I found out about the two new ball head molds, those with the wire keeper instead of a cast on barb, quite a while before they were even proto-typed and I have pacing ever since. I got one of each of the molds today and had to let them warm up a bit, but as soon as the sweat was off them I plugged in the hot pot. While the lead heated I counted out #4 and # 6 Eagle Claw sickle hooks and an equal number of keeper wires. Imagine my surprise when I read the info inside the mold that stated to use such and such a brand and style of hook only. Of course I just nodded and thought, "ya, right". After a quick check to see if what I had in little piles at the work station would run I went about my business waiting on the lead.
I'm not going to labor people with pictures that they can see in the announcement of the molds, but I'll give you a run-down of what the casting was like. It took about 20 seconds to figure out that the whole process would be smooth as long as the keepers were laid in the mold first, followed by the hooks. When the hooks were laid in place I found it really slick to set the eye of the hook in the pocket cut for it and then tipped the rest of the hook in place. Only once did I knock a wire out of the groove while setting hooks. Now I did go ahead and pour a mold full only to find out that I forgot to put the hooks in, but I only knocked one wire loose while laying hooks so I feel better for that. Honestly the molds hold that keeper insert in place real well. I banged the open mold a couple times and the wires that were in place just stayed there.
I did not pre-heat the molds...went right to casting and never had a problem with anything. I usually see the need to warm up my 1/32 molds a hair. Not with this one. When it came time to snap the sprues, that's exactly what I did... snap, twist... whatever you want to refer to it as but I didn't find the need to cut the sprues and still have nice clean heads.
Size-wise, the 1/32 and the 1/16 are common. The 1/24 and the 3/32 are something else. I was using 1/24 heads this fall made in another mold that left a large flat area across the head and I think that the lead that went with the sprues on those heads made a 1/24 more like a 1/32 in the end. These 1/24 feel like a 1/24 should feel. Now the 3/32 head....that has so many uses its just unreal. I can see this head size sneaking right into the walleye scheme of things without much effort and for smallies this guy is going to absolutely ROCK. On larger crappie baits it most certainly has a place. When chucking for stripers I see a lot of room for use, especially for the extra casting distance it will offer over a 1/16.
The only down-side I see to either of the molds and the heads they produce is that its darned near DECEMBER....we could have used both of these molds in MAY. But late better than never is OK. At least now I have plenty of time to build up an arsenal of these four jig sizes and do some schmancy paint jobs on a few of them. I see I need to beg the grandson again for some of those nifty boxes he gets at the hospital where he works. I'll ply him with some fresh jerky, that'll do it.
So the bottom line is a clean one. If you are a crappie angler who likes to use jigs, these two molds will fill just about any need you'll ever need unless you insist on knocking the fish out with BIG jigs.
These molds fill nicely from the start are a breeze to work with right up to snapping the sprues. No clean-up after the casting fact means you go from hot pot to powder in a blink. The Do-It team has hit a pair of homers with these molds.
