Big A
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Posts posted by Big A
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I’ve got all the brake rings, spool tension pads, and both ends of my spool bolished by using Cerium Oxide in first course and then fine grade. Cerium Oxide is a powder (flour) used to make a paste to polish eyeglass lenses. All parts that that contact the spool are polished to a mirror like finish. My bearings are all cleaned with an ultrasonic cleaner using liquid brake cleaner! Much cheaper than the spray cans!! Gears get a minimal touch up of grease and drag washers have the recommended grease applied also. Oil is sparingly applied to friction pads and bearings using an insulin syringe! After close inspection, I’ve found a couple of bearings “bad” with a feeling like a flat spot! Cleaning did not help, so I replaced them. Most of the reels I’m tuning are to throw finesse worms/baits with no weight except the look and soft plastic. So far the addition of any new bearings have not given me much improvement over the steps I’ve mentioned above! The polishing seemed to have the greatest impact on distance!
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Both Zinc and Copper can give the gold colors,,,lead is either silver, and takes on a purple/blue color when overheated. I tried to copy a link from a files folder on facebook to share with you, but the link will not paste in this forum. It's in the files of a Facebook Group called Cast Boolits. It's a PDF file of a book titled From Ingot to Target, and it's a very detailed book on lead cleaning, fluxing. alloying, and all aspects of bullet casting. Cleaning lead of impurities can be done, but it's beyond the scope of us amateur casters! Some of the chemicals used are very toxic and can be deadly.
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Lead fluxing is a continuous process. I melt all my lead in a 3 quart cast iron Dutch oven and toss a small pea sized lump of wax (crayon piece, paraffin cube, or lump of beeswax) on top of the molten metal. It usually melts and starts to burn so using a long slotted spoon, I stir it till the flames die. The fire is consuming the oxidation so the dirt and contaminates float to the top and I skim them off. I do this 4 or5 times and sometimes more if I'm melting firing range lead. You'll know if it's contaminates, it's not heavy like the metal. I try to limit each pot to approx. 20 pounds because the larger batches are hard to keep stirring without getting my hand too hot in the glove. once I get a liquid mirror appearance on the metal after fluxing, I add the sawdust, borax, or powdered charcoal to prevent oxidation. the liquid metal is poured into ingot molds and cooled for placing on my stack. When it goes into my casting pots, one is a Lyman and the other is RCBS, I flux again , usually twice and add borax or powdered charcoal to prevent oxidation. Every time metal is added to the pot, the fluxing and adding of antioxidants is repeated. I also have shot makers with orifice holes that are super small. They'll clog up a lot faster than the nozzle of a lead pot. With that covered....problems with the lead not coming out of your bottom pour pot can pretty much be narrowed down to contaminants being stuck in the outlet orifice or temperature too low. To clean the contaminates, you have to melt the lead if the pot isn't empty and remove the needle and clean it with steel wool. the seat needs a good cleaning also. Get a good thermometer, either analog or digital that you can measure up to around 800 degrees with and check to see if your pot is getting the lead hot enough. I'm not an equipment evaluator, but I have never had a Lee pot that I could use to pour large jigs or large sinkers with. They didn't give a fast enough flow to prevent wrinkles. If you've covered all those bases, then that lead shielding is probably an alloy that's been contaminated with copper, zinc, or some other wicked metal that makes lead turn into a caster's nightmare.
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Ratio is not really important for jigheads...just try to keep zinc out as it can weld itself to aluminum molds and ruin them! I test all the wheelweights with an old pocket knife that's pretty sharp. if it cuts into the weight easily, its lead. if it resists I look close for an fe or FE stamp to identify it as steel, or a zn or ZN that designates the zinc. If you know anyone who casts bullets, thet can give you pointers here. The reloaders take lead alloys seriously and have elevated alloying and heat treating to a science for bullet casting. The cast bullet handbooks have a wealth of info on fluxing, alloying, and safety on lead casting
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I cast for fishing weights, scuba weights, jigs, spinnerbaits and bullets for reloading. Fluxing is essential to getting the lead to flow reliably out of the pot or ladle and into the mold. It becomes more critical in bullets, since the inclusion of impurities creates unbalanced projectiles that wobble in flight. Alloying pure lead with a small amount of tin really aids immensely in the fill out of mold cavities. Hardening is accomplished with the addition of arsenic and antimony. if you're recycling clip-on wheel weights then they have it already alloyed so no addition is necessary. Fluxing also helps bring the other good elements back into the alloy as they float to the surface in addition to preventing oxidation. I've used Marvelux, paraffin, sawdust, broken crayons, tallow, and beeswax for fluxing. My preference is aromatic eastern red cedar or beeswax simply because they smell good when you toss them into the melted lead.
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Bob La Londe at CNC Molds N Stuff
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You can find them at Boca Bearings. Tackle Warehouse. Amazon,Com and most reel repair shops. pretty much all the companies have a listing by reel MFG. Model. size ect., and some offer upgrade kits and others offer in quantities of 10 or more at pretty good discounts. Most kits run about $30.
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Check out some of the "inshore" rods. I have some Shimano Calcutta and Teramar rods and an older All Star rod that do an outstanding job on heavy baits like you mentioned.
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Seen a lot of discussion recently on upgrading bait casting reels to ceramic bearings. Anyone using them have any comments?
Best Lead Melt Flux?
in Wire Baits
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I run thousands of items yearly through both a Lyman and a RCBS bottom pour pot and have never had either clog up on me. LED is melted in a cast iron pot, fluxed 3 times and poured into 1 lb ingot molds. It is fluxed again when remelted in the pouring pot and every time ingots are added. I have used Marvelux, paraffin, crayons, and beeswax to flux and love to keep a layer of aromatic red cedar on top of the melt to prevent oxidation. It smells superb!