Anyone ever messed with casting their own sinkers, jigs?

[John Jones]

I spent all afternoon casting egg sinkers for bottom fishing.  Should be enough to last me and my friends the year.

One of my sons has been casting jigs for inshore fishing.  They look pretty good.  I love the new powder coat "paints".  Just heat the finished lead head a little, dip in the powder, shake off the excess, hang to cool.  That stuff is as hard as any paint.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

[JimCt]

New powder coat paints?

[John Jones]

Well, powder coating has been around a while but required expensive equipment.  This stuff is easier, neater, and much faster than any kind of paint.  I use a cheap heat gun from Home Depot.  

8-10 seconds in the heat, swish through the powder, hang until cool.  Fish.

http://www.csipaint.com/powderpaint.htm

http://www.csipaint.com/0009.htm

[Miguel]

Just make sure there is no water or humidity inside the mold before your pour the molten metal!!!!
I´ve cast many sinkers and some jig heads.  It is fun and saves some $$.

[John Jones]

Yep.  I first experienced a steam explosion in the early 70's casting bullets.  Wet stuff and molten metal do not mix.  As far as safety, being outside and upwind of the smoke/fumes is mandatory as is safety glasses and gloves.  Washing your hands before smoking or eating is a good idea also.

[John Jones]

Turkey fryer burner, flea market cast iron dutch oven, jury-rigged metal heat sheild for my shins, and scrap plywood wind shield.


Plenty of sinkers


Do-it brand sinker mold.


Son's jigs and my powder paint job.

[JimCt]

Wonder if it's the same powder used in electrostatic powder coating?  Never thought of making my own lures.  Have cast lead balls for my .44 Colt Army.  Trick with that is preheating the mold so there's no air entrapment when the lead cools & shrinks in the mold.  Shooting poorly cast balls yields a very loose grouping... if they hit the target at all.

Where do you scrounge your lead?  Lead I've found has been old wheel weights and old lead house plumbing.

[John Jones]

yes, it's the same paint.  Cheap at Harbor Freight.

Yep, a cold mold will not cast a good sinker, much less a bullet.

[LilRichard]

Where are you getting the lead?  A dentist friend of mine scavenges his from Xray film... apparantly there is some lead in those.  Maybe next time I get a new car battery I will keep the plates from the old one.

[JimCt]

The metal he's getting out of the x-ray film is silver.

Easiest lead to get is old wheel weights from a tire shop.  Messing around busting up car batteries is dangerous (sulphuric acid).

[steved]

I agree with JimCT.  Just shuffle down to the tire shop - they will have a bucket of weights that they tear off of rims before re-balancing.  Unless someone else has first dibbs, they will be happy to let you have 'em.

[John Jones]

The is an old guy in Clearwater that has a tire store.  A couple of fresh fish fillets will get you at least two 5 gal buckets of wheelweights  

[Miguel]

Same here:  tire shop and a car battery factory.

[JimCt]

If I'm not mistaken, battery lead has some additive in it... antimony maybe?

[John Jones]

Most everything has additional metals except for plumbers lead.
Most of the time it's tin and antimony.  They are lighter and harder than pure lead.  I think battery plates have something else also.  In the 'old' days we used to get linotype for casting bullets.  It had a high antimony content and was too hard for bullets without adding additional lead.

Side note:  I ran across a couple of wheel weights that would not melt.  I fished one out of the pot and inspected it.  It was stamped "AL".  I assume it was aluminum and came from California.     I get a kick out of the fact that almost every piece of fishing tackle out there has the warning that this product is known to cause cancer in California.  I think maybe it's something else besides fishing tackle that is causing CA problems