We’re gonna talk about pouring lead.
So there are some basic equipment you need to do this and one is lead.
Lead can be purchased online, I think I got like 40 lbs. a couple years ago and it’s
been fine for me to be pouring my own little jigheads but I got it off of E-bay I am pretty
sure.
Locally, I know a lot of places that do like tires and mechanic shops and places like that;
they get the wheel weights off of the tires and basically just chuck them into a little
bucket.
A lot of times, those guys will just sell them to you or just give them to you; to just
get rid of them so that is one place you can pick up some pretty cheap lead.
But there are several places, just do a search on the internet; it’s not hard to find lead
really.
The other thing you need obviously is a pot.
I use a down pour pot and I will show you that in a minute when we get into the video.
As everyone knows, lead is not good for you so there are some safety precautions that
you need to take.
This is an N95 Filter Mask.
It basically just filters out those bad fumes.
Definitely wear that when you are working around lead.
The other thing you need is a pair of gloves, a lot of times I’ll just wear these latex
gloves with these gloves over them.
That’s just a precaution; you don’t want to splatter lead on your bare skin.
This is a slag bucket.
Slag is basically un-pure materials that are in the lead and you will periodically have
to scrape that out, especially if you’re pouring from the top of the pot you’re going
to have to get that stuff off and I can show you a trick to fix that.
And then obviously you need a mold.
This is a Do-It Mold for a Screw Lock Shaky head so that is what we pour in this video.
These are called gate shears to basically trim the excess lead off; you’ll have that
from the top of the pours, so you can trim it off.
And of course we have a little scoop that is always handy to scoop out extra slag that’s
on the top of your pot.
One of the tricks that we’ll do is put wax in there to actually bring the impurities
up to the top of the pot and we will use this long handles spoon here to stir that up as
it actually catches on fire.
Anyways, we will go through all of that in just a minute.
OK so we've got our mold and now what we’re doing is we've got to load the components
into the mold and most molds are obviously going to take hooks and then either a keeper
or a weed guard.
This is the Do-It Football Mold and I’m loading in a couple of hooks as well as the
spiral keepers.
I’m pouring 2 different ones; I’m pouring a 1/8 oz one and a 3/8 oz one.
The 1/8 oz one I use just a straight flat eye VMC hook and on the 3/8 oz one, I use
an extra wide gap Mustad hook and this mold actually accepts both those hooks, the way
those hooks were made.
Once you’ve got the components in there, close the mold and get it tight.
What you will notice here, see that seam between there, you can’t have any space in there.
If there’s any space in there, leads going to leak through and the jigs not going to
pour right, it’s going to get on the shank, it’s going to get in the keeper and it’s
a mess.
So you have to make sure that is closed snug.
Now this is a Lee Pot, it’s a little more expensive but it pours lead down from the
bottom of the pot while the impurities are up on the top so it’s a little bit easier
to work with but it costs a little more money.
But basically you get your mold underneath there under the nozzle, raise the handle up
and the lead pours into it.
And if you miss it a little bit, just move it as its pouring and get it in there right,
its ok.
Open the mold up and here ya go, you've got your jig you just poured.
That extra lead on top, that’s known as sprue, that’s just extra lead and I actually
pour a little bit more on top because I want to pack the lead down there on the hook.
It just gives me a little bit better pour.
So, cut the screw off with the gate shears and there ya go.
Two different size Shaky heads poured in there in just a matter of seconds.
So we've got the mold, now we will take a look at the pot again.
This is the Lee Pot and you can tell that is has different settings.
One thing about the impurities I talked about, that slag that gets formed in there.
If you’ll take a piece of wax, this is paraffin wax; you can buy it at a hobby store.
Just take a little bit and you can drop that in your bucket while the lead is melting.
Now it’s going to catch on fire and it’s a pretty big fire, it startles people.
But you get a long handled spoon; stir that wax in there real good and the blow the fire
out.
Make sure your area is wide and you don’t have anything that is going to catch on fire
there and blow that fire out but that will cause all of the impurities in the lead to
rise up to the top of the pot.
The lead is obviously a lot more dense than the wax but that wax grabs hold of the impurities
and now you can just take a regular old fork here, scrape the impurities kind of around
on the top and get the impurities out with the fork and dump it in your slag bucket.
Now you've got real clean lead to pour with.
Another thing is, is if you will oil the hinges, both sides of the hinges on your mold, that
will make them last a lot longer.
Just use regular old reel oil.
Those things get heated up and can just get torn up real easy.
Again, I can’t stress the importance of safety enough.
Obviously there’s a lot of tools there but the key things are making sure you don’t
have contact with your skin with the lead.
Use those throw away disposable gloves, use the heavier leather gloves if you’re worried
about splattering lead on you and of course the mask is important but more important than
the mask is proper ventilation.
Do it in the open area, a garage with the full door open.
I do it with the door open, a side door open and fans running.