sagacious

George, thanks for your response. It's nice to have folks step up to lend a hand. I just had a look at the Tiger Coatings site, and some of their colors sound good, like 'purple metallic', but I can't seem to find their color samples (examples). I'm confused by so many different "chrome" colors; they've got a whole passel of 'silvers'. I'll send them an email.

Don't have the super hi-lite stuff, but I have used the regular hi-lites in epoxy top coats. Looks great.

Kelly, Thank you, I'll check on the Pro-tec super glow. What size containers is it sold in, and where are you buying it?

George, Just use beeswax or paraffin to flux the dross. It works perfectly fine. Put the dross in a cast-iron pot and heat it up a little hotter than you might pour at. Part of the dross will tend to separate into sort of a foamy scum, and float on top. Add a good-sized chunk of wax, light the wax, and stir the melt vigorously. Like magic, all that foamy scummy dross will turn into a grey or black powder and quickly separate from the melt. Skim all the grey/black powder off, and you'll have lead that will pour great. Sal-ammoniac is ammonium chloride. It's used for some precious metal fluxing and brazing/soldering. It can be used to flux lead, but I sure wouldn't. Ammonium chloride produces fumes that will rust any iron or steel in the area. And when it starts rusting, it keeps rusting. I have a friend that used to work for Speer bullets, and he once told me they (unknowingly) used ammonium chloride for one of their processing tasks. Every bit of steel in that shop was soon covered with a layer of orange rust, and it was a hopeless task to keep up with it. It took a while to figure it out, and eventually Speer switched to another chemical-- but what a mess! I wouldn't spend the money, unless you need smoke/fume/flame-free flux, and in that case, I'd strongly recommend the Marvelux flux carried by Brownells. A small jar will last you a very long time. You can find it on-line. The old-timers would just use a scoop of tallow to flux that dross, and it works perrrr-fect! Hope this helps, good luck!

I've got a whole heap of powder paint questions that hopefully you pros out there can help me with. First, what do you guys feel is the brightest, most silvery chrome powder paint available? Right now I'm using Caswell's "extreme chrome", and while it has it's benefits, the result I get is more of a 'pewter', and not quite as silvery as I'd like to have. Since shiny objects are notoriously difficult to photograph with any accuracy, I can't get a good idea what the brightest chrome powder is from looking at pics on the web-- they all look the same to me. Is this as good as it gets? Do I need to apply a black undercoat, or do any other prep-work to brighten the color? Any tricks I'm missing? Next, who has the best knock-your-socks-off glow powder paint? I have been using super-glow vinyl paint for years, but fishing heavy jigs on these Northern California rocky reefs takes a toll on vinyl paint. The super-glow vinyl gives me the light show I want, but not the durability I'd like-- is there a powder paint that will do the same? Can I add additional glow pigment to a glow powder to enhance the glow? How about multiple coats? Any advice appreciated! Orange. I'd like to get my hands on some of the hottest, brightest, fluoro orange powder. Not just any orange, but "you'll need sunglasses to look at it" orange. Candy colors look bright, but they don't give me what I want. I'm undercoating with white pearl, is plain white-- or another color such as yellow-- a better undercoat? I use a clear powder overcoat, and that helps intensify some colors and give me the 'depth' I want. Who's got the hottest fluoro orange, and how do I get the best out of it? I also need a really intense fluoro green. Again, candy colors aren't giving me the intensity I need. Maybe I'm using them wrong. How do I get the most out of candy colors? Next is purple. I need a metallic purple (maybe a metallic sparkle purple?) that has a lot of color, but a lot of brightness to it. Not a dark, opaque, lifeless "liver" purple, but a purple you'd put on your racecar. Something with a lot of life and depth to it. What's the best undercoat, and where can I get something like this? Is the type of the paint (poly, epoxy) something to consider here? LOL! I'm way over my bag-limit on questions! I realize these are not your standard bass jig colors, but I know that some of you guys have a wealth of experience with powder paint-- and hopefully with these colors. If I haven't provided enough info, just let me know what you need. Any help or powder painting tricks will be much appreciated. Thanks a million! sagacious

