Curing powder coat... YIKES !!!

[Fish Chris]

What the heck happened ?!?!

So I had all 180 of my custom football heads powder coated in white, chartreuse, and brown. I thought they came out pretty good too.

I first talked with a lady at Pro-Tec, and she insisted that they should be cured at 370 for 20 minutes, and said 250 for any length of time just wasn't hot enough. I settled for 350. She also said this wouldn't put off too much odor. Then at least she did tell me one important thing.... Line the bottom of the oven with foil.

So my landlord is out of town... Time to begin ;-) I get them all hanging from the rack, crank it up to 350, then go back in my room and start watching the clock. Took about 5 minutes to get up to 350, and then the oven beeps. I give it about 13 to 15 minutes, and then I decide to just go check the progress.... and thank God !

As I walk into the kitchen, I see a light blue smoke coming from the oven, and the smell is like that of a full blown chemical refinery ! I quickly open the oven to see that several of the jigs were dripping off (sure glad I used the foil) but worse yet, about 10 of the jigs had the lead melted completely off, creating pools of lead on the foil ! What the heck ? I thought lead melted at like 600 degrees ? Of course I killed the oven immediatly, but here's the kicker.....

I forgot to say, the landlord is having an open house today ! ...... and the place smells like a freaking crack house ! My mind was racing ! Fortunately, it aired out pretty quick, but none the less, I left on the central fan, and all of the windows and back dorr open ALL night long, just to be sure.

In the end, besides the jigs that got wasted, I guess they cured okay.... as busting out some of the eyes that had "re-sealed" themselves, was a total pain in the arse ! Most of them also ended up with a bump, (demple... whatever you want to call it) where they hade tried to drip off. At least its centered, so they still look symetrical....

Lessons learned were;

Next time, use the cheap oven toaster "outside" like some of you mentioned....

Bake at 200 to 250 for an hour.... regardless of what the pro-tec lady said. I've got a buddy who told me last night "after the fact" that this will work just fine.

Oh.... one more "fun" thing; The foil in the over cooled pretty quick, so I pull it out, and go to crumple it up....... except those freaking blobs of lead were still only about 5 degrees cooler than the surface of the sun ! Burnt the crap out of the middle of my left palm !

All in all, not much fun.......

Fish

PS, I remember a while back thinking > Wow ! I'll have like 180 custom jigs, for a really good price, and not much labor" < Huh ! Yea' right !

Looking back at the cost of the mold $50 (then having it modified) the hooks $50, the powder coat $15..... the labor of all the steps (about 12 hours.... and I'm used to getting at least $20 an hour) so $240 worth of labor..... $355 total ? So, with the wasted ones, more than $2 per jig ?

Knowing what I know now, I'd gladly pay a $1 each for them, already finished..... except for one thing.... The whole reason I did all of this in the first place is, jigs exactly like this are just not available anywhere.

[Jig Man]

;D ;D ;D ;D We have all been there. I spent the winter trying to make little plastic baits which I could buy for $3.00/dz. I spent around $100 and got lots of burns before I had a finished product.

BTW: Watch the toaster oven. I have ruined a bunch of jigs due to meltdown in mine. If it were me I'd put a few in and set it for about 250° and pull them out in 15 min. fish them and see how good the paint adheres. If you need more time use another 1/2 doz and go for more minutes. Don't put all your jigs in one basket. ;D

[harshman]

Chris,  I would defiantly use a smaller toaster oven for your next bake.....however it would be funny to see you on an episode of COPS one day for your neighbor turning in what he thought was a meth lab, can you imagine the look on your face when the police bust in and your sitting in the kitchen table putting skirts on a jig  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D Bad boy, Bad Boy, what ya gonna do, what ya gonna when your oven smokes blue.  ;D ;D ;D ;D

On a serious note I have been pouring and powder coating my own jigs for a couple of years now and have never seen anything like what you described. I have had the occasional drip of paint that cones off of a head if I have excess paint on the jigs but never a complete lead melt off. Wonder if you had some lead that wasn't pure with some other alloy that melts at a lower temp???  Better luck next time.

Harshman

[Siebert Outdoors]

wow.  Like Jigman said we all have been there.

I do not understand how you jigs melted.  Was the oven set for celcius?

[dampeoples]

Get a good thermometer, put it in your oven, set it to 350, then come back in about 15 minutes, you'll (probably) find out why they all melted.

When you get your toaster oven, do the same thing, when mine is set to 200, it's actually 325. Furthermore, be very, very careful with your white, you may want to heat that color at a lower temp for longer time, as it runs the easiest.

[Mattlures]

Yeah something is not rightm Maybe you had your jigs right next to the heat sorce instead of the center of the oven? I also use my kitchen oven and have never had a problem. I believe I baked them for about 20 minutes. MY LEAD NEVER MELTED!!!! I properly cured jig shouldnt drip at all. When it cures the powder coat gets a super shinny gloss to it . Something definatly went wrong in your oven

[Munkin]

Some things I have learned about making jigs:

Light even coat of powder paint or it will drip off during the curing process. Now that I have a fluid bed this does not happen anymore.

Like someone mentioned get a thermometer to put in with the jigs as my toaster oven is way off.

Lead melting in oven: Definately was not pure lead. Tin or Bizmuth is mixed with lead for sinkers, etc. and one of them has a melting point of like 375 degees. Using melted down saltwater sinkers for pouring shakey heads I have had this happen. I melted the lead off a small shakey head with a Bic lighter.

Allen

[Siebert Outdoors]

however it would be funny to see you on an episode of COPS one day for your neighbor turning in what he thought was a meth lab

I think of this one every time I pour.  Especially plastics.  I'm just waiting for the cop to come knocking on the door at gun point and me just pouring plastics.  I look like Darth Vader in there with all my gear on.

Anyway,  I've been thinking about Chris's little episode and really cant figure it out.  The only things I can think of is the oven temp is way off or he has some very tinned up lead.  Reason I brought up the celcius temp is a lady here said she baked some rolles on 375 celcius.  Which is like 600 deg f.

[luckyinkentucky]

Ovens use a 'shock heating' method with the elements.  That's why a lot of recipes say to PREHEAT.  

The elements may heat up to 700 degrees in order to bring the rest of the oven to temp.  Then, when the oven gets closer, they cool down.  If you had the lead right over the element then you could have found your problem.  

[Fish Chris]

Yes, actually guys I must admit, I had the oven rack so full (cured 180 jigs in 1 shot) that some ended up right above the ports, and it was only the ones directly in front of those ports that melted. It's a gas oven, and like luckyin ky said, the temp above that port, while it was heating up, might have been like 600 plus degrees, to get the rest of the oven up to 325 quickly.

I think the lead was pretty much pure.

Peace,

Fish

[Siebert Outdoors]

Learn from the mistakes and the next go around the heads will be better. And so on.  There are so many little tricks none of us can remember them all.  I wouldnt have ever thought about the heat ports in a gas stove.  Although I've never used one.

Your on your way to becoming a tackle making junkie.  Keep it up, its alot of fun.