Bulk Hourglass eyes for clousers?

[Ribs1 0]

Anyone know a cheap source of Hourglass in bulk?

I'm sick of paying 3-4 bucks for 25 of them

Thanks

[JSzymczyk 0]

I've looked a little bit, with no luck. there's got to be a place where there are bags of a thousand, or where they are measured by the pound. I'd buy a lifetime supply of xsmall, small, and medium if I could... I don't imagine any fly shop owners or distributors would want to divulge the secret stash- I think the molds for lead eyes are kept at Area 51 and only used to produce during months with 5 Sundays.

[Ribs1 0]

I've looked a little bit, with no luck. there's got to be a place where there are bags of a thousand, or where they are measured by the pound. I'd buy a lifetime supply of xsmall, small, and medium if I could... I don't imagine any fly shop owners or distributors would want to divulge the secret stash- I think the molds for lead eyes are kept at Area 51 and only used to produce during months with 5 Sundays.

 

Well,

At least someone else is with me. If I could, I would buy a metric shitload of eyes, 2 lifetime supplies even. My local Orvis shop only sells them by the 10 pack, and I haven't found an online retailer that sells more than a 25 pack. 100 packs would be nice, but I would even buy a few thousand.

 

You are right, a mold would be the best. I have a friend who is a tool and die maker at Ford. Maybe he could make a mold for me. He makes all kinds of other stuff. Boy that would be great. I could buy 20 pounds of lead and just go to work making eyes for a couple of days.

 

Thanks for the moral support

[Flyweaver 0]

Try Canadian LLama. $1.35 usc for 25 plus postage no shipping or handling. Best source I've found so far.

flyweaver

[phg 0]

A couple of years ago I was talking with a flyshop owner about this. He used to buy in bulk and make up the small packages himself. It seems, though, that the manufacturers caught on, and now bulk not enough cheaper to make it worth the effort.

 

I haven't verified if this is true, but I also haven't seen any bulk lead eyes is several years either.

[Ribs1 0]

Try Canadian LLama. $1.35 usc for 25 plus postage no shipping or handling. Best source I've found so far.

flyweaver

 

Canadian Llama does not sell Hourglass eyes, or dumbell eyes. Only beads, cones etc.

Thanks

[Flyweaver 0]

I beg to differ with you I just received 150 hour glass lead eyes of various weights last month. Contact him about them he will reply.

flyweaver

[JSzymczyk 0]

I looked at the little card that comes in each bag of eyes, and there is no manufacturer or distributor data on it... It's the same printed card in each bag of eyes I've got from Cabelas, Bass Pro, NetCraft, and other places. This is definately a conspiracy to price gouge consumers!!! Dick Cheney, George W, and the rest of the Evil New World Order must own the molds, and if they were able to be purchased in bulk, it would definately increase global warming! :yahoo:

 

I don't know much about it, but I bet it's not easy to produce them, but I could be way off base. For such a small piece of lead, I ASSume it needs to be forced into the mold under pressure, not gravity- making the machinery involved much more expensive ????

 

Anyone with mold-making or related experience care to comment?

 

Anyhow, if anyone does find a source, perhaps we could go together on a group purchase? I'd like to get my hands on a bunch of them before the sale of lead is banned across the board in a few years.

[flytyingscotsman 0]

 

I don't know much about it, but I bet it's not easy to produce them, but I could be way off base. For such a small piece of lead, I ASSume it needs to be forced into the mold under pressure, not gravity- making the machinery involved much more expensive ????

 

Anyone with mold-making or related experience care to comment?

 

 

There was a thread about this recently - search for 'lead eye molds'.

 

Apparently there is no magic involved - 'ordinary' molds, gravity poured lead

and no pressure required. Anyway, that's as applied to stuff like casting

weights, which are a little less fiddly than dumbells for small flies (as pointed

out in that old thread, the tricky part would be getting the lead to flow

properly into the neck of the hourglass).

 

The problem is there are no off-the-shelf dumbell eye moulds that anyone could find.

 

There were links to make-your-own mold kits, but I don't know if anyone tried them out.

 

On a personal note, I have started weighting some (not all) of my flies with extra turns

(and sometimes layers) of lead wire, as it is much more cost-effective than the dumbell.

 

 

 

 

[Ribs1 0]

I beg to differ with you I just received 150 hour glass lead eyes of various weights last month. Contact him about them he will reply.

flyweaver

 

Thanks

I will call Canadian Llama and see what they have.

Tight Lines

[Ribs1 0]

I just called Canadian Llama. He does have some eyes that will do well for me. He has lead dumbell eyes (I prefer the self centering hourglass type) but his prices are so cheap that I probably can't pass it up. He also had Tungsten hourglass shaped eyes and said the more I buy, the better the price. Looks like around $20 per 100 for the tungsten type which is a little more than I would want to spend, but tungsten is expensive.

 

Thanks for the tips.

 

[Batman 0]

I use bead chain on most of my clouser variations and about everything else that needs

eyes, you can paint them any color you want and they are cheap, if you need more weight add some

wire or lead, works for me anyway,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,B

[Guest]

Get on Ebay and do a search using "fly tying" they have alot of dumbell/hourglass weights listed for around 3.25 plus shipping for 50 but their brass.

 

check them out

[JSzymczyk 0]

there is some intangible difference between using the hourglass/dumbell lead eyes vs lead wire wraps... having all the mass concentrated in the small package, along with being able to place the mass exactly where on the shank you want it- to get different "swimming" actions from the flies... I don't know for sure. All I know is I like them and I think they're too expensive. And I agree, the hourglass shape are superior to the dumbell, but I've only ever had the opportunity to buy a few packs of the hourglass eyes.

 

I know it would be a real PITA to sit around and mold 1/80 ounce lead eyes a few at a time....

[FKROW 0]

If you are looking for maximum economy, forget the dumbell eyes and use standard split shot.

 

I wrap the hook with Gudebrod size A thread, pinch on the split shot (with pliers) make certain the weight center is offset to the bottom of the fly (with hook point up) and then place a drop of Super Glue Gel in the spliot shot to hook area. They are very tough and do not snag as much as the protruding hour glass eyes. If you wish to paint on or stick on eyes, the pliers flattened area on the split shot sides is perfect for this extra step.

 

This construction will result in exactly the same presentation and weight distribution as the hour glass eyes.

 

One additional step I use,,,,,, is adding a mono barb, this allows using plastic grubs on the hook.

 

Regards.

FK