mark poulson

Congratulations. You may not have caught a fish yet, but you're hooked!

I have noticed that moisture makes it chalk up and flash, not curing all the way through. I use the brush on crazy glue on the boat, for lure repair, and let it dry a minute before I get it wet, and it seems to be fine.

Making the joints easier to adjust is a major reason I went to screw eyes and hinge pins. Once I get the screw eyes adjusted to the gap I want, I remove one, and epoxy it back in, using the other as a depth gauge. That way, I can match what I had. When I used twist wires, I measured the amount the wire that stuck out with a tape measure, but I always wound up having to tweak the wires to get it right. Not so with the screw eyes.

I'd go with Bob's recommendation, to stay in your budget.

So that would explain uneven yellowing. A poorly mixed batch. On a slightly different note, I've found that, when I've not added enough hardener or mixed it well enough, and I wind up with spots that are tacky, a drop of crazy glue seems to set the resin off and it gets hard, with no tackyness. Why is that?

I think BobP has hit the nail on the head. Sounds to me you need a brush with a finer (.2 or .25) tip, and a MAC valve, so you can adjust it and spray fine lines. I don't think you'll be able to spray pearls with that brush unless you thin the heck out them first, and that kind of defeats the beauty of pearls. Why not have a .3 tip brush for spraying pearls and heavy opaques, which are generally not fine line paints (at least for me), and a finer tip brush for detail work? I do that, and it works for me. If you can afford it, Iwata is, hands down, the best in air brushes. If not, Master, and some of the other Chinese Iwata knockoffs, work pretty well.

How does mix affect yellowing? Does too much hardener cause yellowing? I am guessing that, since too little hardener results in epoxy that doesn't set up.

rofish, I trust my eye more to judge the amounts and, so far, it's worked. I used a wooden tooth pick to mix the two halves on the tape, and I'm very thorough. I make sure that, once I've mixed the majority of the epoxy, I move to the outer limits of the epoxy, and mix that back in. It works for me, and there's one less thing to clean up. If I'm mixing enough for four big lures, I may use cups, and then I use a popsicle stick, with the end squared, to mix, and am careful to get down into the little groove at the outside of the bottoms (why do they have to put that there?) so I don't have any unmixed stuff. I measure the resin and the hardener out in separate cups, and add the resin to the hardener, so anything that's unmixed would probably be the hardener in the "corners", and the epoxy will still set up. But for the most part, I use the flat tape and it works great. Downriver, I've gone away from D2T for lure coating because it seems to be too hard, and comes off in large flakes when I "kiss" the rocks with my lure, infrequent as that may be. I find that Etex is softer, and more forgiving. I just checked and the Etex doesn't say UV protected, or anything about UV, on the package, and neither does the D2T. I was thinking of using a coat of Krylon Acrylic Gloss, which does have UV protection, under my topcoat, and then I realized that wouldn't stop the topcoat from yellowing. Maybe a sacrificial coating over the epoxy, which could be redone from time to time, would help, but it seems like a lot of work, and I'm lazy.

Enlarge the picture, and it's hanging out of the tuna's mouth. Great looking lure.

I'm interested to hear if you find it works for you. I know "blind" spiders can see in UV. And lots of insects can, too. Maybe fish see a UV glow coming off baitfish, so they can feed better at night and in low light conditions.

Just read this post. Congratulations. Nothing better than slaying them on something you made.

smitty, I've seen gold and silver leaf applied on jobsites, and, if memory serves, the painters used varnish, both under and on top of the leaf. What did you use as an adhesive and as a top coat?

Downriver, What is the purpose of "UV dyes" in your lures, and what dyes do you use? Is it something that's commercially available?

Downriver, Do you think the accelerator might separate out if it's stored in the heat, like my hot garage? I now mix my Etex on flat masking tape on my work bench, so I can match the sized of the blobs of resin and catalyst before I start mixing. The more I want to mix up, the wider the tape section I lay out before I start. Masking tape is cheap and easy to peel off and throw away when I'm done, and that way I don't have any unmixed areas, like can happen in the bottom of mixing containers. I tend to mix really thoroughly, and then let it sit for a few minutes before I start coating. I don't think mixing would make up for a bad batch with too much accelerator, but I've had spots that didn't set up before, and I think it was becuase I didn't mix it enough. Are Envirotex and Devcon 2 Ton different kinds of epoxy? BobP posted that D2T is sold as a glue, and I know Etex is sold as a bar top coating, so I just wondered if they were different in their chemical makeup.

