Crappie jig mold

[Rex]

Just bought a brand new crappie jig mold. Can not get complete pours to save my life.

Are the pour slots not correct or am I missing something?

[WALLEYE WACKER]

What mold is it ? A regular round or disc type crappie mold?

https://store.do-itmolds.com/Crappie-JigbrSz-132-116brHk-33903brCollar-None_p_451.html

If it’s this one it can give you trouble if everything isn’t hot.

[Rex]

That’s the one. How would a guy go about heating the mold besides dead pours? I didn’t have issues pouring other molds.

[Apdriver]

I keep a propane torch on my bench for heating molds and other stuff. Works very well. I bought one with a pizza igniter and a trigger so it ignites with a pull of the trigger. Makes it real handy. Also you can lay the aluminum part of that mold across the top of your lead pot while it’s heating and that will heat it also.

[WALLEYE WACKER]

I put what ever mold I’m pouring on top of the production pot as it’s heating up.

[Lamar]

  What type lead are you using ? Small pours, fine detail and lead heads with barbs need soft lead.

[ctom]

On some of the tiny heads like this the hooks can themselves act as a heat sink. In addition to heating/keeping the mold well heated, try heating the hooks a bit with a hair dryer. They don't have to be blistering hot, just warmer than a cold hook.

And Lamar is dead correct on using soft lead. Pure lead. No wheel weight metal or other alloy types of lead. You don't mention how you're filling the mold....ladle? bottom pour? I use a small ladle and pour 1/64 and 1/80 jigs in semi-custom molds from Do-It with no problem but the hooks are very small and don't rob any heat. A mold such as the one you've shown may do best if a bottom pour pot is used.

[Fatman]

Could be the angle of your picture but it looks like the first two holes on the left have a small piece of lead stuck in the hole.  It does happen! 

[ctom]

Take a picture of what the mold looks like inside and post it. Never mind the picture. I looked at the mold in the store and got my answer. You'll either have to use a bottom pouring pot or you'll have to put a fairly tall block of wood or something to rest the hinge end of the mold on when filling it if you do so with a ladle. Either way, you will need pure lead. No way can you use the tire weight junk.

The cavities fill at an angle and you're getting a slight air lock so the lead is cooling off and stopping the fill before the cavities are filled. Get the pot as hot as it goes, set the hinge end up on a piece of 4X4 and pour the cavities with the mold at an incline. And again. Pure lead, no alloy of any kind.

[bigjim5589]

I pour that jig with wheel weight lead and don't have problems with incomplete pours. It's one of the easiest molds to pour that I have, and I have a lot of them.

I use an electric hot plate to heat up molds prior to pouring, and keeping the molds hot. I also make pours before adding hooks, but don't bother heating up the hooks. They're thin wire, they heat up quickly with contact with a hot mold.

Any mold, needs to be hot, and that means close to the melting point of the lead. This mold pours well with a bottom pour, and a ladle pour, but once the mold is hot enough you have to work quickly enough to keep it hot, since the amount of lead is tiny compared to the amount of aluminum in the mold dissipating heat.