Note to self - clean eyes out before baking jig heads !! they are a real pain fterwards ..
Steve-stabgnid
Printable View
Note to self - clean eyes out before baking jig heads !! they are a real pain fterwards ..
Steve-stabgnid
Steve take a pair of smooth inside edge needle nose and squeeze the eyelet and it should crack it enough to get it off. I don't like heating a wire and pushing through it - I feel it leaves a sharp edge that can cut your line.
Yep I've made that mistake before.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
Yep. Made that same mistake myself. Now I make it a habit to clean the eyes
before I put the jigs on the rack in the pans I've made.
Do like the idea by "Fatman". Gonna have to pick up a pair of those pliers.
Tight lines - Dave
Easiest way to get paint that has baked on the eye is get a bodkin that has a thin needle at least for the first 1/2" and I use a cheap one for this, but I just use a Bic lighter and heat the first 1/2" and stick it through while it's in my vise and jet before I tie it. It will melt the past right out and one scrape with a thumb nail on each side and it's nice and ready! No need for pliers or anything else. I have used the same bodkin that probably cost me $3.00 for over 10 years doing this same thing. It's fast and easy! If you can't find a cheap bodkin for this I would say get a really large needle and put a wood handle on it and use that like I do this bodkin. So all you need is a sharp item of metal that you can heat up with a Bic and stick it through the eye!
Skip
I got them cleaned out with a hot bodkin and a pin vice what a pain in the arse to do ...
Steve-stabgnid
Steve what I do is when I dip the heads in paint I have some tooth picks that I took a knife to so they will fit through the eye and I stick that thought the eye before it's even cool and that way I have very few that I need to clean out before I tie. Now every once ion a while I may have to stick the eye back in the flame for just a second to heat back up if it takes me too long to get the paint out, but that's not usually how it goes. I admit getting set up is a pain, but I have used the same set of tooth picks for many years now and each color has at least one tooth pick with it's color on it. I keep them in a small jar that lets the ends stand out above the rim. I clean the tooth picks with my thumb nail as I get paint out of the eyes while painting. Don't think many do this like I do, but it works well for me and once use to doing this, it becomes just part of the routine and fits well.
Skip
I place a plastic tube over the eyes before dipping.
Having a hard time visualizing that. Maybe it's because I head the head in flame and then dip that I can't see something plastic not melting.Quote:
Originally Posted by canebreaker
Skip
I hold the hook and heat the head, then clamp hemostats on the hook eye and dip in powder paint! No paint on the eyes!!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm doing thousands in a week. I have a piece of Styrofoam board. I preheat all of my jigs in the oven, dip them in paint and then run a sewing needle through the eye and stick it into the Styrofoam board. Pull the jig off the pin and hang it. Depending on the jig, some of them you don't even need to go all the way to the eye of the hook when dipping in the paint.
I didn't like cleaning my stats. Matter of fact I prefer cleaning the eye over cleaning my stats.Quote:
Originally Posted by RobJohnson
Skip
Since I couldn't tie thousands a week I never needed that many, heck now that I have backed away from tying a lot I don't need to paint much either, but still would have never needed thousands a week. Do you actually cure all these heads?Quote:
Originally Posted by wicklundrh
Skip
Skip,
I am not tying any of them. All the jig heads I sell are cured in the oven. I think I sold close to 16,000 heads in the month of February and March of this year. Mainly 5/8oz, 3/4oz, and 1oz in a ton of different varieties for walleye fishing. The rivers here eat jigs like there is no tomorrow. Been a long time since I sat down at the vice and tied any.
I spend much of the summer months pouring. I paint as many plain colors as I can in the fall and then do the custom patterns as orders come in. Not uncommon to get orders for several hundred per person. At one time last year I had 43 orders sitting in queue totaling more than 2700 jigs. That was a span of orders for 2 days. Word of mouth advertising sells faster than any advertising I could buy. Once a couple guys see the type of work and the quality, everyone wants them. Many guys were just tired of purchasing crappy jigs that were not cured. You bounce them off the bottom twice and the paint comes off. Curing has always been a big selling point for me.
I want to start tying again but, like anything else, I'm afraid others I fish with will see them and want them. Another business would then be born and I'm already as busy as I can be!
