Custom Jig Production

This will be a continuously updated thread following me and a buddy making our own lures, for those interested in the process.

We're not starting our own company or looking to compete or steal business from guys like Reebs, Warbait$, or whatever. We just got tired of overpaying for a 1/2oz piece of lead with a hook in it and decided to take matters into our own hands

We split our resources and purchased a Style "9" Shad Head and a Poison Tail Weedless jig mold from Do-It. We chose the cheapo Hot Pot 2 lead melting pot. Various colors of Pro-Tec powder paints, a bunch of hooks, eyes, skirts, etc. Total initial investment was about $250 split between the two of us. We got hooked up on a 5 gallon bucket full to the brim of wheel weights from a friend (cost: $0).

Mold and Hot Pot


Mike T secured an old bathroom vanity from a job site, put caster wheels on it, and made a sweet drying rack. Another customer gave us an old cast-iron pot for making ingots, and our boss let us borrow his turkey fryer. We're in business!

The station


First step was to separate the iron and Zinc weights from the lead. This was by far the most tedious process. We ended up with approximately 40 lbs of clean lead, which was then soaked in degreaser and rinsed. We figure this will make us over 900 jig-heads.

Crap on the left, Iron and Zinc in the middle, and Lead on the right


Clean lead


Next step was to melt the weights, use candle-wax as a flux to burn off some of the impurities, and scoop the rest of the dross that floats to the top off with a spoon. Once we've extracted most of the impurities, the lead is poured into cupcake molds to make the clean ingots for the jig molds.





Lead cupcakes!




Once the ingots are made (each one feels about 1-2 lbs), we put them in the hot pot to melt. These particular cupcakes fit the hot pot bowl perfectly. We had an issue where the lead was setting before it fully filled the mold, so we were getting partial heads. Heating up the mold before pouring helped, but we still weren't getting the barbs on the shank of the hook. Finally a torch was used to apply heat to the mold and the hooks themselves, and finally - perfectly shaped heads!





Now the fun part. Mike T made a fluid bed from scratch, which uses a PVC chamber, paper bag cutout filter, and a small aquarium air pump to suspend a bed of powder paint making a lighter but more even paint coat. This process is so cool to watch....



A small amount of powder paint is poured into the chamber, and the air turned on (you can see the bubbles in the pic below. It actually looks like fluid):


The lead head is heated up with a torch for a few seconds:


....and quickly dipped in and out of the fluid bed:


Boom! Just like that there is an instantly dry powder-coat quality finish on the head.


Once we had a large batch, we baked them in an old toaster oven to cure further. Optional step but I think it will lead to a tougher finish.

Final product:






I am still waiting for my Poison Tail weedless mold and some more colors, but for now we're having fun experimenting with skirts, eyes, etc. More to come!





By the way, we estimate that our first 900 heads will cost about $.27 ea, and we'll re-coup our initial investment after only 200-300 pieces. Moving forward the biggest cost will be hooks, skirts, and eyes. Hopefully I'll never buy another jig head again

 

I can't remember how we worked the exact math, since there's lots of pieces involved, but you're right, the eyes and skirts are probably the most expensive pieces. That number was for bare heads. Does anyone know where to get skirts in bulk?

 

We should have a little better luck with our PT mold since we got the bigger one (1/2, 3/4, 1oz). Hopefully the cavity being a little larger helps us out.

I've heard that wheel weight lead is more difficult to melt and work with, but turns out a better jig because it's a harder lead.

 

We're baking everything for now, and I also have clear coat on the way with our PT mold. I'm thinking of applying the clear coat over the eyes to lock them in, but I'm concerned if I try to bake them like that the eyes will melt. We'll probably bake the powder coat, put on the eyes, then clear coat. That should provide a pretty durable finish.

 

SOLD! Ha, just kidding. Thrillz lead heads are way sweeter than ours, and pair up perfectly with his grubs. I think we're gonna experiment for a while and build up a good stockpile for ourselves then sell some on the side to re-coup costs.

Lead fumes are very bad, coincidentally we're a restoration company that happens to be lead certified so we've got all the right gear. I think we are gonna move production outside though since we kinda smoked out the shop with fumes lol.

And you're 100% right, catching the big one on your own stuff makes it that much sweeter!