FishThanks

I would agree with the color issue. I wrap the netting tight with small spring clamps all the way across my baits. Most of the time with scaling less is more. I practiced on pvc pipe pieces before going to my baits. Lower pressure and light coats usually works best.

Nice work. When I first started making my own lures the lathe got old, but the painting is most enjoyable. You will be clearing at midnight all the time before long!

I had my best Season on Muskie in 08. 13 fish over 30 pounds and fifty inches. Most of the largest and the two largest came on five inch lures 35.40 lb./50" and 34.70lb./ 54 1/4". We are usually playing with seven and eight inch baits by August. We start playing with our 10" baits around September and my biggest on 10" was 34lb. 52". The opposite side was we ran big twin blade bucktails this season and they caught bigger fish by far all Summer than the smaller standard bucktails. I do not know what this means, maybe I should build a little bait/ big bucktail hybrid hmmmm. I really think with our water getting cleaner the little bait may have an advantage. Typical season we catch most of our heavier fish on 10 inch baits when they are putting the feed on for winter and the water is a little dirtier. This seems to be about the same time myself and my friends start to get a little heavier as well!

McMaster Carr is a good company, I buy parts for my livewells there. Rollie and Helens (Muskie Shop) also sells the .092 Stainless screw eyes.

Great Job! You have inspired me! I have a blue phone now that is looking a little tattered. If you do not mind sharing what was the mesh from?, it is a cool pattern.

I also shoot PPG Shop Line epoxy primer. I use a Paasche H with a #5 tip And reduce 10% wih med reducer. I use as low pressure as I can with the tip opened up big. It is tough as nails primer but after priming you are supposed to apply the finish coat with in a week so the paint can etch in before the primer gets real hard. If I know it will be a while before I will be painting I put a quick light coat of base coat white on and they can sit for an extended time.

I would agree with Woodie to vent outside. If you are spraying with out any fan or filter the set up you spoke of would still be better overall to me. I started with an Artograph booth and createx to learn with. The artograph had a pre filter and a type of charcoal filter designed to trap ovespray, it had the option to vent outside through two four inch dryer vents. I am a builder and in the old days when I was young we would forget a dryer vent every now and then. Getting a hole through brick is not as bad as you would think. If you measure over from your glass block on the inside to make sure you do not hit a floor joist or blocking, then go out side and transfer that measurement to the closest vertical head joint on the brick . Move the vent tube around to catch the most joints you can then trace the pipe on the brick. Take a masonary bit and drill some holes around the line and break out the rest with a masonary chisel. for the wood bond you drill a hole to get a sawzall blade in and cut the wood out. install the vent, caulk it, and put your insulation back on the inside. You can also rent a core drill at depot that will do a perfect large enough hole very reasonably. Plumbers go through ten inch poured walls for septics like this the brick will be way easier. Water based paints still have plenty of chemicals in them you should not inhale. I would not spray anything solvent based in the house even if vented.

awesome good luck with your new gun!

I would try soaking it in denatured alcohol, it probably will not take to long if it is going to work. It is used for making and reducing shellacs and varnishes and will dissolve latex paint off of anything. I build custom homes and my painter got me using it about ten years ago and I am never with out some on hand. The idea of heat may help depending on the product that was sprayed, but I might stick to a good hairdryer or a heat gun on low a little at a time. As bad as it is seized I would plan on the cleaning brush set you can get through air brush suppliers to scrub out the needle bore when you do get it free and maybe a seal. A quart of denatured is reasonable and would be the first I would try. I clean my airbrushes with laquer thinner but I am spraying automotive urethanes.

did the needle move when you pulled back on the trigger or was it completly stuck?

people use windex mainly for the ammonia. latex based products have ammonia in them as one of the carriers that evaporates off. If the product was not a water or latex base windex may not help. denatured alcohol is a versatile fairly aggresive solvent that may help. when you pull back on the trigger and release does the needle move in and out smoothly or even move at all?