I think BEZYB's right. I turn my lures horizontally, and only get lumps when I put too much Etex on. My wheel motor is 1 rpm, so it turns the lures very slowly. My wheel looks like a Ferris wheel, with two large plywood discs on a shaft, and the lures suspended horizontally between the discs. That way I can coat more than one lure at a time. I stop the wheel after I've coated the last lure, and check them all for lumps and drips, and take them off with a semi-dry brush. Lumps and drips can be filed or sanded off after the epoxy is cured, and will turn clear again when you put on a second coat. Try brushing on just enough to cover the entire lure, and planning to put a second coat on after the first sets. If you wait 24 hours, you can just wipe the lure down with denatured alcohol and recoat it without any scuffing or sanding for bonding. The woman I spoke to at Etex said it will bond to itself just fine, and, so far, it's worked for me.

Nice job. Clever paint rack. Can't wait to see it finished.

Yeah, it really got to me. Just when you think they're getting too old to be your little girl any more, they open their mouths and out come these little pearls. I'm sure it's programed into their female subconscious, so they don't get thrown out of the house too soon. Too bad that doesn't hold for boys, or I'd have been able to stay in my father's house a little longer.

Nothing's too good for the fish, right? Kudos on a very original foiling idea, and a really beautiful paint job.

Lowe's Home Improvement Centers sells a polyurethane decking that works for making lures. Try going to the Lowe's website, and use their online store locator to find the store closest to you. You can actually find the polyurethane decking on their site, and check to see if a store close to you has it.

Generally, any clear finish that says it won't yellow in the sun had UV screeners in it. I've tried contacting Devcon in the past, and got no direct personal response, but Evirotex has tech support that will answer your email. Google Envirotex, and go on their website. The woman who answered my email (I'm sorry, I don't remember her name) was extremely knowledgeable and helpful. She is a chemist, I think, and really understands epoxy. I've noticed that clear coats sometimes let UV through, and it yellows the coat beneath the clear. Not sure why. But it tells me that the UV is getting through the clear. Or the clear is yellowing and it just looks like it's the underlying coat.

Interesting how you paint. Makes sense about blending the colors. That method of painting is used here in Los Angeles by faux artists, who make custom wall and cabinet/furniture finishes. They charge a fortune for it, because, aside from being beautiful, it is very time consuming. I agree with you about having a different mind set when you're making lures. I, too, get consumed and lose track of time when I'm making a lure. My youngest daughter actually thanked me yesterday for my "genes" that she says I passed on to her. She is an artist, and says my genes give her tremendous patience in doing a task. I'll happily take credit. I get enough blame for everything else! I told her that when I'm doing something I want to do, and I know it's going to take time, I don't get impatient, because I understand that it will be slow, and accept that. And I try and do my lure stuff after work, so I don't have the same time pressures. I brush on some details from time to time, but I enjoy airbrushing, and achieving my paint schemes that way. I generally make lures in batches, because it takes almost as long to make one as four or five, given the operations. I figure each four piece jointed swimbait has about three hours in it, start to finish. I could speed the process if I shaped them with a router, but I kind of enjoy using an oscillating sander to shape them. If I were going to do production runs, I'd rig up jigs for all the operations, and get it down to 1 1/2 hours each, but I make the lures for myself and my friends, and enjoy the process almost as much as catching fish with them. Almost.

Wow! That's a fish!

I remember the thread when you first posted about the bait, and how you experimented with different fin configurations until you found the microfibbets. Glad to hear it worked out. Maybe you could post another picture, so I don't have to do a search and try and find that old thread. I'm lazy. I haven't ventured into fiber fins yet, but I have a jointed 9"swimbait that swims like a corpse, and I plan to add fiber fins and using it as a twitch bait. I hope the fiber fins will add subtle movement when I'm dead sticking it.

"If you want a job done, give it to the person with a messy desk" I heard that years ago, and I live by it!

Looks good enough to eat! I hope the fish agree.