Finally! Got set up to do some Tungsten Ice Jigs

AllenOK

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I was finally able to gather what I needed to assemble a pan to bake some powder painted tungsten jigs.  Got the pan assembled today.  Painted some jigs, then ran them through my toaster oven.

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That's the pan.  Only had enough #4 flat washers to do one piece of All-Thread.  I'm probably just going to go with a straight piece of All-Thread for any smaller tungsten jigs, as the 5mm just barely clear the washers.

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There's a pic showing how much clearance I get from the washers to the tungsten.

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Here's the jigs, painted and clamped, ready to cure.

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And here's the finished product.  Thanks to mjs and gaspumper for the tips on the acrylic paint.  I've got a couple Glow White with Glow Pink, Glow White with Glow Chartreuse, Gold from CAT (more like a burnished brass), and five Wonderbreads.  You can't really see it, but three of them are actually Wonder Glow, and the other two are done with White Pearl, so I'm calling them Wonder Pearl.
 

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AtticaFish

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That setup should work nicely for any paint drips. Those look as good as any i've seen for sale, very precise circles on the wonderbread. Check out the VMC FlyJigs and tie up a few copycats using those heads..... the FlyJig style saved the day on a few ice trips last winter. Where are you getting the blank tungsten heads from?
 

AllenOK

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I'll have to look up the FlyJigs. Thanks for the heads-up on those. I've done a few copies of Barry William's ice flies (he sells to local baitshops here, not sure if you've seen any down your way).

I bought the unpainted jigs on eBay. Several different sellers on there. The ones I bought came from Energized Outdoors. Kind of expensive (but when *isn't* tungsten expensive?), roughly $0.90/each. I've seen cheaper pricing, but you have to order a bunch. I'll have to save up some money next year and try to get a couple hundred of 5mm, 4mm, and 3mm. I know I don't have the skill level (yet) of some of the other guys, like Clyde Morgan of 3NJ. But, easy stuff like these are not a problem.

I did a few more today, they're curing right now. The "Valentine" color scheme. Basically the same as a WonderBread, but the dots are various shades of red and pink. I did 2 with a pearl white base, and 2 with a glow white base. They'll be out in a few, and I'll take pics when they cool down.
 

AllenOK

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Here's how I do the dots:

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Just a Bamboo skewer with the tip sanded down on an emery board.  Depending on how much you sand the tip really sets the size of your dots, although there is a little leeway, depending on how much paint you load onto the point.  Really cheap to go this way; a hundred-pack of skewers cost me $2.

And here's the Valentine tungsten jigs.  The two on the right are the Pearl White base, the two on the left are the Glow White base.  All four have a thin topcoat of Rosey's 200% Clear to seal the head.  I'm not planning on dragging bottom with these, so hopefully they stand up to Bluegill teeth with no trouble.

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