I've recently bought an egg weight mold that has 1,2,3,4 and 5 ounce molds. i have been finding wheel weights on the side of the road and melting down the lead in my fire and pouring the molds. it is working great. i also get lead from my neighbor who does a lot of metal work. with the prices of egg sinkers these days this is a very convenient and economic way of making egg weights and its really fun. the mold was 30 dollars and it paid for itself after 20 5 ounce egg weights and 20 more 4 ounces. Does anyone else do this? I definitely recommend that.
Tight Lines

Lead poisoning is a good reason no one bothers to do it. It is cheaper to buy it on ebay in bulk then lock tackle shops.

I buy my lead on ebay for about 9 cents an ounce, well worth it compared to the hassle of melting lead.

pouring your own sinkers can be very cost effective if your like me and lose a bunch while fishing ( fishing holes with structure you will lose a bunch )

the way I'll do this is I will tell you what you have to do and then the picture of said items will follow

"warning"this is do at your own risk , please do it in an outside area and do not drop hot castings in a bucket of water as the will explode apart and cause injury to you and surrounding people and pets

here is a list of items you will need ..

the molds of course , you can find them at many places http://www.do-itmolds.com/ and http://www.snlcorp.com/ are where I get mine , but use can find them at bass pro and other tackle suppliers.



a turkey fryier ,a cast iron skillet , cast iron ladel , and a good pair of leather gloves, this will be useful to melt down the lead and prep it for ingot casting



now my ingots mold i found at a garage sale they are old cast iorn cornbread molds in the shape of ears of corn . hey it works i cast ingots due to i am putting them in to a production bottom pour pot .


now you need to find your lead , a good place to find some is on ebay , or you can get the tire weight like i have and refine them , and what i mean by refine them it to melt them down to get the metal tab off and get some of the impuritys out of it ( warning a 5 gal bucket with tire weights can weigh up to 80 lbs so be careful )


now for some if you dont want to buy a production pot you can use the ladel straight from the lead you have melted down and pour in to the molds you will have to pour a few runs to get the molds hot enough that the casting dont have cold start wrinkles

after my ingots have been poured i can use them in my pot and start pouring , it will take a bit to learn when to let the haddle go to stop the flow of lead comeing out and get how fast to let it pour out. now while your pot is heating up set the mold your going to use on top of the pot this will help heat the mold .



once the mold is hot you can start pouring and when you get the amount you need . you will have to go back and either cut the sprue of or twist it off with pliers , i prefer to twist them off due it it makes a cleaner separation , but have found there will be a few that need to be cut off and for this i have an old pair of wire stripers that have a cutter on the front of it




now for the other sinkers that use a brass eye , need a bit more attion - you can get the eyes from do-it mold , i have found this is diffacult to do with gloves on so i use one glove just to hold the mold , the eys need to be pressed in to the mold a little but to get it to stay once you have it n there close the mold and then open it back up to insure the seated in there properly , after a while your finger will get use to the little bit of heat and you will able to do it in a timely fashion .




and these will be your end product

With shipping- 11 cents an ounce! If you can make you own & have it the means to do it, plus knowing what your doing like diggin4grouper, that's great! Just hope you understand what you are getting into

Lead posioning also ages your skin quickly. Have you seen Diggin4grouper photo?

if your are wearing gloves and a dust mask you have more of a chance of getting lead poisoning walking on beach or in your own home .... so give it a rest please and for the record it will acualy slow the body growth not speed it up .

http://www.nsc.org/news_resources/Resou ... soning.pdf

I do it outside i really dont wear gloves unless im pouring the lead and i dont wear a mask since i do it outside maybe i should be more careful. i think as long as you stay away from the fumes you should be fine if i'm incorect someone please tell me

Thank you diggin for grouper for all the tips i guess i just have to be a little more carefull on the safety aspects.

Did the posion also killed your sense of humor?

Diggin; A dust mask does nothing to protect you from lead vapor. Go to a welding supply and get your self a respirator. Just tell the salesman you want a respirator for smelting lead. Also as much as you apear to do this, you need to wear gloves the entire time your handeling the lead. A long sleeved shirt made of cotton is a must as well. Lead vapor settles on your skin and get's absorbed. trust me here my friend, I've been here and done this. A 6 month headache, constant nausea, and a host of other thing's is not something you want first hand experience with. Took me 6 months of diet and med's before I felt better, and a year and a half before the symptoms went away completely. Not saying don't do it, just saying protect your self.

