Will Wetline

I tried the high temp red silicone recently and it worked well.

I bought this oven thermometer in a supermarket for about $6.00.

That was my question a couple of years ago when experimenting with Rotometals' 281º bismuth/tin alloy. Here's a response from Kurt Urban of CS Coatings: "Unfortunately powder paint needs a minimum of about 275 degrees to achieve the chemical cross-linking for a complete cure. You may see some hardening at 225, I would just test some cure samples and see if their durability is acceptable." "There are slight gases from the polyester and coloring agents that are released during curing, so I would not advise using an oven you cook in." What I'm doing now, using 288% bismuth/12% tin alloy, is getting a full cure in the Eastwood set at 350º -which is actually 300º - and baking for one hour. (At least my Eastwood's timer works properly.) I broil my burgers in an Oster until they're medium rare.

I like the roominess of the Eastwood oven but the thermostat is way off - set at 350º it's slightly under 300º. I checked this by placing the same oven thermometer in my almost new kitchen oven which showed a temp of 355º. I baked at what on Eastwood's dial read 350º for an hour and then tried the whack-a vice test and the bounce-on-loading-dock test. Results: the paint is fully cured. Note: The temps you see on the dial on the oven and on the thermometer were set for a lower temp alloy but were still off quite a bit.

I'm having this problem with Chrome. It's a bit of a rigamarole to sign in but not a major issue.

I Googled the manufacturer of the Hot Pot II and did not see that nifty cradle shown in the video - only that crummy, too-small trivet used to support the pot. http://www.cpalmermfg.com/categories/Melting-Pots/ I used the Hot Pot II for years but upgraded to Lee's Production Pot IV and find it easier and far safer to use.

I'm prepping for my annual trip to New York's Salmon River and thought I'd put up some pics of my fly boxes. Left - Right, Top - Bottom: Blood Dots, Glo Bugs, tailed Estaz flies, sucker spawn All are tied on size 10, 2x strong hooks. Frammuses, tailed Estaz flies, Crystal Meth, Bear's Crystal Egg, Steelhead Candy Here's an assortment of Woolly Buggers, Wooly Worms and a few generic nymphs and stone flies. These Buggers are tied on a size 6, 3X long hook, 2X strong, of course, for steelhead. These I present "down and across," swinging above bottom with the current. The egg patterns in the first two pics are bounced along the bottom. (Also called "dead drifting.") If I had to choose one pattern among the many it would be . . . The Frammus. I scaled this down from the original which was designed for king salmon. It's simple to tie - which is important because quite a few are lost to the rocks - and it's very effective.

Hello, fellow bait makers. I seek smallies in Massachusetts' Quabbin Reservoir and make a yearly trip to New York's Salmon River for steelhead. Re bait making, my interest falls mainly into the Wire Bait category although I do tie egg pattern flies for steelhead. I'm pleased to become a member of the TU community and welcome you to a tour of my tackle room: This bench and shelf unit has been repurposed from a former hobby, R/C model building and flying. The contents of this steel locker will be familiar to all who cast metal. Fishing in Massachusetts, all jigs and weights must be lead free if under 1 ounce so, since 2012, I've been using bismuth/tin alloys and will be trying pewter which won't be heat-critical to fully curing powder paint. (I won't miss the odor of vinyl paint!) Storage for rods and reels in my current rotation are in the rack on the floor and lots of feathers and other tying materials take up the top half of this shelf unit. Packages of soft plastics in boxes under the staging bench will be sorted into the plastic containers in the middle of the shelving while yet more stuff occupies the lowest levels. Do we ever acquire enough gear? Apparently not. This simple box fan worked well evacuating the fumes from vinyl paint and is still used to get unhealthy stuff out of the room. Here's the main bench where molding, painting, assembling and tying gets done. I forgot to sprinkle a few steelhead flies into this photo, but the baits you see pictured here leave the bench and are, on a good day, found in a smallmouth's jaw. Comments and questions are welcome. Will Wetline