Thanks for the feedback on the bbq lighter. Yup, you have to be prepared for the flame, but like I say, if you light the wax flux asap, the flames will start out smaller. If you wait until there's billowing clouds of smoke, and then light it, you'll get a 'whoosh!' and bigger flames. As always, melt/pour/flux lead where spills of molten metal, or flames, will cause no harm. That's an excellent question. Yes, fluxing will absolutely benefit ANY pouring method. OK Sagacious, just how can that be? Well, fluxing removes impurities/dirt/oxides from within the lead, and not just from the surface of the lead. That's why you stir the lead while fluxing-- you need to stir it up really good so the dirt/oxides that are contained within the lead have a chance to be wetted by the flux, and removed from the melt. Stirring vigorously with a long-handled Lee ladle works very well to help the flux remove the dirt/oxides from within the lead melt. If you just toss a chunk of wax on the melt, light it on fire, and then skim off the soot, that won't help a whole lot. You need to really stir the melt up good, and also scrape the dirt from the sides of the pot while fluxing-- so it all gets removed. Make sense now? I think you're gonna be using that bottom-pour again. What you need to do is clean out the pour hole. And from then on, use only ingots in a bottom-pour (don't ever melt down scrap or tire weights in the bottom-pour pot). When you're going to use the bottom-pour, let your ingots melt, and then always flux before you start pouring. Flux again about once every hour, to keep the lead free from oxides and dirt. That should help keep your pours consistent, speed up production, and avoid a lot of frustration. If you do that, it will help you avoid most of the clogging/leaking problems. Hope this helps, it should make a difference for ya! More questions? Just ask!

I hear ya. But what Hawnjigs was talking about when he started this thread was about those who fail to respond with a simple "thanks!" This thread isn't about how we should help those with questions, it's about how they should help themselves by perhaps showing a tiny bit of common courtesy when they receive an answer to their questions. I think we all have to agree that simply saying "thanks!" is soooooooo easy that even the most 'un-zen' of us should be easily able to meet such a standard. If it seems base of me to expect a simple "thank you" for my assistance, well, blame it on my parents. They taught me to always say thanks. Just sayin....

Oh yes, I just remembered this one. It's my personal favorite. I get a pm or email or some-such where someone will ask one question, but it soon turns into a million questions. Question after question. Goes something like this: How do you do this, and how did you do that? What about that, and what if this happens? What do you recommend about this, and EXACTLY how should I do that? Could you give me a little more info on this, and could you spell out all the steps for that? Ad infinitum... OK, sounds like a real newbie in need of some guidance. So, wanting to help the lad along, I spell out the details. (A little aside: Remember that assignment you had in grade school, where you had to spell-out all the steps to make a PBJ sandwich-- and you realized it takes two full pages of explanation, starting with, "First, open the fridge..."? Well, that's the sort of exhaustively drawn-out, detailed explanation I'm talking about here.) After spelling out EVERY last little detail, I don't hear back from our 'author of a million questions'. Hmmmm... what gives? So, after a couple weeks go by, I send off an email/pm/whatever inquiring about our newbie's success with the much-discussed technique. And surprisingly often, this is what I would get: Whaaaaaaaaaaa??? Well heck, I coulda given him that advice in the first place! Unless you've been through that mill a few times, you may fail to understand the wisdom behind the reply, "Give it a try, and then let me know if you have any questions. :yay:"

Good lack! When someone takes the time to type out a response to your question, at least have the common courtesy to say, "thanks!" A simple 'thanks' still goes a long way. Words to the wise, as they say.

I would think so. Bike spokes are usually about .077"-- sometimes plus or minus a little.

For my time and effort, I use Bondo whenever possible for this type of mold. Plaster always absorbs a significant fraction of the mold release (vaseline), so removal of a hard-material master always brings with it the risk of damaging the mold. Try Bondo, and as long as your master is well-designed, you won't have that problem. Other than that, by far the most frequent problem facing the new pop mold maker (in my opinion), is patience. If you work with plaster, you have to forget about instant gratification. When I make a plaster mold, I wrap it in a plastic bag and let it sit for 48 hours in a warm spot. That process is critical to developing maximum strength in the plaster. Then I remove the plastic wrap, and let the mold sit-- untouched-- for two weeks while it cures and dries fully. After that time passes, I'll remove the master and do any additional prep needed. By that time, the plaster is well-cured and strong, and chipping of the cavity edges is avoided. If you try to remove the master too soon, you risk damaging the mold. Another trick is to use Sculpy polymer clay to make the master. After baking, it retains some flexibility, so removing a difficult master from hard plaster is fairly simple and easy. Wood doesn't have that flexibility. Hope this helps, good luck!

