New Grass Jig

[falcon104]

Getting a lot of incomplete pours mainly on the bottom of the bait keeper. Any suggestions on how to remedy it?
Thanks

[21xdc]

It's a poor design. If do-it would make the same diameter collar on the smaller sizes as their larger sizes, This would fix all of these issues.... Many of their molds are this way.  Reduce the weight in the head, Not the collar. 


I made barb vents bigger, hook exit bigger, graphite the mold and hooks, 850* lead, pour fast, pour slow, mold is screaming hot etc... Still sux! Better..... Yes. Ladle pouring helped some too....

I have been pouring lead for near 40 years....

[brennan.chapman]

Getting a lot of incomplete pours mainly on the bottom of the bait keeper. Any suggestions on how to remedy it?
Thanks

The below might seem pretty basic but is really important with the Hybrid Grass Jig, and other jigs alike that have a larger barbed keeper. This will help!

1.) Be sure you're getting great flow from your melter
2.) Be sure your mold is hot
3.) When pouring, lead needs to flow directly down the center of the sprue, not favoring one side or the other
4.) Place sprue directly under the spout of melter (making contact as if you're injecting it)
5.) Mirror the angle of how the lead flows into the cavity when holding the mold so that lead takes the path of least resistance

[ctom]

I have the mold and have very few issues with it. Brennan offers some great ideas. I use drop-out in my 3/8 cavity since its the only size to hand me a problem. I don't spray the whole mold but I do use a q-tip sprayed with the drop-out to wipe all of the inside of that cavity, both sides, every six to 8 castings. Do-It has the drop-out in its catalog or on-line.

[21xdc]

When bass fishermen are fishing for bass, They are always fishing for a 5lber.... When reducing weight size, Nobody I know wants a smaller hook... Just a lighter head and slower fall.... No need to make the 3/8 cavity with a smaller hook.... Make it fit the 4/0 and 5/0.... I never understood this logic.


Were not fishing for smaller fish with a 3/8 head....

[ctom]

I'm casting 4/0 and 5/0 hooks in the 3/8.

I'm using either the Mustad 32886 or the Victory 10886 hooks. I've cast both with great results. The issue with the 3/8 has not been the head proper, but rather, the barbs but I do not use a plastic trailer with the silicone so personally its not an issue. Those heads I have used as samples have all had a full compliment of barbs that filled completely.

Brennan's suggestion that the mold likes to be hot is spot on. I pre-heat my mold with maybe a dozen fillings of all cavities without hooks before I cast any with the hooks in place. The Mustad hooks are heavy suckers and they like to be heated in a skillet a bit too, but really the drop out cured the barb issue for me. If you heat the hooks you don't want them blistrering hot, just warm enough that they won't suck the heat from the lead as it enters.

And I'll just add here that I ladle pour every jig I make from 4 ounces down to 1/80. On heads with more complexity, like the Grass head, dump the bottom pour pot and get a ladle and hand pour and most of your headaches will go away. Those bottom dumpers are the pits for anything but small jigs..

[21xdc]

Your advice is spot on for a new guy.... I'm not him. 

[Lamar]

  I always make a 3/8 jig with a 3/0 hook. I even make a 1/2 and 9/16 oz with a 3/0 hook. Reason being I want a small compact bait but like the heaver weight to control the cast better on long casts or windy days. I believe when bass are on cover placement of the bait is more important than the bait it self. Guys have this idea in their head that a lighter bait will fall slower than a heavier bait. Not true if it's the same profile. Gravity pulls at the same rate no matter what the weight.
  Back to the main question. I do find when pouring molds that have fine details or barbs on the hooks it helps to preheat the mold on a hot plate and make sure you're using pure lead.

[bigjim5589]

I've been pouring that mold with 4/0 hooks in the 3/8 cavity and have not had much problems since the first time I poured it.  I think any new mold has a learning curve and can agree with what Brennan has said.

I do get molds very hot, using a hot plate to pre-heat and have also been using a Hot Pot electric ladle to pour. I have not tried pouring it with my bottom pour.

I don't bother with heating hooks, they get hot enough if the mold is plenty hot. They don't have enough mass to affect the mold or lead temp if the mold is plenty hot. Using a hook that positions centered in the cavity to me is more important, and I've used all 3 hooks in that mold, Victory, VMC & Mustad.

Laying out your hooks and being capable of getting them in the mold quickly helps with keeping the mold hot. I use a good surgical type tweezers with some hooks & other hardware, and a piece of wood dowel that's been sharpened on the one end in a pencil sharpener. I've used metal tools too in the past, but they tend to get magnetized and then the hooks want to stick to them. Wood dowel is fairly inexpensive to replace too.

I also have been using primarily recycled wheel weight lead.  I have several hundred pounds of it and seldom use soft lead for any pouring. Making sure that you're using clean lead ingots and not scrap straight into your melting pot also helps and I skim it off frequently so the oxidized lead doesn't pour into the cavity & block it up.  The only other lead I'll add to a pot is sprues that I had previously removed from what I've poured.

If you only have a bottom pour, keep it closer to full, as that mass of hot lead will help in maintaining a fairly consistent temp once it is all molten.