sagacious

AK, My apologies, I just noticed your question in the gallery about the 'saltwater tough skirts' on my jigs. I have posted some info there for your consideration. Hope it helps. The spearhead jig mold also works very well with the larger forged Mustad 3407 8/0 hook, or Eagle Claw 254 in the same size, and seperate home-made eyelets. I haven't used it personally (some of my fishing buddies have), but the Mustad 91715 8/0 should fit just fine in that mold. IMO, for bottomfish and halibut, a 6/0 is too small for either the 3oz or 4oz cavity-- 7/0 is adequate, and 8/0 is perfect. The Boone replacement skirts is one of the better ones I've found for this jig: Boone Replacement Skirts - Surf Lures & Skirts - Lures - Saltwater Fishing Price is good, and they are durable. The 5.5 to 6" size is perfect. Add a twister tail if you want more length-- and that gives you additional options for color, glow, etc. Another way to go is to tie skirts using nylon fiber. Fly-fishing shops will have stuff called "ocean hair", "supreme hair", etc, and it makes for nice custom skirts with the action of bucktail, but longer and synthetic. Google Image Result for http://www.bearsden.com/media/wing_super_hair_sm.jpg Fish like so, or add a twister tail or shad tail and you've got halibut and ling candy! Good luck!

Best not to eat too many pennies. Since it's used in children's sunbock and supplemental vitamins for pregnant women and toddlers, it can't be too noxious. Since zinc corrodes fairly rapidly, it doesn't linger in the environment, and thus poses less risk for accidental ingestion in waterfowl. Note that zinc-plated shot is currently legal to shoot in non-lead hunting zones. But yes, absolutely all metals are toxic at a certain level, or chemical combination. Iron poisoning kills children every year, but you'd hardly consider iron a toxic or dangerous metal. Iron poisoning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Look out, they'll ban steel hooks next!

Unfortunately, I don't recall where they were made. They were packaged in a plastic bag with a paper hanger stapled on top, with the words CADMIUM SINKERS in bold print. No idea what someone was thinking with that one... I have poured pure zinc and some zinc alloys. Zinc will dissolve copper far below the melting point of copper, so if you stir the melt with a clean copper rod, it'll get thinner, and thinner. Back when these metals were cheap, a good source for 'pure' zinc was large boat anodes, or "zincs". They could be purchased inexpensively at boat yards. It is actually fairly pure, since ppm concentrations of some metal contaminants will prevent proper function of the sacrificial anode. Some anodes are designed to retain their streamlined shape-- even as they waste-away-- and those will not work for melting/pouring. 'Plate' zincs (but in a variety of shapes) are just pure zinc, and those are fine for casting. Once a zinc anode wears down to a certain point, it needs to be replaced, and you can often find old zincs at a large marina, or a local shop that replaces anodes. Free zinc, not bad! Old zinc anodes of the type that won't work for casting are easily distinguished by being very light for their size...... plus they won't melt anyway. You can also sometimes find ballast tank anodes at marina boat shops, which are a good source of a large quantity of zinc. Fuel tank zincs and round 'oil tanker' zincs can also sometimes be purchased cheaply, or gotten for free. Almost anything that's metal and needs to be protected from corrosion may offer-up a source for old zinc anodes. "Boat zinc" is pure blue-white, and very crystalline, but pretty tough. No shatter problems. As Dleary said above, the burn hazard is much greater than lead, so common-sense precautions must be taken. Mold preheat is correspondingly more critical than with lead, but small gravity pours go very well. Painting or powdercoating should provide an excellent corrosion barrier for pure zinc, and some of the other zinc alloys are very corrosion resistant. I think there's a lot of room for experimentation and novel applications of zinc alloys within the field of tacklemaking. Hard to beat the 'environmentally friendly' aspect of zinc.

Whoa buddy! Hold on there, PhilB. Nobody said anything about "don't ask boring questions", or "newbies should go elsewhere". I know I sure didn't, so let's not suggest that I did. When I can shed some light on a topic, I try to answer questions thoroughly, and conscientiously. Look through my posting history and you'll see just that. All I said was, I believe in that philosophy. The new folks are going to ask questions, and I field my share of those questions-- and never consider it a waste of time, or a boring exercise. I'd prefer we all stay friends here, and not let this discussion get too bent outta shape.

