-
1 Attachment(s)
Barb Not pouring
Tried my first shot a Jacobs 1/8 Pill Head mold. I am basically new to making jig molds. What does pour is really clean, so I am pleased with the quality of the mold. I wanted to start this for relaxation, and now all it seem to be doing is getting my blood pressure up :banghead. But that's ok its part of learning and I ask a lot of questions. Attachment 339887 My problem is that the barb is not being poured. Its cooling about 1/2 way from the pill head to where the barb should be. I am using a ladle, but it fits the sprue so I can close it completely as I pour. I heated the mold to where you cant hardly even put fingers close enough to put swivel and hook in. That helped some, but the hole in the sprue is really small, should I try and mess with that to make hole a little bigger (I don't want to mess up a $100 mold).....or is there something else that I should be doing? IF I smoke it really good would that help?
Any help will be greatly appreciated:pray. I tried to add a picture of what I came up with but don't know if it will upload right.
Thanks
-
Careful on pre-heating molds - you can warp them. Bottom feed pot would alleviate a lot of your problems. Trying tilting your mold when you pour. Your trying to get rid of trapped gas. Mold release is not as messy as smoking. last resort - cut or scratch lines in the mold leading away from your problem areas - again, trying to get rid of the trapped gas.
Cutting or drilling on the mold is the last thing you want to do. It's mostly about technique and learning your mold.
-
Like I mentioned in another post check out this release spray it works....
Do-It Molds : Melting Equipment for your lead fishing tackle
-
Ive never had a Jacobs mold but hear a lot of good about them, my guess is that its cooling before the cavity can ventilate the air out. the mold is too cold but to warm up I just lay mine on my pot a few minutes before I pour.
-
I ran my jig bussiness doing nothing but ladle pouring.
Small jig heads in my bussuiness were 1/64, 1/32, 1/16, and 1/8oz.
One issue with ladle pouring is what I refer to as "bounce" pouring. you start to pour, your hand twitches, and you stop for a brief second and continue. this causes the lead to harden either in the cavity or in the sprue. I always rest the ladle on my mold.
Despite the ease of use of a small ladle, I always had issues with one. I went to the large laddle as it held more material and more importantly, more heat.
The BIGGEST issue I had with pouring small jigs is the lack of clean lead. When pouring large jigs (1/2oz or bigger) this isn't as big of an issue. What I mean by clean lead isn't necessarily whether it is dirty or not but rather what the makeup of it is. For pouring large heads, I prefered 15lbs of 95% plug pure lead with 3lbs of alloy or wheel weight lead. This gave me a very consistant pour, a slightly harder head, and a head that didn't tarnish.
Unfortunately, this material was NOT the best for pouring small jigs. The reason is that the allow takes more heat to stay liquid. One bounce pour and that lead quickly turns hard and doesn't allow the full flow to through your mold.
Although I never used Jacob's molds, I would say they are no different than any other. Obviously you have the mold hot enough. My advice would be to utilize PURE lead as a starting point and crank your pot up as high as it will go. You will get some flashing and garbage on the top as you start to burn the lead but it will stay liquid. Make sure you clean your ladle with a wire brush. Wheel weight lead with be the biggest headache when dealing with tiny jigs. Heck, having the wrong combination will be a headache when dealing with larger jigs as well.
-
Put the spout of the pot directly in the gate of each cavity.
-
Went and bought a small 120v Lee bottom pour. Had been thinking about it for a while anyway. Was coming thru Memphis today, stopped in Sportsman's Warehouse and said what the heck. Ladle pot I was using a large laddle and it seems to fit the spruce fine....
I’ll try it this weekend and give a report back.
Thinking the other will still come in handy to clean lead with. And use bottom pour to pour with. Havn’t used any wheel weights and such yet, I had a friend give me probably 75 lbs of soft lead from a X-ray room remodel.
-
Your ladle pot will work well to make ingots with.
-
Don't use wheel weights - some are made with zinc - and you will regret putting zinc into your pot! The x-ray lead is the best stuff you can get.
-
Yeah I buy my lead now from rotometals.com. Got tired of mixed bag of results from eBay. I get the 95% lead 5% antimony. It’s a harder lead and consistent every time. Hated pure lead as wire inserts I used for spinners would wiggle out of the soft lead.