Cleaning tiny Tungsten eyes?

[eyeflyer]

I am a fly tyer and with the poor quality of hooks and price for tungsten jigs I have been tying my own tungsten jigs. No longer have a problem with cheap hooks, poor paint and I can tie what ever sizes and colors I choose at less than a quarter of the cost................if you already have the vice.

[redzmvt]

I have a collection of carbide circuit board drills down to .010.I put them in a pin vise and cleans out eyes perfectly.I check the ones that I buy before putting them in the jig box.The ones I make myself I clean them out before curing(not tungsten ones).Those get air-dried with high quality epoxy finish that is thinned out.I usually don't bother with painting tungsten jigs,but make a lot with lead.Powder paint works perfect,and I don't believe powder works on tungsten,heat curing will destroy them.

[Rebelss]

I usually cut the paint off of each side with a small Tajima box cutter knife with the snap off blades I have and then use a hook or needle to clear the center of the eye. I found some paint to be brittle and can chip off easily, especially epoxy if I just jam something through the eye without cutting first.

Agree with this, and I use a steel dental pick to poke the hole clean.

[river_scum]

i have always used another hook and pliers to poke out closed eyes.

[meandcuznalfy]

i have always used another hook and pliers to poke out closed eyes.

X2, little scrape with a knife and another hook works well.

[DR.SPECKLER]

Baked powder coated jigs are hell to clean the eyes out.easy to  clean before curing process.i no longer  support a company that cant clean up the eyes before selling jigs.

[meandcuznalfy]

Baked powder coated jigs are hell to clean the eyes out.easy to  clean before curing process.i no longer  support a company that cant clean up the eyes before selling jigs.

I don't, make all my own and don't have to worry about that anymore.

[Rebelss]

I was gonna comment that heck, I can't even see the hole anymore, but that just doesn't sound right. 

[eyeflyer]

I also won’t buy them no matter what the price with paint in the “eye”!!

Me either, anglers are quick to praise good quality, should not be hesitant to identify those who sell inferior product.

[kasilofchrisn]

Baked powder coated jigs are hell to clean the eyes out.easy to  clean before curing process.i no longer  support a company that cant clean up the eyes before selling jigs.

Yup!
One sign of quality is clean jig eyes.
One sign of poor quality is painted over jig eyes.
I make most of my own these days.
I don't find it all that difficult to keep the eyes clean to start with.

[Iceassin]

I guess I'm of the minority. Painted eyes don't bother me much. I carry a push pin and nail clippers (lightly clamp around base of the eye and give it a spin or 2... usually peels right off)) in my jig box to clear the holes if needed. No biggie.

[esox_xtm]

X2 on the nail clippers. I've always got one around somewhere. Took me about one time cleaning eyes on the ice (decades ago). After that, any new purchases saw the workbench where I could have a sip of tequila, a puff of cigar and remediate the issue in perfect comfort.

These days my purchases seldom have the eyes painted shut and if they are, the above still applies.

I've poured lead for decades (some folks say that's had a noticeable effect  ) and painted. First it was that vinyl liquid stuff but now it's fluid beds and powder. Always made sure the eyes were clear before they went anywhere. Just part of the process.

[DR.SPECKLER]

Yup my dad taught me how to melt and pour lead when i was 14.we would have a community melt and pour every Saturday.everybody would get together and the adults would pour and us kids would cut flues and sort by size.i still have some sinkers we made way back then.still have all the gear ,plus added a ton of different molds.i make my own jigs too and clearing the eyes  before oven curing is a must when using powder paint.its almost impossible to break the paint out of the eye after curing but its brittle and easy to remove before the oven cure.

[maddogg]

I cut out little tin foil squares and fold them over the eyes dip in powder and pull off tin foil with a small needle nose.