Does anyone here make sinkers??

[Jeffery8mm]

I want to start making my own egg sinkers and need a little help/info. I have lots of available wheel weights. I want to cast 1 oz sinkers but also may want to cast other sizes. I know I need a mold, but what all else?? Thanks for any and all info!!!

Jeff

[SHOOTALL]

you will need a pot and ladle and a stove .Mine are what plumbers use ( I are one ) and the stove and propane tank ( a special tank is used that the stove screws on to )can be picked up at a welding supply . The pot and ladle at a plumbing supply .
If that  is more than you wish to invest the pot could be heated with a torch or maybe a fire pit . Indoors is not a good place to melt lead so forget the cook stove . maybe a Coleman stove .
good gloves help !

[Graybeard]

Actually you don't "have to have" anything but a good size ladel and heat source plust the lead alloy and moulds. We made them when I was a boy with no more than that. Some times I'd make a fire with scrap wood and put lead into the old ladel we had and melt it and pour into the moulds dad had made at the pipe shop where he worked.

From there you can get as fancy as you wish. I do agree tho that if you wanna get much production going a pot of some sort to melt larger quantities and a ladel are handy to have. Any size cast iron pot can do and I have bought a stainless steel dipper like you'd use in the kitchen and that's what I use when I cast up my ingots from raw materials.

I have a square steel pot that was the alloy pot in a linotype machine originally that I melt in and use my turkey/fish cooker burner to provide the heat. I then dip it out with that big soup ladel and pour it into the many ingot moulds I have.

Your operation can be a simple or complicated as you want to make it.

[Kurt L]

I used to make tones of jig heads years ago,I did very much like the others.
I used an old gas cook stove (outside) and a cast iron pan it was 6" x about 2" deep and a dipper.
I would bet you could set a pan like this on the burner of  a gas BBQ grill with good results.

[Jeffery8mm]

Thanks for the great info guys!!!  I am glad to see that this can be relatively uncomplicated. Thought about casting bullets once, but haven't got up the nerve, this may be a foot in the door.   I will probably cast a hundred or so sinkers for me and about that many for a pal or two per year, so not a lot of production!!    Stupid question:  How does one get the hole through the egg sinker for the line to go through??  I will be using the white nylon catfishing line.

  Great info!!!!!!

Jeff

[quickdtoo]

These gives you an idea how.

Tim

http://www.barlowstackle.com/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=1508&CATID=59

http://www.billssportshop.com/fishingaccessories/doit/

Do-it Molds

[Jeffery8mm]

Tim, Great sites with good stuff on sinkers!!!!   Thanks
Jeff

[hillbill]

i used to make catfishing sinkers by drilling tapered holes into a block of wood, pounding finish nails into them and then pouring lead in them. the wood would smoke but pull the nails and you would have a nice batch of sinkers. jus a hillbilly way of makin sinkers. we melted the lead on the aux burner of the bbq grill in a alum pan. be carefull that alum melts at not a much higher temp than lead.

[SHOOTALL]

ya might want to be careful with melting lead on or near where food is cooked !

[tn_junk]

I use wet sand, packed in a tin can, with a hole plunged into the sand with a pointed stick as a sinker mould. Stick the snap end of a snap swivel into the lead before it cools and you have a "hillbilly" bass casting type sinker. Size of the stick and depth of the hole determines weight.
Not purty, but they work.

alan

[SHOOTALL]

better say damp sand as wet can get ya a face full of lead

[tn_junk]

better say damp sand as wet can get ya a face full of lead

Absolutely correct. The sand is damp and packed down real well.
I also do not hold my face over the lead as I pour, though I have never had a blowback. Always wear safety stuff. Been burned once and it was once too much.

alan

[SHOOTALL]

Being an old plumber i had the opportunity to pour tons of lead ( no joke as many jobs we did involved 2 or more tons of lead ) . There is a practice where someone will wet their finger and stick it in the lead pot . now the moisture on the finger will cause the lead to go away from the finger long enough to pull the finger out ! A true display of stupidity as on two occasions i saw it fail . Once a slight burn from the splatter caused by way to much spit and the second , well a drunk didn't wet his finger enough and forgot to pull it out ! Yep just a bone was left !
make no mistake lead is very dangerous it attacks the body from many directions

[flintlock]

I make my own balls for my flinters, .390 and .530...I use an old Coleman for a heat source and melt lead in a can...So I just had to buy a ladle and the molds...

To make sinkers for a Carolina rig here's what I do...Buy some small bass sinkers, heat shrink tubing and glass rattles...

I insert the bass sinker in the top of the tubing, insert the rattles and then 2-3 .390 balls in the bottom, take a lighter and shrink it all together..
You line goes through the hole in the sinker and this walks over rocks, plus rattles to attract bass....

[cybin]

Just be careful--warm your mold and your ladle if your using a pot--that way you get rid of any moisture --a drop of water will empty a pot of melted lead, and moisture in a mold will shoot lead every where--mostly upwards though.

Cybin