Making your own sinkers

[adriancorrea]

Hi there all 8)
Just wondering on how to melt the lead for making sinkers?
A mate of mine just gave me some molds and I have no idea on how to do this. ??? ???
Any info would be appreciated :)

Tight lines
Adrian

[fishy_phil]

g day
the way i do it is the easy was i use an oxy set to heat the mould, melt the lead and to keep it hot. i melt it in a brass home made saucepan that my old man made years ago.
i keep it on a gas stove this is enough but the oxy makes it easier
cheers phil



work is for people who dont fish...like me.lol.

[Luke]

I use a gas stove and an oxy and melt the lead in a old milo tin. Make up some sort of ladle for pouring and make sure you heat up your moulds with an oxy before pouring or else the lead will cool before it forms sinkers in the mould. Use an old bike spoke(fits in the mould perfectly) coated with a layer of soap for the holes in your sinkers. Soap makes it easier to pull back through the finished sinkers. I only make big sinkers now as the small ones are cheap and not worth the worry and the poison intake. Remember if you are a smoker wash your hands before having one and basically avoid smoking until you are finished.
Cheers Luke

[spinna]

;)Hi Adrian
the way i make mine and ive been doing it for about 30 years
is i use an old camp oven to melt the lead. You have to have it hot very hot #if you watch it the lead will go a blueish colour.
I melt mine on old castiorn BBQ and use heat beads you can put the moulds on the side of it to get hot . you can buy ladles from a hardware store and if you have the moulds that you need wire to make the hole plssssssssssss go and buy stanless steel wire or piano wire you can get in all diffrent sizes. When your lead is hot and your mould is you then fill the ladle and pour slowly into the mould give it about 10 seconds to set and then open the mould and you have your sinker :) #:o good luck # spinna

[spinna]

one more thing Adrian make shore there is no water on your mould as the lead will splater :-[ and the same if any water goes into the lead pot . So try to wear saftey glasses. :: ;)

[adriancorrea]

Thanks for everyones info :)
I will give it ago and keep you posted on how I went.
No doubt Ill have more questions on this once Ive tried.
Thanks once again guys 8)

Tight lines
Adrian

[Luke]

One more trick Adrian. If you find the molten lead not pouring easily down the opening of the mould it is because you need to drill the sprue out a bit. I'm not sure why they produce them with such tiny sprues.Good luck.
Cheers Luke

[kevin]

Hi Adrian
The way I heat the lead is in a steel ladel that I made with a long handle.Iuse a wok burner that you can buy from a camping shop as the guys said watch out that there is no moisture in both the lead and mould.A mate was using some old lead to melt down that had a spider in it same result as the water be careful good luck