Winter jig making

[FordsnFishin]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. But winter is fast approaching. 

 

So I figured for a winter project I'd start making my own jigs. Primarily 1/4, 5/16, 3/8 oz ball head and flipping head. 

 

I love throwing jigs, in which I also lose a ton. So hoping this will cut my costs down. While also being able to customize my jig.

 

So If anyone has any tips tricks, websites to get material, tools I'll need, or any suggestions. All is much appreciated! 

[Munkin]

Check with Seibert on here and he can sell you just the jigheads. I recommend getting them painted but have him leave the weedguards out. You can glue the weedguards in after you tie the jigs. Fishingskirts.com will have 100's of different colors of skirt material.

 

Allen

[Jig Man]

Also Cadman and Smalljaw are jig makers.  One of the three probably can fix you up.  That will give you time to see how far you want to get into it.  Check fishing skirts for your tabs and living rubber has a site.

[Munkin]

I have a bunch of misc jigheads laying around if interested? Trying to clean up my basement so I need to get rid of a bunch of stuff.

 

Allen

[T.Killian]

If you are going to powder-coat go ahead and look up building a fluid bed and get a temp controlled oven for curing.  A good lead pot is important to me as well.  Also don't mess with the tools or buying the rubber bands go ahead and learn to wire tie or use a thread bobbin and hand tie them, it's not hard to do. The rubber band setup will make you mad as soon as you start fishing them.

[FordsnFishin]

On 10/16/2019 at 1:21 PM, Munkin said:

I have a bunch of misc jigheads laying around if interested? Trying to clean up my basement so I need to get rid of a bunch of stuff.

 

Allen

Possibly, would depend on the weights and style. 

On 10/16/2019 at 3:21 PM, T.Killian said:

If you are going to powder-coat go ahead and look up building a fluid bed and get a temp controlled oven for curing.  A good lead pot is important to me as well.  Also don't mess with the tools or buying the rubber bands go ahead and learn to wire tie or use a thread bobbin and hand tie them, it's not hard to do. The rubber band setup will make you mad as soon as you start fishing them.

I don't plan on pouring my own heads. Powder coating I might end up doing. Do people use toaster ovens? Would allow me to do it in my shop. Also keep the wife off my back for using the house oven. Haha

 

Most definitely, I hate rubber bands fir skirts. I think im planning on learning to tie them with thread. 

[T.Killian]

As long as it can maintain a temperature that you pick - depending on paint 325-400 then yeah they work well and you defiantly don't want to do too many in the house oven.. there is some health risk with that, I'm not smart enough to know if it's legit, but what I read scared me out of going that route basically why risk it kinda thing.

 

I thread tie mine rather than wire and prefer it that way.  If you develop a good tie off method you don't need thread cement like I started with when I was learning, and didn't know any better, threads don't come loose even without it.  I use a cheap tying vise, but can see the benefit of a high end swiveling version if I was doing this every day.  But for a few hundred a year a $20 vise works fine instead of 100's of dollar vise$$$.

[Munkin]

Cheap oven $20 at Ollies and I prefer wire tying as I suck at wrapping thread. If you want to know how to wire tie I did a tutorial on it just look for the thread.

 

Allen

[T.Killian]

14 minutes ago, Munkin said:

Cheap oven $20 at Ollies and I prefer wire tying as I suck at wrapping thread. If you want to know how to wire tie I did a tutorial on it just look for the thread.

 

Allen

Nice I'm going to go check that oven out today hopefully!

[Munkin]

Go to Columbia Coatings for powder paint, they have hundreds of colors.

 

Allen

[Jig Man]

My oven came from a garage sale for $2.  It has done thousands of jigs.

[smalljaw67]

20 hours ago, T.Killian said:

As long as it can maintain a temperature that you pick - depending on paint 325-400 then yeah they work well and you defiantly don't want to do too many in the house oven.. there is some health risk with that, I'm not smart enough to know if it's legit, but what I read scared me out of going that route basically why risk it kinda thing.

 

I thread tie mine rather than wire and prefer it that way.  If you develop a good tie off method you don't need thread cement like I started with when I was learning, and didn't know any better, threads don't come loose even without it.  I use a cheap tying vise, but can see the benefit of a high end swiveling version if I was doing this every day.  But for a few hundred a year a $20 vise works fine instead of 100's of dollar vise$$$.

I wire tie some and thread tie a lot and even have a YouTube channel with tying tutorials. A whip finish will serve you well and holds well but I really recommend using super glue or Sally Hansen's Hard As Nails clear nail polish to coat the thread. Most jigs don't make it long enough for anything to happen but jigs with finesse style skirts or hair jigs that have exposed collars can end up with damaged thread. It isn't expensive and takes a second to apply, if you are going to go the extra mile to tie your jigs instead of a rubber collar, then why not take a second to protect the thread and insure it won't get damaged and come apart.

[WRB]

I am not an expert at making jigs only been doing it about 45years. 

The recommendation to start with plain jig heads is good advice as long as the jigs are made with premium sharp hooks.

To me powder coating jig heads is a good production method but not practical if making less then a 100 jigs. The powder coated jig head color looks great if you plan to sell them, makes little or no difference to catching bass IMO. I simply hand paint my jig heads using Testors enamel model paint. 

I will add a caution, jig making is addictive and you may end up with hundreds of jigs you will never use if you make up jigs with skirts. Molding jigs using your own equipment you need to look at cost of the molds, melting pot, lead, hooks, paint and skirts. You also need a safe place place to mold jigs using lead.

For me the only reason to make my own jigs was driven by a need for a jig head design not availble back in the early 70's so I made my jig molds. Today nearly every jig style can be purchased as a plain head with whatever hook you want and that is what I would do now.

Tom

PS, Barlows Tackle is another good source for jig making supplies.

[FordsnFishin]

On 10/19/2019 at 6:51 AM, smalljaw67 said:

I wire tie some and thread tie a lot and even have a YouTube channel with tying tutorials. A whip finish will serve you well and holds well but I really recommend using super glue or Sally Hansen's Hard As Nails clear nail polish to coat the thread. Most jigs don't make it long enough for anything to happen but jigs with finesse style skirts or hair jigs that have exposed collars can end up with damaged thread. It isn't expensive and takes a second to apply, if you are going to go the extra mile to tie your jigs instead of a rubber collar, then why not take a second to protect the thread and insure it won't get damaged and come 

@smalljaw67 what's your handle on YouTube. I'd like to watch your tutorials. 

[smalljaw67]

22 minutes ago, FordsnFishin said:

@smalljaw67 what's your handle on YouTube. I'd like to watch your tutorials. 

It is just "smalljaw", simple.

[fishballer06]

Best of luck in your adventures Ford. I got into making my own baits this year because I wanted to make my own spinnerbaits and swim jigs. It's certainly addictive and I've got over $500 sunken into skirts and jigs already.