where you get your lead?

[Burnham]

i am planning on starting to make my own jigs and move onto all sorts of tackle eventually. i have been lookin and am gunna to start buying all of the stuff. anyways i heard that tire stores will have extra lead that they are willing to sell, i went to 4 different tire places with no luck as they all had sold their lead for the month. where the heck can i get the stuff?? metal scrapyards??? or should i just keep on going around tire places?

[harvey lee]

I get mine from gas stations. All wheel weights. They work pretty good and there are stations that will almost give them to you if you know them.

If they are out and will sell it to you for a fair price, ask them to keep some and you will come back. Lead is a little high in price at this time.

[Burnham]

alright thank you tons! yea ive been drivin around everywhere after school to find some dang lead lol

[ddsbyday]

I would stick with soft lead if you want quality castings. Clip on wws are very hard. You can get very good clean soft lead from a well known auction site. It will be delivered to your door. Price will be around 1.00 per pound if you are patient. Soft lead works well(pipe,sheet). Pure is best. Stick on wws are about 97% pure which also casts well. Be safe though. There are many other good threads on this site that discuss the dangers. Your question was where to get it. (added only to keep the thread on topic).

[harvey lee]

I agree for jigs that the soft lead will work better. But for no rolls and bank sinkers the wheel weights will serve the purpose.

I agree that one does want a well ventilated area to do the lead.

[jigginjim]

You can also chech with some plumbing companies. Plumbers lead is very soft. I started with wheel weights, it takes a bunch, plus you need to spoon off the dirt and the wheel clip. It all floats to the top.

[hydro]

I agree with the plumbers supply for lead. It is pure and soft, and pours details well. Wheel weights contain antimony which makes the alloy harder but does not fill details well (like jig collars).

A trick that I use is to preheat the molds in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or so. The hot mold gives the lead time to fill the cavity details before freezing up. Be sure to take the wooden handles off if you try this.

[jigginjim]

I'll pour lead on the sides of the mold to keep it hot. Use a welders glove to hold mold.

[Burnham]

thanks for all of the advice! hopefully i will get lead and all the the stuff by next weekend and put all this advice to use

[harvey lee]

I preheat my Do-It-Molds in the oven also. I have never taken the handles off and it has worked just fine. You need to wear gloves to hold the mold when its hot also.

Seems once the mold has been used, it keeps plenty warm as long as I keep pouring.

[Redbeard5289]

Had a thought when I was putting away my duck hunting dekes in the garage this afternoon.

Can you use waterfowl decoy anchor weights for your lead jigs? The lead in those anchors is pretty soft, I can even bend it with my hands to secure it to the deke's neck.

And they are fairly cheap, I think I paid $5-6 for a 12pack of mushroom shape anchors.

I have never made my own jigs before, but I had a thought when I saw my dekes in the garage today and thought I would post it.

Redbeard5289

[paul pachowicz]

a buddy of mine casts his own 45-70 bullets. He uses wheel weights but adds some solder to it. 10%, I believe. He melts it and then puts it into ingot mold. He got around 700 pounds of the stuff. The salvage yard here quoted him 70 cents a pound if he wanted to sell it. I was thinkin if that works for bullets, it should work for jig heads.