mold modifications

[School Master]

How easy is it to modifiy a mold to fit a different hook. I want modifiy the poisin tail Do-It mold to fit a little smaller hook, not that big mustad.

[cadman]

That's a hard question to answer. First of all what I do is take some paper and a pencil and get some dimensions of the new hook, then get some existing dimensions of the mold cavity. Find out what you need to do, and slowly and carefully lay it out on the mold. You can use a small file, dremel tool or whatever to remove material from the mold. To fill existing cavities not needed, JB weld will work fine. The biggest thing to doing this right is to plan it out, measure not once but twice (more if you're forgetful like me), and take things slow. I stress doing it slow, so you don't do more than you have to, or fix something that you screwed up.

[LedHed]

It' really easy - but like cadman says "take things slowly". Lay the hook on the mold, pay attention to the orientation, and mark the changes.

[Ogajiga]

You can enlarge eye slots and shank channels for oversize hooks but can't shrink em for undersize. If too much of the undersize eye sits inside the body cavity there might be an eye plugging problem from seepage. Not all of us have steady hands, and I had a real hard time controlling a Dremel - luckily Microlux offers a mini drill press just the right size for Do-its.

[JBlaze]

Hnmmm, I have never tried modifying a mold to fit a smaller hook. I am usually trying to get a larger or a different style hook to fit in a mold. Take the other fellows advice proceed slowly and plan it out. Its easy to ruin a mold if your not careful. What I do when modifying a mold is to open it up and lay or place a hook in it. If the hook eye lays inside the original eye cavity and the hook shank lays inside the original shank cavity then close the mold carefully so as not to move the hook then put the mold in a vice and put just enough pressure on it to make a make an impression of the hook on both sides of the mold. Be very careful wih this too much pressure and you will warp the mold and get lots of flashing just tighten the vice until you feel the sides of the mold touch the hook and then just a partial turn of the handle. back it off and see if you got the impression of the hook if not, put it back in the vice and apply a little more pressure. Once you get the impression of the hook, you can cut this new slot out with a dremel and a cutting wheel. If you are repositioning the hook entirely then you will first need to make the new cavity for the hook eye then the hook shank. do this the same way with the vice but instead of using a cutting wheel, use a very small Dremel ball end cutting bit in the drill press to make the hook eye cavity. For a good tight fit, try to cut both sides at half the depth of the hook eyes diameter. You can do it by using a hand drill if you have the steady hands. And as Cadman says JB Weld does a good job of filling in unneeded cavities. also if you get the seepage of lead around the smaller hook eye open the mold and fill both eye cavities with JB Weld grease two hook eyes with vaseline and press them down into the JB Weld scrape off the excess, let it dry and remove the hooks carefully a little sanding to get it level with the mold facings and your good to go. Hope this helps. John