Kasilofchrisn

I have thought about buying other kinds of paint. But, I already have a lot of powder paint and I like how it looks and its durability. So rather than buy a bunch of different colors of vinyl paint I will try to make my Powder paints work first.

Sounds like I need to buy some lacquer thinner thanks guys. I won't be able to paint any more jigs until after the 1st of January due to work. I'll let you know how it goes. I had given some thought to using the painters tape but that is a bigger hassle than the Lacquer thinner idea. But it is always another option. Andy1976 I may hit you up for some of that candy paint. Might send you a couple of my New saltwater jigs when I get some made as kinda a trade deal or something.

One thing I have done recently is making teardrop style icefishing jigs. You buy the blades and hooks then solder the hook to the blade with a soldering gun. It is very easy to male a bunch up this way and doesn't use a lot of solder Use Rosin core solder then soak in Acetone to remove the excess solder before painting. One thing I would definetly buy though is this teardrop mold from Reinke brothers. It has a spot for the blade and slots for the hooks. It works great to keep everything aligned when soldering. http://shop.reinkebro.com/Ice-Blade-Molds-rei041.htm

Thanks Cadman I will definetly try the laquer thinner. The tapping paint method worked all right but I still had a little paint or residue on the back of the blade. The laquer thinner should take care of that.

So the other day I decided to try my hand at making some teardrop icefishing jigs, I bought this mold from Reinke brothers to hold the blade and hook while I added rosin core solder via a soldering gun. http://shop.reinkebro.com/Ice-Blade-Molds-rei041.htm The mold worked great to keep all the parts aligned and straight while soldering. I then soaked them in Acetone for awhile to remove any rosin left over from the soldering. The problem is when I tried to powder paint them. The goal is to have the front powder painted but the back blade part of the jig nice and shiny which is how they are when you get them and how they are when I buy them in stores. I know lot of guys just use nail (MALE) polish and sally hansens hard as nails for a clear coat. But I already have a lot of powder paints and I really like the powder paint look. Also I like the glow colors and I am not sure I would find glow nail polish locally. I tried the brush and tap method but it got a bit of paint on the back of the jig or if the back was clean then the jigs lacked paint all the way to the edge. I tried the powder paint paint spray gun with similiar results. I also tried just dipping the front of the heated jig in powder paint but that didn't turn out as well as I had hoped either. I sure hope I don't need to buy a bunch of nail polish just to get a few teardrops painted in various colors. The ones I made and painted will work for me but i wanted to give some away as gifts and I want them to look nice if I do that. Anybody make teardrops and powder paint them? Any thoughts and/or suggestions are appreciated.

This is where I bought mine recently off of EBAY. Looks like he still has a bunch up for sale. http://www.ebay.com/itm/fluidizing-pad-powder-coating-hopper-diy-/290817699256?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43b615edb8 When I bought mine he waived the shipping charge if you bought three sheets or more. So I got 3 sheets for $2 more than it would have cost me for 2 sheets with shipping. I didn't buy mine to make my powder paints fluidize better. As I stated in another thread as did Andy1976 that we bought the plate to avoid the mess if we dropped a larger jig by accident. So if I am making say a 12oz or larger saltwater jig and it acccidently gets dropped I don't make a big mess. Larger jigs can easily rip cloth or paper filter medias. The fluidizing plate eliminates that problem. It will still be a pain and a small mess but at least I don't have 6 oz of powder all over and inside my fluid bed that I have to clean up. Trust me it does make a mess of things.

I bought my plate on EBAY. Cost me $12 for an 8"x8" sheet. I got enough material in one sheet to make 9-2" cup bottoms. Rather than gluing the paper on your cups I read on here that using the knockout test caps works. I tried it and it is really easy and works great. Put the test caps on your pvc and punch out the center. Remove the outer ring and place your paper over the end of you pvc and replace the ring. Holds very tight and easy to replace when needed. They cost like $.39 each at home depot. Grainger is a good source for the springs.

On my last fluid bed I just screwed two 3" end caps to a scrap piece of 1x6 and siliconed over the screw heads just because. Then drilled my holes in the side and siliconed in my aquarium valves. I figured this time I would silicone the end caps directly to the aluminum base plate. I have some loctite 598 black to try. This stuff forms an almost permanent bond but goes on easily like regular silicone. Our turbine mechanics at work use this stuff as a gasket material to mate turbine parts on occasion. If that doesn't work I will use machine screws with nyloc nuts as well as the silicone.

Yeah I just ordered a custom CNC mold for a new jig. It is a cross between a butterfly jig and a crippled herring jig. It is going to be somewhere in the 25 oz range and is 10" long. I cant wait to try out these jigs next summer. I am also working on a torpedo jig that is in the 40 oz range. I have the fluidizing pad cut so I can make the taller paint cups. I am thinking I will cut an aluminum base plate for this tonight.

Like I said I found some from Grainger and they are on order. I will post some more pics when I have time to work on this some more.

Nice! I bught the same fish jig mold 10-12-16oz. from Collins. I also have the Hilts big mojo bullet head but in the 24oz size. The big mojo bullet heads are extremely popular up here paired with a boneyard baits 11" grub tail for trophy Halibut and Lingcod.

Yeah I don't have a bunch of broken mag lights lying around. I found some from Grainger and got them ordered a couple of days ago so no worries.

