pellets. I did this by drilling 18mm diameter holes
through a scrap of wood and then screwing this onto
another scrap of wood which would be the base of the
mold.
I then made sure to number each of the lure blanks
and mark the corresponding number onto the holes in
the pellet mould so as not to get confused as to which
lead went into which lure.
Now that I had a mould ready to make the lead pellets
for the lures I needed some way to melt and pour the
lead. There are of course great tools commercially
available specifically for melting and pouring lead for
lure making and other hobbies. The theme of this lure
making project so far however has been to use stuff
that I already have so buying a new tool for this was
out of the question. I had to put on my thinking cap
for a while but eventually came up with a simple solution. I made a very crude but simple melting pot out of
an ordinary everyday tin can. I put the lead into my
new melting pot, placed it onto one of the rings (at full
heat) of the hob in my kitchen, waited a minute or so
for the lead to melt and then poured it into my pellet
mould - simple! A word of caution here - during the
process of melting lead some rather nasty and toxic
gasses are released into the air. Now for the very
small amounts of lead we are working with here this is
not a problem, just make sure the area you are working in is reasonably well ventilated and avoid holding
your head directly over or above the melting pot while
the lead is melting.
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After the lead for the four pellets was poured into the
different holes in the mould I then removed the base
of the mould and used a hammer and chisel to split the
wood which formed the main body of the mould and