Kasilofchrisn

Those look larger in diameter and shorter than a typical lure body. I guess a person could always buy a pack and try them out.

Yes Do-Its lure body mold only goes to 3/8oz. Hilts has one that goes to 1/2oz. I've not seen one ounce lure bodies in that particular style. A custom mold could likely be had in the $150-$175 range to include several sizes above and below one ounce. Or you could use lure bodies of a different style that would be quite similar in function.

This guy used heat shrink tubing. Comes in all manner of colors and sizes these days. There's likely other material out there but I have yet to find a good one when I looked a couple years back.

Dick night wouldn't ship to me here in Alaska so I couldn't try it out. They are not likely to ship to Canada either. I use D2T epoxy or Alumi UV from alumilite to seal eyes on my saltwater jigs. I built a light box with a 1,000 watt blacklight to cure the Alumi UV. The Alumi UV was spendy with the shipping added in but they did ship to me. Overall I'm happy with both products. D2T works well to coat entire jigs. Not sure how either would work on a production scale. KBS diamond clear seems like a good product but I haven't tried it I think shipping may be an issue with it as well.

You need a mold that accepts eyelets where the hook would normally come out. An eyelet for the line tie and another for the hook. You can either add the hook onto the eyelet before casting or use a split ring to add it after depending on how you want them. You can use the brass eyelets but I only use stainless ones. I prefer the long stainless ones when they fit. You can buy a custom mold made this way or possibly modify an existing mold. Here's a mold to cast what your wanting. https://www.ebay.com/itm/124319893175 And here are the eyelets. https://barlowstackle.com/Stainless-Steel-Sinker-Eyes--P1195/

There are three custom mold makers I have used for aluminum molds. The first is Bob Lalonde of CNCMoldsnstuff. The second is Shawn at shawn collins customs. The third is Kent Desautel. Kent is new so I doubt you used him. If he was a member here it has to be Bob Lalonde. Bob does good work and is a pleasure to deal with.

That's a good forum Apdriver. And some good advice in that thread on handling wheel weights.

Wow Smalljaw this is the first I've heard of zinc destroying a pot. Bullet casters have been using wheel weight lead for years and I've not heard mention of this. I've even seen videos of people casting zinc bullets from pure zinc and they didn't have pot issues. Was this ingots or scrap? If it was scrap it could have been other contaminates. I only use wheel weight lead if it's free. Especially because of the extra work involved. And I never melt scrap in my bottom pour pots. I always make ingots outside on a turkey fryer type burner using a cast iron dutch oven. Mine holds ~192# iirc of lead. I triple flux then make ingots. Not only does this help keep my pots clean but it also keeps the fumes, dust, etc. outside. I don't have close neighbors so no fume issues for them either. Only clean dry ingots go into my shop and my bottom pour pots. I think most people's issues with the lee pots comes from melting scrap in their bottom pour pots. Clean lead keeps the pot cleaner and it drips less.

There are lead, zinc, steel, and plastic wheel weights out there. When you get them you simply sort out the lead ones and use them. It's not that hard to tell them apart If you did melt some zinc ones it will not ruin your pot. It will contaminate and can ruin the batch of lead in the pot, but, not the pot itself.

Yeah wheel weights are hard to get here as well. They either sell them for way to much $$ or have a buddy they give it to. One shop allows you to leave a bucket with a name and phone number. But there's always six guys ahead of you and they don't fill a bucket but every month or two so I've never bothered. I've got some bullet casting projects coming up as well as my jig projects so this will definitely come in handy.

So I recently bought a bunch of lead off of a Craigslist add. With the weight of the 8 buckets it was in included it was 751.4# on my scale. I paid $700 for all of it. I estimated I paid ~.95¢ per pound after taking off the weight of the buckets. He originally wanted $1.50 per pound. The lead is almost all in clean 1# ingots except one bucket had a coffee can of cast bullets and some large pure lead factory ingots in it. Most of them tested out as wheel weight hardness on my tester but there were a few that were marked "lots of tin" or "plumbers lead" in sharpie. My local scrapyard sells me raw scrap for $1 a pound if they have any. This then has to be melted, fluxed, cleaned and ingotized. So I always lose some to the dross and it's more work. What are you guys paying for lead these days? I know what Rotometals charges but I'm wondering about local sales, private or scrap yards?

