Cost of Wire Keepers

[Kdog]

Recently I bought the Do It Minnow Head Jig with Wire Keeper - JMWB-7-A mold as I really like the wire keeper over a bard or collar for live bait presentations.

However, having said that I am now questioning my wisdom in buying a mold where the insert costs more than the hook.

Best price thus for for the wire keeper is 67.50/1000 or 8.50/100.

So my question to all of wise folks here, is there a source for the keepers that is not overly expensive or a way to make them easily and quickly. I can bend wire but trying for that ~30 degree bend with no radius is for me a difficult process. Difficulty aside, I made 100 this AM, took a bit over an hour and they work but.... time is money and time for me is a precious commodity.

I did find a source that sells a similar jig powder coated for less than a quarter each so I know the wire form is available for a lot less than I am paying. I would buy the jigs but they do not carry the smaller 1/48, 1/36 and 1/16 which are very popular in my area.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Hawnjigs]

Haven't received my hard copy from Shorty's yet, but THINK I saw posted somewhere that they MIGHT be offering them for half the Do-it price. Sorry if I'm wrong.

 

[Ron Don]

Kdog I had a large amount made a couple years ago. I've gone through a good bit of them. How many do you want and I'll see if I have enough to part with. Price would be half that.

 

[Ron Don]

HJ shortys should start selling since they really are catching on. I briefly looked at the new catalog and didn't see them, but I may have just overlooked it.

 

[Kdog]

I bought 3000 and that should be enough for this year. However, one of my contacts is hinting that he thinks he would like ~3,000 of each of the smaller sizes 1/48, 1/32 and 1/16 colors and eyes still to be determined

I did see them on Hagens or Worth Co site but cannot seem to find them again.

I am looking at an order of ~5,000

 

[smalljaw]

I just sent a sample out to Mustang wire to see if I can some made, the difference will be in the bend of the top part where Do-it has their wire bent up, mine will be bent to the side but still short. I want them like this for 1 big reason, that top part of the wire keeper varies in length and when I pour shad heads in the 1/8oz cavity the top part of the ware gets close enough to the surface that it creates a small dent, I get about 4 out of 10 that have a dent. So I bent my own that will fit and they should fit the minnow head and the ball head and with any luck I'll also have a better price.

 

[JSC]

My solution was to continue the slot for the wire straight out .. use straight wire with a hook in the end (molded in part) After molding -- simple to put the bend in and clip off to size .. You can vary the holder bend into what ever is called for.

 

[LedHed]

Cool idea JSC

 

[smalljaw]

Well I got my quote from Mustang, it doesn't help me at all unless I take 50,000 but the price per thousand was actually higher than Do-it when taking only the 5000 minimum. So I'm back to the drawing board, hopefully Shorty's or someone makes them for a better price and I have tried to bend them myself and that is ok for a few but not when I need 200...lol. I do like the idea JSC came up with, I'm going to see how this will work, awesome!!

 

[toadfrog]

Use a staple close one end leave the other .Will work on the smaller jigs .Or at least suits me .

 

[Ron Don]

Mustang is who I used when I got some made up. I got them WAY cheaper than do its price though. As expected, they had a tooling or setup fee and the minimum was 10,000. Think I got 15K at the time. My only complaint was that it took months longer than I was told!

 

[JSC]

I just got "Shorty's" New Price List.
30.00 per 1M (MKEEPER010 Wire Keeper)
Gotta have a FED ID # to purchase & Minimum Qtys.

 

[LedHed]

JSC - what's 1M?

 

[JSC]

"JSC - what's 1M? "

1 Thousand

 

[hookup]

Looks like something that should be easy to make.

Find the diameter, buy stainless steel leader material, cut & bend.

 

[LedHed]

Thnx JSC

That's about .03 cent a pop - more than 3D eyes.......

You can probably make a jig to do the production work but that is some small tedious work.

 

[Ron Don]

Once you've made a bunch of them you'll drop the 3.5 cents to buy one in a heartbeat!

 

[LedHed]

Ronny - the ones I got from you were cheaper, weren't they?

Seems like there might be enough interest for a "group buy". I could use 2 or 3 thousand...

 

[smalljaw]

Looks like something that should be easy to make.

Find the diameter, buy stainless steel leader material, cut & bend.

Ronny - the ones I got from you were cheaper, weren't they?

Seems like there might be enough interest for a "group buy". I could use 2 or 3 thousand...

Ron Don is absolutely right, the wire is .025 and they are small, I did make a few and to do 1000 would take about 20 hours and your eyes and fingers will be hurting for days. That said, I'd be in for a group buy if that ever came about but I'm still looking into other places, if I find anything I'll let you all know.

 

[Ron Don]

I think the per piece price I got was 2 cents. But the tooling setup fee bumped it up to 3. I think I had to pay excise on them also. Not to mention all the phone calls I had to make and the lengt of time it took to get them! So to me the shortys price is going to be hard to beat unless you get 50k