making your own weights for fishing

[diggin4grouper]

Re: making your own weights for fishing

Been making 12lb lead downrigger balls for years. After reading this might start making other weights too. Already have some of the equipment needed, just gotta get some molds. Thanks

downrigger balls can be fun at times we use old tomato sauce cans and coat hangers to make a few for friends , the mold can get expensive i pay any where from 40 to 70 bucks for a mold from http://www.do-itmolds.com/ , http://www.facebook.com/pages/Do-It-Molds/272093508591 but my molds pay for there self as i sell some to bait shops and people off the street , fishing funds !

 

[diggin4grouper]

Re: making your own weights for fishing

Thanks. I'm down in Mexico. Most of the lead I have access to is from old dive weights. I noted what you guys said about lead and water!

with using old dive weights especially ones that have been used be very careful as the do take on water and if you have a pot full of lead and you go to add more to it , it will splatter and pop and lead will go every where , please do where leather welding glove when adding this type of lead , i try to do this wit as minimal harm to me and others help at the time , of your using a pot that is like mine when i know i have lead that has been in water i have a 1/4 piece of ply wood i use as a shield between my body and the pot and just reach around with my hand to control the splatter .. have fun and be safe

 

[ngt]

Re: making your own weights for fishing

My buddy does this. He got a 5 gallon bucket of lead at the flea market for $5. He now has 20+ molds and his last cast was a 10lb downrigger weight that goes for $40 at the pro shop. There's definitely some cleaning up to do after his pours, but he saves a ton of money.

cool stuff! thanks for sharing the picture!

 

[diggin4grouper]

Re: making your own weights for fishing

My buddy does this. He got a 5 gallon bucket of lead at the flea market for $5. He now has 20+ molds and his last cast was a 10lb downrigger weight that goes for $40 at the pro shop. There's definitely some cleaning up to do after his pours, but he saves a ton of money.

cool stuff! thanks for sharing the picture!

doing your own does save money in the long run, and since i started selling s few it allows me to buy more molds , and i have been asked to do vertical jigs but dont know about that

 

[ngt]

Re: making your own weights for fishing

doing your own does save money in the long run, and since i started selling s few it allows me to buy more molds , and i have been asked to do vertical jigs but dont know about that

My friend has some old book that shows how to do jigs and even make his own rubber worms with molds. He hasn't got that far into it, but he said he wants to make lead heads since they're $1 a pop or so and he's been getting into ling/rock fishing.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: making your own weights for fishing

and these will be your end product

I notice that a lot of your weights have wrinkles in them, this is caused by your lead not being hot enough when you pour it in the mold.

I pour and paint my own jigs and had this problem when first starting out. I switched from a small "Hot Pot" with only one temp setting to a bottom pour production pot with a variable temp setting and got rid of my wrinkles with hotter lead.

I know this probably doesn't matter too much with weights, but it's something you may want to consider if you're going to pour and sell jigs.

 

[diggin4grouper]

Re: making your own weights for fishing

I notice that a lot of your weights have wrinkles in them, this is caused by your lead not being hot enough when you pour it in the mold.

I pour and paint my own jigs and had this problem when first starting out. I switched from a small "Hot Pot" with only one temp setting to a bottom pour production pot with a variable temp setting and got rid of my wrinkles with hotter lead.

I know this probably doesn't matter too much with weights, but it's something you may want to consider if you're going to pour and sell jigs.

thanks for the advice , the ones i sell to people dont have them , the ones picture were just samples i show and they were made very quickly just to show the type and sizes i can make that was all heres a pic of one being sold

 

[catfishcarl99]

Re: making your own weights for fishing

ya im right there with ya. got a lee 10 lb pot and 4 molds right now. i make no roll (flat teardrops) from 1-1 1/2-2-3oz and eggs from 1-2-3-4-5 oz banks from 1 1/2 down and bass casters w/swivel from 2 oz down. just poured 50 lbs this week. 20 is going to a friend in ohio through the mail. heres 26 i pourd for me.

