HOW TO PAINT JIG HEADS

[Phil]

WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO PAINT JIG HEADS THAT HAVE WEED GUARDS ON THEM AND NOT DESTROY THE FIBER WEED GUARD

JIGS

[BassCatPuma]

Are you pouring your own heads?

[Wild Bill]

Check out "Pro-Tec Powder Paints"...


You heat the lead jighead , and then dip the jighead into the powder very quickly, then tap off any excess.

Bake in oven to super-cure the paint[optional].

Many colors or flakes available.

[Rich hamilton]

Bill is right on,

take a large lighter and BRIEFLY heat the jig head prior to the dip or else you will lose the weed guard. hang in the oven on a rack @ 200 degrees for 20 minutes or whatever the jig paint directions are. the initial dip will be a powder brown then after oven baked you will have a shinny jig head. take care to not dip the eyelet as you will have to clear the hole after baking.

[Phil]

you cant do that with fiber weed guards it melts the plastic !!

been making our own since 1989 made our own mold

[photon]

Sure you can. Couple ways to do it:

Find some aluminum tubing with an ID just large enough to slide over the weed guard. When you heat the lead, the tube will keep the weedguard from fraying out. you can leave the tube on for the oven cure also.

More labor intensive, and the way I've done it is to wrap the weedgaurd in aluminum foil before heating and dipping in the plastic paint. I leave the foil on during the curing in an oven @250F for 20 min. Works great! Since I make jigs in small batches, the extra step isn't too much trouble.

[Phil]

THANKS, THINK I WILL STICK WITH MY EPOXY PAINT AS I ALSO ONLY DO MAYBE A DOZEN AT A TIME SITTING HERE WAITING FOR A CUSTOMER !!

[BassCatPuma]

The way I do mine is I do not put the fibre guard in at time of pouring, I powder coat them and then bake them, then I use a drill to drill out the powder coat from the fibre guard hole and super glue the guard in. I can tell you I have NEVER had one come apart.
Also if you are tieing your own jigs, this makes it alot easier as you can put the fibre guard in after tieing the jig rather than trying to tie around the guard.

Tim Hendricks
www.basscat.com
www.powellco.com
www.nosweatmist.com
www.purefishing.com
www.rodwraps.com

[Phil]

HUM, OK
\THANKS

JIGS

[Rich hamilton]

Okay whatever. try using a little less heat and take your time. i might melt one out of a bag when I get in a hurry. you asked I tried to help! RR

[Phil]

THANKS RICH

I'LL TRY IT..

PHIL

[Vernonn]

Using a Jig mold from Do-it Molds, I use a base hole pin to make a hole for the weedguard.

Then I heat up the jighead and then dip it in powder coat, tap to clean out the base hole. Then I heat it once more and its done.

Epoxy the fiber weed gaurd into the base hole. Only thing left is tying a skirt on.
http://doitmolds.com/products/weedlessj ... parkie_jig

http://doitmolds.com/tips/model_instruc ... 35.224.110

-vernon

[Marc]

Jigs, the epoxy paint can't hold a candle to the protec plastic paint. Here is how I apply it on jigs with plastic weedguards.

I use a paint stripper heat gun and clamp it in my vise on my work bench to point it upward. It has a locking button on the trigger, so I can turn it on and keep it on without holding the button down.

I use a pair of hemostats (needle-nose pliers are a workable substitute) and hold my jig (without the weedguard) by the hook. Then I hold the jig close to the nozzle of the heat gun while it is on. I hold it for a count of five, and then flip it over and hold for another count of five.

Then I dip it into the fluffed up plastic powder (with practice you can do this without getting the powder into the eye).

Then I hold it back over the heat gun until the powder finishes melting and baking (eliminates the need for baking in the oven). This only takes about 10 seconds to thoroughly melt the plastic and bake it. You will know when you get it too hot, as the plastic will then burn (making a neat two-tone effect).

Now the plastic is still hot and sticky, but smooth and shiney. After removing it from the heat, I then stick in the weedguard. No glue needed as the molten plastic paint in the hole becomes the glue! Since the jig is hot the weedguard will want to flare out on you, but you easily control this by holding the weed guard like you would a drinking straw filled with soda that you don't want to leak out (index finger on the end of the weedguard to push it in the hole, and thumb and middle finger squeezing the sides of the weedguard to keep it from flaring.

Hold this in place for just a couple of seconds, and everything will cool enough to hold the weedguard in place. Now you can lay down the jig and not ruin it.

The whole process takes less time to perform than it takes to read this. I can do a dozen jigs in minutes, and end up with a durable finish that doesn't easily chip.

[Phil]

thanks all !!!


