Kasilofchrisn

The reason we want to make the downrigger weight in a glow is based on the recommendation from another forum. The discussion was on whether or not I should coat/paint the weights or if it really matters. At a minimum I was going to paint them but the question was what color. I also toyed with the idea of using the dip it rubberized coating in a spray can. A member of that forum from British Columbia mentioned that painting them in a glow color was becoming quite popular in his area. I had a friend who showed interest in the glow also so I agreed to make him one for a small fee of course. So even if the glow doesn't last it will still accomplish my goal of having a painted weight instead of bare lead. Mainly so I am not handling a large piece of bare lead while fishing. The hope was this Ultra Glow Vinyl being as bright as it is supposed to be would give a longer/better glow than a standard glow paint. I guess now I just need to make some weights and get them painted and see how it goes.

Is the 20/0 circle hook worth $12 or more just for you to hold? Some of these hooks arent cheap. I seriously doubt you would ever need a hook like that for muskie fishing. Maybe a 12/0 or so but 20/0 is pretty big made for 100#+ Halibut. I guess my point is I believe you would have to market it for people in your area and species in your area. Or for a specific species and area. I think it would be cool though to have a hook display with as many styles shapes and sizes of hooks as one could get. Rather than get one a month you could send out a chain letter requesting 1 hook from people and to include the info on what the hook is. Then put them together as some sort of display.

There are so many species of fish and so many different hook choices it would be difficult to please a large group of people. Maybe if you had them species specific. Say a year of bass hooks and then a year of crappie hooks etc. I fish Salmon and saltwater species here in Alaska. I doubt a 20/0 circle hook would interest you but would certainly interest me. The smallest jig I make is 3.5oz and the biggest is over 40 oz. many members here would never need the jig hooks I use or the jigs for that matter. As for the sinker question I would try the wire baits forum thats where most of us lead jig/sinker makers hang out.

I am glad you guys are happy with Zeiners they do have the best prices on do-it molds. I don't know what they had going on or if my order was/is the norm for them. I had several 2oz jars of powder paint in my order and a mold. They just threw it all in one box with no padding whatsoever and the mold managed to break one of the jars of orange glow powder paint. Like I said a little crumpled up newspaper could have easily prevented this from happening. I don't mind paying an extra couple of bucks for a mold from Barlows because I know it will be well packaged so this kind of stuff doesn't happen. They did apologize for it via email when I let them know about it. I was also a bit dissappointed to learn my paint was on back order and I think it was 4-6 weeks I had to wait. Although they did give me 1 free jar of paint for my wait. But several emails said it should arrive shortly and then they realized it would be longer yet. And then another email apologizing and saying should be here soon. Shipping to Alaska is always a hassle but Barlows treats me right so I think I will just stick with them.

Although they do have good prices I was not impressed with my first and only order from Zeiners. I ordered a mold and some powder paint. I understand the extra month to get me the last of the paint I ordered as it was on backorder and I got a free 2oz jar of paint for my paitence.It would have been nice though to know they were out before my order was placed so I knew ahead of time and could have got it elsewhere if I had wanted it sooner. Also poor packaging did lead to one bottle of powder paint being cracked and spilling all over the box. I was able to recover most of the paint though. When I order from Barlows they always add masking tape to the lids so they stay closed and wrap the molds and other stuff in newspaper so they don't damage the other stuff in the box. Alaska is a long way to ship some of this stuff and it gets banged around in the process. A little newspaper around the mold i ordered would have helped a lot. There is more to it than just cheap prices. Just my $.02 Chris

Man that's a lot of D2t! These weights are going to be made in the hilts fish shaped weight mold. I have considered spraying powder on them. Would be a good excuse for buying some new gear as I don't currently own a spray gun.

I do have some of the thinner they sell for use with this paint. Like smalljaw said I would prefer to keep the thinning to a minimum as we are looking to attain the maximum glow potential. Apparently making your downrigger weights glow is becoming popular in some areas so we are going to try it. I think i will just find a way to keep the painted weight at or near 100* for a few hours of curing using a heatlamp or whatever I can make work on the cheap to give it some extra heat for help in curing. Thyanks for the help guys.

