akriverrat

every ebay powder i have bought works well besides the white. bought the aspen white and it tends to boil over and dosent have much gloss to it. havent had a problem paint yet in my fluid bed except protech glow. that stuff goes everywhere and is not worth using in my bed. dipped a few after stirring and so much gets on the jig i end up with a major drip at the bottom of the jig or the front of it while in fishing position.

my jigs are fully cured according to the cure specs for every color. the jigs dont get scratched down to the bare lead but leave smudges after rubbing together in the tackle box for a while. i guess my main question revolves around devcon usage and any other clear coat worth using. thanks

i kept most my lures that i made over the winter in a divided case . a few however made it into my bigger tackle box and i noticed that the powder coating seem to rub fairly easily leaving ugly marks. thinking about clear coating my jigs now and ive heard you all talk about devcon so much that it seems like the best thing going. from what i understand its a two part epoxy so my question is how do you all use it? only mix a small amount and brush it on or dip and deal with the waste? also looks like a guy would need a rotisserie of some sort for the curing process. ive been using a clear coat to seal in eyes but it seems that the whole jig is going to need a good clear coat. any other suggestions would be appreciated also.

mainly be fishing the weeds and old snags and the occasional rocky point.

well the salmon are dying off and the halibut are moving out to deeper waters so now its time to think about ice fishing. ive always been eager to fish the lakes that hold opportunity for bigger fish like lake trout and char here in the north. never fished them with custom lures though so looking for some input on what jigs might work for them. looking at the poison tail, erie, football, shad head, for possibilities but would be nice to hear from experiance from anyone that has caught some northern lakers under the ice with any jigs that they have poured themselves. i didnt get alot of fishing time in this year but did catch ( and release ) a nasty wolffish on one of my 6 oz shad jigs. that thing was so ugly he didnt even come into the boat. snapped a pic with a disposable and if the picture is workable ill post a pic when the rest of the film is used up. happy fishing.

how do you guys apply your protech glow paint? i havent tinkered with it much but i did throw it in my fluid bed once and man what a mess it made. it seems all my colors are working with the same amount of air, do you have to turn the air supply down with the glow?

yes i believe that they were originated as cod jigs to begin with but can be used for any deep sea fish. the pipe is filled with lead and cut at a 45 on each end. then holes are drilled in the cut area to add split rings so you can attatch your hook to one end and your line to the other. i have never used them and thought it would be fun to try anyway. another way of making them i heard is to dill holes through the pipe at one third way and two thirds way and insert heavy cotter pins to hold your hooks on opposite sides of the pipe. presto the poor mans halibut jig

i want to pour some pipe jigs and plan on using 1/2 inch metal conduit but the couple that i poured the lead inside the pipe shakes around in there. would flux bond the two metals together? i have seen some of you mention flux but wasnt sure what application you are using it for. thanks for your help

do any of you guys use tin to add to your lead to harden it for larger flimsier jigs? if so what kind of ratios are you using? thanks. john

i havent had the chance to use gate trimmers. i am currently using a small set of side cutters and an end cutter to get closer. then i run a file over the cut to smooth it off. i use bigger molds so there is a little more lead involved. i have to get a dremel to smooth things off, sometimes the file gets old pretty quick. john

this high temp tape that is used for powder coating i am assuming that it is for masking areas that dont get a coating but i am wondering if you can fully cure a base coat and then mask a design, heat and redip in another color? does anyone have experiance with this or am i getting my hopes up too much? thanks. john

i am using a two inch fluid bed and about three to four onces of paint when i get my bed going. my cup is 6 inches tall and when the powder is stagnant it is about three inches high. i dont get double in volumn but its really close. another thing i noticed was that in the air chamber it seemed most the air was coming up the opposite side so i put a loosely crumpled coffee filter in the chamber to break up the direct flow. this seemed to help and make the air come up through the whole area of the cup. my powder dosent really swirl when its running but more like hovering with little fart bubbles all over. if i swirl the cup when its running its definately fluidized and acts as water. my bed seemed to have a bit of a break in period and seems to work better now than the first few times i used it. let her run a bit and try different amounts of powder. hope this helps. john

