cadman

Hey Smalljaw, Well I learn something everyday. I am going to e-mail you and get some more info on the 1/4 pound colis. Maybe I was buying the wrong one. We will talk. Thanks for straightening me out. (Pun intended)

.051 wire is hard to bend. Also IMO it is used mostly for pike and muskie inlines or spinnerbaits. If you are going to buy any wire and make the wireforms yourself, make sure you buy straightened wire and not wire off of a spool or coil, as you will never get it straight. Here is another place where you can buy stainless steel wire straightened in lengths. http://www.mcmaster.com/#stainless-steel-wire/=i3ngly

There are a lot of ways to do things. You have to find what works for you and what you're comfortable with . I myself use a heat gun, one jig at a time. JMO

x2 what smalljaw67 said + Honestly there is no cost savings unless you have a friend that let's you use all of his stuff, and even then when you are starting to learn, you will spend a lot of your time with trial and error to get things. You have to look at this as a hobby and a passion for making your own jigs and catching fish on them. Your savings will come several years down the road as you make more and more of the same jigs. However that doesn't happen because you'll want to expand and then buy more molds and your savings at that point will go right out the window.

I agree with smalljaw67. I like these hooks as well. I have never had one bend. I ddi try to bend this hook once and it just snapped. So this is a very strong hook that I would recommend to anyone. They are also very light and since I use small jigs, it slows down the fall even more.

Flash off or Flash point is the time it takes the vapors or solvents to evaporate. So like loc-tite super glue gel has a chemical called cyanoacrylates, some other glues have acetone or other chemicals. When you put the loc-tite on, it does have a smell, and what I noticed is that smell evaporates when you finally see the white powder arond the weedguard hole. What is happening is the chemical is evaporating (flashing off) and as it flashes off it is drying leaving the residue. So once this happens I strongly recommend to wait another day so everytrhing fully dries. You can speed up the process and limit the white powder residue, by putting a small fan on low, blowing on the jigs. What this will do is blow away the vapors that are flashing off and keeping the vapors from leaving the white residue.

ShadMaster you got excellent advice from everyone here. If you are going to use super glue, use super glue gel like backwater4 stated. Most important you must give it at least a day or more to flash off and dry. Otherwise it will not hold. If you use epoxy I wait at least 2-3 days before fishing the jig. JMO

I'm going to say a transparent black. Try Kool-Aid or Rit dye. Also try permanent black marker. I will bet you, the fish you are holding, that black marker coated several times will do the job for you. I use permanent black marker on some clear weedguards to give it a striped effect and it does work. Sent you an e-mail also.

The easiest way I found was. #1 stick the loose strand end into the hole not the fused end. #2 If still too tight take off a couple of strands. This will definitely help. BTW very nice looking jigs.

Jeff, I agree with you. I fish jigs that are very drab in color black/blue, brown/orange, green pumpklin and maybe a dk purple. That is it. I've tried wht, wht/chart, yellow chart. and multitude of other colors when I first started bass fishing and I still do better with the colors I mentioned. I will even fish my jig until the paint comes off and still catch fish. So a jig gets retired by me when I either lose it, the hook is too dull to sharpen anymore or the weedgurard finally falls out. Raw jigs do catch fish, so some really colorful jigs may be lake specific and definitely catch fishermen's money.

Jeff, I have a similar powder paint to what you are referring to. It is silver and black and then you have to put on the blue. It is a good color, however I don't want to pay $15 for two powder paints so I get mine specially formulated.

Yes you can buy black powder paint and then buy a blue clear glitter coat. It comes out really nice.

There are many options here with powder paint. You can paint the jig black and add blue glitter. You can paint the top black and the bottom C.Blue and then put on blue glitter, or you can paint the jig marble silver and then put on C.blue and then put on blue glitter. Finally you can put on a paint that is blue and has black specks. The possibilites are endless. The only thing I can tell you is this if you are going to do multi-colors and I mean more than 2 colors you have to take your time, be patient and practice.