Assuming you loosened the needle nut as parrothead suggested, I would take off the air cap and try to get solvent in from that end as well. This will help dissolve and lubricate were you can get paint build up on the needle, sometimes material will dry on the needle and make it more difficult to pull through the seal. Be careful not to damage the exposed needle tip when the aircap is off. Do not scrape or scratch old material off of the needle use a rag and solvent. Scratches or rough spots on the needle will be hard on the seal. When I am finished painting I always pull the needle out for cleaning to prevent that problem. You can also buy small brushes that will pass through the bore and seal area to keep the gun clean. The Vl will make you a great all around airbrush.

Woodie, Jim Flemming is a Muskie Charter Captain out of the Thames River area. He knows quite a bit on the Fingerlings. I have contact information for him if you want to pm me. I have a few and I think they are hard plastic like most regular plastic cranks. I remember Jim telling me a company sold the molds to Luhr Jehnsen or that Luhr Jenhsen sold the molds to another company before they quite making them so there could be some different generations.

I bought mine from a company in Michigan. They build large commercial spray booths and powder coating booths and ovens. They started building the smaller ones for fill in work and have ended up shipping them all over the place. They use a 12 inch tubeaxial fan which can be remote mounted if you like and they will build custom sizes with fan on the back or top and build downdrafts as well. They will build bench top or free standing. I was running out of room so I did a 36 inch wide benchtop. with two 18 inch deep panels. They are entirely made in the U.S.A and OSHA approved. It was $595.00 in 2/08 plus shipping. It works awesome and I spray automotive two part epoxy primers, urethane paints, and automotive two part clear. I am not affiliated in any way just happy with the purchase. The family owned company is JC Metal Fabrication 231-629 -0425 and John and Andy are the father/son team. http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/hard-baits/15411-heating-shop-safely.html#post113533 This a link to a picture in a previous post.

I build Muskie baits and epoxy in the bills. I use five minute West System. I put the Epoxy on of the the bill with a popsicle stick, and apply it evenly in a pattern matching the profile of the body. When you slide the bill into the slot the excess epoxy rolls out and makes a nice bead around the slot almost like you ran a nice small bead of caulk around the bill. I also put a very thin coat on the bottom edge of the bill where it bottoms out in the lip slot for a little extra strength. If you put to much there it makes the bill act a little greasy in the slot wanting to slide side to side. You will have to try a little based on how much clearance you have in the slot and how much extra you want to roll out. This gives a look like you would see on a Wiley bait.

There are quite a few companies making small bench top sand blasting cabinets around the $100.00 mark. Some have ports for a shop vac and have a light inside. I would say they are about the size of two milk crates side by side.

Bester, I received an email showing you tried to PM me and that my message box was full. I checked it and there was only one in there and I deleted it. If it does not work now I will have to figure out how to get you my email address. The Heater is a Schwank Perfection. I bought this one used from a friend closing up a body shop. I have two Daytons for my next house that I bought from a nieghbor I built a home for that moved South. They are 35,000 BTU each and we put one in each corner of a 10x25x33 garage. The Daytons are all stainless. Radiants do not need power, just a thermostat wire and gas. Mark, thanks for the compliment. I was using an Artograph booth that worked well, but when clearing with auto clear and bigger batches of Muskie size baits the pre filter would start to load up and I would peel a layer off when I noticed it was having trouble keeping up. I am going to take it to the next club meeting swap and sell. The big booth is built by a Michigan company and I am real happy with it. I know a pro builder that has one 48 inch wide and his front panel is 6 inches deeper for 48 deep overall and he recomended the size I had mine made (36wx36d o.a.). They make them downdraft style and with the fan on the back. The axial fan is outdoor rated so it can be mounted outside or in an attic. The noise is not bad at all but in my next home/shop in a more permanant install I will probably remote mount it. I thought the price was way less against what else is out there (560.00 plus shipping) and it is built like the big booths not just flat sheet metal panels bolted together. They are built for commercial use and OSHA approved. You and I talked before about all the dust eating from the building industry and I figured my lungs were worth it. lol. Fifteen below wind chill and over a foot of blowing snow here in our lovely state today! lol

