 |
| I wanted to start pouring my own sinkers because it was getting harder and harder to find the styles I wanted in the sizes that I needed. With sinkers costing up to 40 to 70 cents a piece and a little time on my hands I placed a call to Cabela’s and orders a No Roll mold made by Do-It and a Hot Pot 2 melting kiln. Next was to look for some lead to melt, first let me note that pure lead pours much easier than other alloys. My first stop was the local Ace Hardware and bought some pure lead, five pounds for 9.99? That’s not much of a deal? Stopped around and found a tire shop that has a couple of five gallon buckets filled to the brim. Freebie The first step in making your own sinkers is safety: Safety: Melting lead has some serious safety issue, First there is the health hazard of lead it self Melting lead and casting lead objects Will expose you and others in the area to lead, which is known to cause birth defects, other reproductive harm and cancer. REDUCING EXPOSURE: Lead contamination in the air, in dust, and on your skin is invisible. Keep children and pregnant women away during use and until cleanup is complete. Risk can be reduced - but not eliminated - with strong ventilation; washing hands immediately after use of these products before eating or smoking; and careful cleaning of surfaces and floors with disposable wipes, after lead dust has had a chance to settle. Use a lead specific cleaner with EDTA, or hand soaps specifically designed to remove heavy metals. Exposure to lead can be limited with the proper safety equipment Heavy leather gloves or welding gloves when handling the kiln and molds as well as the recently cast sinker they will stay hot for a period of time. Latex gloves help when handling raw material. Long sleeve shirt and long pants to protect against splatter, this is molten metal and it will burn instantly. Never melt lead inside, there just is not enough ventilation another reason to wash the sinkers before melting is it will reduce the smoke which can carry lead dust or particles. Water and hot lead create a violent reaction similar to hot oil and water Step number two Set up in an area that will not be affected by molten lead. You will want an area that has ample space a comfortable working height and has plenty of ventilation. I first started by cutting the steel attachment point out and dumping the two ends into the kiln. In about 10 minutes the banana shaped weights slowly became a pool of silver. When the pool becomes completely liquefied then you need to scrape or scoop the impurities off the top. What you see here is the dirt and grime (impurities) the weights is no longer solid. To skim the impurities off the top I use an OLD baby spoon and an empty pop or coffee can. If you chose to melt the entire weight with the steel clip on you will need to remove the clip from your lead. I used a small pair of needle nose pliers. This is what the lead looks like after removing the by-products, it should have a nice shiny almost mirror finish. This is the result; $10.50 worth of sinkers in the first hour, with the premade ingots the cast time for more will be shorter. I’m looking to by my next mold, may be egg sinkers. I also made a couple of lead ingots for future casting, each of these are about 3.50 pounds and have already been skimmed for impurities. There are a couple of different way to make ingots, one is to purchase an ingot tray and pour, other have used cast iron corn bread trays, or I just left them in the Hot Pot unplugged till it cooled then flip it over a little tap and out comes one drop in ingot. The equipment: Do it molds I used the no roll sinker mold with 3-4-5 ounce castings, the directions state to oil the hinges and pins often. The aluminum needs a quick two or three warm up cast to be at the right temperature for casting. If the mold is too cold your sinkers will come out incomplete or brittle with holes. Too warm and the wood handle will start to smoke. I found that a small sponge with oil on it handy to lube the pins every couple of cast. Hot Pot 2 The Hot Pot both melts and pours your lead. It has a 4 pound capacity with an externally mounted heating coil for longer life. A good starter piece, with a little practice you will be able to pour quality sinkers. The next step up would be the Production Pot IV which is a bottom feed kiln |
 |
