Ogajiga

First of all, my best respects to those that are casting green. Yes, I too noticed that over heating bismuth, tin, or even lead will form excessive oxides aka slag. Still, I don't want to discourage anyone from discovering a better lead free alloy. I've tried to make tin "pewter" substituting 3-10% bismuth for antimony as a hardening agent, and all alloys were unsuitable for gravity pouring small round heads due to incomplete fill out, although larger size other styles managed with difficulty. R-92 would be a very hard nicely finishing lead free casting alloy, although as "Sagacious" mentions that alloy might be more suitable for pressure casting. "Fatman", are you gravity pouring R-92? Prices of all casting metals continues to rise - $10 tin is history, unless you buy low grade slabs.

Anders, if you need to powder paint, try Bi90 Sn10. This alloy will be more brittle than 60-40 but should be OK to carefully powder paint at around 400*F. Any higher tin alloy wll be more risky. On the other hand, pure tin with a MP of 450*F has a good safety margin against melt down with controlled heating. The main difference between the two suggestions would be the the weight factor Bi90 Sn10 83% lead and pure Sn 63%. I have never tried copper in any of my casting alloys, and "Sagacious" has posted that copper contamination of lead makes it tougher to pour. But, lead free casting alloys with additional metals besides bismuth & tin is certainly under researched, and you might discover something. By the way, pure tin sprues can be easily twisted off like lead.

Spike-a-Pike, never tried AE, used to supply tin & bismuth from Atlantic Metals, but I think Rotometals has the best prices now. I've tried a lot of BiSn(bismuth tin) alloys from 90-10 to 50-50 and all pour fine into Do-it molds. Higher bismuth for heavier weight and higher tin for less brittleness and shinier finish. Although nicely heavy at 85% of lead pure bismuth is too brittle for my liking, but pure tin makes beautiful shiny castings weighing 63% as much as lead. As Mr. Aery pointed out alloys can have a very low melting point far below the pure metals Bi 520*F and Sn 450*F. Generally, BiSn sprues are too hard to bend and twist off like lead so I use heavy gate cutters to forcefully snap them off or drop them onto the sprue with sufficient force into a steel pot to snap them off. Its necessary to find the method that minimizes pitting into the casting on the break which will vary for different molds and alloys. Anders, I would suggest as a starting point you try Mr. Aery's Bi60 Sn40 which is 3 parts Bi to 2 parts Sn and try pouring some jig heads or sinkers 1/4 oz. or less. The working temp of this alloy would be around 400*F or possibly less and be easy to pour. Pure tin at a higher temp around 600*F would also be worth a try. Solder would make some beautiful shiny Pirks indeed.

I didn't realize until "Sagacious" pointed out that its possible to overheat the melt. Doing some online research, I found that liquid lead will expand with heat, which means that the hotter the melt the more it will contract when it solidifies. Also found that antimony contracts only 1/5 as much as lead on solidification so indeed its presence in a lead alloy could improve fill out. My experience is though that incomplete fill out problems caused by contaminants are best remedied by switching to softer lead.

My observation is that the antimony and other metals in wheel weights mixed into soft lead will generally cause quicker melt freeze. Pure soft lead appears to be the easiest pour and any other metal added in will make it tougher. Who knows though, wheel weight lead added to your "medical weight" lead might pour better in your slab mold.

32831BLN is the long shank version of the 32746. Sickle 4/0 would have a wider bite than the 32746. Not exactly sure if they will fit your mold.

Pizza? - hows about brbq & seafood ! I'd be renting to get the feel of the place before home purchase. Would settle on higher ground with hill protection from storms. I'm assuming year round fishing is a big improvement. Walleye? bah, I've caught puffer fish that fought better.

Holy sh**! That was fun!

Our Grandson Eli now 8 developed bad allergies as a reaction to prescribed antibiotics. Recently prescribed for Singular to treat the allergies he complained of paranoia and luckily his Momma had the sense to stop the drug. When my wifes cholesterol went up to 230 our Doc of course wanted to put her on drugs but she got a non-drug cure book and dropped it to 159 in a coupla months. Its a sad state of affairs we can't trust our doctors anymore.

Neil, heavy wire a must for SW jigs in HI, with 60* better than 90*. But, Mustad tins have gotten dull, EC consistently has point & temper issues, and the Ultra Point heavy 60s have too short a shank for the bite width. What are you using?

This a little off topic, but suppliers sell pre-cut batches of straight stainless wire. Hagen's has em .026-.051 in 3" - 8" lengths.

$1.20 appears to be the LME (London Metal Exchange) price - at the bottom of the posted list is the DRC (Doe Run Co.?) price. The lead metal market price appears to be extremely unstable - previous 3 months between $1.05 and $1.70.

Anders, after you've done the research feel free to ask questions about bismuth & tin pouring. I learned the hard way but am willing to share with others.

Has anyone tried to fit a flow reducing sleeve into the down spout? A thinner stream of lead melt would be less likely to flood the gate of a tough to pour mold? I once had one of those "ladles" that looked like a ball with an upper 1/4 missing and a fully enclosed pour spout. Since the lead stream was too thick for small jig heads I stuck in a round tubular compression pin like the kind in Do-it hinges and the resulting smaller exit channel and thinner lead stream worked great.

OK, soft lead, hot enough, and vented cavities. Sounds like during the pour lead flow is being restricted at the gate, backing up, then freezing. Probable solution then would be to reduce friction between gate walls and melt stream or forcing fill out like Ledheds method. What works for me is cracking the mold slightly to increase the flow of air at the gate as a friction reducer.

Since it sounds like the gate is flooding and freezing before full fill out, could your lead be too hard for smaller sizes? If not, I've got quite a few molds that pour best if they're cracked slightly for air release from the cavities. Some molds also need to have the lead stream slowed down off center from the middle of the gate to avoid flooding.

I've been pouring bismuth and tin jig heads for about 4 years. Suggest you do some research to familiarize yourself with these metals' properties easily found online. Here is a link to the best price supplier I know of in the USA. http://www.rotometals.com/Base-Metals-in-Ingot_c_36.html

Grabbing a red hook with pliers will often mar the finish. I use a small folded piece of heavy paper, after tapes I tried to cover the serrated jaws melted. Red finish on my hooks seem to scorch with heat so might not be suitable for baking?

Mike, I think most of the members in this section of the forum enjoy pouring their own. If you're not allready, there's excellent support here if you're interested in getting started.

Hey kid, you got some catch-up ahead, I started making jigs at 12. More than a few geezers here wanting to pass on their craft before they kick it, so hope we can help ya.

"Bait? I don't need no f***ing bait!" Oh yeah!

Just got one of the molds I ordered and it is perfect ! And a note: "I appreciate your patience, if more of my customers were like you could get more done."

Why do you want to use expensive tin solder instead of lead? 2-5% tin added to lead is sufficient to make an improved alloy.

Don't know where you are, but there's gotta be a junk yard within driving distance where they buy & sell metals scrap? If not theres usually multiple soft lead auctions at any time on eBay.

"rr316", got my block from a scrap yard. Trick with lead supply I learned over the years is not to wait to run low. Have maybe 1/2 ton but I'll keep buying if the price is right. I let everyone possible know that I'll buy lead scrap anytime, and run wanted ads in the local free classifieds trade paper and Craigslist. IMO price will continue to rise and supply will get tougher.