Very good, glad it went better. That the softer lead worked, and that fluxing the harder lead didn't solve the barb fill-out problem is a likely indicator that the barb isn't vented adequately. If you wish to use hard lead in that mold, you might try some of your venting tricks on that barb. That and fluxing may just do the trick. I have thought about trying one of those long push-button bar-b-que lighters, as that seems like perhaps the best thing to light the volatile wax smoke-- or to re-light it quuickly if the flame goes out. If anyone gives that a try, let us know how it worked. Good luck!

Yikes, glad it didn't get much further than a moment of excitement. Always have a fire extinguisher handy any time you're working with flame or molten metal. Thanks for the reminder, TL.

Yeah, just checked it out, lots of good info there!

Non-scented votive candle wax should work just fine for fluxing. No, there's no reason you'll regret using it. There's all types of votive candles, but I think most are made from paraffin wax. You may wish to try beeswax as well, and see if you have a (smell) preference. Hope this helps, good luck!

That's a great suggestion, and a good value for the price. Being able to buy the beeswax already in pellet form is a real convenience. And you're right about that-- 5lbs of beeswax is a lot of beeswax, and that amount will last most folks for a while. Excellent info-- this is bound to probe helpful to many people. No worries, Hawnjigs does indeed make some really great-looking jigheads! And besides, if I hadn't butted-in with my comments, some of the ideas and info presented here might have had to wait for another day...... or may never have come up. Just shows ya you never know how the worm's gonna turn!

George, Excellent, glad you're out of the closet (so-to-speak ), and everything worked out first-time! Sounds like you had fun with your magic show! I use a chunk or paraffin about the size of a sugar cube when fluxing a large pot of melted tire weights. That amount of flux is needed to wet all the steel clips, and for all the extra crud and road grime. If you're fluxing a pot of lead without all that crud, or if you are fluxing a smaller pot, then you could use about half that much wax. Give it a try and see what works best for you. I like to cut up a bunch of chunks of wax that are about the right size, so they're handy when I need 'em. It's easier to cut up the wax if it's a little bit warm. I use a sharp chef's knife and slice up a deli-cup of wax chunks-- some a little larger, some smaller-- to have on-hand for different fluxing chores. A deli-cup full lasts a long time. Glad to hear the fluxing and pouring went well. The nice thing about working with lead is it seems like there's always something new to learn-- but that certainly doesn't mean you're doing anything else 'wrong'. The thing to take from this is that often there are techniques and methods for dealing with just about any problem. Believe me, I've had to struggle with many days of frustrating pouring/casting problems. So, if you find you're having a problem or difficulty with something, or you're just not getting the results you expect-- let me know, and if there's a solution, we'll find it. And as you've seen, sometimes the solution can be surprisingly simple. Simple tricks are the best tricks, hey? Thank you very much for the kind words, George. If I'm ever in your neck of the woods, I'll give you a shout! Good luck!

I think you nailed it: humidity. Low humidity during winter, plus with pouring high-volume, you go through the lead before entrained lead oxides and surface oxides build up to a deleterious point. As the summer day wears on and the temp rises, so does humidity. As the humidity rises and time passes, the melt eventually develops a significant amount of surface oxide, as well as entrained oxide. (You know when you get that hazy grey scum on the melt, and you stir it back in, and the melt surface is shiny again? Well, you've just stirred in all those oxides so they can cause lots of problems. Better to flux the melt and just remove the bad stuff. ) You pour 100 jigs. As humidity increases and time passes, more oxides form and collect in the melt until it becomes sufficient to prevent good pours. You stop and start over again when the humidity is low, and everything is back to normal........... until the humidity rises and enough time passes. The soution to directly address this problem is, of course, fluxing the lead. Maybe fluxing twice, if you had a frustrating pouring session and you want to be sure. Flux early, flux often. So, as my gramdma would say, "the proof of the puddin' is in the tastin'!" Next time you pour when the humidity is high, flux the lead once every hour, or more often if you're adding a lot of lead ingots per hour. Try that, and get back to us. Should be, "problem solved!" Or get a de-humidifier! Better yet, just flux early, and flux often!

