Has anyone tried making tungsten jigs?

Has anyone tried making tungsten jigs?
I do a lot of ice fishing and tungsten jigs are the hottest thing going. Only a couple of places making them. Of coarse tungsten has a melting point of 6192°f does put a damper on pouring your own, compared to lead melting point of 327°f, but they can be purchased in bulk, then paint or add your finishing touches to the raw jigs. They are extremely heavy weight for the size of the jig head. The ice fishing world loves them because a small tungsten jig will sink really fast and give better feel of the jig. It would be like fishing with a 1/8 oz lead jig only it would be the size of a 1/32 oz jig. ( I don't know the exact math, that is just an example of what I am talking about )

I looked into 1/8 oz and 1/16th oz Tungsten Jigs and they are frightfully expensive. $4.29 - EACH - I wanted some smaller sized jigs for when the crappie are being picky.

I tie some tungsten bead head flies, but no jigs. The cost even on the small beads are high. Have had them a couple of years.

Skip

I goof around with home foundaries as a hobby.
After doing some reading, I doubt tungsten will
ever be a feasible substitute for lead.

Pure tungsten's melting point is too high for
anyone to actually melt and pour. Instead,
pure powdered tungsten is mixed with nickel
or cobalt and sintered at around 2200°F to
create useable alloys.

Just for perspective, cast iron melts around
2000°F, steel melts around 2500°F, and refractory
liners used in small foundaries are good to
around 3000°F. The black ceramic tiles on the
space shuttle approached 2300°F on re-entry,
but I don't know if they could go higher.

Foundary hobbyists mostly cast aluminum and
brass, which melt below 1500°F. But more
advanced hobbyists do cast grey iron. So if
you can cast iron or steel, you may be able
to cast tungsten alloys.

I suspect the biggest challenge in casting a
jig at these temps is not vaporizing the hook.
When 2000°F molten metal is poured, a thin
wire hook will probably burn away in a puff
of smoke. It may be necessary to pour under
an oxygen free environment just to preserve
the hook. Argon gas could be used to shield
the jig from oxygen like a MIG/TIG welder.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HsvToolFool

I suspect the biggest challenge in casting a
jig at these temps is not vaporizing the hook.
When 2000°F molten metal is poured, a thin
wire hook will probably burn away in a puff
of smoke. It may be necessary to pour under
an oxygen free environment just to preserve
the hook. Argon gas could be used to shield
the jig from oxygen like a MIG/TIG welder.

---

That's what first came to mind when I read this...no way they could stand up to the temp difference.

If I''m not mistaken tungsten heads are pour in two parts . The hook is placed between the halves that snap together . Once powder painted they are premanent bonded and water proof . You would need a lot of dollars for equipment And some extrodinary skills / training.

Actually most of the tungsten ice heads are sintered just as HSV noted above - and they are poured without a hook, but they mold in a hook slot. The heads are all Chinese manufacture. Wholesalers (mainly in eastern Europe and the Scandinavian countries) purchase the heads from China, hooks from Japan, and they solder the hooks into the jig head slot with conventional solder. They then paint them/plate them, and sell. I have looked into buying bulk tungsten ice heads and it's reasonable to do, but 1,000 piece minimums make it just out of reach for someone not attempting to do it as a business. Also, FWIW, tungsten ice jigs are very tricky to powder paint - they extremely dense head concentrates all the heat to the solder, and it is very, very easy to overheat the head, melt the solder, and watch your tungsten head fall off the hook into your powder fluid bed. Don't ask me how I know this.... :-)

One more thing to keep in mind Erik, is that the sintered tungsten ice jigs are about 70% heavier than a same sized lead jig. They are not 'twice as heavy' as is frequently marketed. I like them too, but be aware of the marketing gimmicks that are being played with them. And that one site selling them for $4 a jig - you'd have to be, well, loony, to pay that! :-)

Well the slotted beads I use on a jig sickle hook or some sizes I have in regular bend in a Daiichi fly (what they call Specialty hooks) hooks and have them not just gold, silver and black, but some colors too. They can be bought and for a lot less that $4 each, but none at a 1/8 oz either.

Skip

People are paying $4 plus even $5 for the ones made in England with the swavarski crystal glued on them and during the ice fishing season they were all sold out you couldn't get one if you wanted and people were waiting in line to buy them. I also know some places are buying Tungsten powder and mixing it with epoxy and making them but those are not the same heavy density as the sinkered ones. There is also a place in Russia that makes the tungsten heads with the hook groove in them I was going to try and see how much they were but I am sure you also need to buy a min order like maybe 1000. Maybe if someone bought some we could split them along us? Like I said the ice fishing world it nuts for them, I wonder how long before the regular fishing world catches on? I know some bass guys already using tungsten worm weights. It is the small size to weight that makes them good.

Id be interested in buying some if we had a group buy or something. Only thing is im not set up to soldier the hooks into them. I would need somone to do that part lol. On a side note im one of the ice fisherman that is nuts about them lol and the ones with the crystal on them work amazing for some reason compared to the ones without lol

I love the idea of a head that fits onto the hook... I've been looking for a head like that. I'm looking for a lead head I can crimp around the hook. The reason is the ability to tie in material into the head. It's a great clean look. Fish skulz makes one like it but it doesn't fit jig hooks. If anyone runs across them let me know. I may be willing to go in on some tungsten heads... Let me know

Quote:

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Originally Posted by revtoby

I love the idea of a head that fits onto the hook... I've been looking for a head like that. I'm looking for a lead head I can crimp around the hook. The reason is the ability to tie in material into the head. It's a great clean look. Fish skulz makes one like it but it doesn't fit jig hooks. If anyone runs across them let me know. I may be willing to go in on some tungsten heads... Let me know

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The beads I have slide over a jig hook and you tie behind them to hold them tight in place. You can find the beads, but just in small sizes, like 1/32 or maybe a little heavier. I would have to look that up again or weigh the ones I have to tell you exactly how much they weigh. I will post a picture of some.

Skip

I have seen another type of tungsten jig head made in Russia where the hook is a regular straight shank hook with no bend at the eye, a hole is drilled through the center of the jig head, then a slot cut to lay the hook in, then solder hook in place, I think is how they do it? Then you tie the jig on through the hole in the middle of the jig head which also goes through the hook eye in the center of the jig. It is hard to explain but when the jig is tied on the the line like that though the center of the jig head it causes the jig to always hang perfectly horizontal. I'll see if I can find a picture. The Scandinavian and Russian ice fisherman have been kicking ass on U.S. anglers in international ice fishing tournaments.

Let me try those pictures again.
http://i851.photobucket.com/albums/a...ussiajigs2.jpg

http://i851.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Russiajig.jpg

There is a trick to tying these jigs on to your line, they say thread the line through then tie it to the hook shank below the jig head. What I did was just put my line through the jig head then tied a knot in the line big enough so it would not pull back through the hole, the line would break first before the knot would give out. When you tie the jig on like this no matter what you do the jig always hangs perfectly horizontal in the water.

I love the concept... Pbug get to working on getting the mold. That is pretty cool.

Heck, if someone got the mold to make something like a Custom Jigs and Spins "Diamond Jig"... I know there'd be a good market for 'em.

If someone gets that mold made - I'm in for a BUNCH of jigs!!! Big trick then is finding size 12 or 14 jig hooks (sickles :-)