Yep getting back to the transom height stuff soon
Yrs ago the old man used to have a dry spot in the back of our bike shed, that was pretty much dry clay.
Impress a spoon , or table spoon, depending on how heavy he wanted, into the clay. Stick a wire in one end, pour molten lean into the impressions.
The lead was melted in an old pan with an old white spirits , pump up blow torch.(that also could be used for soldering with the big solder head attachment.) Go to for plumbers and copper pipes back then .
Just before lockdown a m8 leant me his
Lee Electric MelterWas getting bit low on 6oz reefs... and had a bucket of bits of lead, old soft bait jigs etc.
I wanted a mold that is a bank of 6oz, but could only get a bank that had section going upto 6oz Looked tentatively into making molds, and came across making them out of a mix of silicone sealant mixed with cornflour into a 'baking like doe
Down side check the shelves and using hig end , including marine grade sealants was just going to be real expensive...but had an idea from that.
So brought a bank of 8oz.
De-greased and infilled the sides of each of the moulds a different amount , estimating how much lead displaced would give 6 to 7 oz.
Now the Lee Melter... it has a plate under the pourer nozzle, and not enough space to slide the 8 oz mould under. So removed and turned the base around, put a big weight on it.. all on a slab of wood ..now have good space including if bit crap stops flow, can put a bent bit of wire up easy... with a bake been tin to catch spillage.
The Lee melter is impressive..fast , gets to temp, back off the dial a little and holds temps.. Make sure its clean, other wise the pouring hole can get a little blocked.
I was told to heat the molds.. So as I do , I didnt , just to see actually what happens. You end up with the lead solidifying as pours on top of its self.. looks as if could easy break, or fall apart... thats if the pour hole dosent block up 1st..
Was told to heat the molds over something like a lpg stove burner. OK out with the 1" diameter LPG blow torch.. Clamped sides together , and give heaps during the few minutes the lead in the pot melted.
All good ready to pour, pours well, break up mold and sinkers ugly showing deep rings where lead solidifies on its self before the next stuff going in on top.. thu better than a cold mold
Im not doing all this in 1 day, so each 'stage' has bit of over night thought, and every stage is cold start.
Yesterday,"right I have got it this time.."
The silcone strips in the molds , bit brown but damn they are holding up surprisingly well.
So now drag down the 2 burner camping cooker, fill the pot for 2 and 1/2 repeats of the 4 X 8oz mold. The 1/2 is to make sure have enough to pour , pop out , follow directly with the next pour.
So pour the weighed lead into the pot, turn on the 2 burner camp cooker, and lay each 1/2 of the mold on each burner.. reconed med heat would be enough..and was.
Still how do I tell if molds hot enough?
Had an idea.. if a bit of core solder melts when touched to the sinker mold, should be.. yep worked perfect. I also tried bit of stick solder, takes longer to absorb enough heat, so would end up hotter than need... touch with core solder way to go.
Anyway molds hot enough , and the lead melted down around the same time
. Flip 1 1/2 of the mold onto the other, clamp together with a small G clamp.. that also acts as an excellent hot mold holder. Put under the pot, open the plug, and lead pours in , flows nicely...
Thinking and watching, poured the 1st 2 sinkers, going into both at the same time. Maybe best to pour into one sinker at a time, down the side of the pour hole, then the other side. So did so on the 2nd 2 sinkers in the mold.
So now how long to wait before splitting the mold open?
This could turn bit tricky with potentual to go wrong, quickly.
Im doing this on my filleting bench in the shed.. the sink everything is dry.. no water around.. made sure of that before starting anything.
30 sec , opened the mold in the sink, screw driver gentle levered them apart, couple sinker fell out, other 2 fell out with a gentle tap.
1/2 back together, clamped, 2nd pour...
In those few minutes thinking
I can throw a few more bits in the pot and do a continuous/ endless pour (?). So pour and top up
at the same time. lead melts as soon as hits the molten stuff, even lumps.
So 2nd pour done, count to 30, pop out the sinkers , re clamp, 3rd pour... decided thats enough sinkers for now...
and the continuous pour thing works
Now cleaning the dags.Electrical side cutters cut the joiner part easy
File.. ok but tiny bits lead fillings around , harder to recover..
So spy the old burnsco bait knife on the knife rack.. yep slices the dags off the mold join nicely... And the drill will bit cleans out the hole at the top of the reef sinker...
All on a bit of corrugated cardboard that folds easy to pour back into the melting pot for next time.
End results.
The pouring both sides as against pouring one side the the other, makes very nice smooth sinkers...
30 secs is enough time, maybe would extend little longer if pouring 16 oz plus.
The cored solder test if molds to temp works excellent..
I only poured 12 X 8oz sinkers, 3 of the 4 in the mold, less weight because of the different amounts of silicone spacer used
No silcone about 7.98 oz after de daging. The others from 6.5 oz A 7 oz and a 7.5 oz.
When drifting / stray lining I hook a reef on the clip at the end of the main line and very tidy baits so dont spin up.. Weight, and changing weights quickly is critical... had 1/2, 10z then 2oz , 3 oz etc...
I needed 1 1/2 oz, so I used to cut the bottom off a 2oz.
Now this may give the option of rather than fill in with silicone, simply pour 8 oz sinkers and cut the bottoms off later to required weight?
Once sorted where to cut for given weight, over all very well possibly and also makes the best use of the lead available, less waste.
Was it worth it? Well the lead is just old sb jigs, (hooks/nails separate out easy, pick out with long nose pliers.) few old nail heads , flashings collected over the yrs.
Set up, to clean up well under 30 mins
So poured say 12 X8 ox sinkers, quick look on line thats around $70 odd worth.
So there is my yesterdays play around, experiment, do stuff just to see what really happens for myself. And the end results of a play around over several days.
Hope
1/ I have written so can follow
2/ find helpful .. if 1/ works
3/ If 2/ doesnt work and 1/ does, find informative or at least interesting.