heres my equiptment gloves and oil i use on the hinges of molds and pull pins.

theres also 25 lbs of decoy weights there i just got in the mail today from ebay. got them for $32 shipped. not bad. i used to go to the tire shops and get the workers a case of beer and they would give me a 90lb bucket full of weights. but new laws in il make them use zink or steel. so that dried up.

i clean and flux my weights and led in a small heavy steel soup pot and pour it into these.stainless condiment cups for ingots.

heres some of the 25 decoy 1 lb weights i just got.

this is my bss caster bell mold. these i use for a 3 way rig when drifting calm currents. i can use a snap on the sacrificial drop line and change weights as needed.

 

[ngt]

Re: making your own weights for fishing

Very cool stuff man!

 

[catfishcarl99]

Re: making your own weights for fishing

making ingots back in july

 

[catfishcarl99]

Re: making your own weights for fishing

got a new splitshot today. 3/8th and 1/4oz.

got all my decoy weights melted and cleaned as well.

another thing with a Q asked earlier. the hot lead looks like liquid chrome. real shiny. when it goes into the ingots or molds it hardens quickly. the molds usually 3-5 seconds. but the hotter it gets and the bigger the sinker it can add a few seconds. like the OP said watching the over pour spout will tell ya. when the shiny chrome hazes over to a dull silver, its hard.

 

[diggin4grouper]

Re: making your own weights for fishing

nice Carl !!! i just got back from a meeting with a new bait shop and i will now be doing all there lead , they ordered 10 lbs of everything i can make ,around 340 lbs ill start on that in the morning will be a nice payday ... hopefully they like what they get and ask for more , i like your ingot molds too , but ill stick to the corn molds for now , have funn and be safe

 

[catfishcarl99]

Re: making your own weights for fishing

ya i collect cast iron. i have the same cornbread (corn ears) pan and a 6" one split into pie shaped cuts. but i hate to use it on lead. the lil ss cups were cheap from big lots, and work well. tonight i dropped an ingot into the pot a lil early. slipped out of my fingers. i had 2 tiny drops hit me in the right side of my face both within 2" from my right eye. be adding clear safety glasses to the lead casting tub i store my stuff in. lucky. they were small and cooled quickly before it left much more than a red mark but on the eye could have been bad.

heres 4 lbs of splits i poured with the soft decoy lead.

im stocked for a while now. put 20 lbs of ingots up for when i run out. got 9 lbs or so almost a full pot im gonna use up tomorrow pouring more bass casters. ran out of swivels.

good luck with the bait shop deal. i need to try and hook up somethigng like that.

 

[diggin4grouper]

Re: making your own weights for fishing

i used to use stainless steel for ingots but if your pouring a lot of them they dont cool off quick enough , with the cast iron they will cool off after there dumped and are ready to take more in a min or too , i had a few stainless pots glowing bright orange from pouring ingots , but it works for small amounts , i think with some of the money i get from the bait shop im going to build a new pour station with an aluminum top on it that way its easy to clean up , with you doing it on the 1 lb propane bottles how hot does your lead get ?

 

[catfishcarl99]

Re: making your own weights for fishing

not sure i never use a therm. i know some do when melting wheel weights to keep zink and tin from melting over 700 but im not worried about it. it all casts out in the water fine for me. i had a friend on a catfish forum a while back had him a nice set up. he made a hood with a fart fan over his pot and a vent pipe likr for a dryer running out a window. he mounted a dryer vent on a piece of wood to close in the window and hook the vent pipe to that. he poured them in his garage in the winter using that. pretty cool deal.

 

[catfishcarl99]

Re: making your own weights for fishing

heres the aftermath. theres a pair of clear safety glasses with my stuff now. you think your doing things safely and then you relize how quickly something can go wrong. the little red mark looks a lil worse now. had that hit my open eye things would never be the same im sure. that was close.

 

[diggin4grouper]

Re: making your own weights for fishing

yep that was to close . be safe man