Feeder tutorial

[Richard Isaacs]

Haven’t had time to make any for a while so put a little guide together if anyone fancy’s a go. There’s a bit of information about and everyone has their own ways but this is mine (contains trade secrets )
Short description under each pic.
It’s 2 posts long.

Cut a section of wire mesh to suit your feeder size. Leave tags long on one end.

Form the shape that you want it to be. And fold the tags round at the meet point to keep together.

Remove a 2x2 square from one end as shown

Place in the mould. Moulds are easy to make. I use heat resistant rubber silicone and an old feeder weight to form the mould. Cut a groove out for your loop to sit in.

Very carefully melt lead and pour into the mould over your cage. It’s hot enough to hospitalize you so I can’t stress enough…. Take precautions and care.

At this stage you have a feeder. This particular one is 5oz and made from stainless steel so it’s strong enough now to do the job.

Warm your lead up first then warm the cage . Lead wants to be hot but don’t melt it. You’ll get a feel for it when you’ve done a couple. Stainless cage needs to be glowing

A dustpan is definitely the tool here. Makes life so easy. Just lay your feeder in your chosen colour and give it a good roll round till it’s totally covered. Blow off the excess immediately after removing.

Put it back over the heat but keep it moving and keep it higher off the flame. You do not want to burn the plastic.
Then back in the dustpan for a second roll and blow off the excess.

If you want smooth finish then heat again and dunk if you want textured finish then just dunk it

Continued on next post.

 

[Richard Isaacs]

Take some strong 7 strand wire trace and double it over through the loop. Clamp both ends.

Twist the feeder anticlock wise until you get a nice tight twisted joint

Repeat with swivel at other end and clip tags flush.

Silicon rubber tubing 2.5-3.0mm bore is perfect for the sleave. Cut a section to length and pull it over the wire joint. I use a gated bait needle for this. (Broke afew mind)

Job done!!!! Looks good. Super strong, stainless coated feeder.

With practice they can be done in 15mins each.

 

[Jim Mileman]

Useful info, thanks for posting.
Are you using a standard powder coating material or is it something more specialist?

 

[Richard Isaacs]

Useful info, thanks for posting.
Are you using a standard powder coating material or is it something more specialist?

Standard lead coating I order in big tubs from Johnson Ross

 

[Paul Whiteing]

Fantastic tutorial Richard

 

[Richard Isaacs]

Fantastic tutorial Richard

Cheers Paul

 

[Kevin Copping]

Really appreciated Richard, but as the wheels start turning the questions arise. May I ask how long do the moulds last and what quantity of silicone rubber is needed to make perhaps three or four moulds. Also, may I be really cheeky and ask if you’ve found a particular mesh supplier for best value. I’ve had a look and it seems to vary considerably.
I had been quite happy with my hair roller and clip on weights, but yours are in a different league and the green eyed monster has made an appearance.

 

[Bob Gill]

Easy to follow and informative tutorial Richard. Nice one!

 

[Bob Watson]

Great stuff Would you mind ne asking where you source your mesh from?

 

[Richard Isaacs]

Just dropping daughter back home
All questions will be answered shortly

 

[Richard Isaacs]

Ok. I’ll go through the questions.
The moulds last for ages if they are looked after. That one I’ve got in the picture has never been replaced and it’s done hundreds of feeders. They do burn but for the job it’s got to do (no intricate details) it’s good for hundreds of feeders. The trick is to let it cool between casts.

A 500gram mix (250g each part) would easily do 3 or more moulds…….or make one deep one and just fill it to different levels depending on the weight you want. That’s all I do. Within 5-8g I’m on the money usually and that’s close enough.

Mesh….. EBay is your friend here. You want to put “rodent mesh” into the search and you can buy it in long rolls in both galv and stainless. If your buying the cheaper galv then you definitely need to coat them. They are not strong enough and bend too easily unless you double coat them then they are perfect.
Stainless is much stronger and what I make my premium ones out of. You can use stainless uncoated no problem. It’s more expensive, it’s harder to work with but it does make a better feeder.

 

[Richard Isaacs]

Johnson Ross for powder and eBay for everything else.

 

[Kevin Copping]

Thanks Richard. Very generous with both your time and help as always. For most things there’s YouTube, for everything else there’s a Rich tutorial.

 

[Richard Isaacs]

It’s not gonna be for everyone because the initial outlay is expensive but that 300x30 roll of stainless mesh is good for 150-200 feeders depending on the sizes you do. If you feeder fish a lot or make them to sell it’s worth the outlay. If you use just a meer few a year it’s not.

 

[Richard Isaacs]

While I’m in a sharing mood…..Another little tip if your like me and happy to make sacrifices for the greater good
Butcher up some of those plastic Korum things
They make perfect moulds for 9x18 or 9x20 cages.
You even get a little gripping pattern on the arse of it which kinda vanishes after coating

They retain the shape slightly on the back. Look really good.

 

[Bob Watson]

Brilliant Richard, just because you've posted that, the next time I need to stock up, I'll buy from you

 

[Jon Frisby]

Your a top man Richard, cracking info for us all.

 

[Rob Weldon]

Great tutorial Richard,without doubt the best I've seen,however,as soon as you have time I want some making .

 

[Adam Wylie]

Great stuff Richard ! Brilliant tutorial !

 

[Paul Richardson]

Brilliant - still got plenty and they just keeping doing the business.