BobP

Thinning epoxy: In winter when I coat baits in the cold garage thinning is unavoidable. I mix enough D2T for a couple of baits max, then dip my brush in denatured alcohol and drop in a few drops and mix it in. We're talking 3-5 drops here! I've thinned with acetone, denatured alcohol and lacquer thinner. To me, the denatured alcohol does the best job. I've had occasional problems with Acetone, namely the epoxy curing not so hard with it. Always thin AFTER you mix the epoxy - no sense screwing up the epoxy chemical reaction. Thinned epoxy will begin to harden a little slower than unthinned but should be rock hard after about the same total time. Tater, you do great paint. Clearcoating with Dick Nite poly would make those colors "pop" even better IMO. Dipping = fast. Brushing = not so fast. JMHO, DN is worth the extra handling restrictions.

An epoxy chemist on a rodbuilding site said that separate coats of epoxy chemically bond into an indistinguishable whole if done within a couple of days. I used to hang lures on nails driven into the edge of a shelf over my workbench, suspending them by little bent wire hangers, sort of like Xmas tree hangers. If you put a hanger in each end of the lure, you can switch ends a few times during the first minutes of cure to prevent epoxy collecting at the tail. It's a little easier with D2T because it forms a thicker coating than EL and cures faster. I never recoat unless I screw up the first coat. You will get much better results with a drying wheel.

To some extent yes but partial bottles still develop clumps eventually. I think the film of paint around the top and the sides not covered by the wet paint dries out. Shaking breaks off bits that attract paint and form clumps. It's not as big a problem with Createx as with some other brands. When I notice a clog developing while airbrushing, a quick shot of paint at full throttle will usually clear it out before it becomes a problem.

Great analogy, PB! Balsa lets the maker to play around more with the amount and distribution of ballast, especially reducing ballast to make the bait more lively while maintaining an upright attitude. As a rough index, the standard density of white cedar is 20 lbs/cu ft while balsa is 11.2 lbs/cu ft. For specific pieces of wood, cell structure and moisture content can vary considerably though. The bouyancy of a plastic bait depends on its interior air volume and the thickness/type of plastic. I personally feel that wood baits up to and including basswood at 23 lbs/cu ft tend to have livelier actions than identical plastic baits.

I wanted a test tank but eventually decided that a really useful one would not fit the garage. Medium to deep divers would be digging the bottom of any tank less than 6 ft deep almost immediately, or would have to be held up artificially in the water flow. What would that tell me about their performance in the real world? I'm not sure.

Rlcam, if you have trouble with the finish cracking, it's usually because the bait is absorbing water. I'd sand them smooth and brush on an undercoat of Devcon Two Ton epoxy thinned with denatured alcohol, to insure against water penetration. Pay special attention to the hook hangers and little places where water could enter. When dry (give it at least 12 hrs), sand it with 400 grit to remove the gloss, paint with whatever and brush on unthinned Devcon Two Ton as a topcoat. Hang it alternately by the head and tail every few minutes for half an hour then let it cure for 24 hrs. Clean up with denatured alcohol, acetone, or lacquer thinner.

Suddeth crankbaits (now extinct?) were made from foam and had a good reputation. You could order the baits floating or sinking. Cheesehead, I would think 2 materials of the same density would behave identically as far as action, need for ballast, etc. What properties of foam didn't you like? 16 lb/cu ft is higher than balsa but less than most hardwoods.. close to paulownia at 18 lb/cu ft. I wonder how variable the density of 16 lb/cu ft foam is, depending on temp, handling, mixing, etc?

Mine sits in the garage subject to whatever temps. Old paint tends to separate and develop clumps, especially in a partial bottle. Fresh is definitely better but I use it until it clogs my Iwata....then use it in my Badger If that starts shooting wads of paint, I toss it. Waste not, want not.

The fumes are substantial while DN is flash drying, which takes 30-60 minutes. I dip baits in the garage, turn them for 60 mins and take them inside after a couple of hours. I do a 2nd coat after 24 hrs, same routine but leave them hanging inside for a couple of days for the moisture cure to develop. Curing continues after that, for how long I don't know, but it's a nice glossy tough finish.

