anglerinsider

Thanks everyone for the help. I poured all of that lead into ingots and filled the pot with decoy lead and didn't have any problems at all. I poured about 70 jigs with only 1 that didn't pour all the way. It didn't seem to matter what I did with this lead, slow pour, pot low, etc.. It poured great. Huge difference. Glad I finally asked, saved me a lot of additional frustration! Hopefully this new block I'm getting is soft! Thanks again.

I picked up some more decoy weights to try, it feels softer so I'm hoping this will do it. The lead I can get from this other guy comes in 110 lb. bricks. He said it is "re-melt (clean lead)". Does that mean anything to you guys or could that also be hard? I'd hate to have 110 lbs. of lead that I can't use in any molds! he also said he had wheel weights, so he considers this more pure it sounds like. I don't think I want the wheel weights from what I've been reading.. he's giving me the going rate on the brick which he thought was $.38/lb. I'm guessing it might be a little higher, not sure the last time he sold. is this a good deal?

decoy weights is exactly what I was thinking... I have a bunch of them that I don't use anymore, I will try that and see how it goes. I doubt I have 10 lbs. to fill the pot, but I'll get what I can. thanks for the help everyone, I'll post results.

The lead I got is from a tackle shop and he pours lead that is a little harder for his jigs I believe. I know he doesn't want it too soft, so this probably is the issue. I have a guy that says he has pure lead from a recycle shop. 110 lb. bricks for free. I'll try that and see what happens. While waiting on that I'll try to scrounge up some softer lead to give it a go. My pot is about 1/2 full with this other lead that may be too hard. Should I add soft lead to this and fill it up or empty it and fill with soft lead? Will I have this same problem with all molds using this lead or is this mold harder to pour than most? The others I'm looking at getting in the near future are: Do-it Molds: Weedless Round Jig Do-it Molds: Weedless Brush Jig but if they all are going to be this much of a pain, I may rethink things. I don't have the time to spend 10 minutes on a single jig.

ha, you can see why I'm frustrated. 5 good jigs an hour with only 1 in 8 or so good and remelting and all of that garbage... It doesn't really have a way to regulate flow. It has a lever that you lift that pulls a pin from the bottom, so you can regulate it to some degree but I'm pouring as fast as it will pour. One question, the lead should not be red hot should it? I tried everything including turning it all the way up to where it was red hot, but it oxidizes I believe and creates a lot of junk on top when it's that hot. I was trying to leave the heat as high as I could without it glowing orange.

thanks guys, I'm going to pick up some softer lead and give that a go. It is a bottom pour melting pot. I did try holding the mold right up into the spout and it did seem to help but didn't solve the problem. I tried spacers (used some fiber from a weedguard) just to see what it would do and it did fill better but there was a lot of flash. I read the recommendation on filling the pot on another post and that helped more than anything, just for anyone that is having the same problem. I was back to about 1/2 full last night and that probably didn't help anything. I also did smoke the cavity with a candle. A lot of these things helped a little, but I'm still way off from where I'd like to be at around 5 jigs an hour

Man I'm frustrated, and excuse my ignorance with everything as I am a newbie. This is my first mold and my second few hour session trying everything I could think of and have read on this site. The problem is that the mold doesn't pour all the way down into the barb. Sometimes I get a partial rounded barb, sometimes it doesn't even get down to the barb. Once in a great while I get a good one. I'll post a link of the mold at the bottom of this post, the 1/2 oz. seems to pour the best and the 5/16 the worst. I'm using the hooks they suggested with the mold. I get maybe 1 of 8 that pours good for the 5/16 and maybe 1 of 3 for the 1/2. Somewhere in between for 3/8. I'm using a 10 lb. Lee melting pot with setting just low enough to keep it from getting red hot (around 6-7). Lead I got from a friend and it's in 1 lb. bricks. It doesn't appear to be super soft, it does make a bit of a clank when I drop one. So maybe it has some tin mixed in or something, not sure. I've read through a ton of posts and tried the following: - heated mold - heated hooks - heated hooks and mold - slanted the mold every which direction - filled the pot up 2/3+ (this helped some) - etched a couple small scratches from the barbs (nothing too crazy, I figured it was more likely something I was doing wrong and didn't want to do much to the mold) - added some spacers that just created flashing and didn't help - played with higher and lower temperatures - held the mold closer and further from the spout This is the mold (MF model): Barlows Tackle Shop: Browsing Grass Jig Mold