Holes and dimples in keel heads...HELP!

[Mad Moose Baits]

I am getting a hole or dimple in the keel head buzz baits I am pouring. I make sure to preheat the mold but still getting that little spot where the hook and wire meet. Is it due to the mold being still too cool or maybe my lead isn't hot enough?

[cadman]

A picture would help, as there are so many variables. However, I have the same mold, and I will tell you that, that design is the worst. The heads should have more lead around the area where the hook eye meets the wireform. Also here are some things to try.

Make sure your wireform and hook are taped lightly to the mold. This will keep them from sliding up or down in the mold cavity.

Close the buzzbait wire form hook around the hook eye, this keeps the profile smaller and has a less chance of them moving independently.

Make sure the hook and wire connection are in the center of the cavity, if not the hook eye will show through the side of the buzzbait.

Naturally make sure the lead and the molds are hot. I also found that in this mold, if you spray drop-out, the lead flows better around the cavity.

With all that said, I really hate pouring this mold. Your best choice is to down size the hooks from what is stated on the  mold, and forget about going up one hook size. It will be a nightmare to get any good pours. Good Luck and let me know how it goes.

 

[Mad Moose Baits]

Being new to pouring lead I wasn't sure if I could use a little painter's tape. That could help a ton. And it is the area that hook and wire meet that seems to cause the problems. Thanks for the ideas, will try them tomorrow!

[cadman]

7 hours ago, Mad Moose Baits said:

And it is the area that hook and wire meet that seems to cause the problems.

 

That is the biggest problem with this mold. If the wire form and the hook shank aren't co-linear in both directions, than you will always have bad pours. Also if you crack the mold a bit, you will get flash and in this case the extra flash will get you more lead coverage, The only downside to flash, is that you will have to file it off, but you will get better pours.

[CNC Molds N Stuff]

Has talc helped with this mold?  I was fighting with a new spinnerbait mold the other day.  Nothing worked.  I got 2:5 good pours using all my best tricks.  Hung the hooks on the pot to preheat, bent the wire forms for best position in the mold.  Down sized the hook from what I wanted to use for better eye clearance.  Coated the mold with graphite spray.  2 out of five was the best I could do.  I realize I will just have to redesign the mold eventually, but I wanted to get this one to pour.  I kind of take these things as a challenge, and I really really like the way the bait performs in the water.  (won two tournaments on the one that inspired this design)  I dusted it with baby powder and used a flux brush to sort of move it around into all the features.  It was not a magic cure all.  I still had to do all the other things, but my decent pours went from 2:5 to 4:5.  That's still a lot of bad pours since I still haven't figured out how to salvage the wire forms and hooks from those, but it makes it better.  I know I'll always be able to make some of those spinnerbaits now. 

 

 

[EironBreaker]

Bob, to get  a clean wire form and hook from a bad pour I use a propane torch to melt the lead off.  I hold it over my lead pot so it drips into the rest of the lead.  I like to do it as soon as I have a bad pour so the residual heat helps to melt it quicker and the hook/wire doesn't get hotter than necessary by reheating.  Dipping to melt doesn't work, slag will attach to the wire and hook but you likely know that already.

[CNC Molds N Stuff]

2 minutes ago, EironBreaker said:

Bob, to get  a clean wire form and hook from a bad pour I use a propane torch to melt the lead off.  I hold it over my lead pot so it drips into the rest of the lead.  I like to do it as soon as I have a bad pour so the residual heat helps to melt it quicker and the hook/wire doesn't get hotter than necessary by reheating.  Dipping to melt doesn't work, slag will attach to the wire and hook but you likely know that already.

 

Thanks.  I was actually going to start a new thread to ask about salvaging bad spinnerbait and buzzbait pours.  Dipping works for me with jigs, but I hold with pliers by the barb, soak the head and wipe clean with a paper shop towel to clean the instant it comes out of the lead.  It doesn't work for spinnerbaits as you mentioned because you just can't wipe it clean fast enough.  Unless you way over heat your wire/hook you only have about a half second to wipe it clean.  Thanks for the catch and the reply. 

[cadman]

Bob,

  On some spinnerbait molds, like the ultra minnow, hot hooks and a hot mold are key. also on the ultra minnow mold, I found that it had to be vented and soft lead works better, because it flows better With that said I've said it a million times , drop out just plainly works for letting lead fill cavities evenly . In the case of the buzzbait mold above, the hook eye on most hooks is too big for the profile of the body. What this means is that if you don't have the hook eye in the center of the body, and it slips down in the mold, you will get the hook eye to protrude from either side., making a bad pour. Now if you go to a bigger hook, that makes it worse because the hook eye are larger as the hook gets larger. What should have happened with that mold was to make a bigger body around the top, this way the lead will cover  the hook eye more.