How I pour/paint/bake

Here is a few pictures of how I pour/paint/bake litewirehooks. The first shows a rack that holds about 350 that has been prebaked, eyes painted, and ready to go into the oven for final bake.....cure the eyes. The next is the Lee Pot with fan on top to blow fumes to the window fan and blowing fumes to the outside. It's effective ...when I throw a small piece of wax in the pot, you can see the fumes going out the window. The last is the oven (wife got a new many years ago) with the hooks inside on the rack. After removing from the oven, they are bagged and ready to catch fish. lightwirehooker
Attachment 66459
Attachment 66460Attachment 66461Attachment 66462Attachment 66463

I definitely like your setup and the work you're doing. Keep it up. Just send this info to someone else. Since you're into making jigs, I thought you might be interested. Got a lot of ideas from guys on this forum. Just trying to keep them organized. You might find one or two things you might want to try. And you might have a suggestion of two you thing would be worth adding.

Powder Painting Jigs
Equipment
Heat gun or propane torch (I use a heat gun from Lowe’s that will go up to 1,000 degrees)
One pair of needle-nosed pliers or hemostats to hold the big of the hook
One pair of hemostats that are curved on the end (long thin locking pliers)
1 container powder paint
1 bigger plastic container (what I use to put some powder paint in to shake so it will be light and fluffy
-this helps you get a thinner more consistent coat on your jighead)
1 wire rack –long straight bars are preferable
1 toaster oven –to be used only for jigs (can use heat gun if you are only going to do a few)
(use in a well ventilated area because of fumes)
Procedure
Pour some powder paint in a plastic container, close the lid and then shake till it becomes light and fluffy. (do not let the powder paint become packed as you will waste a lot and it could become lumpy)
Take the needle-nosed pliers, grab the bottom of the hook and hold the jig head a couple of inches over the heat for about 4 seconds on each side (total =8).
Take the curved hemostats and grab the jig eye making sure the eye is completely covered. This prevents powder paint from getting into eye.
Quickly, swish the jighead briefly thru the powder paint. Tap jig on side of bowl to remove excess powder paint. Remember, less is more when using powder paint. A thin layer is all you need and it will adhere quickly to a hot jighead. (usually it will start to turn the color you want in the first 4-5 seconds)
If eye should get some powder paint, now is the best time to clean it. You can heat a paper clip, bodkin or small wire and run it thru the eye until clear. (because the powder paint hasn’t been heated (cured) the hot wire will melt any excess off the jighead eye.
Option 1 –remove to a rack or bowl or somewhere where it can hang and cool. The jighead does not need to touch anything yet as it is easily scarred. When you have enough you can put them on a rack inside a toaster oven at 325 degrees or so for about 30 minutes.
Option 2 –as soon as you tap off excess powder paint, you can return it to the heat gun to cure right then. This takes about the same amount of time as it did to heat the jighead.
To put on Eyes
I buy small cans of paint from Lowes (usually red & black)
Use the flat side on the bottom of drill bits, dip in paint and press against side of jigs
Outside of eye can be yellow, red, white, silver, etc. and needs to cure for 24 hours before adding pupil.
The inside (pupil) should be painted black and is about ½ the size of the outside dot. Let cure 24 hours.
Seal coat
*There is no need for a seal coat if you don’t add painted eyes to a powder coated jigs.
*Many crappie fisherman will tell you they catch as many crappie off jigs without eyes as they do with eyes.
Those of us who use them know this but just like the way they look. It gives us a little added confidence.
If you use seal coat, each jig will need to be hung after coating for about 30 seconds. I normally do 4-5 jigs at a time and then swipe the seal coat off that collects on the nose with a paint brush. I then put them on a rack and let them hang for at least 24 hours.
Epoxy
This is my preferred method as jigs are supposed to look like new 20+ years later.
I usually mix in a baby food container (small rectangular plastic bins about 1 ½” wide and 2” or so long)
I dip these one at a time in a 2 part epoxy (50/50) that has been mixed together. I hold the jig by the bend of the hook and lower it till epoxy covers all of the lead on the jig and epoxy comes together under the eye of the hook. I remove it and hang it on the side of a rack allowing the excess to drip to the nose.
After 4-5 jigs I take a small piece of thin cardboard that has been previously cut into strips about 1” wide and 3” long and touch the bottom of each jig to absorb any extra epoxy hanging on the nose. I then place in a rack spacing them ½” apart. I let these cure for 24 hours.
When jigs have cured I put them in tackle boxes with Zerust (a rust inhibitor) and store in a warm, dry place. Otherwise, you risk wire hooks rusting with the possibility of losing the whole box of jigs.
It is not recommended to put jigs in water after heating. Do It Co. told me this makes them brittle and susceptible to breaking. Once jigs are taken out of toaster oven, they will be cool to the touch in a matter of minutes.
I do not recommend using kitchen oven during crappie spawn because this could result in loss of fishing time due to injury. (courtesy of the wife)
Much of the information gathered here was learned on Crappie.com.

Looks familiar, I have something very similar to yours. Only thing I've changed is the racks, Lord knows how bad I hated loading that sucker. A friends son made me some different racks, they'll hold 35 jigheads up to 1/4 and they have their own little legs. I can go to these racks after painting right from the bench, really saves my back. When I'm ready to cure they have hangers which I hang on the oven racks. It takes seconds to derack. I can do this process repeatedly, with no shut down time if necessary. It used to take me an hour to load the oven, 35-40 minutes to cure, and 10-15 min to unload. Now I can run 800-1000 heads in 45-50 min. if I'm motivated. With spoons I use ornament hangers. I outta mass produce these racks, they're big time savers and easy to use. Even the static painters could use them. Calling, hmmm. Now I'm remembering that rack nightmare and my backs starting to hurt again. But hey, I started there myself, nice set-up. Another thing, if your tired of blackening your molds, try some Drop-Out. It works far better, I promise. You can get it at Zeiners Bass Shop on the web, cheapest place for Do-It molds also.

I have seen the drop out recommended by others. I may try it some day. Just curoius.....how long do you cure and at what temp?

lightwirehooker

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by lightwirehooker

I have seen the drop out recommended by others. I may try it some day. Just curoius.....how long do you cure and at what temp?

lightwirehooker

---

My cure times are what CSI recommends. I made a post on another board about painting and keeping hook eyes clean, Check it out there's some good info there. I bought my boat by pouring jigheads, all 75,000 of them. I'm not that motivated anymore. But my friends keep me busy enough, when I'm broke I take them brushpile fishing and stay on the motor. haha

this is a outstanding post good job done.

What size are those jig heads