Cheap Charkey weights

[Steve]

I don't like the price of commercially produced weights.
I don't want to spend a bunch of money buying a melting setup with casts either.
We all have the little water bottles laying around or getting tossed out.

I went out and bought an 80 lb bag of regular Sakrete, not the fast-drying more expensive bag.
Take the water bottles and cut them down halfway or whatever size you want, mix up some crete and save some bucks.

I took some hard wire and coat hangers to compare results in the surf.
Cut about a 10" piece of wire and shape it into a big W, with the outside ends being maybe 3 inches longer than the middle loop.
At the bottom of the W, make a little 90 degree bend to help it hold in the set crete.
Put a 1/0 barrel swivel in the middle loop and push the whole thing way down into the water bottle containing the crete.
Keep the barrel high enough so it stays suspended above the crete.
Let sit for a day or so and you've got inexpensive weights.

You can use coat hangar wire so the wire will bend making it easier to retreive the weight. Or use a few winds of thread to attach the weight so it will drop the weight making the retreival very easy.

You can experiment with different size bottles to get the desired finished weight. A 3 1/4 inch tall container, normal Deer Park bottle, weighs 1.5 lbs. I'm leaving the plastic on just to keep things clean, it might come off eventually, whatever.
I'm in the process or making some smaller ones for calmer water days. Going to see what 2" will give me for weight.

Note:
These are NOT for tossing, these are for yakking out only.
Later on I'll try to make some tossing weights that are aerodynamic.

But hey, if ya got lots of money for lead, so be it....

These are cheap enough that you won't mind losing a few a day, like 5 cents worth if that.

[Sam]

That is a pretty good idea, Steve. I was just using bricks broken in half, but your idea might be better and cleaner.

[Steve]

I tried bricks last year but, um, ahhh, my neighbor ran out of the kind with the holes.
This is cheaper than brick and can go with less weight by putting the spikes in to hold bottom.

[max]

Looks good Steve. I'm sittng here looking at 3 cases of my wife's bottled water that she hasn't touched in 3 months. May be time to put it to better use.

[Charkbait]

Steve, do you then bend the wire up to point toward the line?

I'm experimenting with putting "hooks" on my pyramids, basically drilling out two holes and running wire through so it digs in. You may want to consider having 4 "hooks" so the weight doesn't lay on it's side and get pulled around, odds are it won't dig in if there are only two "hooks". Although with the bottle having the lip on the edge that may dig in better then the "hooks" anyway. Like a mushroom anchor

[Steve]

You can bend the wire any way you want. 'll try them out to the side so it doesn't roll. I doubt that it would slide around on the non-wire side, it's got to roll and catch. Gonna' experiment with other shapes too.

[Steve]

Coop,
I left ya a bucket of assorted concrete weights, ya using them?

How are the different weights? Need more or less?
Better with nails in the side or wire out the top?
Any tweaks needed?

[Coop]

Steve, havent had a need for them since the fling,,,10 to 12 ounces are holding fine,,,I did use the one you gave me at the fling and worked great,,,the one I used had wire on the top bent away from the line,,,it did burry and snapped it right off,,,next time I need more weight, I am going to use some of those weights,,,BTW Steve, thanks for the weights,,,well I am off again to the beach,,,hope those flies are gone.