BobP

Epoxy is heavy, it yellows over time, and it tends to creep away from the sharp edges on a spinner blade. Not ideal for this application, IMO. Dick Nite is specifically formulated for coating spoons and is a very durable coating. Easy to apply too - just dip it and hang it.

Non yellowing with UV additives Work time (brushing) minimum 5 minutes Good leveling Thicker than Etex, thinner than D2T Cure to non-sag state in max 90 minutes Full cure (practically speaking) in max 24 hrs Hard but with some flexibility and impact resistance Reasonable cost Spoopa - I don't see dipping in any two-part finish product for anyone except millionaires.

I order wood on the internet from sources I find in Google. The source usually changes between batches as prices change and businesses start-fail, etc. You can often find some wood at home centers and hobby shops (balsa, basswood). Personally, I use 3 types of wood: Basswood, a hardwood with a density of about 23 lbs/cu ft. It's good for many types of baits, its grain structure is negligible, and it's easy to shape and sand. Paulownia is another hardwood but less dense at about 18 lbs/cu ft. It has sometimes difficult grain that can be hard to shape and sand, but it is a very buoyant hardwood and makes a lively bait. Balsa is the most buoyant soft wood with a density of anywhere between 6 and 18 lbs/cu ft. Balsa is easy to shape, makes the most buoyant, lively baits, but its softness requires thru-wire building techniques to make baits durable. The more dense (and therefore harder) balsas are favored by lure builders. It's worth specifying density with your supplier to get harder balsa between 12-18 lbs/cu fit. Generally speaking, the softer and more buoyant the wood, the more popular it is for shallow running baits that are going to be fished through and around cover. The less buoyant and harder the wood, the more often it is used for medium and deep diving baits where buoyancy is limited, and is often counteracted by ballast to get diving depth. You want kiln dried wood with limited moisture content.

From rod building, I learned that anything you add to epoxy mix compromises its strength to some extent. If you want to color epoxy, I would investigate using pigments and/or dye - not paint. Acrylic paint contains water, flow enhancers like glycerin, and other chemicals that are just not needed, and may do harm to the finish. Sometimes DIY witches brews work OK but most times, not.

You can make a small incision in an epoxy topcoated bait and peel the epoxy off the whole bait without much trouble. The weak point is the acrylic paint. The epoxy bonds to it but the paint layer itself is too weak to provide much adhesion. A boat's surface undergoes a lot of impact abuse and when the epoxy has aged awhile, it becomes brittle and easier to crack. I'm all for experimentation but if it were my boat, I'd choose one marine paint company, buy a set of their compatible coatings, and follow their recommendation on how to apply it. JMHO, that's your best shot at a durable finish.

I'm not a boat painter but it seems to me that the 'traditional way' of finishing a boat probably has good reasoning behind it. Tradition has the hardest, toughest layer (epoxy) directly bonded to what it needs to protect (wood), then covered by layers that protect the epoxy from UV and impact, make it look pretty, and keep it feasible to refinish in the future. Epoxy bonds much better to a wood surface than to a layer of paint. Also, if you foresee the need to refinish the boat in the future, sanding solvent based paint and varnish is LOTS easier than sanding epoxy. In this case, 'tradition' is probably what works best until some new coating technology comes along.

I don't use Krylon but Dick Nite. Both are solvent based topcoats and can have the same problem - if wet topcoat sits on the lure's surface too long, it wrinkles the paint. The problem is worse in high humidity or cold, which can slow flash-off of the solvent from the topcoat. I suggest spraying several light coats.

The name is Envirotex Lite, and it's sold as a table top epoxy in Michael's Crafts and other craft and home centers.

Yes, transparent Createx Yellow will do what you want. I'd shoot it last thing to get just the right amount of color where you want it.

KB, some guys mix paint to get intermediate colors, some guys (like me) try to find and buy them. Check out the acrylic paints at WASCO -- Wildlife Artist Supply Company for specific colors that apply to wildlife, including fish. Createx paint is good but they sell mostly a standard color selection. Other companies like Smith Wildlife, Polytranspar and Van Dyke have more specialized colors. You can mix and match. I shoot at between 40 and 15 psi, depending on the paint and what I'm painting. I use an acrylic paint shot through my airbrush as a colorbase, over waterproofing like epoxy or propionate. There are several good white acrylics with "high solids" (lots of pigment). I like Polytranspar Superhide White. Some guys use rattle cans but many of them leave a strong smell even after drying. Use the SEARCH feature to explore some recent questions/posts about painting, airbrushes, etc. There's lots of info available in this forum.

