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Jig Molds

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I don't smoke my mold, but like dampeoples said, you must have hot molds to get any good pours, and definitely keep those hinges oiled. Also before you put hooks in your molds, pour several blank pours, with out hooks, and see how your jigs come out. If the jig looks good with no missing details, or unfilled spots, then pour away. Lastly always think safety first.

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Don't know why, but some new virgin aluminum molds will not pour full castings at first, even when warmed up. Sometimes it takes a few minutes, hours, or days of break in pouring without hooks before the annoying casting voids disappear. Sometimes one or two cavities refuse to fill out completely at all and are best left unpoured. On some airtight molds a light careful sanding of the mold faces to allow air to escape from the cavities during fill up helped, but not always. In that case, the mold halves can be cracked slightly to pour full castings though maybe with a bit of flash.The more molds you have, the more interesting challenges you'll encounter - I stopped counting around 50.

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Don't know why, but some new virgin aluminum molds will not pour full castings at first, even when warmed up. Sometimes it takes a few minutes, hours, or days of break in pouring without hooks before the annoying casting voids disappear. Sometimes one or two cavities refuse to fill out completely at all and are best left unpoured. On some airtight molds a light careful sanding of the mold faces to allow air to escape from the cavities during fill up helped, but not always. In that case, the mold halves can be cracked slightly to pour full castings though maybe with a bit of flash.The more molds you have, the more interesting challenges you'll encounter - I stopped counting around 50.

This is very true. Every mold does not pour the same. Some you have to pour with the mold tilted slightly down, while others tilted up, and some just straight. Best thing to do is once you find the correct pouring position, write it down on the mold. I even have two identical Arky molds, and they both pour differently.

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50 molds? Jeeze, is that what I'm looking forward to LOL. I gotta order in for another 2.

I smoked my molds this weekend with sucess. Best tip I picked up on pouring lately was putting the mold on top of the pourer to heat it up.

Gotta watch the screws that hold the handle on though, they do get hot.

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I have over 600 molds and do not smoke them either. Never found the need to – think it’s because I use bottom pour melters for the majority of the pours and pre heat the molds. Most problems that I have encountered have been temperature of the lead (usually too low) or the angle of the mold during the pour (have to let the gas out).

It’s more a personal preference whether to smoke a mold or not – some swear by it and some don’t. Keep your molds clean and lightly oil the hinge.

Be very careful – second chances are rare when you are dealing with heat and melted lead. Take your time and lay out your project before you start. Don’t plan on doing anything but pouring lead, no interruptions. Check out the Do-it web site.

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Safety is the most important thing when pouring. I wear a face shield, welders gloves and a respirator. 2-3 pours with no hooks and I also pour on the outside of the mold to help heat things up. Nice tip on heating the hooks up (never thought of that). If you don't get a good pour don't throw it out. Use a pair of needle nose pliers and dip it back in. I use a fine wire brush as soon as it comes out to clean the hook off. I was pouring today and for the first time I had the pot spit some lead. I place some old fishing weights in and it bubbled and spit. I was glad I was properly covered.

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Something you should never do is get careless, I was ina hurry one day and was running out of lead and had about 20' of old pipe laying around for melting down, I decided to try and melt a short section in the pot with already melted lead, I knew better but I could see through both ends of the pipe and it looked like nothing was in there, so I decided to go for it. When that pipe exploded I have never moved that fast in my life, I ended up with hot lead all over 1 forearm (trying to shield my face) a ruined pair of safety glasses (if I didn't have those on I wouldn't be typing this today) and burns across my forehead (luckily nothing burnt bad enough to break skin). There was lead on the ceiling above me it exploded so bad. Don't take this stuff lightly 700 degree metal is never a good thing when its flying at ya! The moral of this story is read the sticky at the top of the page and follow every bit of advice there! I knew better than to do this and was very fortunate I wasn't laying in a hospital bed after it happened. I now wear a welders apron, a full face shield, and leather gloves! (I actually had them in the garage but never wore them)

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Something you should never do is get careless, I was ina hurry one day and was running out of lead and had about 20' of old pipe laying around for melting down, I decided to try and melt a short section in the pot with already melted lead, I knew better but I could see through both ends of the pipe and it looked like nothing was in there, so I decided to go for it. When that pipe exploded I have never moved that fast in my life, I ended up with hot lead all over 1 forearm (trying to shield my face) a ruined pair of safety glasses (if I didn't have those on I wouldn't be typing this today) and burns across my forehead (luckily nothing burnt bad enough to break skin). There was lead on the ceiling above me it exploded so bad. Don't take this stuff lightly 700 degree metal is never a good thing when its flying at ya! The moral of this story is read the sticky at the top of the page and follow every bit of advice there! I knew better than to do this and was very fortunate I wasn't laying in a hospital bed after it happened. I now wear a welders apron, a full face shield, and leather gloves! (I actually had them in the garage but never wore them)
I too, am usually over cautious, when I pour. I wear safety glasses, and a full face shield. I cherish my eyes. without them you are pretty much limited to what you can do. However, like you I only had to pour 20 jigs for an order, and I didn't wear my long sleeve shirt. Well being careless, I dropped in my sprues back in the mold, and some lead splashed on my arm. Believe it or not lead burns your skin so fast, you can't even feel it until a little bit later, It took about two weeks to heal. I am glad you are alright.
Any idea what caused the explosion?
It was probably water in the lead, but anything that carries moisture (ie bugs, drop of rain or sweat) is a recipe for disaster.
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Ive had the pot spit once and it was stupid. My respirator has the exhale vent right in the middle of my face. I had it on so long that i left it on when i was loading hooks. I didnt realize that some moisture had dropped out of that vent into the mold. When i went to pore it shot out of the mold. Luckily It went the other way instead of towards me.

I take the mask off when loading hooks now. my table is away from where the pot is.

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When melting the lead to make the ingots, my Dad laughed when I used a section of plywood and held it between me and the pot on the turkey fryer stand when I was feeding old lead pipes in. Never had an explosion, but when doing the rough led into ingots, that is the most dangerous time to me. I have the pot wired very tight to the fryer also so it 'taint going anywhere.

Any one here ever skim off the slag, then toss a very small piece of white candle wax into the pot to burn off even more impurities? Seen several people do it, and it does bring more stuff up.

On a side note, got some of that lead sheeting from the dentist the other day, that stuff is thin! Just have to make sure they pulled all the paper "pull tabs" off before melting.

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When melting the lead to make the ingots, my Dad laughed when I used a section of plywood and held it between me and the pot on the turkey fryer stand when I was feeding old lead pipes in. Never had an explosion, but when doing the rough led into ingots, that is the most dangerous time to me. I have the pot wired very tight to the fryer also so it 'taint going anywhere.

Any one here ever skim off the slag, then toss a very small piece of white candle wax into the pot to burn off even more impurities? Seen several people do it, and it does bring more stuff up.

On a side note, got some of that lead sheeting from the dentist the other day, that stuff is thin! Just have to make sure they pulled all the paper "pull tabs" off before melting.

Yes, I use beeswax, and it does bring out more impurities. The only drawback is, that you have to do this in the summer time. Beeswax really smokes a lot, and can fill up a garage in no time. I also get the the small dental x-ray films from my dentist. They even take the lead sheet from the plastic carrier. Now that's service. I now need to find abot 20 more dentists, that are willing to give me the lead for free without making an appointment:lol: :lol::lol: . I don't need to pay 20 dentists.

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