I tried a version of the vibration motors in your link. They didn't provide enough vibration for my setup and they finally burnt up.I was very dissappointed in them. The ones I'm using now have an external weight on them and I'm much happier with them. They seem to be able to cool better as well which should prevent them burning up as quickly. These are the type I'm currently using.(yay the link worked this time) https://www.ebay.com/itm/272912193211

I bought my motors on ebay. I tried to link to them but it's not working from my phone. But just search "vibration motors". Nothing weird pops up for me when I search that. Some listings mention adult toys but it's just a mention of it. Keep in mind that almost all of these ship from china. Not sure how the Chinese shipping is going right now though.

I built a vibratory base that has two fluid beds attached. It aluminum, sits on spring feet, has two vibe motors and a speed controller to adjust the vibration. It works well to tame the volcano on stubborn powders.

Looks good so far. What is the size/output of your aquarium pump? I've done jigs to 24+oz in a 2" cup so the shape of your jig will determine if the 2" will work. No need to swish in the fluid bed. I just dip mine straight in and out. I built simple hook tools to facilitate dipping longer/heavier slab type jigs with eyelets on each end. The hooks are rigged assist style and added at the end after painting and eyes added. The length of your longest jig will determine the height. You'll need a bit of room at the top as the bigger jigs displace the powder during dipping. My tallest beds are 12" tall 2" diameter cups. Using a whisper brand 30/60 aquarium pump I can easily run 2 of these cups at a time.

Buy some silicone that is made for mold making. There are several out there that will handle molten lead temps. Personally I wouldn't waste my time with ordinary RTV. I've used it inside of lead molds for modifications but if I wanted a detailed master I'd go another route. Check out YouTube for some videos on making silicone molds. Some guys also use Durams water putty but it must be baked dry.

I've used chrome powder paint and it's nothing like real chrome. You could also try applying foil to the lead head. I've used holographic foil on lead jigs before with good success. I buy foil made for foiling paper such as greeting cards from eBay. Heat the jig and press the foil on in a carpenters vise lined with silicone rubber. Works pretty good especially on flatter style jigs and it's fairly inexpensive.

The Hagen's will set you back ~$170 plus shipping. The Dubro ez twist lists for ~$212 on Amazon and with prime ships for free. If the haywire twist is important to you then you'll have to decide if the extra $42 is worth it to you. Owning both a Hagen's and a Twistech I would choose the Twistech which retails for ~$95. But I have no need for the haywire twist. If I did the Dubro starts to look like a good option at that point. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BK7P03O/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_I9urFbSP34F2N

I own a Hagen's wire former but I don't use the haywire twist. I don't think it would make one though. Dubro does make a small handheld too that's only $20 on Amazon that should work though. The haywire twist doesn't seem that complicated.

What about the Do-it worm nose sinker? Wouldn't that work for you,? https://barlowstackle.com/Do-It-Worm-Nose-Sinker-Mold-P1999/

Skulks are not exactly a new concept here's a couple of examples of skull jigs from YouTube. Personally I think they are more a novelty thing than a fish catcher though!

I can't really say. I've never made an R bend spinnetbait ever. Here's a video put out by the manufacturer.

That's actually a Hagen's wire former. Hagens markets and sells them on several sights. You can find them at lureparts online, Barlow's, etc.

Probably the Twistech. It will do everything the Hagen's will just $80 cheaper. I've not heard good things on the Bogs wireformer and it has limited length so I'd avoid that one. If you lived in my area I'd let you try mine to see for yourself. But I'm guessing your a long way from Alaska!lol No bass up here!

I own a Hagen's wire former. I also own a Twistech and a Twistech magnum. I'm happy with all of them so far. I've used the round nose pliers and they are ok if your just making a handful. But I like the ease and professional look I get from using the wire formers. If it fits your budget I would seriously consider a wire former. If saving money was a serious goal I'd have gotten out of tackle making years ago.lol