Got my fluidizing plate cut.for my Taller fluid bed cups. I ended up buying 3-8"X8" plates. I was going to buy 2 plates but the EBAY seller I bought from had a special deal going if you bought 3 plates shipping was free if I bought 2 plates shipping was $15. So I bought 3 plates for $36. I used a 2- 1/4 hole saw in the drill press at work and that worked pretty good to get them cut out. The hole saw was a bit big so I ended up sanding them down on the belt sander till they fit good in a piece of 2" pvc. 2 -1/8 hole saw was a bit too small so this was the best compromise.There is no inbetween size holesaw. I only cut 2 sheets figuring I will decide what to do with the other sheet later. So I ended up with 18 discs. Also ordered some springs from Grainger hopefully I got some that will work. Kind of hard to choose when you can't physically inspect the different sizes.

Got my fluidizing plate cut.

DOOH! I just checked the grainger catalog here at work and they have a really big selection. Just turn to page 2,804 of their huge catalog and there they were. There is a Grainger in Anchorage so I should be able to get some no problem shipped to my house. Now I just need to decide on the length and wire size etc. for the spring.

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunatly they won't ship to me here in Alaska. I tried and got a message saying I needed to change my shipping address or remove them from my order. I tried 2 different companies through amazon with the same result. I may have to check the Grainger catalog here at work.

I have the vibratory motors now. I need to cut a plate to fit for the base. Having a bit of trouble finding some tapered springs for the feet part of this. Anyone got a source of tapered springs? I checked my local hardware stores and they had a lot of springs but not a tapered one or anything I thought would work properly. A google search only brought up industrial suppliers and required emailing for price quotes and most likely a bulk order. I also got my fluidizing plate in. I might get it cut into circles today. I should easily be able to get 9 -2" circles out of each $5 sheet.

That doesn't work so well when you are doing large jigs in taller fluid bed cups. I am talking jigs up to 10.5" long and up to 2.5 pounds. Thats a good idea as is the swirling when I am making tiny ice 1/16 oz and smaller fishing jigs though.

I bought the fish jig mold from Shawn Collins on EBAY and it looks really nice to me. I havent had a chance to use it yet but another forum member recommended it to me. This is a 10oz,12oz,16oz fish jig (think butterfly style) mold. I don't think Shawn is selling returned molds but rather than deal with the custom stuff and customers is selling some on EBAY as an easier way to sell some of his work. I have bought several EBAY molds. Only had one I didn't like and that was my fault for not seeing what was clearly modfied in their picture. Thankfully that was a cheap mold. If I bought a mold that I didn't like such as the hidden weight spinnerbait mold I would be sure to contact Him through EBAY or Email and let him know the issues you are having. Maybe he can fix it for you or something. At a minimum he will know he needs to modify his design. Also harder lead may help you as well. Though I will admit I never have made spinnerbaits.

I bought and paid for my mold on the 27th and it was here on the 3rd. So I recieved it in a week from when I ordered it and I live in Alaska.

Just thought I would throw this info out there for the forum members. Shawn Collins is now selling his molds on EBAY under the name CNCWorks. I just recently bought a mold from him on there and can't wait to make some jigs with it. I see he recently listed several hidden weight spinnerbait molds. Also a bunch of saltwater jig molds and some others. Granted these molds are not cheap and certainly a lot more expensive than buying a Do-It mold. But he is selling molds unavailable elsewhere. They also include free shipping. They are all "buy it now" and not auction sale items. I hope this will help somebody on this forum looking for one of his molds. I don't know if his customer service is any better than before (Never used his services before myself) but I recieved my mold with out issues in a very timely manner and his EBAY rating is 100% http://www.ebay.com/itm/Freshwater-Spinnerbait-Hidden-Weight-4-mold-3-8-1-2-3-4-oz-CNC-Aluminum-/121008461063?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c2caa9507

I drilled out a few dozen egg sinkers this year to Texas rig some duck decoys. I had to make the hole larger to accomodate the decoy line. I found I needed to add a drop of oil to each one to make it work. No cobalt bit needed. The lead easily gets hot and binds the bit up and it snaps. Buy an eye dropper and the cheapest motor oil you can find or have leftover in your garage. One drop per hole should solve your problem.

Thanks Diaery! Thats exactly the kind of info I was looking for. I plan to build something similiar to that over this winter.

I was planning to use a hole saw in a drill press to cut out the circles. For the cost of 3 precut circles I can make 12-2" circles (hopefully) out of one 8"x8" board. 3" is bigger than I need as I can do even 24oz big mojo bullet head jigs in a 2" cup. I just need taller 2" cups to make a lot of what i make. If I need to I can take them to work where we have all the tools and materials a guy would need. I am sure one of our machinist could help with the cutting if I needed help. We also have a myriad of adhesive products I could try if something at home doesn't work. I might just try some Loctite 598 Black silicone RTV gasket maker. Our turbine Mechanics call it the black death as anything put together with it does not come apart easily and often things break getting them apart. I might also try some epoxy either D2t or JB weld. A bit of experimentng is needed for sure but I am confident me,Andy1976 or another forum member will figure it out and post a report.

I do like the idea of the small palm sander. If the small vibrator motors I bought don't pan out I will probably shop the thrift stores for an old sander. Thanks for the idea. The super glow orange from protec always gives me trouble no matter what I do. But orange is my wifes favorite color so I will continue to make a few jigs for her to use in that color. Hopefully the vibration helps it work better and make less mess on my work table.