[Mattfish]

I was reading sundrop's diy post and thought I'd share with you how I make my own fishing sinkers. A few years ago I made about 300 pounds of sinkers that I'm still using up. I will try to post pics soon.


First, you need something to melt the lead. I bought a single-burner cooktop for like $15 at Walmart, but it HAS to be over 1000 watts or you will wait a very long time.

Next, get a wood-handled, but metal-shaft soup ladle. One big enough to hold a small apple is fine.

Pair of leather gloves.

Small cooking pot for melting lead that YOU WILL ABSOLUTELY NEVER COOK IN AGAIN.

Various tools to poke, prod, and skim the lead like wide metal spoons, screwdrivers, whatever you have in the garage you don't need.

Lead. I get tire weights from auto shops, which are a lead/antimony allow and slightly less heavy than pure lead (and not as malleable, makes lousy split shots).

Box of cheap cotter pens, old swivels, any item that has an "eye" at the end of it and is cheap. Cotter pens are hard to beat for the price and work great. Just bend the end of the cotter pen that goes into the lead to sinch it in place when the lead hardens.

BTW I assume it's legal to remelt used tire weights in NC. If not, someone correct me.



OK, material list done. Now pick a sinker type and make the mold. You can make pyramid sinkers, or you can make long, slender sinkers for drop-shot type rigs that are nearly snag-free. Here's how you do it.


1) Use Bond-O for the mold.

2) Pour the Bond-O into an appropriate sized mold. If you want to make a long, spindly snag-free sinker, use a 10oz paper cup. Fill it with Bond-O and then grease up a couple of wooden pencils with MOTOR OIL. Place them in the Bond-O straight up but DO NOT LET THEM TOUCH THE BOTTOM. Put in several pencils in varying depths to make lighter or heavier sinkers. Let the bondo harden and pop the pencils out with pliers (this is the reason for the motor oil).

For Pyramids, pour the Bond-O into a flat tupperware-type dish that is maybe 2-3" deep. Meanwhile, take your selection of pyramid sinkers (1oz to 6 oz is what I do) and MOTOR OIL THEM. Plunge them into the Bond-O but NOT COVERED!!! Use Bamboo skewers through the eyelets, with each end of the skewer resting on the side of the dish to hold the sinkers in place--- sink them just up to their edge. You can hold several sinkers on each skewer. Once Bond-O is hard, pop out the originals and wash them with dish detergent so they don't foul up your tackle box with motor oil.



NOW that the molds are done, let them harden overnight to avoid flammability (polyester resin is flammable but Bond-O is resistant to melted lead once it's cured).


Melt your lead with whatever method you choose, and begin the pouring.

I use a pair of needle-nose to hold the cotter pen or eyelet while I pour the lead into the mold with the other hand, one sinker at a time.

Pour lead, place the eyelet in place until lead hardens, and pour then next sinker. Let the lead cool for a minute or two and pop out the sinkers.



Final caution: THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT MEANT TO BE "ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MESSING WITH 800 DEGREE MOLTEN LEAD". DO MORE RESEARCH ON THE NET IF YOU HAVE NOT MELTED LEAD BEFORE, THERE IS A TON OF IT OUT THERE. MELTED LEAD CAN BE OVER 800 DEGREES. JUST REMEMBER THERE IS A REASON YOU ARE A FISHERMAN AND NOT A BLACKSMITH!