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Dumbbell Eye Mold

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Hello: Can anyone direct me to a maker of a mold to make lead dumbbell

eyes. My search so far has turned up nothing....thank you...Jim

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I've looked in the past and not been able to find anything myself. Two options would be to make one (bondo works). Or use split shot and open them up flat. They make molds for split shot.

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I came up with the same as flytier.

Best bet I'm guessing is to go a machine shop and have them make you one or contact one of the mold suppliers and ask them to do it...Contact Waspi and ask them who supplies their molds.

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That's a lot of work pouring, trimming the flash, and painting dumbbell eyes. Painted lead dumbell are are cheap enough for me.

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Given the pretty low cost of lead dumbbell eyes from Wapsi (particularly if you buy them by the 1000 per size...) I doubt that any company has found a need to come up with molds for them.... In all the years I used lead eyes commercially I don't believe I ever ran across any outfit offering them.

 

Wapsi's presentation eyes are just about perfect in my opinion... Yes, they're a wholesaler - but most shops around the country stock their products and should be able to get any quantity or size for you.

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this comes up once in a while here. I must be getting old. I've been told by two knowledgeable people that to make enough tiny parts to be worthwhile, lead eyes need to be "injection molded", not just poured like jig heads and sinkers. Obviously if you want to just do it yourself for the sheer fact of doing it yourself, you could go through the trouble and expense and time to make a mold and pour a few at a time.

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Jim,

I have boxes of "Do It" lead molds from way back when - every thing from 5# cannon balls to 1/8 oz jigs. Never came accross dumbell eye molds, or I probably would have them. My question is that unless you want to get into commercial production why would you want to spend the expence. Way back when the average cost on a jig mold was $30, and then you needed a uint to melt the lead and pour it into the mold. Think it buys a lifetime supply of all sorts of dumbell eyes in different weights.

At one time "Do It" would custom make molds - or they had blanks for you to make them. I don't know if this is still available - this is some 30 - 40 years ago. But if you contact them they may be able to point you in the right direction.

 

Doug

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Make yourself a sand cast and pour as needed from old leads.Done it myself a few times.Key is to make sure your sand is packed really well.

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Dumbell eyes are pretty small Zip. Don't think you woud get a very uniform final result, and the clean up? Just my opinion

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Well I'm not saying they always turn out perfect,but it's worked for me!

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The thing I had to figure out with lead eyes (and at one time I used almost every size that Wapsi made...) was how to go about painting the eyes on them in a manner that was not only efficient but gave really good results. Here's what I came up with...

568bd6de.jpg

 

I took a short piece of 2x6 and routed a shallow groove in it to accommodate a piece of thinnest threaded rod... that groove seated the rod just enough so that the rod stuck up enough to fit the center of most lead eyes... then I laid a short piece of stainless wire under that rod every six inches or so... You then mount your eyes about 1/4 to 3/8" apart across the threaded rod (usually ending up with 80 to over 100 eyes per rod). Once your lead eyes are in position you mount a second threaded rod on top of the eyes then use those wires to wrap the two rods together tightly. Once that's done you have a "stick" of eyes ready for handling and painting...

07cc75e6.jpg

 

Each stick would have the first color painted on using alkyd enamel then each one would be placed in an oven and baked for 20 minutes (the paint otherwise would take at least a day to cure out properly). Once that first coat was done I'd then paint in the black center on each eye and repeat the baking out process.. No, this is not something to try when family are home... You need some open windows and at least an hour afterwards to clear out the solvent smell in your kitchen....

e9b33d08.jpg

 

I always used the lid of each paint can as my palette when eye-painting. Here's a pic of the paints and the painting tools I came up with....

Eyepainters.jpg

paintforeyes.jpg

 

Normally I'd do a morning's worth of eyes and that would set me up for a year or two's worth of ready to tie in painted lead eyes of every size... All were loaded into a compartmented "eye box" with a choice of plain lead, or painted eyes (white w/ black centers, yellow w/ black, red w/ black, etc.).

 

Hope this helps - all of it was prep work for a magazine article on the topic - but these days magazines are on their last legs and not buying anything much....

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