I invested in a Hot Pot & Jig Mold

[mikeg]

I thank all of you for the info on the round head jigs and whare to get them. I decided to go ahead and get a hot pot & mold,the hot pot frome the local BPS but I had to order the mold frome Barlows. I was reading insert that came with the hot pot and it said use soft lead,and that balance wt frome car tires was not considered soft lead. Has any one tried balance wt.frome tires I have about 300lb. I was planning on using

[Barnacle Bill]

I thank all of you for the info on the round head jigs and whare to get them. I decided to go ahead and get a hot pot & mold,the hot pot frome the local BPS but I had to order the mold frome Barlows. I was reading insert that came with the hot pot and it said use soft lead,and that balance wt frome car tires was not considered soft lead. Has any one tried balance wt.frome tires I have about 300lb. I was planning on using

I use to make all my salt water sinkers and that is all I ever used. The lead will melt just fine, you just have to pick the metal clips out.

[Dirt water fox]

I also use them been, doing it for years, but you can not make split shot out of them

[Eager Beaver]

I use to use the plumbers inguts of lead, but plumbers quit using the lead so lost my supply of lead. 'Use to make our own anchors using an old hub cap and bend a 3/8ths in rod and a juice can and make a 15lb anchors Worked really well.

[1weezer]

Tire weight lead is hard lead. Soft lead is better for your molds than hard lead is. I use around 85% soft and 15% hard. !00% soft lead will turn a dark color a few days after pouring. If you mix a little hard lead in, then it will hold the shiney color longer. But if your going to paint them, it won't matter. I would not use 100% hard lead. Your molds won't last very long if you do. If you run into any pouring problems, give me a PM and I will be glad to help.

[BORIGINI]

Have Been Using The Wheel Lead For Years And My Molds Are Still In Good Shape.

[Mo'nBack]

mikeg; I use a melting pot and a DO-it-mold for minnow head jigs I bought from Barlows and the only problem I have with the hard lead is that it is very hard to get the temp exactly right for it to pour good into the mold. I end up with about 60/40 good ones and redoes using the hard lead. As much as I have to repour with it, I would say it wasn't very good for the mold. I know it plays heck with my nerves! The softer lead mix will fill the mold cavities better for me. You can get a lubricating spray from a hardware store that says on the label that it's good for lead molds, which really helps. I lightly spray the mold after each 4-5 pours. It don't take a second and seems to really help. At Wally World you can get some very small zip lock bags in the hobby section, about the size of a cig pack, and as soon as they cool a little, put your jigs in them (I put 50 in them snuggly) and they will keep their shiney appearance for about a year. But if you put them in a larger bag or airy container, they will dull very quickly. The bags are cheap ($2 per 200 I think or maybe even more).

[rango]

using soft lead to make small jig heads is much easier than using hard lead. the small cavity fills better with soft lead which pours better than the hard stuff. if you can find some soft lead id use it for the small jig heads and save the hard stuff for the bigger weights you make. years ago we used to pour our own jig heads using a hot pot. now i dont use so many jig heads so i buy what i need and I give my hot pot to pete. when i pour lead now, i melt it in a stainless steel cooking pan on a propane cooker and use a lead ladle to pour it. for pouring the bigger leads a small hot pot will do but you use the lead up pretty fast and its slow going waitin on some more to melt. with the ladle you can dip in the pot and keep pouring. be careful and make sure no water at all gets into the lead pot. dont melt it under a tree either since the sap can drip in the pot and cause it to blow. experiment with the soft and the hard lead and you will see what im talking about

[DENNIS BOWERS]

I use to use the plumbers inguts of lead, but plumbers quit using the lead so lost my supply of lead. 'Use to make our own anchors using an old hub cap and bend a 3/8ths in rod and a juice can and make a 15lb anchors Worked really well.

Beaver-My 80 yr. old neighbor makes them too.He gave me a 20 lb. one-Best anchor I"ve ever had!!

[Barnacle Bill]

To be honest I didn't know there was hard and soft lead. When I first started making heavy sinkers using wheel weights I thought I got a bad one once in a while because the lead was setting up too quick. So I started using a 2 burner propane stove. I melted the lead in an old heavy alumunum pan on one burner and kept one of the molds hot on the other (they were the all metal type) while the other was setting up. I probably made a thousand or so this way and the molds were still good when I gave them away.