intresting that you mention geysers and very little fluff and paint coming out the top. are you running all these pots off one air compessor? have you tried to run different colors in different pots. i am not really experianced in mulitiple fluid bed running but im thinking that your air flow is not enough to run all your beds. i have used the coffee filter for a membrane but i found some allergy pillowcase material before the paper bag deal came about and i am happy with it. i have small geyesers but i also have doubling of volumn and everything seems to be working correctly. i usually run my fluidized powder pretty close to the top and i think a little overflow spillage is pretty common. maybe turn the air down just a bit to keep this in check. as for your other beds maybe they need there own air supply? john

i have a few colors from component systems but i also have a couple that i got from ebay. definately more cost efficient and are working fine. is there a certain type of powder coating that i should be looking for when buying from various companys? i am definately not in this for the money, maybe pay for my material is all. mainly doing this to save on all the hardware i buy up every summer and something to kill the time during our long winters up here. where would a guy find some stencils small enough for jigs and baits? i havent seen any in any of the tackle catalougues as of yet although i havent really searched yet either. thanks for the tips guys and good fishing to you all. john

got my minnow mold today and poured and painted a few up. pretty cool little mold. the translucent looked great as it kept the detail of the scale pattern and i learned a bit on tapping the powder from a brush. this jig will keep me busy for some time getting it figured out and i am happy with the results so far. i got three colors on them for now and will practice with small spots and maybe a lateral line soon. thanks for the tips guys and happy fishing. john

ledhead and cadman thanks for the welcome, minnow hasnt showed up yet. hoping for tomorrow, still looking for deals on colors through ebay to build stock and am thinking that an airbrush is on the list for the future. winters are long in this neck of the woods and am exited about my new hobby. have learned alot already, thanks again. john

hello bob im new to lure building as well as this site and dont have anything to offer in the line of your questions so far but thought id say welcome anyway. if you ever plan on coming to alaska and fish some big butts or lings i can point you in the right direction. ive made a couple orders from barlows tackle and they seem to serve the do it yourselfer pretty well. check out there website. john

hate to sound like a skipping cd but im telling you guys an allergy pillow case is working great for me. i dont get any powder in my air chamber and the fabric lets the air through just fine. im using an aqua culture 20 to 60 gallon aquarium pump and had to throttle the air back on my two inch by six inch cup. this pump has two air outlets so if needed i could hook up two brass fittings one on each side of pvc coupler and run a pretty big fluid bed. i bought one 240 thread count pillow case for (5.99?) and have only used a six inch circle of it so far. you can make alot of fluid beds out of one pillow case. i have used my fluid bed probably 100 times so far and havent had a problem. just trying to help. john

do you by any chance use an airbrush over a powder coated base? i have an ultra minnow mold on the way and am only equipped with a fluid bed for now. i read an old post about multiple colors using powder coatings and tried some multiple colors on some diamond jigs. the result was sloppy placement and the base coat (swallowing) the striping that i was applying. i am thinking that if i let the base coat flow out some the swallowing effect would be minimized. i am having a hard time coming up with ideas for diamond jigs and cant wait till my ultra minnow jig arrives. any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

i dont mean to steal anyones spotlight here and im not sure if it works better or not. after i found out about the diy fluidbed here on TU i started to spend hours on the net searching microfibers. one of the things i came up with was the allergy line of bedsheets and pillowcases and how they meet 5 to 15 micron threads. so off to walmart i went and found some allergy pillowcases 100 percent cotton and 240 thread count for 5.99. it works great and cleans up very nicely. i jsut stick the end of the vaccuum in the cup and suck out any remaining powder after i pour what i didnt use back into there original containers. ive been painting a few jigs here and there and have been changing colors often and i havent had any problems yet. i am ready to permanently glue a piece on the bottom of the cup instead of the wrap around job i have it set up as now. i also stuffed a coffee filter in the coupler air chamber to break the directional flow of air and that seems to keep the air dispersed much better as well. i did a post in the wire bait section and jsut thought id share here as well since it seemed more of a proper spot. this is a great website guys keep up the good work. john