The problem with heating epoxy is it accelerates cure time. That's something you don't need in the summertime, if ever. You can mix in a FEW drops of denatured alcohol, lacquer thinner or acetone to make a thinner mix and extend the brushing time if needed. IMO it's best just to mix it up and brush it on, then put it on a turner to cure. No solvent, no heat. The more stuff you do to it, the more likely you are to screw it up. Believe me, I've been there! BTW, D2T is a glue. The 30 minutes referred to on the package is time it takes to form a decent glue bond, not how long you have to brush it on a bait. You have about 5 minutes, give or take. Don't waste time, but 5 mins is enough time to coat any bait, usually 2 baits if you are practiced.

I wipe the excess epoxy off the bristles and dunk the brush in a small jar of either lacquer thinner or acetone. Work the bristles back and forth, spreading them out on the bottom of the jar for 5-10 seconds. Take it out and vigorously brush it dry on a cotton towel. Take a look at the bristles to see they are all separate. If not, repeat. Takes 20-30 seconds.

A soft area on an otherwise hard topcoat is caused by poor mixing. Failure to harden all over the lure is caused by poor measuring or very rarely, by a bad batch of epoxy. I mix in a concave jar top coated with foil that holds just enough epoxy to topcoat a few baits and I use a 1/2" wide plastic strip. Mix the beejesus out of it! Don't worry about air bubbles in the mix. If you use the right of brush to apply it, the tiny bubbles disappear as you brush the epoxy on the bait. I know flux brushes are popular but I much prefer a flat, 1/4" wide square end artist's brush. The finer bristles erase small bubbles as you apply the epoxy and it does a more exact and uniform job. Clean the brush thoroughly after use and you can use it for years. Mine cost $2 each, have lasted hundreds of baits, so which is cheaper? flux or artist?

Many smaller crankbaits are balsa since its buoyancy helps float the hardware in a small package. There are a few TUers who build very small crankbaits and you can see some great examples in the Gallery. About the smallest store-bought balsa body is a fat 1 5/8" model available from Netcraft and a few other places. If you're talking small crankbaits, that size with #8 trebles is a killer panfish bait. For crappies, it is only useful for a few weeks in spring when the fish mover shallow to spawn.

Maybe yes, maybe no depending on your airbrush and compressor. I'd test with some straight Createx to see how it shoots, then thin a little if needed to keep the spray pattern the way you want it. Although Createx may seem pretty thick out of the bottle, it does contain flow enhancers, etc that make it go through an airbrush pretty well.

Tap water in a spray bottle. Works, it's cheap and easy to mix up a batch:lol: Createx says right on the bottle it can be thinned with water. I believe it. If you use esoteric airbrush paint with special formulation, something more may be needed or helpful. Using Createx, Smith Wildlife, Polytranspar, and Van Dykes acrylics, I haven't felt the need. Army Doc, the mix you posted contains stuff that is already in most airbrush paints as flow enhancer and surfactant. No harm, no foul. It should work good. Sometimes it seems to me that TUers are prone to gild every lily! (I'm not talking about thinning agents here, but it's related). It's fine if based on solid experience or scientific fact. But we see lots of posts about finish failures for seemingly mysterious reasons. The finish on a crankbait is a SYSTEM that works together to make it durable and pretty. There is chemical bonding and interaction between the finish layers going on, and they need to be compatible or problems will bite you on the .... For me, the best way to avoid problems has been to keep it simple. Use a set of compatible coatings and don't throw 'mystery ingredients' into the mix. If you do, recognize you're conducting an experiment that may fail.

My advice is take a commercial lure you think is really good and copy it. That solves a lot of design problems before they get started and it's your best chance to end up with a fish-catching bait your first time out. Making good crankbaits is mostly about attention to detail and keeping everything symmetrical. I use a digital scale to get the weight right and I do extensive measurements and markings to guide me when tapering and rounding over the sides of the bait. There is also no harm in starting out with some store-bought wood bodies. One quick tip - always cut the lip slot just after you cut out the body shape, while the blank is still "square". Click on Forums, Member Submitted Tutorials, Hardbait How-to, and then change the time span at the bottom of the page to "From the Beginning". There are several good tutorials covering many of the basics.

