Making My own Jigs

[Roger Mayer]

Hi,

I just bought a 1/4 ounce mold for making jigs. I heard that the lead I should use is lead that is easily scratched with my finger nail. Is this true? Also what kind of paint should I use? Spray paint, model paint......etc?

Thanks,

Roger Mayer.

[mark]

When i cast my own i used wheel weights i got from my local tire store. Call your local scrap yard for the price they're paying, then grab your bath room scale and 5 gal bucket and then go on your way to the tire store and start buying.
When you get them home you can start melting them down to get rid of the dirt, grease, and clips.
What i did is use a muffin tin and cast those up and as i needed them i would have quite a few lbs all ready to go. I also used bee's wax for flux, get yourself a wax toilet ring it's bee's wax.
Hope this helps. Any other questions give me a call! good luck! mk

[Frank Hardy]

As for painting jigs, You should find some of the new Powder Paint thats on the market. I just made about 1,000 differnt jig and used the powder paint and it was great and very fast.You just heat up the jig over a candel or a heat source and deep it in the powder. Your done and its hard and ready to fish. You could take this suff with you and paint the jig you need at the lake.
You can get this at bait shops or look on E-Bay for powder paint under jig paint.
Let me tell you that I have found that you can buy jigs already made from Cabels cheaper than to make your own. After you buy molds , lead, hooks, paint, and your time it don't add up to be cheap.
Buy already made and save your self time and money and your Marriage if you know what I'm saying.

[dummie]

Roger,
It is recommended that you use soft pure lead. I tried wheel weights and personally didn't like it. It's a hard lead and harder to pour. Check into hardware stores or scrap yards for soft lead. One source that I found was lead pellets they use to reload shotgun shells. I found it in a gun book for $25.00 for 22 pounds. Cabelas has it for $1.95 a pound, but if you shop around you can get cheaper. As for painting the only paint I use is powder paint. Warm the jig up put it in the powder paint comes out great. Do not handle the jig with your hands as it doesn't bond right when you do. If you are fast enough after you take them out of the mold and they cool a tad dunk them. One other thing I would suggest is to paint them white first. You get a better finish when you do. One other thing I would suggest is to get the book on Lure making by A.D Livingston. It is crammed with good things on jig making as well as other things. Good fishing, God bless.

[Sculpin]

Roger,
Had to wipe out my hard drive to reformat it and forgot to make note of the various chat board addresses. Please send me the ones that you visit and maybe this will help me recreate my address book.
Thanks in advance.
Sculpin a.k.a Harry Henson

[Nels]

Roger you don't have time to make jigs with that
new daughter?? I know you can rock the baby and dip jigs?? How is mother and new baby doing. Nels

[jr]

I make my own jigs and buy my lead from a battery manufacturer. It costs me 50 cents a pound. They have pure lead to lead with lots of antimony. The stuff they gave me works great. With as hard as it is to find lead, you might look into this.

[Jeremy]

Do you happen to have Cabelas part number for their lead?