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Has anybody else had trouble with the collar not forming all the way with sickle hooks in a do it mold? I'm trying to pour 1/4 round heads with barb and consistently have trouble with the barb or collar not pouring completely but my hilt mold comes out perfect all the time. I have a assorted size hilt mold so I guess I need to get some different size hooks because pouring 1 at a time gets old. Thanks for your help.
I agree pouring one at a time does get old!!
The only time I have trouble w barbs or collars is when my mold is to cold, or lead is not hot enough, pour about 3 times and the rest will be perfect, for me.
Yeah that's what I thought but I can go from pouring regular eagle claw 570 hooks just fine and then switch to sickle hooks and it messes up, black hooks seem to be worse than just bronze
What sickles? Matzuo? They have heavier wire than the ec hooks and this can create some issues in a mold that already needs to be done hot. I had a hilts years back and ran into casting headaches with it and sent it to the garbage. You should try the Eagle Claw lil nasty sickles. They're a great hook all around.
I use the matzuo, and some I get from Crazy Angler, sickle hooks is all I use.
They are matzuo, I really like hooks, I will look into the ec sickle hooks thanks. Like I said they come out perfect in my hilts mold, I haven't ever actually used sickle hooks so maybe I will just stick with regular hooks, I've never had a problem with them. Thanks for all your help.
I cast some Marzuo black sickle hooks, I had to get the mold hot for good ones.
Have used the red and black in ball, minnow, pony and tube and never had a problem. Just preheat the mold by pouring without hooks and they pour right up. I also have the Eagle Claw sickles.
I have had trouble with the sickle hooks and when I miked them the hooks are a little bigger. The hook is closing the venting or out gassing. I usually run into this also using larger hook sizes. If you really want to shoot these hooks you will need to open up the hole at the bottom just a little or like I did was vent it out to the side. Try tilting the mold at different angles while pouring but be very careful. Some molds are just a little tight. I have trouble with the light wire hooks going past the margins and may have to trim them. They are a lot smaller in diameter than most hooks. Like the others have said a hot mold will shoot a lot different than a cool one. You can also force inject it by putting the nozzle into the mold fill hole. Again,please be careful with hot lead experimenting. I am assuming you are using a lead pot???
Yes I am using a hot pot, I ordered other size hooks so I will just use my hilts mold and use up these hooks. I have never used sickle hooks and thought I would try something new but I have never had trouble with plain old ec hooks either so I will probably just stick with those from now on and skip this trouble. Thanks for all your help.
Sorry, I just saw this post.
I pour thousands of sickle hooks every year for sale for the spring walleye run. I ran into similar issues with different do-it molds. As some have mentioned, if you switch over to the "lil-Nasty" hook, this will avoid the headache however, a ton of my customers only know of the word "Matzuo".
Here are a couple of things I have done to help the process. The biggest issue I have seen is that, because the gauge wire is bigger, the hook takes up more of the cavity and doesn't allow the lead to flow to the bottom. One of the biggest issues is the offset between the hook eye and the shank is slightly different. It tends to push the shank to the back of the mold. If your collars are at the back (some of mine are) you run into issues with the lead not flowing down to the collar.
To combat this, I took a drill bit slightly larger than the spot where your eye goes in the mold. I milled out both sides of the mold. This allows you to position the hook so that the shank is centered inside of the mold slot (hope that is clear).
On a few of my molds, I've had to use a dremel and ease the mold on both sides slightly to open it up and allow lead to pour. I pour a ton of 5/8, 3/4, and 1 oz jigs. Now, I actually have two molds.. one for Matzuo (that I altered) and one for regular hooks.
All of my 1/32, 1/16, and 1/8 I have switched over to "Lil-Nasty" and have had no reason to alter the mold.
Let me know if that helps or if you would like me to get a couple of photos for you to show you what I am referring to.