# Sinker pouring help



## CaptFrank (Jul 29, 2009)

I was looking for some help with pouring 4-5oz. Sputnik type surf sinkers. I've been pouring jigs and such for quite awhile, but recently I decided to delve into sinkers. These are totally different beasts! I have 3 molds, one has fins, and I cannot get the lead to pour into them completely. I have the Lee Production Pot IV, which I'm thinking does not get the lead into the mold quickly enough for a complete pour. Any recommendations or ideas, suggestions, or advice would be most appreciated. Please help! Thanks!


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## SmoothLures (Feb 13, 2008)

You need a ladle to pour lots of lead at a quick speed. The top pour pots are great on jigs up to 1 oz or so but after that they have a hard time giving a good full pour. 

Also you may want to try to find some 95% pure soft lead, it'll pour much better than wheel weights or whatever you might be using.


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## Tacpayne (Dec 20, 2008)

Also mack sure your mold is HOT, after you get a few poured it usually goes easier for me anyway.


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## narfpoit (Jun 16, 2004)

yeah I use a lyman type ladle with a pour spout to pour everything and it does well with the larger weights. Even with that you still have to make sure everything is at the right temp and the lead is clean.


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## Charlie2 (May 2, 2007)

*Pouring Lead*

Like the poster says; keep the mold hot then keep it warm..

I keep mine on a hot plate between pours to prevent the mold from cooling.

I use a melting pot and ladle to pour.

Hope this helps and happy sinker making. C2


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## CaptFrank (Jul 29, 2009)

Thank you for the tips and advice! I have been keeping the mold hot, but my lead may not be pure enough. I'll give the ladle pouring a shot too. I like the idea of keeping the mold on a hot plate - any risk of damaging the mold?

So where do you get pure lead? I've been using cable sheathing and some wheel weights. Doesn't the lead sink to the bottom and the tin and albut stuff rise to the top? I've heard of people melting their stuff then pouring ingots to get a more pure lead. Is that right?


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## Charlie2 (May 2, 2007)

*Pouring Lead*

Personally, I use old net leads. I can get them rather cheap. There are some net leads that aren't pure lead but some kind of alloy. I don't know who in their right mind would do such a thing. JMHO

I've heated up lead and scraped the scum of the top, but I don't think that it'd pure lead yet.

The only lead that I had trouble with was some kind of alloy which acted as solder and stuck my mold up.Just heat it up and scrape the crud from the top and I think that you'll have no problems. C2


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## Rockfish1 (Apr 8, 2005)

I used to throw a chunk of wax in the pot after the lead melted down and got good and hot to make the impurities float to the top... this would make the alloy's separate too, giving you a much purer lead...


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## Lightload (Nov 30, 2007)

Cast iron or steel molds can warp if you heat them unevenly such as dipping a corner of the mold into the molten lead or setting the bottom on a hot plate to heat the mold up. These molds should only be heated by pouring lead into them.

Aluminum molds, on the other hand, don't have a warping problem so go ahead and heat them on a hot plate, just don't get the hot plate too hot or you'll melt the mold!

Also, I don't think your problem with filling the mold is your melt. I think your problem is just that the Lee pot can't put enough lead into the mold fast enough. Go to a ladle and you'll be fine.


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## thebigman (Jun 4, 2008)

This might be of help - http://www.planetseafishing.com/tutorials/read/how-to-make-your-own-leads-safely/


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## bluemicky (Jan 30, 2009)

CaptFrank said:


> Thank you for the tips and advice! I have been keeping the mold hot, but my lead may not be pure enough. I'll give the ladle pouring a shot too. I like the idea of keeping the mold on a hot plate - any risk of damaging the mold?
> 
> So where do you get pure lead? I've been using cable sheathing and some wheel weights. Doesn't the lead sink to the bottom and the tin and albut stuff rise to the top? I've heard of people melting their stuff then pouring ingots to get a more pure lead. Is that right?


like the guys have said above,try a ladle to get the correct quantity of lead to the mould,plus it always be on the heat and in the correct heat zonefor the sinker to harden off properly.
im lucky,i get either lead flashing offcuts or old lead water pipe.
i dont think you will have purity problems though because whenever i have had dirty lead its always put a crust of slag that has to be skimmed off before smelting any sinkers off.
im sure you will be fine mate.:fishing:just try a ladle from your u.s forces outlets?


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## fbiprez (Jul 6, 2009)

I use a green bean can for my melting and pouring!! I put a handle on it and use a small torch to melt the wheel weights. Sure it's low tech but I'm only going to make a handfull of spider weights and I do the lead work outside to avoid as many fumes as possible plus wear gloves. I figure no more than I'm going make that should do it. It's a crude and 90% free way to do it and they are all different but they will work great for me. I like the spider weights and the mouse trap technique they provide.
Joe


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## CaptFrank (Jul 29, 2009)

Guys, again, thank you for the the tips and advice. I'll be getting a ladle or pour pot to try and improve my sinker casting abilities. I wish it was as easy as the jigs I make!


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## eric (Oct 24, 2007)

when i get lead. pipes scraps tires. etc etc.
i melt it in a big iron pan. throw some wax in as flux. 
itll smoke like a chimney.. so make sure your outdoors and NOT downwind from the pan.
skim the top. so its nice and shiny. then pour out 'cleaner' ingots.

when i pour the sinkers, i reheat the cleaned ingots. add wax. skim. then pour.

if your still having problems . try to enlarge the molds hole. it might be a little small.
or heat the lead some more, its cooling before it finishes the pour. also pour faster.


