mold questions for redman

redman

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redear that is what you are to do hollow out a small space before you put in a blank to press. Guess that I was not clear in some of my instructions. MY BAD !!!!!!! And yes you can re-position your mold cavity and use another space that is free to press another head in you mold. That is one reason that I try to keep the hook part way out the mold.

BTW IF you are not happy that the Aluminum is not all that soft Put it in the oven at about 500 degrees for a half hour and it should work much better it will be a little softer.


Redman
 

redear

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ordered a new lee pot today, and also looked on the net for some 2024 alum. , it was very expensive, but I did read about some 6063 alum. that is also softer and much cheaper than the 2024. they have 1/2 and 1" thick. Redman, yea, now that you mention it, I do recall your technique with the hollowed out space, I'll have to try that with the fatter heads.
 

redear

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got to looking at the mold I tried to press the other day, and sanded out the bulges around the head cavities. the head blank had mashed under pressure but it still had a good looking shape to it. figuring I had nothing to lose in trying to salvage the mold, I continued to press the molds two cavities with the 1/32 flattened redman shaped head blank. after pressing and sanding again it looks like this mold may be of some use. the head will be taller in profile when looking at it from the side, but narrower when looking at it from the front. this may be a good head for the mississippi style hair jig I like to use sometimes. also trying to figure out why the hinges on two of my molds are so hard to adjust to get a good tight fit when the mold is closed, seems like the back end of the molds don't close tightly and have a hairline gap in the mold when it's closed. I can adjust the hinge to close tight but it seems the mold wants to pry itself bac apart again after opening and closing a bunch of times, this would cause flashing on the jighead. so still scratching my head on that one.
 

redear

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yea fatman, gonna mess with that mold again today. it won't take much more pressing to get it done, keeping my fingers crossed. funny thing is, I could never have made a jighead blank with that shape, flattened on both sides, it took squashing the thing to do that! lol ya never know, it could be a favorite later on. just trying to get both cavities the same right now, so far I haven't gotten it pressed far enough to have the mold halves touch but it's close.
 

redear

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pressed the jighead blank and refaced the mold halves several times, then pressed the hook and also the sprue holes, then after refacing, I countersunk the sprue holes to accept the pot spout. all in all everything seems to be working out, I set the hoo back in the head in order to get a horizontal hanging head, well thats the plan anyways.
 

redear

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just ordered some softer aluminum, it's 6063 t52 if I remember correctly, anyways its 3/4" thick and 4" wide so I'll have to saw it lengthwise to get a 2" width. only way I could buy it. bought 12" long peice and some more brass pin material. shipping on this stuff was 30 bucks, ouch. still have some 6061 aluminum for the small heads.
 

redear

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fatman,
know what ya mean bout the pouring, it's been a while for me. I gotta score some lead too. roto metals is just too expensive with the shipping. worked on the mold some more tonight and shaved the hook bend area down on one half of the mold, and tweaked the countersunk sprue holes, the bottom of the cones are almost touching the head cavity, this mold has two cavities side by side.
 

redman

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redear and Fatman It has been so hot here that I have been forced inside for the last week. I have the house all cleaned and spit polished and now am going to work on the shop and get it cleaned up and then I plan to get out all the old mold making stuff. I hopefully I can shed some more light on this subject. I will try to dig out all the old stuff but it may take a week or so just to get the shop dug out.LoLs

With any hope I can post a few pictures of my operation. Right now I have to get the shop cleaned so that I can get at the last of the fall jigs done that I need to get done. Then start in on a few new molds that I want to get done. Yes I know that I will have to get some more Aluminum. I have to get some more of the other fixings for molds as well. Hopefully this hot weather will not last all that long and I can get back on the lake and get some fishing done. Right now it is just too darn Hot. 102 degrees today and the garden is just about burn up even with all the watering that I have done.