Smoking the mold is good general practice, and good advice for anyone using metal molds. However, you're right-- in some cases it doesn't seem to make a noticeable difference. I always smoke a new mold, just in case. Smoking the mold does several potentially critical (potentially very helpful) things: First, it helps 'break in' a new mold. The surface of the cavities of an aluminum or steel mold may not be completely anodized, or coated with 'bluing' (steel mold), and the lead may tend to stick in the cavities until the mold has been used for a few times. The soot layer functions as a very good non-stick coating for the cavities. 2) The soot (carbon) layer is a thin insulating layer in the cavity. What that does is allow the lead to 'slosh and slide' into the cavities freely and fully for a fraction of a second before it starts to solidify. That's always good. It can be particularly helpful in getting a mold to fill out in a narrow collar area. 3) The soot layer helps prevent hollow areas or voids in larger molds, as it reduces the potential for the lead to freeze in the gate, or to freeze where it contacts the side of the mold cavity. On some molds, such as smaller jig molds, or molds with tight tolerances, I'll smoke the entire face of the mold halves. Sometimes a speck of lead, or many specks will hold the mold open a tiny bit and cause flashing on the jighead. I'm sure that's happened to many of us. If the mold face is silver, it can be a real pain to track down and scrape off all the lead bits-- and they often stick really tight. If the mold face has been smoked, and bits of lead that get splashed on are instantly visible, and easily removed. I'm sure there's other benefits that I haven't listed. Maybe someone will chime-in with their thoughts or experience. Well yes, but part of the prep is prepping the mold cavities (if necessary), pre-heating the mold, organizing your pouring space, preheating your hooks and forms (if necessary), etc. No doubt you do all that stuff without thinking about it any more, but there's a lot of folks new to lead pouring that haven't worked out all the kinks. Smoking the cavities is easy, and it will definitely help in many cases. There's enough frustration to be had in learning to pour lead, so every bit of prep that will save grief later is good general advice. I can recall a few people here on TU that replied they had better pours after smoking the cavities. So, you're right, it may not be important for you with your mold(s), but it's a good thing to keep in mind, and a good thing to do to head off potential problems. I'm not sure, I haven't seen any data on elevation re lead pouring, and have no experience with pouring lead above 1000'. Could be, but my guess is there's probably little affect due specifically to altitude. Humidity? Now that could just be a significant factor, as increased humidity can increase the amount of surface oxides formed, and so could adversely affect mold fill-out. Plumber's lead is 'pure' lead, and pure lead is more prone to develop a significant amount of surface oxide than hard lead-- so you may have something there! So, if you pour soft lead, high-humidity days may not give the best results. And, if you pour soft lead when humidity is high, flux the lead every now and then to keep the melt fluidity high and to remove the lead oxides-- so that you don't run into problems. Also, adding some ww lead to the soft lead when humidity is high is another option, as that will reduce surface oxide formation too. Lower humidity during wintertime sounds like it might make more than enough difference to offset the cold air (it's relatively low humidity all year where I pour). Good questions, good stuff-- you guys may have gotten to the bottom of a frustrating phenomenon! Flux early, flux often is a good solution to many problems.