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## Charlie2 (May 2, 2007)

*Pouring Lead*



CaptFrank said:


> Guys, again, thank you for the the tips and advice. I'll be getting a ladle or pour pot to try and improve my sinker casting abilities. I wish it was as easy as the jigs I make!


I don't understand what you mean. I pour both jigs and weights and find both about the same with practice.

When I'm pouring, I will pour whatever I need at the time; be it jigs or leads, often at the same pouring. C2


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## narfpoit (Jun 16, 2004)

You can use lots of things to remove impurites from lead such as wax or oil I use a resin flux made for soldering there is also a product called marvelux that is made specifically for this task. But those are mostly only taking out the lead oxides wich have a higher melting temp. You will not be able to remove other metals that are alloyed with the lead because these will have either a similar melting point or a lower melting point. Anyway if you are cleaning up old lead to make clean ingots I find it best to melt and flux at a low temp to help keep the impurities from mixing back into the melt.


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## CaptFrank (Jul 29, 2009)

C2, I just meant that pouring the smaller jigs and such is an easier task. I've just started messing around with sinkers. What I need to do is get a melting pot, ladle, and burner, so that I am able to pour the lead at a fast rate into the mold. My top load model just doesn't allow for that, so it's drying before the mold is complete. 
The BigMan, thank you for the web site, it was very helpful!


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## Charlie2 (May 2, 2007)

*Thanks!*

Thanks for the clarification; Captain.

I was just wondering what the difference was.

I usually run about a 100 jigs at a pouring. I wrap my C2 Rigs and make the jigs for them at the same time. I use two swimmers and one digger for each rig. If I need leads, I pour them at the same time.

I used to pour my own cast net leads. I had an old, and I do mean old, cast iron mold that somehow got away from me. It would be probably 100 years old now. It was old when I got it. I hand made cast nets for some 60+ years before I quit.

I still have some nylon hand made cast net webbing that has never been hung.

I also have one hand made nylon brail net that still works. It's probably 50 years old. Quality lasts.C2


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## redhorse9902 (Jan 5, 2008)

*drill the pour hole out*

Have done this to multiple molds with no adverse effects. Just makes cutting the excess a little harder. And keep that mold hot! If you can hold it [the handles] with bare hands it ain't hot enough


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## Charlie2 (May 2, 2007)

*Molds*

Very good advice.

My molds have wooden handles when I buy them or I'll make some to put on them. An exception is when I cast using a mold made from Bondo. It's usually a one-timr shot so no problem.

In any case, I wear gloves. It's too easy to get burned.

I also use a pair of tweezers to put my hooks and hardware into the mold. You can get serious burns when doing this with your bare hand. Trust me on this! C2


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## CaptFrank (Jul 29, 2009)

Well, if you guys are still looking at this, I tried again today. And thank you again for all of the great tips and advice!
Anyway, I bought a 35,000 BTU burner, pot, ladle, propane tank, and thought I would tear it up. Wrong! As I said before, I'm not really new to this, just these sputnik molds. I have poured a lot of lead of varying sizes, but these damn things are killing me. 
Problems i had today:
1. Lead didn't stay hot enough. Had the burner on full blast too.
2. Got the molds hot and still couldn't get a complete pour.

I tried all of the tricks i know as well as those you guys listed, but to no avail. I'm going to try to find a blast furnace type burner to try and get the lead hotter. I even drilled out my molds to make the pour holes bigger, poured on weird angles, and other crazy stuff trying to get it to work. Still couldn't get it right.

If anyone is planning on pouring lead any time soon and would like some help and wants to try and take a whack at these damn molds, let me know. At this point I don't know what else to do.


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## Charlie2 (May 2, 2007)

*Lead Pouring*

It sounds like something is cooling too quickly. Do you work under a fan? A fan will definitely cool things down enough to cause problems.

I pour sputniks all the time and they're no different than any other pour.

I don't know what to tell you. Very strange indeed. C2


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## toejam (Jan 28, 2005)

It may be your lead... it may be contaminated with another metal.... very same amounts can produce alloys that can have some drastic changes from the properties of virgin lead such a meltingl point and the temp range from liquid to plastic state.


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## Charlie2 (May 2, 2007)

*Lead Problems*

TJ may be right!

After all; solder is made up of lead/tin with some kind of alloy.

I would suggest trying some known, pure lead to see if that will fix your problem. Let us know. C2


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## fbiprez (Jul 6, 2009)

If memory serves, solder is like 70/30 my system is so crude I won't even tell but it involves a hand torch and green bean can with a handle mounted on it and the mold is made out of a wood 2x4 to make spider weights. Learned this by watching you tube videos and went from there. It's very low tech but in my case I'm only making a few so it's great, I got wheel weights for free and last week I picked up 4 one lb bars of lead at a gun show for $2 so I have enough lead to last for lots of projects. I do the actual melting and pouring outside for safetys sake not in the shop.


Joe


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## CaptFrank (Jul 29, 2009)

Sorry I didn't reply sooner. It is fairly pure lead, it's from cable sheathing. I did have a fan on. I think the burner is to large in diameter for the pot I'm using. It seems like most of the heat escapes. I'll mess with it and see if I can rig something up. Thanks again!


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