JIGS

[MikeD]

just did my first ever run of jig heads (do-it snootie and poison tail), the molds were kinda tight so I used the post-it note trick to open the mold up. I experimented with the thickness of the paper by folding it over to make it thicker and then pouring a jig and seeing if I got the lead flashing sticking out on the top and bottom due to the mold being too open. rinse lather repeat until the flashing appeared on the jig and then noted how thick the paper was for the next batch.

all went well till it came time to paint them with the pro-tec powder via the dip method - heat the heads up over a propane flame till hot and then swished the head in the fluffed up powder - man thats on there *thick*... and the eyelet was all closed up, head looked like crap. it was getting dark (working outside due to lead fumes) and I didn't clean the eyes very well prior to baking them at 20min@350 in my new E-Z-Bake oven

went back and looked in my tackle bag at my 1/2oz brown booyah football heads, they look very professional with the eyelets of the jig hook painted up but not closed, paint looked very even. then looked at a cooch wada jig, that looks real nice too - even with red and green flakes in the paint! muy bonita!

how the h*** do I get that type of paint consistency without filling the eyelets, or do I just accept that these are my own handpours and work on a better eyelet cleaning strategy??

worried that all the crap in the eyelet of the hook will rub/fatigue the knot and result in excessive breakoff/failure/missed fish

[Marc]

MikeD,

First suggestion I have would be to use the large containers of ProTec, not the small jars. If you only get the small jars, then transfer the powder into another container that is large enough for you to dip the jig into the powder with the hookeye in the upright position (so the eye stays above the powder).

I grab the bend of the jig hook with large hemostats, but pliers work also. I put my paint stripper gun in a vise, hold the jig over the stripper gun nozzle to heat the head, then dip one side of the jig into the powder and move the jig slightly sideways so that powder falls around the eye (without going over the eye), then I turn the other side of the jig head down and dip it in the same manner.

After each dip I rap the hemostats against the edge of the jar to shake off excess powder immediately after dipping.

You can still use the small jar if you hold the jar and tilt it at an angle while you dip the jig.

Sometimes powder will fall over the eye, and for those times you just stick another hookpoint into the eye while the paint is still soft, and pull it back out removing the paint. With a little bit of practice and patience you can dip jigs all day and not get paint in the eye.

When the powder gets packed and you can't easily dip the jig head just fluff up the powder with a small spoon or stick.

[Dewayne]

Too much heat. You have to play a little to figure out how many seconds to heat the jig head before dipping. Too much heat or too long in the powder and the paint goes on too thick. I will also wait about as many seconds as I heat before dipping so the heat can evenly distribute through the metal. Then try to swish it through the powder without getting paint on the hook eye. No paint on the eye is always better than a painted eye. Specially on smaller football heads where the hook eye is already small. If you get paint in the eye set it aside and wait till it cools. Then clean out the hook eye with a old pocket knife and a tooth pick. Do this before baking as after baking the paint is too hard. Also if you clean it after baking you end up with some sharp edges that can cut line.

As for the fiber guards. Use pins then epoxy the weed guard in. They will never come out and it makes tieing the skirt on much easier.

[MIKE TREMONT]

I agree, to much heat. I use a torch and only need a 3 count.
I have a pair of pliers that are like needle nose, but flatter. I just hold onto the eye of the hook when I heat/dip. Keeps the paint out pretty good.

[MikeD]

thanks guys, too much heat is a definate possibility, i soaked 'em in the flame for awhile

i'll work on the technique that Marc described and report back, thanks for the input

[Marc]

Mike,

I actually quit using the oven altogether after my wife came home and asked what the smell in the house was...she said if I ever want food cooked in the oven again I had better not put anything but food in the oven.

So now I put that paint stripper gun in the vise, heat up the unpainted jighead for a count of five (adjust your count accordingly), dip in the powder, and then hold it over the heat again to melt it nice and shiny for another 5-10 seconds to smooth and harden. Not quite as hard as oven baked, but harder than you need.

Even though it sounds like that would take longer...by the time I load the rack I built to put in the oven, bake them for 20 minutes, and then wait for them to cool and put away, I'm already out on the lake fishing! (and dinner is on the table when I get home)

[Dewayne]

For about $30 you can get a cheap toaster oven. I used a file on the grate to make notches that the hooks will rest in so the jigs stay seperated. Works well and just stinks up the garage. I have never been certain about the toxicity of the paint smoke. This way I don't worry. The taoster oven even uses a timer so it shuts off automatically. Was a good investment in keeping me fed.

[philstrader]

No right or wrong way to paint em....Some are very maticulous, others aren't...I can tell you that if you are pouring 3/8 oz or larger, with a little bit of manual dexterity, you can remove the jig from the mold and dip it in your powder paint before it cool too much.......Don't jump in here and say you can't , I paint lots of jig heads, it may take a few times to get the coordination down, and you may fumble a few, but you get the hang of it, and it saves an entire step. 1/4 oz heads don't retain the heat long enough to do this.
my tip for the day
Phil strader