mold questions for redman

[redear]

fatman, being without a pot and suitable lead right now, the finished product photos are gonna have to waite. I'm just going to make a few molds till my money gets right for a new pot and lead. I was making good jig fly's by soldering a ball of solder onto the fly hook, but doing it with a poured lead head will be better. I might be able to melt a tiny bit of lead in a spoon and pour a sample head like that, don't know how well that would work, being no pressure at all pushing it thru the sprue hole, may try that. I'm sure the heads are dead on, as my first mold produced no flashing at all around the head, and I think these last two molds are made even better. thanks to redman again for all he's done in providing me a new hobbie.

 

[redear]

drilled and tapped a mold today for handles, and will go back to the hardware store in the morning to try to find a hinge that I like, so far I haven't been satisfied with the hinges after getting them out of the package, most are sloppily made and have too much play where the pin goes thru. I have been experimenting with tightening this area up by putting this part of the hinge in a vise and squeezing it so the pin becomes tighter. had a few brass ones and decided that a steel one would be stronger in the long run.

 

[JSC]

Man I have enjoyed this thread.
Just a note about the hinges ...

Ament, on his custom molds used a steel butt hinge and elongated the holes some so that to compensate for wear they could be adjusted.

 

[redear]

jsc, thanks for the heads up on the hinge thing. I couldn't find a hardware store open yesterday, so just went and drilled the rest of the handle holes, on the three molds I have. still need to make shorter pins for the last mold. going looking for some hinges this morning after work.

 

[Fatman]

Ok Numbnuts here hit the wrong button in Photobucket and wiped all my pictures!!!!!!!!!! Luckily I had all the mold building pics in emails so I'm gonna attach them to the site.

 

[Fatman]

Here's the rest of the photo's

 

[redear]

went looking for hinges today, gonna order them I think, there is one on line that is just too perfect. still trying to dream up something for the handles, I tapped the holes I drilled for them with fine threads, thinking they wouldn't loosen up as easy, but couldn't find any 6-7 inch bolts with the fine thread on them, and didbn't wan't to drill them out to 5/16" because those bolts weigh quite a bit believe it or not. may use fine threaded studs a couple inches long and mount the other end in wood to complete the handle. getting mighty humid in the shop.

 

[redear]

just ordered the hinges, and fine threaded rod for the handles from drillspot.com. these hinges don't have any mounting holes allowing me to drill them where I want, they are 304 stainless. thanks to jsc, I think the mounting holes will be elongated a little so the hinge position can be adjusted to close the mold perfectly, thats the idea anyway. ya know this stuff is not too hard once ya figure everything out the first time, after that it's not bad.

 

[Fatman]

Once you get the hinges and handles figured out you can buy them in bulk!!! LOL Not too hard?? ya gotta have the tools buddy!!!!!! Next thing your gonna have to try is pin them so they have an indented eye for the 3-D eyes!!! LOL

I know don't push it LOL

Later Bud!!

 

[redear]

yeah fatman, the right tools make everything easier, the funny thing is, I have had the mill drill for probably 18 years, and hardly ever used it, now it is one of my most prized tools. lol I know it sounds a little crazy but I'm sure I could make a perfectly workable mold with alot less tools. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that it could be done with a hacksaw, a 4lb. hammer, a flat sturdy steel suerface like an anvil, a steel plate 1/2" thick to lay on top of the mold to protect it from the hammer, and a small drill press to drill the pin holes nice and straight into the alum. a dremel tool comes in handy too. yeah the mold probably won't come out as pretty, without the belt sander to make everything all nice and square on the outside of the mold, but that has no bearing on the quality of the jighead being poured. the ends of the mold halves don't even need to be square or even. what I'm saying is the outside of the mold can be butt ugly and it don't matter. I just pretty the molds up good as I can because thats just me.

 

[redear]

I have a table saw with a nice section of heavy flat steel table and I use this spot to do my sanding out the bulges around the cavity. so I lay a peice of 180 grit black sandpaper down there after wiping away any dust etc. and I pull the mold halve towards me while applying some downward pressure on the sandpaper, once the sanding stroke is complete towards me then I pick up the mold half and put it back at the other end of the sandpaper and pull it towards me again, in other words you only sand in one direction, not back and forth, the one way sanding strokes help maintain the flatness of the molds inner face. some other things,...you don't have to have the handles and hinges either, they are nice but the absense of them won't keep you from making your heads, holding the mold together with channel locks works too.