I do occasionally flyfish, but I don't visit any online flyfishing sites, so I can't speak to the arrogance that may be found there. I certainly don't think there's room for arrogance, or people who get pissed-off easily here at TU. I think most people who visit this site, use it as a resource. To most it's a place of learning, and that should be encouraged. Creativity should be encouraged; experimentation should be encouraged; new ideas should be encouraged. With my responses, and through sharing of knowledge, I try to increase the confidence of the questioner so they'll develop the ability to try new things-- and do things their own way. My attitude may be in the minority, but I strongly believe that fostering an appreciation for experimentation benefits the luremaker, as well as the fisherman. I've seen the results, and will continue to suggest that if a newbie thinks they have a good idea-- they should go ahead and try it. Just one man's opinion, nothing but love.

So many of the questions in these recurrent topics go like so: What will happen if I coat with this, or if I fill with that, or if I try something different?" I believe we sometimes do a disservice to new lure-builders by hand-holding too much. Excessive handholding stifles innovation and creativity, and the 'luremaker's spirit' in general. If you want to try something a little different, for goodness sake, try it! and let us know how it works for you. If you have a problem, let us help. If you want to try something, just try it, and learn by doing. That's the best way to progess in this craft. Most of these experiments aren't do-or-die anyway, and I see a lot of great new techniques being developed here by those that take the risks to learn something new. There's just no substitute for getting your hands dirty, and then hitting the water to test the results.

I can vouch for what Reeves said above. In my case, I just heated the painted jigs in an oven, then dipped in clear powder paint and cured as usual. 350*F isn't really that hot-- but the longer you preheat your painted jigs, the more the color tones may be affected by the heat. The magic behind a heat gun may be that you can really limit the duration of the preheat, and that may prove critical in some applications. Like anything else in life, you will need to practice a little with your equipment and paint to get the results you want. I used waterbased paint. Vinyl paint will not work for this. In my humble opinion, there is zee-ro question as to the answer. Cured clear powder paint is significantly tougher than Devcon 2-ton. Try removing cured clear powder paint from some hook hangers, and you'll answer that one right away. My fishing lures take considerable abuse in the ocean here, so whenever possible, I'll be topcoating with clear powder paint. Hope this helps, good luck.

Yes. I have done this on several occasions, with no problems at all so far. You must heat the jigs in the oven (instead of the lighter) for the re-dip. 10 minutes or less at cure temp should do it. Then dip as before, and cure as usual. Hope this helps, good luck!

I couldn't agree more-- kudos to those who are working with less toxic metals, and those who are exploring the possibilities. Let this discussion assist you in your endeavors. Let the successes and failures detailed above provide a framework for your efforts, and keep working toward what you want. I see a whole new world of lures cast from zinc alloys on the horizon. That might be an avenue for some here to explore. On the flip-side, can you believe that here in California, I found a chain-store with a bunch of cadmium sinkers on the racks? Crazy! Advertised as "cadmium sinkers"! I couldn't quite believe it, so I bought some to see for sure. Yup, cadmium. Pretty poisonous stuff. In this case, not a good replacement for lead!

Yes, it's possible. Would it work for jigs....... possibly, but probably not. There are some serious snags to contend with. Maybe Hawnjigs can futher expound further on this facet, but my experience is that bismuth alloys suffer severe oxidation-- and metal loss-- at very high temperatures. Tin behaves similarly. So, unfortunately, you cannot easily work with these metals at very high temps, or anything vaguely approaching their boiling point, without doing so in an inert atmosphere. Not practical. An analogy, with apologies to any cooks, might go something like this, "Pumpkin bread will boil at 1600*F, so I can heat the bread to 1400*F, and add more spice." You'll end up with carbon and other things, but it won't really be useable as bread anymore. The addition of copper to a bismuth/tin alloy would produce (maybe) something like brittania metal, which is 93% tin, 5% antimony, 2% copper. It is usually pressure or centrifugally cast. I'm not absolutely sure what the substitution of bismuth for antimony would do (probably not something good), but you might end up with something like that. Unfortunately, it won't likely pour as well as we're used to lead pouring. I have used alloys like 90-95% tin, and 5-10% copper to make 'white bronze'. You will waste a whole lot of tin while you learn to work with these alloys. The correct method of mixing the alloy is to heat the copper to the melting point, or just barely melting, and then add the tin. The tin will aggressively react with, and dissolve, the partly molten copper and form your alloy. While it reacts, it sort of looks like the tin is acid, because it looks like it's 'eating' the copper. Fun to watch. Unfortunately (by now you may have expected this...) the resulting alloy is exceedingly brittle. If dropped it will actually shatter like glass. It's weird stuff. I'll bet you could chip an arrowhead out of it. Not a good candidate alloy for jigs. Hope this helps, good luck!