Yes i had a headache the first few days after i made the lead weights i have to be a lot more carefull. why cotton shirts?

becouse it wont go threw it, and the dust and the vapors will lay on it , and if possibale when you do it wear the same clothes every time and wash them by there self .



sorry you had a bad experience , but i do have the right dust mask as i got it from a company that does alum and lead melting and i wear a welders jacket when casting ingots , i have tryied to make it as safe as possible , not trying to kill myself

Takes quite a while to see the effects of Lead poisining. How are you melting the Lead? Whether your using a gas or electric smelter makes a huge difference in exposure. Propane is the worse of the 2 as your getting both Lead vapor, Carbon Dioxide, and possibly Carbon Monoxide. Good rule of thumb is if you can feel the heat of the burner on your face your probably breathing some fumes. Even a Lead particulate respirator won't protect you from Carbon Dioxide & Carbon Monoxide. The electric smelters are far less hazardous as they don't give off the 2. Like diggin, do it outside if possible. If not then make sure your burner is working and set properly. Under no circumstances should the flame be yellow. And be sure your work area is very well ventilated. Here is a good explanation of how Carbon Monoxide can effect you.

If you consider the combustion products of propane when oxygen is not a limiting factor, they are water and carbon dioxide, one of which is harmless and the other will cause you to breathe a little faster. The problems arise as the supply of oxygen begins to be depleted, say if you are in a closed room, you are competing for oxygen with the burner, if the oxygen supply in room drops below a certain level, an inevitability if room is truly closed, the burning propane will burn yellow instead of blue, and carbon monoxide is produced, this is highly toxic to humans, binds to hemoglobin with something like 200 times the affinity as oxygen, thereby starving your brain of oxygen, it is even the more potentially deadly because as your hemoglobin gets more polluted with carbon monoxide you just feel sleepy and perhaps a little dizzy, so it is particularly easy to fall asleep and die. The way to avoid dying is to insure that there is always adequate ventilation for any indoor heat source that uses oxygen to burn some fuel source. Open window, at least an inch, even if i lessens the heat derived from source, will insure adequate oxygen supply.

another good idea is when you are doing it to always have the wind at your back that way most of the toxic stuff is being blown away from you , if theres now wind use a fan and point it at your back , my bottom pour pot is on my little table and i have a fan blowing out of the garage , also if you are useing old tire weights, take the bucket there in and pour them out on the drive way and pick the weights up this not only gets the dust away from what your melting but also lets you pick out the trash , valve stems , plastic off of stick weights ect.... rubber valve stems when burned in the lead pot will put off a thick black smoke and will choke you even with a mask on

I use pure lead that my buddies dad gives me as he is a metal worker. i melt it ooutside in coals from a fire. with the wind to my back. i dont use any form of melter i just melt it over an open fire. what are the dangers of that if the wind is at my back?? thanks

I pour A LOT of my own lead. I get tire weights cheap and melt them down. Add a drop or two of paraffin wax to your lead and it will draw the impurities to the top. Pouring lead is a lot of fun and safe to do if done properly. You need to be very careful. Always pour lead outside, ware gloves, glasses and a fire resistant long sleeve shirt with jeans and closed toe leather shoes. this sounds like a lot of precautions, however it is necessary. also, if you will take a vitamin C supplement shortly before pouring, it will help prevent lead poisoning. this is all just a precaution, if you are outside and well ventilated, you will not get lead poisoning very easily. you can save tons of money by pouring your own weights. once you get the hang of what you are doing and perfect the trade, you can make custom size weights much cheaper than you can buy them as well.

My friends and i, when i lived in Kentucky, would get together once or twice a year to pour hundreds of pounds worth of weights. we all shared molds and lead. we called this our sinker pouring parties. by sharing molds and lead, we saved even more. there was no need to personally own loads of different molds, everyone owned their favorite type/size of sinker mold then purchased new molds based off what the group didn't have. then again, we went through a lot more lead fishing the rivers for large cats and gar, then we do here on the beach. we would fish rigs designed to get snagged on the bottom, that would only sacrifice the lead.

