Loose hooks in jigs?

I’ve been browsing this forum and came across a couple of posts mentioning jigs with loose hooks.

Way back when. When I started making my own jigs, someone told me that cold hooks in the mold caused loose hooks. His argument was that when the lead touched the cold hook, it started to solidify and didn’t full flow around the hook resulting in a loose hook. This made sense then, and still does. But no guarantee.

I’ve always put my hooks on a stovetop griddle on a hot plate before putting them into the mold that sits on the griddle before I pour.

What do you all think about this? I’ve never had loose hook issues, but that could be like the “No elephants around here” joke.

Makes sense to me.

Sounds logical, but I've never done it. If you warm your molds in the same manner, or run a couple rounds of just hot lead through the mold, putting these back in the pot to remelt, the warm mold will warm the hooks up so they aren't cold when pouring. I sometimes struggle to put hooks in the mold. Heating the hooks up anymore than the mold wouldn't make my big fingers any better at arranging them in the mold any faster,. Just my 0.02 worth.

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Originally Posted by Jamesdean

Sounds logical, but I've never done it. If you warm your molds in the same manner, or run a couple rounds of just hot lead through the mold, putting these back in the pot to remelt, the warm mold will warm the hooks up so they aren't cold when pouring. I sometimes struggle to put hooks in the mold. Heating the hooks up anymore than the mold wouldn't make my big fingers any better at arranging them in the mold any faster,. Just my 0.02 worth.

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I've got pair of bamboo mini tongs to handle the hooks. Be interesting to pour a half dozen cold and half dozen hot and see if there is a tendency for loose hooks in one or the other.

Sounds feasible.

After the first couple pours the mold is warm so cold hooks shouldn't be an issue since by the time you close mold and pour them they should be warm enough. I do pour some loose heads but once they are painted they aren't moving anymore.

In my experience it is t the hook temp that loosens the hook but how you handle them when removing the sprue. I have a couple of mold prone to being loose if they aren’t cut instead of breaking them off, and one is out of a pro mold. I use some single ground gate cutters that are also sold at the hobby stores. If they’re round heads you can squeeze em in a smooth jaw vise til they get a small flat spot on each side which works well for adding eyes.

Use a modified pair of bead crimper to break your head loose from the sprue and you’ll never have another loose hook. Just my method.

I have a couple of them. Used a dremel tool to open the radius to better fit 1/16 and 1/8 Oz balls.

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I disagree. I use 95% lead 5% antimony and don’t get loose hooks ever no matter if I pour with cold or hot hooks. I think soft pure lead is the corporate. People tend to pull the jighead out the mold by the hook which will cause the loosening or have molds like Do-It that have too thick sprue and are hard to get off the head which can cause the loosening if not careful. Print a lure and Jacobs mold have excellent sprues with little lead at the head. You can twist the sprue off cleanly unlike do-it molds. I quit using Do-it molds and pure lead along time ago and loose hooks are no longer a thing. One way to stop loosening if you are using soft lead is stick the spout of the pot directly in the gate of each cavity. This allows lead to get into the head hot as possible with less cooling as if you poured the lead across the top of the mold which I see many do.

Dr Nip has it.

Has to do with extracting from mold.

I don't have problems with loose hooks. I set my do-it mold on my lee pot. It warms up the mold. I lay out the hooks and then put them in the mold. Plus I live in Florida and the hooks don't get cold. :cheers2