Molds for fishing jig heads

[Traffer]

Traffer mostly bluegill and crappie jigs, although I have tied some in bigger sizes for walleye or bass I have yet to seriously fish them. 1/32nds, 1/16ths mostly a few 1/8th and 1/4 oz but not many.

About feb to early march the tieing bug bites me hard, and I'll tie anything, but it probably won't look like anything anyone else has ever tied.

I caught that tip about mass producing eyes off youtube and it sure works slick once its setup and running.

Powder coat paint in a small jar works real slick the way I described it. I got my first ones on closeout at my local Fleet Farm.
Then went looking on Amazon for the pearl white and Chartreuse.

For bluegills I've had my best luck using about 1/3 of a 1" gulp chartruese minnow. Just a chunk or a tail. Its the smell, there is something in that stuff that is magic. My was fishing with chunks of crawler, we had near identical jigs some 3' below a small bobber. I had 5 keepers in the boat and she had 2 little silver dollar sized ones. She turned and pinned me with the evil eye. "what are you doing? How are you doing that!" LOL after that I set her up the same and hardly had time to fish I was so busy takeing her fish off the hook. Ohh well.

I don't fish anymore. My brother has a boat and fishes bluegills, crappies yadayada. He is rigged up with 2lb mono and uses ice fishing jigs. Right under the boat in deeper water. Kills em. He has a ant lead jig. Wants me to put black hackle on it...I keep forgetting. I think he uses ice fishing grubs on the jigs too.

[MT Gianni]

IME,
1. Fish could care less about wrinkled jigs
2. Powder coat covers a lot.

[Minerat]

A small piece of raw or cooked shrimp works good to on the Ice gigs too.

[Baja_Traveler]

I've got several Do-It molds - after using the finely machined jewelry we are used to casting boolits, these molds are just poorly designed sand cast garbage. Still, they work in a pinch - I always pre-heat on a hot plate, use pure lead and cast at 800 to get decent results.

[Drm50]

I wouldn't call Do-it's junk. They are cast and mating surfaces machined and precision of a bullet mold is not required. The next step down are investment cast molds and bottom shelf molds are just cast. I have a Do-it mold that half is machined out like a shallow pan. The other half is cut out leaving just border like a window frame. Fill bottom half with plaster of Paris and suspend a form 1/2 depth and let cure. Then place top 1/2 over it and fill with plaster. ( form has release agent on it) when this cures take apart and remove form. Use die grinder to cut sprues and relief for hooks, wire ect. Then use this dummy plaster mould as form in sand box to pour a mold of cast Alumilum. They have to be cleaned up and mating surfaces machined but usually come out pretty good. Once in a while get a reject because of sand pits.

[Nick Quick]

After fiddling extensively and trying everything I could think of about pouring jig heads I came to few conclusions.
The alloy temperature has to be minimum 750F.
Pouring a bunch of times with no hooks inside is a must to heat up the mold.
When both the alloy and the mold are hot the cavities will fill perfect even around the hook in that tiny space left.
Not sure on other melters but on my RCBS I can adjust the flow and that is also very important. The bigger the flow the better fill and the smoother surface the jig head will have. Big/heavy sinkers will not fill properly without a fast thick flow as the alloy will solidify fast in a big cavity.
Closing the mold perfectly is important. I have a mold and I don't have the proper hooks for it so I modified the eyelets to be able to close the mold. Even a tiny imperfection will keep the mold a bit open and the result is ugly jig heads.
Sinkers that require inserts need the inserts greased with anti-seize properly. Otherwise the insert cannot be pulled out.
Molds with handles(Do-It) are the easiest to work with. The ones with no handles are a pain but some of them are worth the hassle are they are awesome.
Before buying molds from Europe make sure you can find the appropriate hooks that can be bought here otherwise you'll end up modifying the molds and some modifications if not done properly will ruin the mold.

[Winger Ed.]

Jann's Netcraft has all the 'do-it' molds, and hooks & inserts for them as well as all manner of other rod & lure making stuff.

I've bought from them a few times, and they couldn't be much better to deal with.

[RoyEllis]

Zeiners.com has the best selection and prices I've found for DO-IT molds.

[Minerat]

For jigs I use a B&D 2 temp heat gun, medium forceps, a wire rack and a bottle of powder paint. I set the heat gun to high, grab the hook with the forceps, rotate the head it in the heat guns air stream to warm both sides for a short time. Too much and the paint clumps because the lead is too hot. Too little and the paint is too thin. Swish the warmed jig in the powder, tap off the excess and then back into the heat until the powder turns shiny. Hang on rack to cool. You can bake them to set the paint but usually the reheat does it. I don't have an airbed so I just shake up the bottles of paint periodically to fluff it up. I can do about a 130 an hour. You can still bust the eyes with an eyebuster and don't have to drill them using this method. I dont worry about wrinkles the fish have never complained and the guys I fish never look a gift horse in the mouth. I get my hooks from DoIt to fit the moulds. By the way reusable split shots don't work well with hard alloy.

[midnight]

I made some fluid beds for my powder but soon found that stirring up the powder periodically worked just as well and was much less labor intensive. I hold the jig with a hemostat and pass it through a small alcohol flame several times & then dip in powder. Chartreuse, pearl, & yellow serve most of my needs for crappie & walleye jigs.

Bob

[Nick Quick]

I tested your method of dipping many many times and for me there is no comparison between the classic dipping method and fluid bed. A fluid bed that function properly gives way better results. More uniform and no paint dripping while curing the jigs in the oven. But that's just me.