Cool, making your own is the way to go- I have even made a rope gaff, weights for crab traps, etc. Have even made pog slammers many years ago when my brothers & their school friends were into that sort of thing. Tire weights are actually lead alloyed with other metals. Good idea is if you can also get some more purer lead- those lead pipe covers from the tops of some houses are a good bet- & melt these together say half & half or so. Still also if you have access to a shooting range or know someone who goes & can get some spent slugs that are lead. Another one I have found is keep an eye out for busted cast nets left around fishing areas or are brought to me- you can cut off, recycle & remelt those weights down & can toss the cast net into a garbage bag & into the yellow bin. When I can get them, I sometimes add in a little tin off those sticks that can be found. Tire weights as well as castnet weights or old weights or jigs are usually given a bath on a different day then melting- bucket of laundry soap to get the old salt off (can crap up your melters over time) as well as a bucket with degreaser for the tire weights & use a quick scrub brush down in the water. I use heavy chemical rubber gloves when doing this. Then rinse off/ soak in a seperate bucket of clean water for a while. Then take some wire screen on top of & in between cinder blocks to drain all the water off & sit in the sun- let sit for a few afternoons to totally dry before putting back into your supply. Gets alot of the old tire & road crap off the weights.

When I do a melting session, have narrowed it down to maybe once or twice a year unless there is a need- hint: weights, lures, jigs, etc. can make some good gifts in a pinch. I usually designate one full afternoon just for this & always outside. The long shirt, dust mask, safety glasses, gloves, even a bandanna- thumbs up. The fan also and/or try to pick a windy afternoon- rainy days, forget it. Keep a bucket of very warm soapy water nearby & seperate towel- wash your hands EVERY time before eating, drinking, taking a smoke or a chew or talking on the phone, etc. Also wipe down things after you touch them, like cups, door knobs, phones, all your external molding tools (cutters, files, etc.) when done, etc. Make sure your molds have been smoked with a candle flame pretty good before melting- another thing I found is carefully wipe the carbon off just the upper part of the mold where the two halves contact each other- helps to eliminate flash to some point. Do a couple test pours first to help heat the mold up. Sometimes I just do a melt session just to pre make the ingots. I use a few different melters- 20 lb for doing the initial melt & to make cleaned lead & alloy. Then while still hot it is transferred to a hot pot 2 to do the pour or just use the small ladles. I have some bigger metal working ladles that I do one of tire weights, one of cast net weights into the 20 lb pot. I also use these for ingots for another time. I usually dump these in carefully, after the pot has gone down some, then leave the area quick for a while so it can melt down & then be away from the smell, fumes, etc. I fish the steel tabs out with a piece of coat hanger, the slag is scraped off the top & put into a pile in a small cast iron pan to be thrown away later. When the weights are poured, cooled off, cleaned off (flash & sprues) they go into a small pan of clean sand & rolled around to get the fresh lead dust off. Then the new weights are put outside in a seperate place to weather. Jig heads, lures, etc. are usually put in a box or bag until I can get back to painting them. In regards to using the turkey fryer I wouldnt use it to make any fish fries etc after melting lead on it, just to be on the safe side. But is not a bad idea for bigger melt sessions.

When I got my melters & hot pots years ago, I took them apart & wiped them down & sprayed down most of the metal parts with a couple coats of the hi temp bbq grill spray paint before using them. Replaced some of the bolts with stainless ones, washers & nuts. Just be careful about scraping the paint off the inside bottom of the pot. The cords were redone with longer skillet & cookware wiring cord & the plugs got replaced with three prong attachable ones. Also went to the junk yard & got some insulation tubes out of Mitsubishi cars (those they let me have free!) while looking for other stuff & gave the cords where they attach to the heating elements some extra insulation. This has helped the life of my melters.

I don't think the frequency in which you guy's are doing this put's you at much risk at all. I was pouring bullets once a week and SCUBA weights once every other month from April to October. I got my Lead from a friend I used to shoot with who was a plumbing contractor. As long as I made him 100 rounds a week x 3 calibers along with my 100 x 4 the lead was free. I did this for a about a year and a half and then started pouring SCUBA weight's. I did everything wrong. If it weren't for the fact my prescription glasses were safety rated, I probable would not have worn any. I ran the garage exaust fan while doing it but that only kept the family from getting exposed. I got dosed everytime. The only thing I wore was welding gloves. Who knew. Like I said, I don't think your doing this enough for it to be a problem. Just keep doing it the way you are and you should be fine.

Thanks everyone this is very helpfull!!

A great place to get lead is out of old car batteries, my father used to pour his own .45 cal. slugs (brother still does). Dump the liquid contents out and neutralize the acid with baking soda and pick the lead out after breaking the case apart. Sounds like a lot of work but it actually goes pretty quick and you can get a lot of lead from just one battery, like 10lbs.

Everyone talks about what you need to wear and what you need to do but no one tells you about a real danger when working with hot lead.Anything in the way of water dripping in that hot lead will make it throw hot lead in all directions,as far as 25 feet.Getting hot lead on you is like hot wax it won't come off till it cools and then the skin comes with it .So keep everyone away from where you are working with the hot lead...................woody