Redman
 

redear

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redman,
glad to hear you are still kicking down there. I know it's gotta be hot in texas! thats great you are planning to get the ol stuff out and brush the dust off of it.
 

redear

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worked on the latest mold again last nite, and completed shaving down the hook bend areas to accept different hooks easier, and then I shaved down the hook eyelet areas being careful not to get too close to the cavities. repressed the head cavities also, so not much else needs to be done except repress the hooks again and make some short alignment pins. I'm gonna hold off on the hinge thing until I can figure out how to get it right. oh yea, the hydraulic jack is on it's last leg. lol leaking oil and other things are messin up on it too. glad they don't cost alot. lol
 

Fatman

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Look out Redman is gonna make some more molds!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!! redear - here's a ?? for you and Redman - could you do the same type of pressing you do now using a DO-IT blank mold???

And how about pinning (at least I think that's what they call it) to have eye sockets on the jigs for stick on or 3-D eyes???

I know throwing gas on the fire!!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!
 

redear

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fatman, I have modified do-it's with a dremel tool, and I may be wrong but they seemed really hard for aluminum. If they were softer yea, you could knock the pin out of the hinge and press it then put the pin back, but I don,t think they are soft enough. now if a guy was to beef up his press frame and use a 6 ton jack which is the highest I saw in the store, and then use the hollowed out places before the pressing, well it's possible maybe, if the head was small. another thing, don't do-its have a hollowed out backside? the mold blank would have to be solid to withstand the pressing. the answer is good question, but I have my doubts. now the pinning of the mold, sure it could be done, but weather I could do a good job of it , I don,t know. I have so many questions about doing that, like whats it pinned with, and is it just press fit or is it a screw, or a peice of rod. and is any adheasive used. fatman, you would go get the gas can! lol by the amount of views on this subject, I can't help but think there are other guys with maybe a few tools who are wanting to do this stuff. yeah it costs money to get all the materials together, but there is nothing like doing it the old school way. one or two cavity molds are slower but I'm not selling jigs per se, I tie for myself and a few freinds so these molds will get the job done. I'm just really glad redman was willing to share this stuff.
 

redear

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did some more work on the new mold last nite, opening up the sprue hole a little more and repressing the hooks and head cavities again. theres quite alot of work in a two cavity mold, everytime you press a hook or head blank it pusses a tiny burr into the adjoining cavities, in other words if I was to press the hook again it would make a tiny burr at the end of the hook slot where it goes into the head cavity and vice versa, so it's a back and forth thing. also made the permanent alignment pins which are alot shorter than the pressing ones. now I just need to pretty the mold up a little and square the ends up on the belt sander.
 

JSC

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From what you are saying about the multi cavity mold leads me to think that is one of the reasons that Ament Production molds were single cavity ... For me I can pour faster with a single cavity than trying to load and unload a multi cavity ... the hook placement is a big thing and the weight of the mold .. lighter ones are less tireing. I would really like to be able to do this knid of work but it is a little more than my patience could stand.
 

redman

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Jsc. Paul did make a few Multi cavity production molds. I have seen a couple. You are right I feel that I can work faster with the single cavity mold than the do -it Multi cavity.

Work on the shop goes slowly. What a mess!!!

Redman
 

JSC

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"Paul did make a few Multi cavity production molds. I have seen a couple"

Yep ..RM ... I have a couple of them in 1/32 ...

When you get thru cleaning up yours .. with all that parctice .. you can come over here and help clean up mine
All help appreciated

:)
 

redear

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worked on cleaning up the new mold and prettying it up a little, the lee pot I ordered came in yesterday too, lookin for some lead as all mine is contaminated really bad. a guy at work says he has some plumbers lead, is that ok? looking at the head cavity shape on this mold, I almost want to call it the corn kernel, bout what it looks like. lol I think it'll have it's place tho fished under a bobber, with that horizontal balance thing going on. JSC, yeah, this stuff takes alot of patience, thats why I can only do so much work on it at a time, then I'll leave it for later. I make enough mistakes going slow, I know what would happen if I was to rush it. gonna have to look for a photo of the ament molds, curious about them.
 
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