What Tool Is Best?

[Painter1]

I want to add a heavy mono weedguard to some of my jigs that aren't made with weedguard holes/pins.  

 

Am wondering if a hot steel wire or drill bit is best to make the hole in the lead before painting.

[cadman]

As easy as it seems, neither one is easy to do. The hot wire is out of the question. It will never be hot enough to melt the lead and give you a perfect hole. Now you can drill a hole in the jig, However you need to make a fixture for it to hold it tight, and you should do this in a drill press. I don't know how accurate you want the hole and how many jigs you need to drill, but this is a very slow process, and the fixture that is going to hold your jig has to somehow, hold the jig at the same angle and location every time. Let us know how it goes.

[Painter1]

Thanks, Ted. It sounds like I need someone to modify my molds.  Anybody you would recommend? 

[cadman]

PM me your e-mail, I have a guy that is reasonable in price. He will mill out whatever size groove you want. Just let him know the location and size of slot and he will duplicate it on all the cavities, both sides of the mold halves.

Edited September 6, 2013 by cadman

[Jig Man]

I don't know how large you want it to be but I had a similar need and what I did was tape a wire to one of my slots in a mold.  Then I put the mold in a vice and closed it tightly.  It made an indention where the wire had been.  Now when I want a weed guard in that jig I just mold a 1/4" wire while I am pouring.  After I paint the jig head I remove the wire and glue in the weedguard.

 

I did it in my tube jighead mold using successively bigger wires unitl I have groves large enough to mold 90# coated steel leader that I mold in for a weedguard.