Has anyone tried mixing hard and soft lead for pouring jigs? I've got a lot of hard lead laying around just taking up space and thought it might be a good way of getting rid of it.
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Has anyone tried mixing hard and soft lead for pouring jigs? I've got a lot of hard lead laying around just taking up space and thought it might be a good way of getting rid of it.
Yeah, it will work just fine. I have a large supply of tire weights and when I melt down a large quantity of soft lead I will mix in a couple pounds of tire weights. Everything comes out fine.
Thats what I was thinking but sometimes my thinker gets me in trouble.:eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by jigsbydirk
I have been mixing 50/50 and it works. But 60/40 would be better. that is 60% soft lead.
I need to come up with some more soft lead. I think I have around 40 lbs left and plenty of the hard lead.
Pete
I mix printer's lead (about 1/2 way between tire weights and pure lead as far as hardness goes) with soft lead about 50/50 and don't have any problems. In the past, I just used printer's lead (my dad was a printer for the local paper). The only trouble I had was with large sinkers having wrinkles on the outer surface.
Musta been old lead. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by PanMan_VA
Does anybody make a starter kit for jig tying like they do for fly tying ?
The paper quit the typesetting process back in the 70s or 80s. My uncle and father bought all the left over lead to make sinkers. These days, I'm down to recycling 16 ounce and 20 ounce trolling sinkers. One of those will make a lot of 1/16 ounce heads. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by IBNFSHN
The last few original pieces were poured a few years ago.:(
Hey sticksteer, BPS sells a starter kit with everything you need to get you going, and a pretty good instructional video.
i use about 80/20 in mixing lead 80% soft,a little hardness maks the jig shine brighter a little longer.
Thanks SpeckWick, I'll see if our local store carries it.
What is the difference in lead? I have a bunch of old cable sheathing I use.
Whats the diff. after you paint them you cant tell the diff. but if you want jidghead to come out bright and shiney add a 8in. piece of 95/5 solder to your lead pot it will really make em shine and powder paint sticks tothem a lot easier.
Like all metals there are different grades. With lead it is hard to soft and I believe its the amount of tin in it. (I'm not positive about that). For some reason the mold makers recommend using soft lead for pouring jigs. Years ago I always made my salt water sinkers from wheel weights (hard lead) and never had any problems. You can tell if its hard or soft by pressing your thumb nail in it. If you can see the indentation then its soft. Hopefully someone else know more about this.Quote:
Originally Posted by Baxter1
Yeah Ibnfshn hardness comes from the tin. The only time I noticed a difference was when I poured from a hand pot before I had a Lee Production pot. The softer lead poured easier. With the production pot it all pours the same to me. However i think the tin produces a bit more trash in the production pot and makes me have to clean the spout out more often.
When you are done pouring do you leave lead in the pot? I noticed when reheating it has a tendancy to leak a lot and has to be watched closely until it heats up.Quote:
Originally Posted by jigsbydirk
Yeah, my pot leaks to, i just have a small tuna can under the spout that catches the drips until it seals itself off.