I build custom homes in Michigan and have done all types of heating systems and air exchangers like Mark spoke of. My favorite by far is a ceiling mounted radiant heater, mine is not the tube style but an 80,000 btu panel style. My garage is eleven feet tall by 26x36 for that size unit. The nice thing with radiant is it warms the objects in the room including the floor. This helps when you open the door or do anything that allows air in. It keeps a warmer feel because everything is warm not just the air. For a spray booth to work correctly it needs make up air, I crack open my pull down staircase. They will not exhaust correctly if they are creating a negative pressure in the room. A proper booth is going to exhaust a lot of your warm air and pull in the cold air from your make up air source. The radiant is an open flame however my booth draws so well that fumes are not an issue. You can turn the heat off while spraying and the radiant will warm back up way faster, in my last home I did have forced air in the garage and I would never go back. My booth was built in Michigan by JC Metal Fab. Great guys and they brought it to my home by truck when they were going to big job near by. It has a 12 inch axial fan and moves a lot of air so I usually do not paint as much until the weather warms up some. I am spraying solvent based urethane automotive paints with this set up. I hope this is helpful. David

Snax, I used the clear on some plastic Storm Thundersticks I repainted and it held up well. On one of the baits I scuffed the factory finish, cleaned it with denatured and just shoot a lat line,some spots, head and belly and recleared leaving the factory holo showing through. I thought it might react but it held up well. The rest of the Storms I primed with two part automotive epoxy primer and it worked real well. It might be worth a test on your new body. I used it on my wood baits over propionate last season and it worked real well. I had a couple that had some real minor lifting on some small spots on the belly, I did not scuff the propionate real good because I thought the primer being an Acetate base would self etch more than it did. The primer flashes off pretty quick. I will scuff the next batch better and HOK makes an adhesion promoter for plastic I might try. I am being picky they were small and I picked them with a needle to see what let loose. I only noticed it after cold fall water and they were both favorites and chewed up that spent probably forty hours or more being trolled. It was my first season on this body shape and my first year painting my own. If you want to try the primer on one of your new baits and do not have any I can prime one for you and ship it back before you buy any if you want. I use Shop Line from PPG. Good luck with your new baits.

I spray Dupont Chroma Clear over automotive urethane base coats on larger Muskie baits. I use an airbrush with a #5 tip when clearing smaller numbers or a touch up gun for quantities. I usually spray two or three coats ten to fifteen minutes apart. I believe the Auto Air clears are a two part so I believe it should work over Createx, however I like to stay in a system designed to work together. Automotive clears are designed to be flexible, durable and not to yellow. I feel it holds up very well and Muskie teeth will destroy wood and all, and the clear still does not peel or crack. I think you will find it plenty durable for Bass lures. I do have a commercial duty small spray booth, however I used to use an Artograph spray booth and it worked well with the airbrush until the pre filter would plug up and then I would peel a layer of pre filter off(app. 10 baits). If you paint very much you will grow out of a light duty booth pretty quick. It is very sticky on a filter compared to paint. The fumes from Urethane paints and Automotive clears are not good for you and are flammable.

I thought Auto air and Createx are water based? HOK is urethane base.

Thad have you tried mixing? I shoot urethanes as well. Try it in a small quantity start with a little white and add yellow a little at a time. I use the HOK intercoat clear to make colors more transparent it is a clear base coat coat.

I started with the H model in the 80s on Radio Control car bodies. I still use it ater buying double action guns. I put in the #5 tip and spray auto primer, and clear coat, and the #3 for base coats. They come with decent directions, get some paper and practice thier tips and you are on your way. There are some pretty good web sites with instructional video clips if you search a little. Have fun! David

Bear Air has the complete VL kit for $52.00. I am thinking on getting another one, the more I paint the more I like mine because of the speedy color changes and less paint waste over cleaning my Iwata gravity gun.

Thad, the booth was $595.00 and a case of filters was $65.00 for I think it was 100 in a case, however I am still on the one that came with it. I thought the price was great compared to Paasche and even the Artograpgh is aournd $325.00. The motor is 3/4 horse and with the 12" axial fan housing the motor assembly was pretty heavy for shipping. The unit is really well built, they build commercial powder coat booths, ovens, and spray booths and use the same materials on the small ones. The owner told me they started making the small ones to keep the shop busy between the larger jobs. I do not know them other than when I placed the order, just very happy with the unit.