I am pouring 1/8 ounce barb collar jigs with 2/0 and 3/0 hooks. When I pour 12 jigs I may get 4 or 5 good pours. What I mean by good pours is that the lead will flow around all sides of the hooks. The head of the jig is good but the back side of the hook stays exposed and I am concerned that this may not be as strong as I would like it. I know the molds, Do-It molds, can be modified but not exactly sure how to do it without trashing the mold. Any ideas would be great. Thanks

I am pouring 1/8 ounce barb collar jigs with 2/0 and 3/0 hooks. When I pour 12 jigs I may get 4 or 5 good pours. What I mean by good pours is that the lead will flow around all sides of the hooks. The head of the jig is good but the back side of the hook stays exposed and I am concerned that this may not be as strong as I would like it. I know the molds, Do-It molds, can be modified but not exactly sure how to do it without trashing the mold. Any ideas would be great. Thanks

You should post this in the Home Grown Tackle Forums.
I know you'd get an answer there.

FC

Run a few pours on the mold w/o hooks to warm up the mold if that doesn't help check the places on the mold is it the same places where the problemexists time after time. If so, maybe the mold is defective.

Mueller

X2 what Mueller says. It's important to have your mold warmed up. Also, pour slowly but steadily. Oftentimes, if you pour too fast, the molten lead backs up on itself and won't fill the mold completely. It probably goes without saying that your lead should be completely melted and good and hot.

1/8 oz with 2/0 and 3/0 hooks. WOW....that's big !!!

Thanks for the ideas guys. I do 6-7 hookless pours to warm up the mold so I think I am ok there and the lead is pretty hot. It always seems to not fill in on the backside of the hook. I still get good jigs but it takes me three times longer to get the quantities that I want.

what are you using for your melting pot?

your lead may also not be warm enough.

Check the mold maybe take some fine grit sand paper to it.
Some questions
1) have you tried to smoke your mold??With a candle?
2) have you cleaned your lead?I mean on the top of your lead in your pot it might have some impurities floating around which could solidify while pouring.
3) Is this a new mold?

FC

smoke your molds with a candle.:)

Melt lead
Pour 2 to 3 times on each side of mold. This will heat up your mold
Pour to your hearts content.

I do not know what kind of lead you are using but if you think your lead is not pure, when you get your lead melted put a small amount, and I do mean small, of candle wax into the lead and stir. Be careful if you put to much wax it can and will flame up it will also smoke. Stir as soon as you can. This will get all of the slag to come to the surface. Scrap the slag off and your lead should be good to poor. I have had to do this step a couple of times but I am using tire wgts. Tire wgts are very hard lead but it is free from some of the tire stores. I currently have about 25 pounds.

I was told never ever smoke the mold.

I have done the smoking of the mold, done the warming pours and this is a new mold. I have not done the candle wax procedure but I beleive the lead is pretty good. I know for sure it is not tire weights and it appears fairly soft. I will try a slower pour and hope this helps. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Get the lead and the mold hotter, I've poured for years with no candle smoke or modifying molds, not to say it can't happen or needed, but get the mold and lead hot enough first.

Drop a thumbnail size of canning wax (paraffin) into the lead just before you pour, it should help both the mold and help clean crud out of the lead, skim the lead surface and let the lead reheat slightly and then try pouring.

The wax will flame so be careful.
imho

Al

Do it molds also recommend using a small piece of paper during the first few hundred pours if necessary

Those are pretty big hooks for an 8th oz jig. I have done that too and one thing I noticed is sometimes the hooks don't seat properly. By not seating properly, I mean the shank sits at a slight angle in the channel between the head and the barbed part of the jig mold restricting the lead flow. Not saying that's the problem but I have had the same problem as you from time to time using larger hooks.
One soloution I tried and seems to have worked is to use a triangular rat tail metal file and widen the gap between the head and collar of the jig. That seems to have helped but not cured the problem on one of my most problematic molds. If you go that route BE CAREFUL not to remove too much metal from the mold. Modifying your mold should be the last resort If you are all thumbs like me IMO. LOL
Another thing to try is (if you have a Lee production pot) is to hold the mold right under the spout. By right under I mean almost touching the spout. That seems to lessen the short fills too.

I use soft lead and have never fluxed my lead or candled a mold in 20 years of pouring jigs. I just melt my lead then skim the crud off the top before I pour. I've never done these things (candeling/fluxing) because I have never felt the need to do so,not because they don't help. Though I can't speak from experience whether candeling,fluxing helps, many have said it has helped them with their pours so it may be worth your time to try both of those things. Good luck and keep us posted down the road.

Pour the lead into all the cavities to start with, do this 3-4 times without putting the hooks in. Run the lead in a straight bead all across the cavities, one hole to the next without stopping. All the lead on/in the mold will then remove in one piece- this will heat the mold. Also, holding the lit candle under each cavity to blacken the mold seems to help for me.

