Kasilofchrisn

The problem with Tungsten is it has a melting point north of 5,000*F Not something your going to mold at home.. I have heard you can buy unpainted Tungsten jigs. My understanding is they mold the Tungsten jigs with a slot for the hook and either epoxy or solder in the hooks before painting. The soldered variety would most likely be able to be powder painted. You can easily make soldered teardrop style jigs. One of these days I may take some pics and post on how I make various style teardrops. You could make these with non-lead solder but I would think the drop rate might be too slow for many people.

I think I am going to go with the clip on rattles of some kind. What are the loudest type of rattle? Glass, brass, or plastic? And what type of attachment would you recommend inside a tube bait?

I have a Burbot trip planned this winter. We will be icefishing for them. Burbot typically feed at night and we usually set lines for them that are left out all night and checked in the morning. There are rules to this that we strictly adhere to. Anyway this year we are going to try some night fishing on the ice for them. I was thinking of adding a rattle to our baits and I think it would help the fish hone in on our baits in the dark.. I found a mold that would allow me to cast the rattle as part of the tube jig. It is cheaper to just add a clip on rattle, or possibly epoxy one to a jig. I have never used these type rattles. What is your opinion on rattles as far as what types sound the loudest and how well do the clip on rattles work? Is it really worth it to cast one with the jig or do the clip on ones hold well enough?

Yeah I guess that is something we would need to know. There are so many styles out there and sizes too. Then you get into Tungsten jigs and other non lead variants required in some states. What exact styles and sizes are you looking for?

I can't help you with a supplier of bulk jigs. But I do know the soldered tear drops of various sizes are fairly easy to make. I bought a rubber mold from Reinke brothers that holds the components together while you solder them. They have a mold for virtually every style and a mold with all styles on one mold. I know some guys on other forums who make piles of these paint them and sell them in the Midwest for icefishing season.

You don't have to join that forum to get one of these molds. They are offering an advanced sale to their forum members but those molds will be available to the general public in a month or two according to Do-It staff.

No these are not on their website yet. They have released them to members of do-it's webforum first and will then release them to the general public.

The Doit logo in the bait was a requirement from Gary Yamamoto in order for him to sign the agreement with Doit.I am guessing to eliminate any confusion when people sell baits from this mold. Also people should be warned that the name "Senko" and the "Gary Yamamoto" names cannot be used when selling these baits. I am guessing with some trial and error a person could come up with a very close plastic mix that matches the original Senko or nearly so anyways. I have seen some interesting fish tank tests on youtube. Presumably from homemade Senko replica molds.

I bet that Biffle Hardhead look alike will be a big hit in the bass fishing community. I am really wanting to try the new mold I ordered to see if the wire keeper is a real keeper for my fishing style.

Just curious how many of you have ordered any of the 4 new Do-It molds they just came out with? I ordered the minnow head jig with wire keeper myself. I can't wait to try these jigs out icefishing this year. It is always nice to see new molds come out. Looks like they have some cool new stuff for you bass fishing guys.

I am not a sofy plastics guy but figured this may interest some of you. Do-It has just made a deal with Gary Yamamoto to make an exact replica mold of the Senko. It is supposed to be exactly the same and will be available from Do-It very soon. Just thought it might interest some of you.

Exactly! How many grain elevators have exploded over the years from grain dust fires. Yet the grain itself isn't exactly flammable. I understand Vinyl paints and their thinners are hazzardous and cannot ship via air. I have found Barlows will work with me and ship them though. It just gets here via truck and barge and takes 6-8 weeks. They always call me and make sure that is acceptable to me and it all works out. I just have a hard time when a vendor lists powder paint as hazzardous but will not tell me why or will not ship it to me. I work in the oil and gas industry and I certainly fell I have a good understanding of what hazzardous is and is not.

I just ordered a 100 pack from Barlows for a project of my own I am working on. I know you are not a fan of them though. I believe the new Do-It catalog just came out with the new jigs and inserts in it as well. If you only need a few and don't have any by the time mine come in I'll gladly send you a few. I was going to bend my own but I wanted to check out these keepers for a project I am working on. I wanted to find a wire keeper to work on a jig design I have been thinking about and am considering having a mold CNC machined with this insert. If it works out I would need a few hundred to start with and bending that many wires is a pain. I also wanted to make sure I had a perfect insert the machinist can use for measuring to make the mold.

The link was actually a embeded video clip of cast industries. It is a ~1/2 hour video showing how they make custom spincast jigs for bait companies around the world. It ends in the online store they own LPO lure parts online the new owners of this very forum. I would think they could easily cast any lead jigs you needed cast. If you go to youtube and search for cast industries it should pop right up. http://castind.com/

I have a job that pays really well and I only work 2 weeks at a time with 2 weeks off inbetween. It is remote work so I fly to work stay for 2 weeks then fly home for 2 weeks. This gives me plenty of time to make jigs and go fishing yet I still have my regular job to pay the bills. If I were you I would certainly not quit my job to do this. At least not at first. Or try to find a job that allows you to have time to do both. Once the business is making enough for you to live on then you can quit your day job. So many businesses fail and I hate to see people stuck owing money from their businesses that have long since closed their doors.Seen that several times. Just my

I buy the cheap aquarium tubing from Walmart. It is in the pet section. Cut to length and put it on.

