Off to a new home

[Uncle Grump]

I've enclosed a pic of some jigs I tied for my mechanic - the guy who fixes the members of my personal used car lot.

I got a bucket of wheel weight lead from him this fall, and the "payback" was some jigs....he doesn't open water fish, but does ice fish, so I did these for him.

Top to bottom: 1/64, 1/80, 1/100, all kip tail.

UG

[LedHed]

Great payback - nice lookin jigs

[Saline Lake Jigs]

uncle grump what's your opinion on tire weights are they good enough to pour for such a small head? i have always used soft lead and i hear tire weights are not soft lead what is your findings with using this?

[flatfish46]

Nice jigs grump! The old tire weight's were ,the new tire weights are a zinc alloy,"O" btw they'll be taking this off the street's bout 5 more year's soon as the find out stripped wood lizard's been eaten it and croakin! HE HE HE HE H E========= HE! woo.

[Illinoisgiller]

Your mechanic should be pleased with those fine jigs. Unfortunatly, most wheel weight lead ends up in the dump at the smaller dealers.
Was sure nice of you to make up some jigs for him. ole Mike

[Uncle Grump]

Ledhed

Thank you for the compliment. To me, these are good, but not great - I've alot to learn and practice when it comes to tying these things. This forum is helping alot when it comes to the learning. Neal's face lit up like a kid's at Christmas when I handed them to him - he thinks he will be able to hit the ice next weekend and give them a try.

Saline Lake

I did not pour these jigs - I don't have molds for these sizes. These were purchased - Janns Netcraft or Cabelas.

Do-it makes molds for these sizes - the 'pro' series molds are a $100 each - for 1 size, ie 1/64th, and require a elec furnace style melter, which I don't have (yet). I don't use enough of these size jigs yet to justify laying down $300 for molds.

They also have 1 mold which can be used for hand pouring, it has the 1/64 and 1/80 cavities, along w/ other sizes, but I don't own it. Hilts also has molds for these small jigs.

I've had no trouble pouring down to 1/32 oz w/ the wheel weight lead - which is considered hard lead. I acquired some lead this summer which I thought was soft - based on the rule of being able to crease/scratch it with your thumbnail - used it - no problems. Later,I got these wheel weights, and melted them in to "ingots" (I use a cupcake pan I picked up a Salvation Army store), and the wheel weight ingots also scratch using my thumb nail - so I suspect all of my lead is wheel weights. I've not yet found any true soft lead - tryed my local plumbing shop, struck out there....but since I have nearly a 5 gal pail of ingots, it's not urgent. And now w/ winters arrival, I can't pour again until spring....

Tackle Underground has some gurus when it comes to lead and pouring - have learned much there. They know the ins & outs of doing this type of thing much better than I can describe. Some of the TU guys think the 'soft lead' ideal has been pushed/promoted way to hard/strongly.

I can tell you that wheel weight lead is dirty - I would not melt it in a electric melter - I use a small cook pot on a propane stove. When the lead has melted, flux it - parafin wax works well - a chunk the size of your thumb nail is plenty - it (wax and or smoke from the wax melting) will likely light on fire - this is good. Stir the mix until the flames go out, you will be left with black crumbs on top - this is all "dirt" - skim it off - get it out of your mix.

Also - keep your melt temp as low as possible. You may find some "meltalic" scum on top of the melt - this is non lead which was mixed in to form the hard lead. I try to skim as much of that off as possible.

I also found a fair number of non-lead weights mixed in with the lead - the tire industry is trying differant materials - most were steel. They are also trying adhesives vs the metal clips - not yet melted any lead with the adhesives.

Some of my molds are new, others were used when I got them. I've smoked them, and pre-heat them (on top of the melt pan), then make several pours w/o hooks, which finishs the warm up cycle. Then start pouring.

Sorry for having gotten long winded - It's a summary of what I've learned by reading and trial and error.

Hope it helps

UG

[Uncle Grump]

Flatfish, 'Giller

Thanks

UG

[fishing buddy]

Man those look good Grump I bet he has a smile on his face:D The blue and yellow are a killer here

[AWMiller]

sweet indeed! mighty fine looking jigs with a lot of crappies lips ready to sample them!!

[Fatman]

Great looking jigs!!!!!! and a nice payback for the lead bucket.

To anyone who is gonna pour their own -

Don't be afraid of using wheel weights. I've been pouring about 24 yrs. and that's all I used when I started. Now I still use wheel weights but I do put some soft pure in it. The more you mold the more you'll know which molds will take pure lead over wheel weights and vice versa, and which molds will need a mix.

Usually if you get a wheel weight with a Z on it and it tings you probably have a zinc wheelweight throw them out they will contaminate your lead and make it hard to pour.

The stick on wheel weights are pure lead and one word of warning dont' smelt them in your house unless you have a heavy duty Industrial Strength suction fan. Otherwise save them to the side and wait for nice weather and do it outside.

Another thing to watch for when smelting is you'll get some floaters that don't want to seem like they want to melt, probably tin. Scoop them out.

If anyone wants more info just ask, theirs plenty of us who have been pouring for years that can help you.

Fatman