Army Doc, I've never used HOK and think it may be formulated differently than other brands. If you're set on HOK, better get input from a user with some experience as far as airbrush, tip size, safety, and coatings compatibilities.

Given your set of criteria, I'd choose an Iwata HP-B. The "B" indicates the small 1/16 oz gravity feed cup. Although an airbrush with a .3mm tip works faster for color basecoating, the HP-B wins hands down for fine shading and lining. If I can only carry one, that's it. Treat it right, be careful cleaning it, and it will give you great service. For gosh sake, don't damage the paint nozzle 'cause replacement is around $40. Iwatas with the MAC air control valve are handy but JMHO, the feature is pricey. You can get the same pressure control with a cheap in-line valve or a combo valve/pressure dial mounted on your compressor, if it's within hand's reach. BTW, anything with a .2mm tip is for airbrush paint only. Coarse "hobby paint" like Apple Barrel, etc will clog. As far as Iwata models go, you can pick and choose the features you like knowing that all models have high quality. BTW, if I could add one to my pack as a backup, it would be a .3mm Revolution B (cheap at $70). If I were planning to shoot clearcoats through my brush, a Paasche VL or Badger 170 with multiple tips might get the nod as an "all-in-one".

68KF is right about different opinions. I use a gravity feed Iwata HP with a .2mm tip and the smaller cup (1/16th oz?). I sure wouldn't want to paint a motorcycle or a helmet with it, but for crankbaits the tip and cup size seem perfect to me. About half my paint is Createx and I shoot it unthinned at between 15-35 psi, no problems. In fact, Createx seems to contain more flow agents than other brands; almost like it's homoginized. Createx Neon Yellow looks as thick as heavy cream out of the bottle but it shoots through an airbrush like you-know-what through a goose. I often use a .3mm Iwata Revolution for color basecoating. The .2mm HP will get the job done, just not as fast. I don't shoot topcoats, so can't comment re tip size for that. I haven't used a Chinese airbrush like the Master. Some guys own and praise them. They are certainly bargain priced! But it's also worth knowing that some TUers have reported problems with them. Iwatas are expensive. The parts are expensive. But the quality is superior. The Iwata HP's are hand tuned at the factory for spray pattern. I've used Paasche, Badger and Iwata. Whichever brand you choose, you will generally get what you pay for and nothing more. 68KF is exactly right about using them. It takes some time to "meld" with any particular brush. They're just like any tool.

I like paulownia because it's light but hard enough to use without thru-wire techniques. Downside, there can be a lot of variation in its density and it tends to have soft dark grain right beside very hard, dense white grain areas, which can be a problem to shape and sand by hand. But once you get used to its idiosyncracies, it makes nice buoyant crankbaits. I tried to look up the nominal density of pecan, but it isn't in my table of material densities. It does make some killer furniture!

Another thing to consider is that red cedar can have considerable oil in the wood. Prime it with a solvent based coating before you paint so the red oil will not migrate through your paint to the surface.

JMHO, the only reason to custom mix paint is if you must have just the right shade for a particular bait. 'Mix or buy' is a question of convenience versus the bother and waste of custom mixing and storing colors. I'm of the "buy it and shoot it" school. Some nice effects can be done by layering transparent colors over one another, and I end up using less paint over time than if I were constantly mixing small batches of color for a few baits. I think any idea of "saving money on paint" by custom mixing is a red herring. You use up more paint in the long run.

Well, lessee, to start you off a highly pigmented white for color basecoating, like Polytranspar Superhide White medium gray black yellow red orange medium blue medium brown neon yellow (aka chartreuse) bright green dark green pearl white pearl chrome iridescent gold I'd order the 4 oz size in acrylic latex colors. An 8 or 16 oz Superhide White. Where available, I prefer transparent colors to solids for color layering. You might want to add in metallic blue and green if you like that effect. You can use the pearl chrome to overshoot other colors for a baitfish sheen effect, but it will darken other colors somewhat.

That's called a fisheye and can be caused by a little grease/oil on the lure surface when you apply the epoxy.