Well you really got it going on with the painted heads, but they are large heads and we are dealing with 1/8 usually as a big head. I do a lot of 1/16 and 1/32 oz heads and it's not easy to paint them without getting paint on something, lol! Plus the smaller the head the faster the heat will dissipate. I just like tying and for me painting heads is just a matter of making them look better. Still for me if I was not tying them I would not be making anything. Tying became what I spent time on after I quit trading the stock market. I was spending so much time on computers with that when I stopped, there was a massive amount of time I didn't know what I was going to do with it. So took up tying and never looked back. Never got into pouring heads at all and never really wanted to do that part. I am not trying to make a living doing this, it's my hobby and I spent a ton of time at the beginning as there were no schools near me and no youtube videos, it was digging on flitting boards and lessons on them. Then learning the language of what is what really. It's like someone asking what is hackle, lol!Quote:
Originally Posted by wicklundrh
Skip
The paint don't stick to the states, they aren't hot! You're just using them to hold the eye while you power paint!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
wow I just noted that I was a dumba** for not cleaning my eyes .. this as turn into a great discussion
Steve-stabgnid
I hear you Skip.Quote:
Originally Posted by skiptomylu
I do sell jigs from 1/32 oz all the way up to 1.5oz. I use the same sewing needle strategy on all of them. Most of my smaller jigs, 1/32 to 1/2, I can actually hold the hook, dip the head, and not get paint into the eye. I hold the hook with my stats instead of the eye (like some guys do). I used to do it that way, but once I got bigger fluid bed cups I was able to hold them with the hook, dip them in at an angle, cover the whole thing, and not worry about the eyes. For my minnow jigs, shad head jigs, and erie jigs, I cannot do it that way!
Stab... this is how we all learn. Sometimes, threads like this give some of us better ideas or things we never thought of doing before. Believe me, I made the "paint in the eyes" mistake when I first started. Sat there with a torch and a paperclip and vowed to never do it again!
wicklundrh I also hold the hook with my stats, tried the other way like some do, but I didn't like that at all. I don't think I can be accurate enough to dip and miss the eye, have to admit I never really tried that, but I also kind of like the eye painted, just not full of paint, LOL! I really think it would need a picture or two for me to really grasp and understand how your doing that. I use the 3" cups, have a few of the smaller cups and don't care for them much even though I do use a few especially on my Glow in the dark heads.
Rob, my stats are getting hot holding the eye as I use flame and the head, stats are both getting hot! Not sure how your holding the eye and not getting it hot too, but I also don't like holding the eye when I dip and really prefer the eye painted too.
There is one more way to do this and I believe Fatman uses it for his Pony head swivels, he dips the swivel in cold water just before the dip and the paint dopant stick, but maybe the eye like that may be a bit of a challenge huh?
Good discussion, but I still do not understand wicklundrh's method to the point I would know how to try that. Still confused, LOL! Gonna go read his post again and maybe again until I get it!
Skip
I remembered a buddy who posted about clearing eyes and in this thread go down to ctom and it should show you the pic of what he uses and says they clear even the hardest cured powder
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/pouri...-eye-cleaning/
I hold the jig by the hook, place the head under my heat gun. When it get hot enough, I clamp the stats to the hook eye and dip in powder paint.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yes I understand, but I don't want to change my time from flame to dip and it would take time to change from hook hold to eye hold and I don't think I can change it as fast as I can stick a toothpick in the eye after, but also I like the eye with paint on it. Just think it looks better and know it's not going to make any difference to the fish, just me and my likes. I did try a few like that, but also found it awkward for me to dip holding the eye and needed to be a lot more careful not to dip the whole hook. Just for me, I didn't like that method at all and I am use to mine and still do fine as it doesn't take me long to paint a enough heads and I don't have to deal with heat guns and all that noise either.Quote:
Originally Posted by RobJohnson
Skip
Y'all got to remember I have been doing this the way I do it for about 12 years so I am use to everything like it is now, LOL!
Skip
Skip,
With the sewing needle, I put it through the eye and swirl it around a few times (still holding the needle), after the paint is clean, I stuff the needle into the Styrofoam and pull the jig through the other side. Reason for this is the tip side I inserted might still have some of the left over paint on it and I don't want it to get stuck in the eye again. I can usually do a few of them before I need to use my finger nail to pop the paint residue off the tip. I hope that helps.
As for painting them without getting to the eye. I usually tilt my fluid cup towards me. I attach my stats to the bend of the hook so that the jig is angled a little more than 90 degrees from the stats. This gives me the proper angle to set the head down into the powder and up to but not over the eye of the hook. Again, trying to paint a visual picture is sometimes hard to do.
You did a good job explaining it really! Still that has got to be accurate dipping for sure.
Thank you,
Skip
I used different picks or needles to clean eyes for years while looking for something that works just right. I needed something that was bendable and strong enough to heat and poke out cured paint if necessary. I discovered this after losing or breaking them all.
This is .022 #9 Malin Hard Wire - stainless steel wire that I wrap some masking tape around one end. 42' will set you back about $2.50.
The tape keeps you from sticking holes in yourself and aids in finding the thing if you drop it. It is the best tool I have used for cleaning eyes. Run it through the eye and you can use your thumb on the tip to bend the wire to leverage a quick clean while holding your stats / jig with the other hand. If you do distort the wire tip just snip it. One 4" piece can do hundreds of jigs. Very fast and efficient.
Attachment 243139
I pour and tie bucktail jigs for walleye, at least 5000 a year in sizes 1/4-3/8-1/2-3/4-1 oz.I pour the head then clean the sprue and hold the jig by the hook and dip in the powder right away, very rarely do I get paint filling in the eye in any size jig, the hook comes out covered with paint but it is never solid.I very rarely pour anything smaller then 1/4 0z.