Try pouring the lead into the cavity a little faster - it seems to cool down if it is poured slowly. When the cavity is filling, try quickly tapping the mold lightly on the (table?) surface - I do this, think maybe it helps get the lead to the bottom portion of the collar. Continue using the bead of lead from one cavity to the next as I mentioned above. This keeps the mold hotter. Do this even if only one cavity is being poured - it just adds heat to the mold. If you have to stop pouring for a brief time, to get some more hooks, etc, leave the last pour in the mold unopened until you are ready to start pouring again - this will help keep the mold hot for a short time.

Because you are using a larger size hook, and the diameter of the wire the hook manufactured used is larger, less space is available for the lead to flow in the space between the hook and the shoulder cavity.

I use larger hooks regularly in my pours, and the above tips, along with using soft lead should assure that most of the pours will come out as intended.

Good luck,

Bill Krejca

I have the electric melting pot and between pours I set the mold on top of it to help keep it warm. I also find blacking the mold with a candle does help keep the lead from sticking in the mold, I don't think it has anything to do with helping the lead flow better.

one of the biggies is to have the mold hot, otherwise it will act as a "chill". some of the lead will harden very quickly before the cavity is full, and thus bad castings.

I use a bottom poor ladle. When I am having filling problems I force fill the mold allowing excess lead to flow out of the mold. If you think the mold is not hot enough, take a ben-o-matic and blast some heat down the fill hole.
I have several molds with fill problems that I have had to cut vents into to allow air escape. I don't think venting is causing your problem.

A couple things come to mind.

That's a huge hook for a 1/8oz jig head....I too like big hooks.

Mold modification may be the answer but I'd try a couple things first.

1. Try tipping the mold during filling and see if you can fill the void. If venting is the problem you may be able to get the lead to flow differently to fill the void.

2. Smoke not only the mold but also the area of the hook that is giving you the problem. This blows if you're trying to make a hundred jigs but is not so bad for a dozen or so.

3. Try any combination of things suggested pouring with a ladle.

Good Luck

I also believe that your hooks are to big. What size of hook does the mold recommend for that size of jig? I pour big hooks in small jig molds and have the same problem too. With the correct size hook I can get good product but when I use bigger hooks only about half work out good.

I just had another thought - try using Matzuo sickle hooks instead of the "normal" hooks commonly used. The Matzuo seem to use a bit smaller wire size, which should give you a little more pouring space between the hook shank and the collar.

Bill

Set your mold on top of the melter while you are waiting for the lead to get to the molten stage. Then do like everyone else said a fill the mold a half dozen times. I will agree that smoking the mold is important.

When using my Lee bottom pour melter I have had some bad results too. I believe that the lead can actually flow too quickly creating a "splashing" inside the mold that comes up the sides in small amounts and hardens immediately thus screwing up the rest of the pour. On my smaller more intricate jigs I have gone to pouring more slowly, by hand, with a very small ladle. This has produced better results for me.

When using my Lee bottom pour melter I have had some bad results too. I believe that the lead can actually flow too quickly creating a "splashing" inside the mold that comes up the sides in small amounts and hardens immediately thus screwing up the rest of the pour. On my smaller more intricate jigs I have gone to pouring more slowly, by hand, with a very small ladle. This has produced better results for me.


Been my experience hotter lead/mold will cure that, hard to do on some of the electrics though, I use a propane burner and get both very hot, when you start getting flashing through the mold your probably a bit to hot. :)

All personal prefference but I find the hotter the better, up to a point.

Al

It sounds like things start out fine, but that the mold is open too long between pours and it cools off as being it's used.

I leave my just poured jigs in the mold to keep it hot if I have to skim the lead pot, grab more hooks, etc. to minimize the time that the mold is open. I also try to lay out my hooks, etc. so I can grab one quickly to keep the mold open as little as possible.

Good luck.

Dan

So what does everyone who has a LEE pot have their heat set at? Mine is set between 6 and 7.

IMO You can get the lead too hot too. I ran into that problem when I first started pouring jigs using wheel weights. Some jigs would partialy crumble after pouring and my left over lead in my pot would turn white on top of the pot when it cooled. I read that the white stuff is called frosting and is the result (partly) of getting the lead too hot. Lead with alloys added such as wheel weights don't seem to take exsesive heat too well either. Anyhow, Once I turned the heat down I had good results.

It sounds like things start out fine, but that the mold is open too long between pours and it cools off as being it's used.

I leave my just poured jigs in the mold to keep it hot if I have to skim the lead pot, grab more hooks, etc. to minimize the time that the mold is open. I also try to lay out my hooks, etc. so I can grab one quickly to keep the mold open as little as possible.

Good luck.

Dan

Dan - If you are not pouring all the cavities of the mold, it helps to pour lead into all of them anyway, leaving the cavities with the hooks, if possible, for the last to be poured. I find this helps to keep the mold hotter. Also, at the same time, try to run a large stream of lead across the top of the mold, connecting all the cavities.

Bill Krejca