Ok, these are a little rough but for my first try I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out.

Last year I started jigging tins for the first time in the canal and I had a lot of hits, but I was missing most of them when I tried to set the hook. Since the fish always seem to hit right after you drop the tin, I started to think the swinging hooks were folding up as I dropped the tin and thats why I missed so many fish. I tried to find tins with fixed hooks, but wasn't able to...

The other problem I was having is that I happened to find a spot that was holding fish as the tide died. I needed to cast 3 or 4 oz to reach them but as the tide died the current was too weak to move the 3 & 4 oz crippled herrings.

So hopefully these are what I am looking for... These are based on a just a plain flat tin. I wanted a flat tin with wings so that I could lift it and move it easy in a light current. I made the mold out of bondo and it came out kind of rough, but it was my first one.. lots to learn with this stuff.

Anyways, when the bondo dried I took a ball rasp and sandpaper and added a lot of depth to the tail so that it would be very tail heavy and drop to the bottom quickly.

I set up the mold so I could attach a wire line tie underneath or up in front so that I can experiment with the tie position. I was thinking with the tie underneath when it hit bottom the hook would always be pointed up so maybe I'd hang up less. These two have the tie underneath.

Ok, now for a couple of questions.

When I tried the first time, I poured the tin into the open mold (no top), and when it had hardened it was brittle and I was able to snap it in half. I guessed that with top open perhaps the top cooled too fast compared to the bottom, so I put a piece of wood over the mold and poured through a hole I drilled in the wood and when those came out they seemed fine (ie not brittle). Does that make sense ?

Ok, next question, is there a better source of tin than buying it as solder?

here's a close up of the mold, with and without the the cover I ended up pouring through to try and make them cool slower...

Nice work on the mold. I have seen tin on Flea Bay but it was over 4.00 a Pound.

I've hired Pt. Jude Joe as my personal tin maker...it's much easier :hihi:

-spence

MAJOR kudos to you. I've wanted to try the same for 2 years now. Inspiring.

I have made a few molds myself. As a suggestion, blacken the bondo with a candle flame held real close. It allows the lead to flow easier and will not allow it to stick to the mold. Make the second half of your mold from bondo also and clamp the two together using a spru hole from the side to pour through. Allow time between pouring to let your mold cool. You will get a lot more use out of the bondo.

A good source of material is tire weights - if you know someone in a tire store, they may save a bunch for you. I use a combination of pure new lead and junk from the weights. Just keep skimming the stuff off the top. It took awhile to come up with the proper ratio for weight.

I hope you are doing your melting outside and are wearing a good respirator mask. That stuff will do horrible things to the body and brain.:gorez:

when we melt lead for jigs, the tin can be skimmed off. you need to find someone with lead thats not pure and melt it down..the tin floats somewhat, the pure lead is heavyer. I think were done for the year with the lead, a month ago we had a ton and chucked the tin:doh: we'll have to put it aside next time if someone will use it...nice tins

Here's some I was working on today. This mold came out a lot better than the other one, and picked up all the details. When I made the first one it was with the bondo in the red can. I did some searches on the internet and on a hobby site they were talking about getting better molds by mixing the bondo in the red can with the bondo fiberglass resin. It makes a thinner mix and was supposed to be better at picking up details. So I tried that on this mold, which was made from one of my beat up 4 oz cripped herrings.

This mold came out much better then the one I used yesterday. For the hooks on these I used some of my big 8/0 jig hooks and used a dremel to cut off the eye of the hook so it would fit inside the mold.

The top one is the original. On my scale, which I don't trust, the original is 3 3/8. The next two I made from lead, and the scale says they are 3 3/4.

The bottom 2 are from tin, and the scale says the are 2 1/2 oz, but I think they are closer to 3.

You just made my Hero List with that! Wow, something else that I have to try. Thanks for sharing that.

good job!! Mold making is frustrating, but as you can see the rewards are obvious.

Eben you are right on the money, making a good mold is harder than it looks.

The good thing about bondo is once its dry and hard, you can work with it pretty easily. It drills and sands easily and seems to stand up to the heat really well.

At 12$ a lb for tin solder, it's not going to really be much cheaper to make my own tins, so I won't be making too many of those...

The lead ones are much, much cheaper to make, so I'll probably make a bunch of them and and just spray paint them the colors I want. I think I have a can of chrome spray paint kicking around somewhere... the good thing about these, is when they get too beat up from the rocks in the canal, i can just hit em with the torch, melt em back down and start over.

Next year I'm going to mess around with this stuff a lot more. These were really just prototypes to see how hard it was to work with this stuff, and to see what kind of quality I could get.

Good job

one thing about bondo is that its pretty thick isnt it? the best mold material for picking up detail is one that can take heat and is the most liquid when you pour it. take a look at Jewery investment materail. Jewlers use it to cast silver, gold, bronze, etc..Its basicly exactly like plaster of paris but can take thousands of degrees... you will have to dry it out in an oven before you cast into it though..if theres any moisture it might blow up in your face.

Bondo is not a good material for molds.If it gets too hot it will crack.
Try making em as big as u can so the heat dissipates better.
Tin is 2/3 the weight of lead.U can find in in metal scrap yards.The stuff we get was used as beer coil..They will cut it with crimps be sure to open them up as they will contain moisture.NG...
Scratch a few lines in the flat part of the mold to help the air escape this will help the metal to flow into the mold better..
Looks good just let em cool an u will be fine..

For tin try http://www.nathantrotter.com/

or you might try Atlantic Metals.

Shot is easier than bars to handle.

How are you guys mixing the Bondo? I've got a quart of the stuff with a tube of the accelerator (think that's what it is) Do I just dump the accelerator into the jug and pour? If so, will it stay liquid enough to pour half, wait and then pour the rest?

You guys got me real curious about this Bondo mold stuff.

Thanks!

bondo is the consistancy of cake frosting.. you have to apply it with a putty knife directly to the piece your going to make a mold of, then mush the rest in to the mold. its not like syrup.

those are some pretty sweet tins u have made for ureself there!

How are you guys mixing the Bondo? I've got a quart of the stuff with a tube of the accelerator (think that's what it is) Do I just dump the accelerator into the jug and pour? If so, will it stay liquid enough to pour half, wait and then pour the rest?

You guys got me real curious about this Bondo mold stuff.

Thanks!

Bob, I did not see your question.

Ok as to mixing the bondo. I'll show you a picture of the 2 kinds I have been using. The stuff in the red can is thick, the stuff in the green can is thin. You can use the stuff in the green can to thin the stuff in the red can.

Basically I take as much red as I need to fill my mold and put it in an old butter tub. Then I add enough resin from the green can to get it as thin as I want it. It seems ro pick up details better when thinned. The green can has a liquid hardener. You need to add the amount liquid hardener that corresponds to how much of the green stuff you used. The stuff is pretty forgiving, it does not need to be exact.

The stuff in the red can uses a redish brown hardener that is a paste. So after i stire in the greens hardener, I add enough of the red hardener to turn it pink. The darker the pink the faster it will dry.

The nice thing is that the all 4 ingredients are mixed together, stir them till the color is consistant and you know they are all mixed together.

Diggin'

Thanks for the "how to" I think I have the basic idea (look out garage!) Going to give it a try sometime. I'll post when I finish.

Thanks again!