BobP

Itty bitty chisels

Well, if measuring and mixing are not the problem, there aren't many possible culprits left. A bad batch of epoxy from the manufacturer? Adding a solvent other than denatured alcohol to thin the mix? Epoxy actually takes as long as a week to reach final cure state though it is usually considered "hard enough" within 24 hrs.

I'm not sure the type of paint would make a difference. Perhaps using a cotton swab to make your dots would give you a thicker paint coating that would work better than an airbrush. Or you could use one to make the white base.

Mike, epoxy cure depends on two things: MEASURING and mixing. If measured incorrectly, there will be excess molecules of the resin or hardener that remain in their starting liquid state, producing a greasy softer finish. After years of eyeballing it, I switched to epoxy syringes and they work more consistently.

I think you need a physicist, not a biologist to answer your question in a practical sense. I'm neither. To apply max force to your rod, a fish has to bite a bait directly in line with the line connected to the bait. That's very unlikely if you think about how fish swim mostly in the horizontal plane. Something else to consider. A typical fishing rod is built with epoxied thread wrapped around the guides and it takes only about 12 lbs of strain force to break a guide off of the rod blank. Personally, I've never seen or heard of that happening so suspect it is pretty rare except maybe for a few saltwater trolling rods where the drag was mistakenly left in the full lockdown mode. We use flexible blanks, reel drags and stretchy lines to build "give" into the system. So the whole system is engineered to counter sudden opposing force.

I did an 8" display lure for my kid and used #2 trebles with the hook points cut off.

I use hand wound screw eyes, make them longer than normal, then install them into drilled holes with paste epoxy. Whatever way you install screw eyes in balsa, pull-out is usually not a problem but water infiltration can be. Installing them before you start the finish process is definitely helpful. Now, if you are building musky crankbaits as your name suggests, you'll be held to a higher standard of strength and waterproofness due to wear and tear. Maybe a thru-wire would save a big musky getting off by snapping your lure in half. The lure would be useless afterward but at least that big one might not get away. In the end, it's player's choice

I also have a 6 gal unit. I leave it cranked to max (135 psi) and have a separate regulator and water trap attached in-line for the airbrush. That way, the compressor rarely has to run.

Why not call Dick Nite and see if he can arrange it?

I often use Solarez uv cured polyester resin. You can't just hang it to dry but 3 minutes under a uv light or 10-15 minutes outside under sunlight cures it hard. Can't get much faster than that.

I know of a custom builder who uses Flexcoat's UV filtered epoxy on his baits with good results. There are a variety of slow cure epoxies that work well as lure topcoats. Rod guide epoxies do tend to be a little more expensive than others and are modified with a solvent to level out better over guide threads, so cure a little slower than glue epoxies like D2T.

I think it's hard to say exactly what the problem might be with your slow speed trolling baits. You can get more action out of a shallow bait if the line tie is placed as close to the top of the lip as possible. Bending it downward from its present position might point the way to get more action. I build a bait that thumps like crazy at 1.5 mph. It's a 3" flat sided shad shaped balsa or paulownia bait, 1/4 to 5/16" wide, weighing just over 1/4 oz with a 45 degree 7/8" long rounded lip that is max 3/4" wide. The line tie is right down on the top of the lip. It will run true at any speed but is best trolled because it won't cast well due to the light weight. The bait is based on a custom bait called the Shad Killer that a friend in Ohio sent me a few years ago. A friend and I troll it for striped bass on an inland reservoir with great success.

Yes, some of the cheap hobby paint lines put a lot of pigment in their white paint to act as a cover white. If shot through a large tipped brush, they are a viable alternative. However, I just prefer to use airbrush paint. It gives a smoother dry surface and there's only one airbrush to clean up afterward.

I like to use Polytranspar Superhide White. Lots of pigment to cover fast and it dries very quickly with a hair dryer to a coating that's harder than regular Createx. p.s. have you ever used auto primers and noticed that your crankbait box smells like a seagull died in there afterward? No thanks.

Ben, I got a O-wacky tool from Case Plastics and it came with O rings that were 10mm OD, 6mm ID. It works on 5" Senkos. Alsworms is probably right if "size 10" means 10mm OD. Tip: put two rings on the worm and cross them so your hook points up instead of sideways, for better hookups.

I would use Paste epoxy like Rod Bond. If the hole was large, I'd cut a small disk from a soda or beer can and superglue it over the hole, then sand it smooth after drying.

A possibility- if you are heating the lures after applying the epoxy, the air expansion in the lure will try to find a way out. The eye socket may be that way. Epoxy doesn't react with other finishes as it cures in my experience so I don't think it's a chemical reaction problem.

I've done it both ways. First, I'm talking balsa bass baits only. Harder woods don't really require "heroic measures" like thru-wiring. In balsa, my opinion is that it's purely player's choice. Thru-wire is a good option. The wire strengthens the bait and the epoxy used to glue it in the bait provides added strength too. But in my fishing experience, I've never had a balsa bait break from fish action, either made with thru-wire or with longish hand twisted screw eyes epoxied into drilled holes. So as far as I'm concerned, the latter method works perfectly well and is easier and faster to build. If I fished big pike or musky waters with balsa minnow baits, I might have a different opinion. Thru-wiring might might let you land a big toothy fish that bites a balsa bait in half (in which case why did you use balsa in the first place?). But no build method will save a balsa bait if the waterproof finish gets compromised, nor will any balsa bait survive long if it is smacked on the water to remove weeds on the trebles, regardless of how you built it. So to me, the question is more a matter of style than practicality.

I can often peel epoxy topcoats off lures with a strong thin blade. If you can get the blade started into the acrylic latex paint layer and pry the epoxy at that point, it will usually begin to come off in sheets. Heating the epoxy somewhat will help. It only works on smooth surfaced lures, not ones that have texture like scales molded into the plastic. I use a small Swiss Army knife to do this. An Xacto knife blade is too brittle and may snap, which is dangerous. Of course, if buoyancy is not a concern it would be easier to simply sand the existing epoxy lightly and begin applying a new finish. MCU is thinner and usually penetrates the paint layer, so I would just sand and repainted it.

Neat application Mark! Thanks. I've used the Glonation acrylic white/green paint and its particles are way too big for an airbrush so I have to use a brush.

I watched a program on factory auto painting and they check workers for any silicone contamination before they put on their space suits to enter the paint shop. Seems a lot of every day products like shampoo contain silicone which causes fisheyes in auto paint. Here on TU we read a lot about skin oils, syringe silicone contamination. You can't really SEE this kind of problem so all you can do is try to minimize the chance that it will affect your epoxy topcoat. I use Devcon Two Ton and apply it pretty thickly on my baits. I think thicker coats tend to develop fisheyes more rarely. But none of us can really say definitively what caused a fisheye.

Dremel with micro drill bit

Stencil (aka frisket) material can be bought in different adhesive strengths. I had the same problem, bought a roll of frisket and found it lifted paint off the lure. Solution? I just stopped peeling the backing off the frisket and held it against the lure as I painted. This has two big advantages. I can wipe the paint off the stencil after shooting one side of the bait and simply flip it over to do the other side. That saves me 50% of the time I would otherwise spend making a left and right side stencil. Since I never took off the backing, the stencil can be saved and used many times. Now I have a box of stencils, a library if you will, that I can choose from and rarely need to cut a new one.

I think propionate will hold up pretty well. But more modern topcoats like moisture cured urethane are even more durable.

#2 splitrings and #4 trebles would be my choice.