Forgive me for not typing this out again. Everything you need to know on this question is in my response here: http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/wire-baits/13878-lead-quality-3.html#post100177 More questions? Just ask. Depends. Fluxing again won't ever hurt anything, and it'll definitely make sure your pouring goes as smoothly as possible, and that's always good, right? If the melt has more than a tiny bit of 'scum' floating on the top, or if you can see small particles of 'gunk' floating in the lead (sometimes looks like goose-pimples under the surface) then the melt should be fluxed. Whenever you add another couple lead ingots to the melt, or if you see the symptoms noted above in my response to question #2. Good question. Answer: nope. One of the many things fluxing does is make sure your lead is in the best condition for pouring. It removes oxides and 'dirt' from the lead (very often there's LOTS of lead oxide bits and tiny pieces of, well, crud floating around within the lead. During a long pouring session, more lead oxides can build up on and in the lead. That stuff can dramatically reduce the fluidity and 'pourability' of the lead-- but you can't always see it. So, aside from the recommendations I've listed, if your lead starts to lose 'pourability', it probably needs to be fluxed again. Fluing only helps, so when in doubt: flux. Absolutely. Definitely, flux again once those ingots are melted and the melt has been stirred. By that time, you've probably got a bunch of lead oxide particles and crumbs floating around in the melt (but like I said, you might not be able to see them). That stuff is called "entrained oxides" and what that means is just "oxides and dirt that are thoroughly mixed into the lead melt". You can bet credits to navy beans that those entrained oxides will give you some incomplete pours, or increase the likelyhood of incomplete pours. Questions? Just ask. Hope this helps, good luck!

Sounds good. Yup, the fluxing process goes better/faster/more efficiently with some flame right at the top of the melt. Better chemistry for better lead pouring! Glad everything worked out for you on the first try. I've got it down to to an art, so that I try not to waste a single Btu. And hey, that smoke has Btu's in it! I often use wood matches or a wood splinter when melting down tire weights, as the match ends up perched on the steel clips (out of the wax flux) and thus burns for a while. Use whatever works. Or better yet, use whatever works that's also free (scrap paper).

Ted, Thanks for the kind words. Always happy to share where and what I can. My father was a geophysicist, but had done some hobby foundry work and metal pouring when he was a teenager. For fun, he made his own blackpowder cannons, and also cast the 1" projectiles. With his help, I was casting my own blackpowder cannons by the time I was a young teenager. When I was about 15, I created an alloy that decomposes water and creates hydrogen, but just recently I heard that someone had done the same and had patented the alloy for possible use in hydrogen fueled vehicles. Doh! Oh well... I studied metallurgy, and have continued working with, and pouring, metal ever since I was a child. I have made molds for various things from machine parts to bullets to jewelry to lures, and other than the book stuff I guess I've just picked up a few tricks along the way. I've worked with virtually all the metals that can be melted and poured on the home/shop foundry level, including some precious metals, so if it can be melted I've probably melted it LOL! Since lead is easy to come by and easy to pour, I've had a fair amount of experience with working with it in a variety of applications outside of hobbyist tacklemaking. That experience has a lot of 'crossover' applications in lead pouring/tacklemaking, and I've been trying to share some of that knowledge with TU members. A lot of what I had to learn was done through hands-on practical experience, so I've been trying to shorten the learning curve (and costs) for some of our lead-pourers when there's something I can shed some light on. It's nice to see folks learn something new, or experience success in their endeavors. There, that's the short version lol! Glad some of this stuff is useful to you guys! Good fishing, Eric

Forgive me if this has been mentioned before, but I have used oil paints to color plastic. Only takes a little, and works perfectly.

Cadman, I hope it's OK to use your quote as a convenience to underscore a question I haven't seen addressed. Does or doesn't the advertising space pay sufficient revenue for the maintenance of the site? Probably more folks would be more willing to support a membership fee schedule if there was a direct answer to this question. There are over a dozen links for ads on this page as I write this. And that's fantastic-- I'm glad that there appears to be no shortage of advertisers willing to buy ad space on TU. As it is now, some pay for the privilege to advertise, some contribute their knowledge free of remuneration, and some reap the benefits of both for free. Seems equitable.

Phil, I wondered about that when I replied, but I reviewed your question and guessed you were talking about cups for hook hangers. If you need cups for props (propellers) for wood baits, all I can find are nickel-plated cups. Maybe your searches will turn up stainless ones. As I see it, you have two options. One, use nickel cups and just accept that they'll turn green and eventually corrode a bit. Or two, use hollow stainless beads with the proper diam hole as prop bearings on your eye-screws. Those will never corrode, but you'll want to make sure your screws are long enough to accomodate at least one bead plus the prop, and still have enough length to get a good bite into the plug body. Stamina has hollow stainless beads, props, and stainless screw eyes. Hope this helps, good luck!