Fantastic! I have no doubt that your pours will go better and better. That clears up another concern-- your lead seems to be OK, it was just the overheating of the melt that caused the shrinkage cavities. Now you know how to avoid that, and still get great pours. Correct-a-mundo. Continue preheating by pouring without inserts until the lead will fill-out the wire insert recesses. When that happens, you know you're set to pour with inserts. Wise words indeed. Someone told me today that, "Practice makes experience, and experience makes knowledge." And as we all know, knowledge is it's own reward. The experience and knowledge you gained are just another feather in your cap-- so snap your suspenders and congratulate yourself on your success! All of this, hopefully, will help you avoid some hassles and frustration during your lead pouring, and make it easier for you to trouble-shoot problems faster. And you're right, the fish may not care, but it's obvious that you-- we all-- take pride in our handiwork and want to be confident with the quality of our work, and confidence = fish. Sometimes you have to go against what you might expect-- like, say, reducing your melt temp-- to solve a vexing problem. And that's part of the subtleties of lead pouring that moves you further toward mastery of your craft. Good luck, and good fishing!

If you're serious, I'd encourage you to go for it. I'd be interested to hear how you'll go about it. If you follow the backyard aluminum/brass melting crowd, you'll see how many hurdles they have to face-- but it's worth it just for the learning experience. I have cast a variety of different brasses and bronzes. The difference between pouring lead, and working with molten brass is so great that it's tough to make direct comparisons. However you slice it, it ain't easy. Plain-old ordinary everyday brass is tricky stuff. Common 70/30 brass isn't something you can just melt and work with at your leisure. While molten, the zinc rapidly boils off, and thus the temp required to maintain a fluid melt is constantly rising. When you add more zinc to rebalance the alloy, a variable percentage of it boils off immediately anyway. So how much actually went into the melt? If you're not very careful, the zinc will actually catch on fire. You can almost shrug-off a drop of lead that gets splashed on your arm. Ha ha! No so with brass or anything with a similar melting point. Lead is hot, but molten brass will burn you like the devil. If your iron molds get too hot, the brass will permanently weld itself to them. Ruined. The cast-iron RCBS lead melting pot will melt and fall apart like wet cardboard if you try to melt brass in it. Etc, etc, etc. Aluminum can be substituted for the more volatile zinc in brass to make what's called aluminum bronze. It has somewhat more friendly handling characteristics, but you still have to be on top of your chemistry. It's still not as simple as dumping a bunch of metals together and turning up the fire. And even when you get it all melted just right, it'll want to pour like molasses. I had a high reject-rate on pours under an ounce. In my experience, pouring a small jig from brass is completely out of the question. If you want to work with an alternative to lead, take Hawnjig's good advice and go the tin/bismuth route. Good luck, and be safe!

Very tricky, as well as exceedingly hazardous for a variety of reasons. It's not like melting lead, where you just need to get it hot enough. There are a lot of things to manage with an alloy like common 70/30 (cartridge) brass-- too many things to get into here. It can be done, but it requires advanced foundry skills and specialized equipment-- the least of which is that you need iron molds. Molten brass would destroy an aluminum mold immediately........ and if you're not very careful, it'll destroy an iron mold too. The bottom line is, unfortunately it's not practical for the average hobbyist.