I get the health aspects in that link. The question though is powder paint hazardous to ship? If so what makes it hazardous? It isn't flammable or combustible and touching it will not kill you or cause other harm if you practice proper hygeine. Then again most things water included will have a chemical reaction with something or in someway. Especially if you heat them(think steam). Heck many of our grocery items can cause chemical reactions. Vinegar and Baking soda are prime examples. even our citrus fruits are mild acids for that matter.

Who would you guys recommend for a cheap basic white the next time I need some? I am guessing 2 pounds will last me quite awhile and I still have 1/2 a pound or so of the harbor freight white. But lately I have been going through more paint. Once I get into my new house and the paperwork completed to sell stuff I will probably use a lot more paint. Making these big saltwater jigs sure uses up the paint!

Thats why i was confused. I order Protec Super glow colors from Tj's all the time and they will just put them in a Medium flat rate USPS box and never had a problem. I think my last order had 5 or 6- 1 pound containers in it. I had last ordered fromHarbor freight a couple of years ago or so and didn't have problems then. I understand the phone operators at a place like that may not be the most knowledgeable on all their products, But all this guy could tell me was it was listed as hazardous and couldn't ship to AK. Columbia could get me what I wanted for a reasonable price. But their Prismatic brand colors wouldn't ship directly to me. If I agreed to their deal it was going to cost me $25.44 to ship $32.64 in powder paint. I had them pick out some basic white for me and a pink(a friend of mine swears by pink jigs for Halibut)that was not prismatic 3 pounds total and it shipped for $6.99.

So a friend of mine who owns a charter business want me to make him some jigs. I gave him a few freebies and he is hooked. His first order is going to be 100- 6oz jigs in plain white. He wants them as cheap as possible as he fishes a lot of newbies and they loose a lot of tackle. I have some Harbor freight white I ordered awhile ago that was shipped to me here in Alaska but figured I should order some more just to be sure. 100 jigs this size can use quite a bit of paint. I got an Email from them saying they couldn't ship to me here in Alaska as the paint was hazardous and my order was on hold. I called them and all the phone guy could say was "it was listed as hazardous and couldn't ship to Alaska". I was going to have it shipped to my sister in Iowa and she could bring it to me when she comes up (she comes up for work every 3 months)but decided it was easier to just order some basic white from someone else rather than wait. Columbia had a basic white I ordered. They called me and said since I had ordered a Prismatic color they couldn't drop ship it to Alaska. Shipping was $13.95 and the white paint was $19.95 for 2 pounds. They could ship it to me for an extra $11.99. It had to ship to them from Prismatic then they could ship to me. I called Columbia back and decided to order different non Prismatic paint and it is getting shipped to me for the $13.95. What I am wondering is when did powder paint become hazardous? Anybody else run into this before?

I use powder paint and dip in a fluid bed. Accent colors are added via a powder paint airbrush. Very durable and the fish and fishermen certainly like them. Lots of sources of powder paint. Since you are just starting out you might just stick with Protec powders in the small jars. Once you determine you like it you can buy powders in 1 pound containers from various sources. It is somewhat expensive to get started if you buy everything new and all at once. If you can find what you need via Ebay or garage sales etc. it can be done for quite a bit cheaper. Make sure you know the value of things before buying. I see lots of molds on EBAY listed for more than they cost brand new. I have found not all suppliers are the same either. The cheapest source of do it molds I have found is Shark river mail order. I had good results ordering from them. Barlows is a bit more expensive on molds but has everything else I need so it often times works out when you factor in shipping to get it all from one source. And Barlows always packs things well for me. Zeiners bass shop is another cheap mold source but I had a bad experience with an order from them so won't use them anymore. Don't forget to read the lead safety section at the top of the wire baits forum. Good luck I hope you enjoy it.

Yeah I guess you are right. Regardless they can probably help TBK by casting his jigs. And doing so in the USA.

Though this video might be usefull to you. This is one small lure company who does the lead casting you are considering. Good luck it is a tough world out there.

Won't work. Ben there done that. I currently use the powder paint airbrush and it works good for this. Set yourself up with a box to catch overspray rigged up with a hole and a shop vac hose hoooked to it to catch the overspray. It does use more paint than a fluid bed due to overspray but works well. You could also try the brush tap method but I would think it would be a pain with spoon sized baits. Check out TJ's tackle website and watch his tutorial on the powder paint airbrush for spoons.

I have fluid bed cups that are 12 inches tall. They work just fine you just need plenty of air to run them the smallest aquarium pumps probably don't move enough air. You should be able to make them any length you need. I use 2 inch cups so I don't need as much powder if I used 3 inch. 2 inch is plenty big enough for lead spoon type jigs. I hang my taller jigs vertically in my toaster oven as they are over 10 inches long. I bought some sinker slides with the rounded loop. I threw away the plastic slide and mounted them on the racks. Shorter jigs without hooks get hung on the sinker slides vertically and longer ones get hung on 2 of them horizontally. If you need I'll take some pics tomorrow.