Kasilofchrisn

That's great! Good job! You are going to be much healthier and feel that way also. Keep it up and before long you won't remember why you ever smoked in the first place.

Thought about it but haven't tried it. On my big saltwater jigs I think they would cool to much but on smaller Bass sized jigs it might work.

I made my table 4'x4' out of 3/4" plywood. Used 4x4's for the legs and 2x4's for the braces. Then I went to a sheetmetal shop and had them cut me a top for it. Their sheets are 4'x4' so on opposing ends I had them bend one inch down. I don't recall the cost but the sheetmetal was less than $30 I believe. A smaller table would also be easy to make in the same fashion. I used to use the cookie sheet idea but when I moved I decided to get a real table and decided just to build one like I did. Mine sits next to my garage roll up door so if need be I can just slide it out to work outside or to make ingots. I always make my scrap lead ingots outside. I'm glad this was the worst of what happened. It certainly could have been worse.

That Oven looks remarkably similar to the Sunbeam toaster oven I bought at a garage sale for $30. Yours might be a bit better quality overall but sizewise etc. looks quite similar. Let us know how it works for you. In the event I need another one sometime I may consider it.

Good to hear you are working on keeping your self healthier.Good luck and stay safe.

WTP= witchlite tape products. The makers of the best 3D eyes and reflective tape/diecuts on the market. Hagens does custom blade pad printing. You might check with them for pricing.

Absolutely! With a level of 16mg/dl your smoking and overall hygiene while working with lead is the problem. I only see it getting worse for you with spin casting as you will be using more lead everyday in your pot. The lead isn't going away by spincasting. Get a handle on your hygiene issues before you get in real health trouble. I worked as a cleaner in a lead/zinc mine mill for a year and a half. Lead and proper hygiene were a huge deal there. We had our blood tested every 3 month's. Mine never got as high as yours. Your lead levels are certainly getting too high for a home jig maker.

Why buy direct from Hagens? You can buy the same bender from LPO and save at least $20 if not more. Just like buying Do-It molds. You can always buy the same molds cheaper elsewhere.

That's it.If using plain wire you make the first loop. Then add components then finish with another loop containing your hook. You can also do it with round bend pliers and a pair of other pliers. I think wire formers make better looking loops and wraps though.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean? The Hagens will make spinner eyes on both ends of your spinner wire just one end at a time. You can even add a hook or swivel to the loop. If your wire has a premade loop just add your components then make the other eye adding the hook or swivel if you want.

My Hagens will do .051 if you get the adapter kit for that size wire. It's fairly simple to change the parts to do the bigger wire.

On my Hagens you are open ended on the eye twister. Same thing on the twistech. meaning you can have an unlimited length wire and just put the end in the twister portion and turn the crank. The other end hangs free so to speak. On the Boggs the twister is only so wide between the posts so you can only be that length or less. At least that's what it looks like to me. I wanted to make some longer Salmon spinners so opted for the Hagens. Check out these you tube videos.

I have a Hagens and I really like it. I had considered a Boggs but did not like that you are limited in the length of your finished spinner. The Hagens and the Twistech both allow unlimited length spinners.

This is a simple modification of an Aluminum CNC machined mold that I am working on. I haven't yet made a mold out of RTV.

That's most likely what I will do in the future when I find time. I have a bunch of small exacto knife blades. It's a rather large Aluminum CNC mold. The goal is to add just a bit of the RTV so the #3 line tie eye stands out a bit more than it originally was designed to. To make a little more room to hook on a large swivel in addition to the assist setup I normally use.

I had a request to modify one of my molds slightly. Decided red RTV was the ticket to accomplish what I needed to do. So it woks well now but the RTV isn't really smooth like I want it to be. It will work for now though. When you guys apply RTV to a mold is there a good way to smooth it out. The ways I tried it just sticks to whatever tool I use to accomplish the task and is hard to get it looking perfect. Is it better to wait until it partially sets? Or should I oil the tool first so the RTV doesn't stick to it? I'm open to suggestions.

I do not normally clearcoat over powder paint. Cured powder paint is pretty tuff stuff. But on some jigs especially my foil coated ones D2T is the stuff I like to use.

I am guessing these are the ones smalljaw was trying to link to. http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Fishing_Lure_Eyes/catpage-FSHLUREYES.html

Read my thread on foil baits. http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/topic/27948-how-to-foil-a-jig-like-this/?hl=foil It is the shinniest finish I have found. The metallic foil for duct work is OK. But my preference is the holographic foils. I airbrush accent colors and top coat with D2T.

Devcon is a great product. Glad to hear their customer service is top notch as well.

The easiest thing to do is to put one of those knock out test caps in the piece of pipe you intend to use as your fluid bed cup. Take a hammer and punch out the center of the test cap and discard. This comes out quite easily. Remove the remaining ring and save it. Put your Tyvek or whatever filter membrane you choose over the pipe. Replace the ring. You now should have a nice tight filter membrane that is removable and replaceable. For example if you want to clean out a cup and put in a different color paint. For the lids I like the Knock out test caps with the tab that sticks up in the center. It makes it easier to remove when you need to use the cup.

Check out my thread on foiling jigs with holographic foil. http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/topic/27948-how-to-foil-a-jig-like-this/?hl=foil Last week we had the nations largest fire the card street fire. It was ~20 miles from me or so.I think the last report after they corrected the maps was 7,500 acres. Several other fires around as well. We didn't have much snow this last winter so that didn't help things. This cycle of warming really sucks but as the earth has done for millennium's we will face another cooling cycle sometime in the future. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Kind of weird we had 2 mild winters in a row and the Midwest had 2 bad ones with lots of snow and cold.

Yeah I'm in the middle of a burn ban as well. We are not even allowed to use a charcoal BBQ grill right now. What is it about the aluminum that intrigues you? Is it possible plating or possibly using holographic foil over the lead jigs would give you the look you are looking for? I have been gluing on holographic foil on my saltwater slab jigs and topcoating with D2T and they are turning out great. very shiny and very lifelike. Especially after airbrushing the backs with opaque Createx before topcoating.

Whenever I pour lead I always preheat my molds. If not they certainly won't pour correctly. As hot as this Aluminum is going to be I can assure you you will need to really heat up those molds to make this work.\ What molds are you going to pour? As in what jig design?

Just curious but you are trying to pour molten Aluminum into an Aluminum jig mold? Not sure how that would work without a good chance of damaging your mold. I have used Lead and Tin to cast jigs.I have heard of guys using Bismuth as well. Not sure about an Aluminum jig or whether it would work.