 

[redear]

also, I'm trying to get a drill bit just slightly smaller than a 1/4" rod, so that there would be very little fitting to be done with the pins, this would eliminate alot of work, and could alow guys to sand the pin down just a little and it would fit. the drill bits I bought were 6.25mm I think and thats .246 of an inch or so and a 1/4" rod of some sort would be .250, so just sanding .002 of an inch all the way around would make it fit. sanding pins is done by chucking them in a drill press and holding a file or sandpaper against the pin as it spins. one thing I constatly am using is a dial caliper, some people call them veier calipers. they measure the thickness of anything down to one thousanth of an inch and that checking and rechecking helps let you know how close you are to the pin fitting right. these micrometers or whatever ya want to call them can be bought anywhere that sells reloading equipment, I saw a few the other day for 35 and 50 bucks depending on the brand.

 

[redear]

got the hinges yesterday by ups, man that was fast, they were sent by a different company than I ordered from, but the threaded rod, I'll cut up and use for handles hasn't shown up yet, thats ok, I'll have plenty to work on till the handle material gets here. think I changed my mind on the hinge mounting screws, and going from a countersunk 6/32 to a pan head 8/32 and elongate the screw holes a little , so I can adjust the opening and closing tightness, if I stayed with a countersunk screw, it would be near impossible to move the hinge if the fit got loose later on. finishing up the nite shift this morning after 7 days, need to go fishing too, with the full moon, those bream could be ready to go again.

 

[redear]

been working on the hinge attachment, between fishing and doing chores, I have two of the molds with hinges on them, they look good but still not completely satisfied with the slop or endplay in the hinges, may try and tighten them up a little.

 

[redear]

finishing up on the third molds hinge attachment, and putting handles on one of them. I may have messed up my 1/70 roundhead mold though, was shaving the hook eyelet recess and cutting iy close to the head cavity on purpose, and I took my hand off the milling screw movement control and the bit was just turning in place, when it started to walk or move all by itself, towards the head cavity, I don't know how it did that! but the hook eyelet recess is now right up against the head cavity, and my eyesight isn't good enough to tell if it's actually into the head cavity, will find out when I pour it. I believe the hook eyelet will have lead encasing it tho. I'm still kicking myself. will take a couple photos when these are finished.

 

[JSC]

been working on the hinge attachment, between fishing and doing chores, I have two of the molds with hinges on them, they look good but still not completely satisfied with the slop or endplay in the hinges, may try and tighten them up a little.

Hi ... I went out and checked The Ament Molds and Yes there is some "Slop" but the pins make it a sure fit. The hinge is just the Piviot point ... it is elongated so that you can "Tighten It Up" and compensate for wear.

 

[Fatman]

Red

I know some of the guys here have used JB weld to fix mistakes, maybe that will work if you knicked it too much!!!!!!!!

 

[redear]

yeah, the jb weld may work, been working on the handles and hinges again this evening.

 

[redear]

finished up on the hinges and handles, ended up using threaded rods and bolts for the handles and then drilling a hole in peices of maple wood and epoxying the maple over the bolts, after I cut the heads off the bolts. been spraying the maple with polyurethane, so they wont get so dirty looking later on. also have been making jighead blanks out of the butt end of drill bits for my next projects. Have found out that it is very very easy to make a conical or egg shaped blank, as well as the shape redman uses. Made two each of the redman head and also the old style oval pinkie jig type head. found out that by chucking the drill bit in the lathe chuck with the smooth end of the bit sticking out, and then while the lathe is turning the bit, I could hold the dremel tool sanding and grinding bits against the drill bit and it will carve whatever shape you want as long as it's a conical type shape, and it only taes about 30 minutes to make a blank. after I get the shape I want then by holding 320 grit sandpaper against the blank and then 600 grit, the blan can easily be polished up.

 

[Fatman]

Sounds like you've been a busy camper!!!!!!!!! Can't wait to see the!!!!!!!!