Various formulations and brands or polyurethane get used for clearcoating but a popular one here on TU is the Dick Nite Fishermun's Lurecoat, a moisture cured polyurethane. Dick Nite often has an ad at the top of this page through which you can order a sample pack of the product at a considerable discount. Don't know if it can be shipped internationally but there are other brands that may be available in your area. It first dries quickly to a normal (not especially durable) finish, then cures over several days into a much harder coating that is glossy and tough. It's great if you like to dip baits. It also has some handling and storage quirks that need to be observed, so do a search on it for more details.

Some of the ready-made airbrush thinning solutions like the Createx 4011 warn against using too much, lest you prevent the paint from forming a coherent film. This probably applies to homebrew thinners like Windex, etc, too.

Pikeman, I laid aside Rubber Ducky and was playing with my baits in the bathtub last night, you know, trying to get that ballast just right. The action and floatation were perfect but then I decided to see how it would swim if I burned it. That's where everything went south! The nurse at the emergency room told me I had chosen a unique way to decorate my tree this year. Ouchy.

Xcalibur sells a one knock, called the 1K, 3/4 oz $9.99 at BassPro

I don't think it will promote adhesion and believe giving the fully cured epoxy sealer a light sanding would be more effective. You sound like a man in a hurry

Quick & dirty - I drape netting over the back and use clothes pins along the belly to hold it against the sides. If there's slack netting on the back, put a couple of pins there too. Shoot one side, dry it with a hair dryer, and flip it over and do the other side. I only shoot scales on the shoulders then remove the net and paint the back solid, shading it over the scales to complete the effect. You don't want to stretch the netting so tight that it deforms and remember that some paint on the body can be quite tender. A small benefit, you can reuse the netting for quite a few baits.

"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions" and I bet the problems they're having with quality arise from contracting out the build process to an offshore factory. Sort of hard to fix a problem in your chinese factory 5000 miles away. Seems like there's probably a coating incompataibility between the sealer and the color coat. But there should be plenty of lead in that paint! Just don't use it as a teething toy for your 2 yr old

I use a spray bottle of water. Spray the paint out of the cup and run a cup of water through it between colors. Much faster than cleaning out a syphon cup. The grav feed brushes have much less paint inside them when you stop spraying so there's not as much to clean out.

Jody, it's not clear whether you're having problems with the paint or the epoxy clearcoat. If the clearcoat never got hard, you can just recoat it with more epoxy (properly measured and mixed this time) and the new coat will fix the sticky one 99% of the time. If it's the Createx, wash it off and start over again. Some Createx colors always feel a bit tacky to me even when I know they are dry (this is unadulterated, straight from the bottle Createx). I'm guessing that's the flow enhancer they put in it. I just ignore it and clearcoat it, and haven't had any problem.

Well, here's one well known repainter: http://www.hughescustombaits.com/ Price is $10 per bait, per the website. There may be somebody here on TU that does it but repainters are not thick on the ground. Good luck with it.

KB, the closest I can get is by float testing the new design and adjusting it's ballast so that it sits in the water to the same relative depth as the original. I finish one bait complete except for the ballast, hang hooks on it, then hang solder or lead wire on the belly treble until I get what I want. Weigh it on a digital scale. That makes it repeatable. Interesting design!

Jason, most repainters will remove old paint if required as part of their process. When sanded with 400 grit, clear plastic becomes cloudy. But when you apply a clearcoat or translucent paint to the surface, the tiny scratches get filled in and the surface becomes transparent again - so no problem. Just be sure the sandpaper doesn't hit the lip.

I've used the same cheap $7 set of brushes from Michaels for 2 yrs now and they're still going strong after 200 baits or so. They're the flat square tipped blender brushes in several sizes and they work great on bass baits, just the right stiffness to apply Devcon. I clean them vigorously in acetone or denatured alcohol, spreading the bristles out on the bottom of the jar, then vigorously dry them on an old cotton (not paper) towel until the bristles are separate and dry. Takes one minute. I'm sure I can use them for a few more years and a few hundred more baits. Pretty cheap.