume you are refering to luremaking.com. realsport fishing. The airbrush is a badger and I believe it was made as a mini sandblaster but works great on powder paint. You can e-mail me And I'd be glad to show you pics of spinnerbaits done with the airbrush. The only problem I've found is if you are going to use more than 2 colors you have to have your heat source close. I use a propane tourch and simply heat the bait and apply the paint. My e-mail is ddaskus@hotmail.com

Maybe this will work for you. Go to www.barlowstackle.com and buy the large skirt umbrellas. You make your own skirts then through a simple device,place the skirt onto the umbrella. Now you have a quick change skirt plus the umbrella really flares the skirt out and they're inexpensive. As for the blades you can go to www.luremaking.com and get their economy bulk blades. In my opinion they are great blades if you don't want to use premium price blades. I use the small coloarado blades on tandem blade baits. I put a hildebrandt willow leaf blade and then use the economy coloarado to cut down on price and they work great.

Blade size is the #1 reason some spinnerbaits roll on their side. An example for this would be a 1/2oz bait with a size 5 willowleaf main blade. While it looks ok and works fine you will notice that as soon as you begin to start speeding up the retrieve the bait starts that lean to the side. It took me some time to figure out what caused it but once I dropped down to a 4!/2 blade I was able to retrieve it faster before it rolled and with a size 4 blade I can really burn them without the roll. I hope this helps.

I went to www.luremaking.com and purchased the powderpaint airbrush and now it's as easy as it gets. I used to use vinyl paint but from reading what people were saying about powder i decided to try it. It is tough after curing and there is no primer coats just heat and dip. Try one of these airbrushes and see how much easier it is to apply powder to spinnerbaits.

I was wondering if anyone has used these blades on their baits. I made one but due to weather I probably won't get to test it until spring.

I have used most of them for spinnerbait skirts and like the results but if you want a better selection of colors try www.barlowstackle.com they have a great variety of colors to choose from and better prices.

The best way i found to do this is by using a shallow wide bowl. heat the lure and quickly swish it around to cover the head and remove it quickly to tap excess off. it may take a few times to get used to it but you'll get the hang of it.

I started using powder paint for my spinnerbaits and I'm very pleased with the overall performance and ease of use with this stuff. The only problem is it's extremly hard to put patterns on. I read an article about airbrushing with powder paint but was wondering if I need a special air brush and if so where i can purchase one. I really hope you can help me out with this one, thanks.

I hope you see this because i got a simple fix.. i have the same mold and here is what i do. first thing i should let you know is i use .035 wire on all sizes so in the larger cavities the wire slips so heres what to do to fix it...fires get an envelope and tear off a piece about 1/8in. square from the sticky part. then after you heat up your mold to start pouring stick the piece of paper you tore off to the opposite side of the mold where you place your wireform. line it up to get it where you want and close the mold. now your wire will stay put and you'll notice that the paper stays on so you'll be able to keep pouring a alot of baits before you have to get a new piece of paper. I have poured over 50 baits without having 1 slip. Let me know if it works for you...good luck

you are better off not buying titanium wire forms. Stick with steel trust me on this, I wanted to use them myself but after vast searching I found several articles all stating that preformed titanium wire isn't tempered correctly which makes them weaker than steel because the "snap back" quality of titanium is never achieved and since titanium lets us use smaller diameters for more vibration you will have a recipie for disaster if you hook that once in a lifetime fish.