Kasilofchrisn

Thank you! Glad to see you back on the forums man! If you get a chance could you please pm me your address. I've got some fur for you that we discussed awhile back.

Just thought I'd throw this out there for anyone wanting to try this. Apparently this website lists all the pressed penny machines people have found in the United states listed by state. So it should help you find pressed penny machines in your area. http://209.221.138.252/AreaList.aspx

Pressed pennies are made in a hand crank pressed penny machine. The pennies are a novelty/souvenir and the machines are often found at zoos, museums, tourist attractions, etc. The one I used is in my local dairy queen. So the four options at this machine were an ice cream cone with Soldotna, dairy queen written on it, a moose and bear that say Kenai peninsula Alaska, and fish that says Kenai river. You crank it until it lines up with the arrow for the design you want. Then you put in a penny and 2 quarters. Crank it around and it spits out your penny that has been pressed. There is a place ~ 1-1/2 hours from me called the sea life center. I've heard they have a pressed penny machine that has sea otters, walrus, etc. Pressed pennies are just cheap souvenirs.

The other day I finished a few Kenai Peninsula Alaska themed fishing lures made from pressed pennies. My dapping skills still need work. And I'm not sure the blades will spin. But the spoons should work. I have 3 different ones. A Kenai river jumping fish and a Kenai Peninsula moose and bear. Though the words are hard to read. I used the older 1982 and before all copper pennies. These were polished with #6 Rouge using a dremel. They ended up about the same size as a #3 French blade. Going to find some other pressed penny machines to try this out with later this summer

There are places that currently sell those wire forms. So I don't see it being a patent issue.

Nice! The Hagens is a good unit. I'm guessing you'll be very happy with it and produce professional looking spinners in no time! On top of that you're not limited in length like you would be on the Boggs.

Do not squirt your mold with water. Place a wet sponge next to your casting pot. Set your hot closed mold on the sponge for a few seconds to cool it off. Wet the sponge as needed. Here's a video showing this technique for bullet casting. But, the same technique can be applied to jig and sinker molds.

A quality wire former will make it so much more enjoyable and your spinners will be of a much better quality. I'm sure glad I bought mine! I have a Hagens, a twistech, and a twistech magnum. The Boggs didn't make my list of wire formers to consider as it was too limiting on size and required buying too many adapters to accomplish what I wanted. I think with all the adapters the Boggs cost more than my twistech. But making your own spinners is a lot of fun.

OK so that is what I initially thought. Your mold definetly filled out all the way. If your not already doing so Flux your lead well before casting and/or try some different fluxes. In all honesty I would file that area smooth and use those sinkers. You were going to cut the sprue off anyway so no harm was really done.

Thinking about this overnight and it occurred to me that you may be talking about denting? Were you pull Your sinker out and it has a dent in it. If that is the case it is because your mold has gotten too hot. Cool down your mold using a damp sponge or a heat sink of some kind or give it some time to cool off. I used to get denting when I was making a really big casting I such as downrigger weights. If I cool the mold down in between each casting the denting goes away.

Got any pictures of this problem? What size cannon balls are you making? I make them in every size from 1/2 ounce all the way up to 3+ pounds. From what I read It sounds like your mold filled out all the way but as its cooling the sprue brakes off from the main sinker? If this is the case just file the area clean and use it. Are You using pure lead or an alloy of some sort? I take it you're preheating your mold and you're fluxing really well before casting? Tipping Only helps if you're mold isn't filling out completely. But once the cavity is filled, tipping will not do anything.

You can buy the swivel sleeves from Barlows in a 25 pack. Much easier than ordering the minimum from Roscoe which is at least 1,000.

I bought a bunch of the metal sleeve spacers from Barlows and I'm quite happy with them. I buy most of my components from them. Good prices, reasonable shipping(even to AK), and I've had great customer service!

If somebody were to start a gofundme or something I'd surely donate.

Being a fan of the Smalljaw channel on YouTube and enjoying his helpful advice here I was wondering where he had gone. Just saw this video he posted a few minutes ago updating us on what's going on. So here's the link for those who are also missing his great content!

I can't say I've ever purchased/needed/wanted any fluorescent powder paint. But I have ordered from prismatic and powder by the pound with good results. You could check to see if they have a fluorescent powder paint. Most of the time, you can get other powders much cheaper than Protec but you do usually end up with a full pound of each color.

Don't Limit yourself to Protec paints. There are lots of other paint manufacturers out there and some of them do specifically have fluorescent powder paints. If you want a good glow powder paint Protec makes some excellent glow powder paints though. If your looking for UV they sell a clear coat for that as well and it works good too.

My jigging Rapala molds all take a popper hook. IIRC it's a mustad 33903 These have held up to fish as large as 40# on jigs out of my molds.

You might look into LED by Larvalace. It's like the lead wire but flat and comes on a small roll.

Always! I always preheat my molds. They always cast better that way and I don't waste time doing a bunch of casting to heat it up.

I generally use whatever lead I have on hand. Usually some form of mixed scrap lead. Rarely do I use pure lead for casting jigs or sinkers. Pure lead is hard to come by in my area so I save it for making ammo for my muzzleloaders and for making shotgun slugs. Really hard lead I try to save for when I'm making cast boolits. Though I do keep some super hard from RotoMetals on hand to make up harder alloys for boolit casting. Since the only alloy I really buy is the super hard I have a lot of scrap lead I have bought that is what it is. I do have a cabine tree lead hardness tester. But, it's not needed for making jigs and sinkers.e Precise alloys are essential for boolit casting though.

Yes the red RTV high temp gasket material is great. Comes in a small tube that's easy to work with. Let it cure and it's good for a long time. Yet fairly easy to remove.

Water quenching may gain you as much as one BHN. Adding a small amount of tim may also gain you one BHN. The tin may also help your lead flow better which will not help with your flashing issue. When I really want to make an alloy harder I use super hard from RotoMetals. It's a bar of lead that's 30% antimony. You could add pure Antimony but it will not melt till you get it over 1000 degrees. But the super hard has already been alloyed together so will melt around the normal temperatures for lead. I have a lead hardness tester that I use when I'm casting bullets. So I like to mix up a batch and then make an ingot once the ingot it is cooled I test it. When I reach the proper hardness that I'm after, only then I will start casting bullets.

Another option although more expensive is to buy this CNC machine mold from eBay. It's more like The larva dig mold in the new do it mold version but more than twice the price. https://www.ebay.com/itm/125133487544?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=18lxa_ygSxC&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=aPsD89BBSHS&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I did do a search in the forum and found a little bit of information on these. Apparently the wire in the front not only help bite offs and adds abrasion resistance when fishing in the rocks, but, it also helps keep the lure from tangling on the line during casting. Certainly looking forward to casting up a few of these and giving them a try this summer!