Last time I used itwas on some 20 oz spire points and after 2 or 3 days hanging outside to dry in sunny weather they were still slightly tacky and never did dry completly. I had them hanging apart from each other with no contact. I was thinking of using a temp of 125* or less for say an hour or two. I wasn't thinking of the temps we use for powder coating by any means. Where I live here in Alaska70* is a hot day so I thought using a little extra heat might help them cure properly. I did use them with some skirts and rubber grub tails and that may have contributed to the problem. I was also thinking of clear coating over the top of the vinyl paint. What would be a good clear coat for something this size?

A few years ago I made some jigs and painted them with Super glow vinyl paint. http://www.barlowsta...w-P961C132.aspx I had trouble getting the paint to cure and I quit using it. Now I mostly powder paint in a fluid bed. The other day I found i still have some left and want to try using it up on some 10# downrigger weights I am going to make. Do I need to cure this type of paint in my toaster oven? I was thinking of doing it at low temps for say an hour or more. Anybody have any insight on using this type of paint and getting it to cure properly? Being the downrigger weights are so big I don't want to experiment too much and have to remelt them or clean that much paint off. I think the downrigger weights are a bit too big to powder paint so I think this is a good option. The goal is to make a few Glow downrigger weights for myself and a friend in Canada. Thanks in advance. Chris

The Skirts I used were just what we call "Hootchies" here in Alaska with the tips of the heads cut off. Just like these in this link. http://www.basspro.c...ct/97127/123934 What I do is after adding the skirt to the jigs is I double wrap it in stainless safety wire and then use my wire twisting pliers to securely twist the wire. http://www.chiefairc...ire/ns-032.html The wire is available at most hardware stores I believe. http://www.amazon.com/Aircraft-Racing-Safety-Twist-Pliers/dp/B00123YE7E/ref=sr_1_3?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1339773051&sr=1-3&keywords=wire+twist+pliers I cut the wire off leaving 2 or 3 twists. Then I bend the wire over tightly and tap it with a the side of the pliers againt the side of the jig.This also dulls the wire ends so it doesnt want to cut your hands. I found on the bigger size from my squid mold it held the skirts fairly tight. On the smaller size jigs the skirts were too easy to pull off so I decided to wire them all on.

Here are some that I made. I added an 8/0 owner ssw on 150# spectra in assist fashion in the top eye and the same hook on a splitring on the bottom. I also wired the skirts on.

Barlows has them. 1/8" up to 5/8" I use them and they are good. I coat mine with devcon because I dont trust the sticky backs 100%. http://www.barlowsta...ch-P973C38.aspx

Me too! I make jigs up to 24oz and weights up to 3#. I have a bunch now and didn't intend to sell my jigs but some guys at work were interested in seing what I make. Now they want to buy some. I Have given a few away but I can only give so many. It would be nice to find someone with that much scrap lead just lying around who was willing to part with it on the cheap or for free. Guess I will keep dreaming.

That is nice! I had a guy on another forum send me 43# of lead he had left over from an old bullet making hobby. Sent it to me for free including the shipping just to get rid of it. I will probably buy him a soda this summer when he visits some friends just south of me and give him some jigs even though he said I didn't have to. I am guessing it is like anything once there is a increase in demand for it they start charging. People used to get old fryer grease from restauraunts for free for bear baiting and such. Even then the Restauraunts had trouble giving it away. Some even had to pay to get it hauled off. Now these small biodiesel places pay them for the old grease. Most tire shops in my area have someone who already has a deal with them to collect the wheelweights. And the one shop I have heard sells them like I posted above. Fortunately i have enough now to last me a while(I Hope).

I wouldn't live anywhere else thats for sure. Even though our cost of living is a bit high compared to most places in the lesser 48. I Need to ask my fiancees brother again about wheel weights. He just started working at a ford dealership but his first week he said he didn't know what they do with them. he may know more now after having worked there a month or so. I think you always need to factor in your time and materials for smelting because the $$$ comes out of your pocket and your time could be spent doing other things like fishing.