Adequate means enough, but not too much. The process your describe above seems adequate to preheat the mold. Pouring without inserts is the best method-- do not risk overheating the mold by using another preheat method. Correct. This is common practice to ensure good pours. A much quicker method is to use a hotplate, for example, to warm up several inserts before placing them in your mold. Warm them adequately, which in this case means just a little hotter than you'd want to touch with your fingers....... but not red hot! As you pour, add a few more inserts to the hotplate to warm up. The culprit here is the wire insert, not the mold, so attack that as the problem. By preheating the inserts, you can pour as soon as you place the inserts, and this allows the mold to retain more of the heat it acquires from pouring. You'll get better pours, and more pours per hour. No, not correct. The hotter the mold, and the hotter the lead, the more shrinkage you'll get. Hard to get around that one, it's just one of the physical properties of lead. Yes, the lead will flow better, but it will shrink more. If your batch of "medical weight lead" has both serious shrinkage cavity problems, and serious fluidity problems, you may have to just struggle with it until you use it up. Don't buy any more of it. This is a common symptom of inconsistent or inadequate mold temperature. Your mold is cooling down too much between pours. There's a range you're looking for-- too hot is not good, and too cold is no better. As you pour the first cavity, a wave of heat travels along the mold and re-heats the second cavity. This problem is also solved by pre-heating your inserts. This will eliminate your down time spent reheating the mold+inserts and keep your mold temp much more consistent, and it will increase production. With reduced down time, your mold cavities will stay at the right temp, and you should easily be able to pour both cavities. If you're pouring fast with a mold that drops large jigs, it's much more common to have the mold get too hot, and have to occasionally pause to let it cool down a bit. I pour a lot of 6.5oz slab jigs. They have a custom full-length insert made from 0.076" stainless wire. I exclusively use ww lead. Believe it or don't, but I don't ever get incomplete pours. The techniques detailed above do indeed work very well. TU Forum Home - Luremakers Photo Gallery - finished product- foiled/painted jigs TU Forum Home - Luremakers Photo Gallery - foiled jigs Whew! This has been a lot of typing , so I hope this information helps provide the solution to your shrinkage cavity and fill-out problems. Be safe, and best of luck!

As Hawnjigs alluded to, it's difficult to know the characteristics of an unknown alloy-- and thus it's difficult to suggest a specific remedy with any guarantee of success. "Medical weight lead" could mean almost anything. Probably best to not buy any more of it. Yes, pure lead melts at a higher temp than ww lead. As far as I know, all alloys melt at a lower temp than the average melting temp of their component metals. I've seen the shrinkage cavities you refer to many times. That problem is occasionally found in batches of scrap lead. Very low amounts of some contaminants in the lead seem to cause this. Usually it becomes a more noticeable and problematic factor in jigs over a couple ounces. While it's not what you might have expected, one remedy I can suggest-- with fair confidence-- is that you should NOT max out the temp when pouring that batch of lead. Higher temps with that lead alloy will almost surely equal larger shrinkage cavities, and higher temps will only make the problem worse. The solution is to preheat your mold adequately (do not overheat the mold), and pour at as low a temp as possible. While its commonly believed you need to keep everything as hot as possible, if you're experiencing shrinkage cavities, go lower temp. Also, I have found that with some lead alloys that have shrinkage cavity problems, too high a pouring temp promotes an oxide surface film, or 'skin', and that can cause flow problems. I know some of this may sound crazy, but try it and let me know how it goes. Melting temp and fluidity are two seperate and very different things. It is a mistake to believe that, generally, one alloy with a lower melting temp will pour easier than another with a higher temp. Even so, adding ww lead to your mix may help. Let me explain... The rub is this: 'Pure' lead melts at one temperature, and also freezes at that same one temp. Most lead alloys don't melt at one temp, they become sort of "pasty" and soft, as the various alloyed components of the lead each individually begin to melt. So, ww lead will start to thicken up and get sludgy as it nears it's freezing temp. It's more important to keep ww lead at the right temp, so it's not sludgy when you pour it. Make sense? If you don't have good temp control with ww lead, you won't get good pours, and that's one reason why those new to pouring lead get the advice to use 'pure' (read: soft) lead. However, the alloy components in ww lead (that start to freeze-out of the melt near it's freezing temp) can reduce or eliminate the shrinkage cavity problem, by negating the effect of the contaminant(s), by promoting quicker melt freeze. Slower melt freeze with your batch of lead means a larger shrinkage cavity. Faster melt freeze means less shrinkage, and that's what you want. Mixing your "medical weight lead" 50/50 with ww lead might just fix your problem right away. Also, you should be fluxing your lead thoroughly before you pour, because that can help fix your shrinkage cavity problem. It sounds like you may also have a constriction in your pour spout. Make sure that's clean and unblocked. Or, if you can't get good lead flow into the mold with known good lead, the mold may need to be vented, or the gate opened slightly. Hope this helps, good luck.

