cadman

Nice looking bait Mumpy. Sometimes making something different than the ordinary gets more bites.

Like Skeeterman said small engraving tools and a steady hand. I would advise against doing this yourself unless your a machinist and have the correct tools to cut and clamp the molds. I like my molds to be accurate, and no matter how good you are you will never get it cut as good as a machinist who puts it in a vice. Simple holes are fine in a drill press. As Skeeterman mentioned one slip and your mold could be junk. Bits used should be carbide or cobalt and you can buy small end mills or round mills that will fit in a dremel.

Everyone that gets into this always has high expectations. My first piece of advice is to take it slow and be safe. Pouring lead is not for everyone. Also there will be a big learning curve in pouring jigs, followed by a bigger learning curve in painting them. This will all take a lot of time, patience, practice and persistance. So don't rush it and ask questions. Finally you will need at least a couple of hundred dollars just to start up. That would be a melting pot, lead, mold or two, hooks, powder paint etc. Have fun and stay safe.

Smalljaw, I like all the jigs. However the one that's got the bunny strip is my fav. When in water it looks like a real leach. Job well done.

I make them, and I use custom cut wire and form them myself. The molds are Do-It molds and the wire is expensive because you need long lengths. I also buy custom torsion straightened stainless steel wire.

In the long run, you will have to only make one jig and I believe the profit doesn't come for a couple of years. Yes you can buy a pot, molds and the free lead. However, now you have to buy hooks and lastly, you have to get the knack of getting good pours and then painting your jigs. I've seen a lot of guys start out and then are overwhelmed with everything they need to learn. They loose interest really fast. It takes some time to learn all of this. It's more of a hobby and a passion to make jigs. You have to want to do this and enjoy it. If you don't want to spend the time to pour and paint then buy your jigs like you have been, and walk away from the rest. I'm not trying to dissuade you from doing what you want, just giving you the facts. Also some days when you have a bad day, pouring jigs does get old but then again it's a passion for some of us to succeed.

I like it as well. Simple and clean cut work.

For a reasonable price and a good one without breaking the bank is a Odyssey Spyder vice by Griffin. It's about $125.00 and it will take the bigger hooks that you use for bass jigs

Pretty cool.

Everyone here gave you excellent advice. Best of all don't loan your expensive stuff to people. No-one takes care of it as good as you do. One thing you can also try. Is take a propane torch and aim it in the pot. The heat from the torch will dry out any water and will eveaporate as the lead starts to heat up. Just remember even with this process, always wear safety gear all of the time. Glasses, face shield, gloves. long sleeve shirt, long pants and shoes.

X2 on what Skeeterman said. Start out simple and ask a lot of questions. Then go and try it out to see what works for your type of presentation.

Wow Skeeterman, that looks really good?

Hey Smalljaw, Well I learn something everyday. I am going to e-mail you and get some more info on the 1/4 pound colis. Maybe I was buying the wrong one. We will talk. Thanks for straightening me out. (Pun intended)

.051 wire is hard to bend. Also IMO it is used mostly for pike and muskie inlines or spinnerbaits. If you are going to buy any wire and make the wireforms yourself, make sure you buy straightened wire and not wire off of a spool or coil, as you will never get it straight. Here is another place where you can buy stainless steel wire straightened in lengths. http://www.mcmaster.com/#stainless-steel-wire/=i3ngly

There are a lot of ways to do things. You have to find what works for you and what you're comfortable with . I myself use a heat gun, one jig at a time. JMO

x2 what smalljaw67 said + Honestly there is no cost savings unless you have a friend that let's you use all of his stuff, and even then when you are starting to learn, you will spend a lot of your time with trial and error to get things. You have to look at this as a hobby and a passion for making your own jigs and catching fish on them. Your savings will come several years down the road as you make more and more of the same jigs. However that doesn't happen because you'll want to expand and then buy more molds and your savings at that point will go right out the window.

I agree with smalljaw67. I like these hooks as well. I have never had one bend. I ddi try to bend this hook once and it just snapped. So this is a very strong hook that I would recommend to anyone. They are also very light and since I use small jigs, it slows down the fall even more.

Flash off or Flash point is the time it takes the vapors or solvents to evaporate. So like loc-tite super glue gel has a chemical called cyanoacrylates, some other glues have acetone or other chemicals. When you put the loc-tite on, it does have a smell, and what I noticed is that smell evaporates when you finally see the white powder arond the weedguard hole. What is happening is the chemical is evaporating (flashing off) and as it flashes off it is drying leaving the residue. So once this happens I strongly recommend to wait another day so everytrhing fully dries. You can speed up the process and limit the white powder residue, by putting a small fan on low, blowing on the jigs. What this will do is blow away the vapors that are flashing off and keeping the vapors from leaving the white residue.

ShadMaster you got excellent advice from everyone here. If you are going to use super glue, use super glue gel like backwater4 stated. Most important you must give it at least a day or more to flash off and dry. Otherwise it will not hold. If you use epoxy I wait at least 2-3 days before fishing the jig. JMO

I'm going to say a transparent black. Try Kool-Aid or Rit dye. Also try permanent black marker. I will bet you, the fish you are holding, that black marker coated several times will do the job for you. I use permanent black marker on some clear weedguards to give it a striped effect and it does work. Sent you an e-mail also.

The easiest way I found was. #1 stick the loose strand end into the hole not the fused end. #2 If still too tight take off a couple of strands. This will definitely help. BTW very nice looking jigs.

Jeff, I agree with you. I fish jigs that are very drab in color black/blue, brown/orange, green pumpklin and maybe a dk purple. That is it. I've tried wht, wht/chart, yellow chart. and multitude of other colors when I first started bass fishing and I still do better with the colors I mentioned. I will even fish my jig until the paint comes off and still catch fish. So a jig gets retired by me when I either lose it, the hook is too dull to sharpen anymore or the weedgurard finally falls out. Raw jigs do catch fish, so some really colorful jigs may be lake specific and definitely catch fishermen's money.

Jeff, I have a similar powder paint to what you are referring to. It is silver and black and then you have to put on the blue. It is a good color, however I don't want to pay $15 for two powder paints so I get mine specially formulated.

Yes you can buy black powder paint and then buy a blue clear glitter coat. It comes out really nice.

There are many options here with powder paint. You can paint the jig black and add blue glitter. You can paint the top black and the bottom C.Blue and then put on blue glitter, or you can paint the jig marble silver and then put on C.blue and then put on blue glitter. Finally you can put on a paint that is blue and has black specks. The possibilites are endless. The only thing I can tell you is this if you are going to do multi-colors and I mean more than 2 colors you have to take your time, be patient and practice.