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We’re gonna talk about pouring lead. So there are some basic equipment you need to
do this and one is lead. Lead can be purchased online, I think I got like 40 lbs. a couple
years ago and it’s been fine for me to be pouring my own little jigheads but I got it
off of E-bay I am pretty sure. Locally, I know a lot of places that do like tires and
mechanic shops and places like that; they get the wheel weights off of the tires and
basically just chuck them into a little bucket. A lot of times, those guys will just sell
them to you or just give them to you; to just get rid of them so that is one place you can
pick up some pretty cheap lead. But there are several places, just do a search on the
internet; it’s not hard to find lead really.
The other thing you need obviously is a pot. I use a down pour pot and I will show you
that in a minute when we get into the video. As everyone knows, lead is not good for you
so there are some safety precautions that you need to take. This is an N95 Filter Mask.
It basically just filters out those bad fumes. Definitely wear that when you are working
around lead.
The other thing you need is a pair of gloves, a lot of times I’ll just wear these latex
gloves with these gloves over them. That’s just a precaution; you don’t want to splatter
lead on your bare skin.
This is a slag bucket. Slag is basically un-pure materials that are in the lead and you will
periodically have to scrape that out, especially if you’re pouring from the top of the pot
you’re going to have to get that stuff off and I can show you a trick to fix that.
And then obviously you need a mold. This is a Do-It Mold for a Screw Lock Shaky head so
that is what we pour in this video. These are called gate shears to basically trim the
excess lead off; you’ll have that from the top of the pours, so you can trim it off.
And of course we have a little scoop that is always handy to scoop out extra slag that’s
on the top of your pot. One of the tricks that we’ll do is put wax in there to actually
bring the impurities up to the top of the pot and we will use this long handles spoon
here to stir that up as it actually catches on fire. Anyways, we will go through all of
that in just a minute.
OK so we've got our mold and now what we’re doing is we've got to load the components
into the mold and most molds are obviously going to take hooks and then either a keeper
or a weed guard. This is the Do-It Football Mold and I’m loading in a couple of hooks
as well as the spiral keepers. I’m pouring 2 different ones; I’m pouring a 1/8 oz one
and a 3/8 oz one. The 1/8 oz one I use just a straight flat eye VMC hook and on the 3/8
oz one, I use an extra wide gap Mustad hook and this mold actually accepts both those
hooks, the way those hooks were made. Once you’ve got the components in there, close
the mold and get it tight. What you will notice here, see that seam between there, you can’t
have any space in there. If there’s any space in there, leads going to leak through
and the jigs not going to pour right, it’s going to get on the shank, it’s going to
get in the keeper and it’s a mess. So you have to make sure that is closed snug.
Now this is a Lee Pot, it’s a little more expensive but it pours lead down from the
bottom of the pot while the impurities are up on the top so it’s a little bit easier
to work with but it costs a little more money. But basically you get your mold underneath
there under the nozzle, raise the handle up and the lead pours into it. And if you miss
it a little bit, just move it as its pouring and get it in there right, its ok. Open the
mold up and here ya go, you've got your jig you just poured. That extra lead on top, that’s
known as sprue, that’s just extra lead and I actually pour a little bit more on top because
I want to pack the lead down there on the hook. It just gives me a little bit better
pour. So, cut the screw off with the gate shears and there ya go. Two different size
Shaky heads poured in there in just a matter of seconds.
So we've got the mold, now we will take a look at the pot again. This is the Lee Pot
and you can tell that is has different settings. One thing about the impurities I talked about,
that slag that gets formed in there. If you’ll take a piece of wax, this is paraffin wax;
you can buy it at a hobby store. Just take a little bit and you can drop that in your
bucket while the lead is melting. Now it’s going to catch on fire and it’s a pretty
big fire, it startles people. But you get a long handled spoon; stir that wax in there
real good and the blow the fire out. Make sure your area is wide and you don’t have
anything that is going to catch on fire there and blow that fire out but that will cause
all of the impurities in the lead to rise up to the top of the pot. The lead is obviously
a lot more dense than the wax but that wax grabs hold of the impurities and now you can
just take a regular old fork here, scrape the impurities kind of around on the top and
get the impurities out with the fork and dump it in your slag bucket. Now you've got real
clean lead to pour with.
Another thing is, is if you will oil the hinges, both sides of the hinges on your mold, that
will make them last a lot longer. Just use regular old reel oil. Those things get heated
up and can just get torn up real easy.
Again, I can’t stress the importance of safety enough. Obviously there’s a lot of
tools there but the key things are making sure you don’t have contact with your skin
with the lead. Use those throw away disposable gloves, use the heavier leather gloves if
you’re worried about splattering lead on you and of course the mask is important but
more important than the mask is proper ventilation. Do it in the open area, a garage with the
full door open. I do it with the door open, a side door open and fans running.