x3

No worries. Myself, I've never seen any bobbin wear from kevlar thread. It's just waxed thread, it won't hurt your fingers at all. (Kevlar or braid fishing line is a whole different matter.) Anyone who can be trusted with fishing hooks can surely be trusted with kevlar fly-tying thread. If you want to try it, get some. I've used quite a bit of it, but it is considerably bulkier than the other thread recommendations you received. I try to keep my flies and jig wraps neat, and because of the bulk, I don't use kevlar unless nothing else will get the job done. Hope this helps, good luck!

Where did you hear this? According to Devcon's msds on their 30min 2-ton epoxy, the product is not very volatile. If you're looking for a safe topcoat, you've found it-- because it's about the safest stuff available.

No worries mate, there are cheaper crimping tools that will work perfectly. For 3/64" (250lb) cable, you need either a 1.3 or 1.6mm copper double sleeve, depending on exact style and availability. Both will work for 250lb cable. Some authorities recommend two sleeves when crimping heavy cable-- let your conscience guide you. I'll assume you got that size sleeve or it's equivalent. Those sleeves will fit just fine in the 1.0mm-2.0mm cup on a cup-to-cup crimper-- no problem. That cup is usually the second largest on a 4-cup c-t-c tool. You can get a decent c-t-c crimper for $19.99 if you look around. Here's one: P-Line Deluxe Hand Crimper It is a good-quality tool, it'll last forever, and will swage secure connections with the 1.3 or 1.6mm sleeve for your cable. Be sure to read the info in the links posted above by LedHed and myself on how to use a crimping tool properly. Hope this helps, good luck.

1. The Jinkai aluminum sleeves are very good. However, as LedHed noted above, there are many other good suppliers. I'm tempted to believe that most of them come from the same maker, and are sold under a variety of different brands. I use several different brands, with excellent results. It isn't a stretch to say that the skill of the rigger makes more difference than the brand of sleeves. As I said before, learn proper rigging techniques from the many online info sources, and you'll do fine with whatever gear you have. 2. Yes, the Jinkai sleeve you indicated is correct size for your application. I just double-checked my rigging kit; I have both the J and K size sleeves. The J sleeve is the proper size for 80lb fluoro or mono. The K size is a tight fit for 50lb-- it won't work for anything larger, and there's little reason to crimp line smaller than 50lb mono/fluoro. Buy an extra package of sleeves in the size you need. Crimping leaders is an endeavor where practice makes perfect-- you'll want to practice your rigging a little, before you put line to water. Besides, sleeves always seem to go fast. Hope this helps, good luck.

Pallets are made from a variety of dense woods. Oak is perhaps the most common, as it stands up to forklift wear quite well. Oak is stubborn wood to make lures from, but will work. Feel free to use domestic pallet wood for lures, but be aware that the buoyancy of the wood you encounter may vary widely. Some pallets come from overseas, and may be made of whatever's available. Those pallets may have also been fogged/soaked with insecticide, and for obvious reasons are not a good choice for lure building. Hope this helps, good luck.

No good news is better than good news from the doctor!! Hope your recovery is speedy, and you continue to get good news from the doctor-- I'm sure you will. I does sure suck to be stuck just putting around, when you want to be up and attem. Try to have some patience now, 'cause you'll be back up in no time.

Very nice. That'll sure put the hurt on the largemouth and big stripers up in the Delta. Post another pic after it's painted. Can't wait to see it.