We have a local shop selling 5 gallon buckets of wheel weights for $50. I havent bought any though. I was lucky to find some old lead pipe at a local scrap yard for $1 a pound. We weighed out what they had and it was 110 pounds and I got it for $100.Not a bad deal in my opinion. My be prudent to check some local scrap yards just to see what they have and what they want for it.

Well I just got the mold from PC-Fishing in the mail. This is the worst mold I have seen. The one side is OK but the other is real real rough from poor sandcasting.Lots of rough stuff sticking up inside the mold cavity and in the gates. I guess better in than out as removing Aluminum will be easier than filling in voids would be. This mold is obviously made from a homade samples and not machined in any way. I will definetly have to clean it up with my dremel tool. Still it was a lot cheaper than the Shawn Collins molds by over $100 I am sure.

For those who have tried the UV blast how was it to work with? Does it lead to more drips in the paint or other problems due to having one more layer? You know we were discussing fishing the other day at work . I had brought in some of the new jigs I had just made and powder coated. One of the things I was commenting on was how some jigs are made to catch fish and some are made to catch fishermen. You ever notice how some people will always buy the lastest gizmos or the fanciest looking lures? One of our bosses raised his hand and said "Guilty". The reason was because he always finds himself buying the fancy looking stuff regardless of what other are buying and using and he makes enough money to easily afford it. Although there are merits to some things not every new item is a hit with the fish. So far the only people whom I know who swear by the UV products are those selling the products. I do know that sometimes glow jigs can improve the fishing for certain deepwater species but that is a totally different comcept.

I believe that the theory behind the UV products is that UV light penetrates deeper into the water column then ambient light does. I just attended the Great Alaskan sportsmans show a few weeks ago and there are certainly people who swear by the UV products. John Beath the owner of Halibut.net swears by it. Then again he sells a host of UV products on his website and at the show. His theory during a seminar he was giving was that UV light reaches much further into the water column than standard light. This of course was all based on Data he provided. He was also talking about Halibut fishing in the ocean and depths exceeding 100' many times. If I was fishing in lakes or other freshwater or perhaps ocean fishing in shallower depths I would say it is not going to help much. As for fishing deep water exceeding 100' I am still not convinced it helps but I did buy some UV skirts to try this year on some of my jigs. Worst case scenario is I end up with some skirts that fish normally with out added benefit so thats ok by me. So even though I am going to try some UV skirts on some jigs this year in my saltwater fishing I don't honestly believe it will make a big difference. For what it's worth I have tried the fising lights that hang on your line for my Halibut fishing and didn't see a marked inprovement in my catch numbers or size numbers. The same guy John Beath also sells those and swears by them too.

Thanks. Its good to know how to remove it. I will be sure and pick up some mineral spirits.

Thanks! that is just what I was looking for,

So I just ordered some of frankford arsenals drop out because I was having a problem with some of my molds filling out. I read on here that this is going to help with this problem. When I spray it on do I just spray both mold halves or should I only spray the mold cavities? As I understand it I can use steel wool to remove it from any area I do not want it right? Thanks Chris

I bought my last lead on EBAY.I am looking at sources for wheel weights as I may need some more lead. I found out some of our local tire shops are selling the used wheel weights by the 5 gallon bucketful. So my question is How much lead on average could I expect to get from a full 5 gallon bucket of wheel weights? Just need a ballpark so as I look around I know what I am getting for my money. If I get some for free I would like to give them a few weights or jigs as a thank you and it would help to know so I can figure what to give them. I am making some Halibut Jigs and weights for Cook Inlet in south central Alaska and when the jigs are up to 24oz and the weights are up to 4# it gets used up fast. Thanks Again Chris

Thanks! That worked good. I just copied and pasted it from his website. It really didn't tell me much other than he is into fishing and to find his stuff check EBAY but at least I know thats all it was.

It is good to hear that you found him. I hope he has a mold for you. I found his website and will post a link. It is only one page written in Austrian? with some fishing pictures and a link to his stuff on EBAY. Wish I could read his webpage. http://pc-fishing.com/