Hey Don, You got a lot of good advice already, so I don't know if I can add to any of it, but I'll try. #1 Almost all bottom pour pots (Lee IV) drip. They seem to get better with use and drip less. If this is what you have, whatever you do, do not try to open up the hole so the debris comes out easier by drilling it out. You will make it worse before better. If you drill it out too much, the pot will always drip and maybe even get a stream of lead coming out since the actuator rod won't seat fully anymore. At that point it will be junk. A. Do yourself a favor, and flux your lead. This will clean it even more. I found the best thing to use is beeswax, however you can use a piece of old candle. (Any scent will do LOL). Take a chunk no bigger than a dime, maybe even smaller, and place it in an already hot lead pot. What the wax does, is draw up the impurities and dross. You will see it float to the top like crumbled lead. One thing I will warn you about flux, is be very careful when you do this. What you do is put the chunk in the pot and immediately throw a lit match in the pot. You will get a flame immediately, so do not look into the pot or try to figure out what is going on. Because you will get severely burned. While the flame is burning off the wax, take and old spoon and slowly mix the lead in the pot. Make sure there is nothing around the top above your pot or anything flammable that could ignite or burn. If you want help with this pm me off line and I will explain it better. THIS IS NOT DANGEROUS, BUT YOU DO HAVE TO BE ALERT AND KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND WHAT TO EXPECT AT ALL TIMES. B. If you are getting flash (lead around your jig other than the profile of the jig) than what everybody else mentioned, you have something stuck to one of the mold halves. Take a small thin piece of aluminum, and gently scrape both mold halves where they make contact. Somewhere there is a spec of lead stuck or something. C. You mentioned about too much candle soot causing the mold halves not to close flat. Don this is rare to impossible. The layer of soot that goes on there is very thin. Now I will tell you that soot from candles leaves an oily residue on the mold halves. So this may attract dirt but highly unlikely. I will also tell you that if I were you I would quit using a candle to soot the molds. From my experience it doesn't really work plus it is very messy. What does work is spraying your molds with "Drop Out Mold Release". If you don't believe another word I tell you, buy yourself a can of this. You will definitely Thank Me later. What mold release does is it coats the cavity with a release agent, that makes the lead just slide right into all of the orifices. It really works ask some of the guys here. #2. You will always have a sprue mark left over. If it doesn't bother you paint over it. The fish don't care. I on the other hand am anal about my jigs, so I take a wretched cut half round file and file it all smooth. The file make easy work of lead. A lot easier than sanding. A. On the hook eye. You need to clean it before baking as mentioned above. What I do is have a bunch of new drill bits that fit loosely into the hook eye. You don't want to use used drill bits, as the shank sometimes gets chewed up from not using them properly. Anyway find the size that will fit the current hook eye you have in your jig. Test it first to make sure it fits loosely before you paint the jig. So you heat your jig, swish it in the powder paint, and immediately take the drill bit and push it shank first through the hook eye and out the other side. What will happen is you will push any paint in the hook eye out and it will come out with the drill bit. You will see what happens when you try this. You will always have clean hook eyes and no need to clean after baking. Now however if you put on too much paint on your jig, and you hang your jigs nose down, then the paint will cover the hole again. If this happens, you can use the same process again, reheat the jigs and clean the eye, however do not burn the paint. This is a very touchy time now as you have already baked and hardened the paint. It is best to watch how much paint you put on so it doesn't run when you bake the jigs. #3 On cleaning the weedguard hole. You do not have to do this anymore. Use the teflon pins for painting and pouring it is so much easier and you will thank me again for this tip. PM me. #4 Fluid bed. If you don't want to buy one, I do have plans I can e-mail you. If you are somewhat handy, it is not complicated to make. Just a tip on fluid beds. Many people are under the assumption that this is a fix all for painting. Most colors will fluidize in a bed. Many colors are harder to work with like white. You can make your fluid bed work on all colors. The only thing is some colors you may need to swish the paint inside the cup to keep volcanoes from happening. Other factors are, keeping your powder paint dry. Do not leave them in the cup for days or even weeks. Humidity and moisture will kill your dry powder paint. Always take it out of your cup when not in use. Filter medium. You can use a wide variety of media. Some media works better on certain colors. So you may have to make yourself several cups with different media. Mark what colors work with what media. Well I think I about ran out of info for you. Sorry for the long dissertation. PM me and I will get you more info.

I have that mold as well, and never thought of putting the clip the other way. Very clever idea. Thanks for the info.

Yes very nice indeed. I like the color and triple blade as well.

I have used the $5 tool for tabs for years and it has worked well for me. As far as securing the skirts onto the jigs, you can use thread or wire. If you are going to use bucktail with flat silicone you have to use thread. Otherwise wire will work well and faster for silicone tabs.

Lure Parts on Line has the (5304 hooks) for 45 cents each when you buy a 100 pack. 5/0 size. Owner hooks are very good buit they are very expensive.

I like the 5304's as well. I get mine from Lure Parts On Line.

You mean 60° correct not 30°

Are you sure that is the correct number. I think the correct number if that is a 60 ° flat eye hook is #6145. You can use a Mustad 38109 5/0 hook in there. It is an EWG if you like those hooks. However the #38109 hook is thinner than the Gami. Which Do-It mold is this for?

Yes if you already have painted jigs and you want to touch them up model paint it will work. However it is not as durable as powder paint. If you are looking for good prices on powder paint PM me and I will help you out with some info on how to do get this done efficiently. ON another note, I will agree with Mumpy, I have many times used beat up jigs and they still produced fish, so I too believe that paint isn't always the answer.

Don, I didn't mean to agree with you when you said dab. Like Bass Dude said you do not want to touch the brush to a hot jig, it will ruin the brush. You want to let the powder paint fall on a hot jig by tapping the brush over the jig or sprinkling the powder on.

Don, This is how I would do it. #1......Heat you jig with a heat gun. #2......Turn jig upside down and put your brush in the powder paint, take it out and cover the whole bottom by tapping the brush as the powder paint falls on the hot jig. #3.......Once the bottom is covered to the way you like, turn the jig over. #4.......Now do the top side with black like Step #2. #5.......Hold the jig with the nose pointed down, and then take your yellow chartreuse and tap the powder on the back side of the jig. #6.......Put jig on rack and finish the rest. Once all are finished put rack in oven and bake During this whole process make sure your jig is hot, so you may have to run it over the heat gun periodically.

Don, On that mold it takes a 1/8" diameter weedguard. On the Alimony color. I would paint the bottom half with dk candy blue, the top half with gloss black and the back side with yellow chartreuse. Then put the jigs in the oven to bake. Try not to put on anymore powder paint than you need. You can do it your way as well. However you will have black paint on the bottom half that you will have to cover with blue. Which means you will have extra paint on the bottom half that you don't need.