A-Mac
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Everything posted by A-Mac
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Good point. I tried it. The only bad thing is it's easy to ruin a good lure with too much heat against the clear coat.
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Cool looking lure! -
Just a tip. When you form your stencil over a lure half, it's easy to get carried away to make it a perfect fitting shell. In my opinion, leave the shell so that it doesn't hug the lure quite so tight. 2 reasons for this: 1) Even with resin lures, each bait is not 100% the same size. In addition, each layer of paint adds to the mass of the lure. A tight fitting stencil may not fit every lure you intend it too. 2) A tight fitting stencil WILL SCRATCH OR RUB PREVIOUS LAYERS OF PAINT FROM THE LURE! If you have to pry the lure off, its too tight! Good luck!
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I hit the lure with a hair dryer for a few seconds after each coat (closer to a minute if its a base coat). This helps to prevent scratching the surface as easily when doing stencil work.
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I purchased some torsioned stainless steel wire from luremaking.com a few years back. That stuff is crazy strong in comparison to anything you buy in the store. http://luremaking.com/catalogue/catalogue-index/catalogue-items/wire_shafts.htm
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Elmer's spray adhesive! It's cheap and works great! Plus, I also use it for hold stencils in place when spraying. A very light mist, then let it sit for a couple minutes, and then you can place the stencil on the lure without having to worry about the adhesive residue coming off. I DID NOT COME UP WITH THIS!, I think BobP did.
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I drill a pilot hole into my resin lures. I choose a bit size slightly smaller than the eye screw diameter. I screw the "screw" in to make threads. Remove, squirt some super glue gel down the hole (I use a syring and needle), and thread back in.
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A red lure I posted in the gallery had solarez first over foil. I polished the solorez before painting and cleared with the HR. The HR over the Solarez is clear and glossy, it displays the red foil great.
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I removed the lure a few seconds ago. The finish was still glossy and didn't look or feel any different than before submerging. However, the weight increased slightly. Before submerge: 13.8grams: 214grains After: 14.3 grams: 222 grains So there was some absorption. However, I'm not sure how this compares to the other clears, but this is only a 3.6% weight increase.
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I figured I would share my technique. Purchase a pack of hanging hooks from your hardware store (the smaller the diameter the better in my opinion). Insert the threaded end into a drill gun (One with a lower gear ratio is preferred... for safety ) Take a 3" piece of stainless steel wire (whatever you normally twist), grip in the middle with needle nose pliers and bend the ends to make a "V". Grip the tag ends with a pair of vice grips. Put the loop over the hook and slowly twist the wire (keeping outward tension while it twists). ...done. I strongly suggest getting a pair of Dewalt diagonals (home depot). The price is a little salty (close to 20 bucks), but the hinge mechanism makes cutting tag ends much much easier on the hands. I can do about 4 eye screws per minute and watch x-files at the same time THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE!!!
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A customer wanted a lure made for his veteran friend nicknamed "RED". There were 2 things I've never done before on this lure, so it was a learning experience. 1) I've never tried foiling a resin lure 2) I've never applied a UV clear over a different UV clear. I applied red foil sides to one of my nickle bill cranks. Then I solarez a couple coats to smooth the foil-to-resin transition points. I then polished the Solarez using my dremel and some Meguires polish. Even with polishing, the solarez didn't provide that glossy epoxy look. A couple strips of white base (top and bottom) were applied, followed by a red belly and top. A dab of orange was applied to the face along with a black scale pattern down the back. I lastly painted my pattern and shot a layer of clear gloss (and dabbed some red sparkle on the top and bottom). I clear coated using the Headlight Restorer stuff (3 coats). The finish came out clear as glass with no evidence that there was a layer of Solarez underneath. -
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Beautiful lure! Very well done! -
Cool. Thanks guys. I wonder how rapala does it.
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Black crappie pattern (Solarez clear coat) -
A mix of my penny-bill and dime-bill (~1.0 and 0.5 comparison sized, respectively) in black crappie pattern for a customer. These are clear coated with Solarez. -
Appreciate it Mark. I'm thinking the headlight restorer (HR) might be a better option on resin baits, where the clear coat is not a supporting structure (like on wood). I can put 3 coats on with the headlight stuff and cure in about the same time it take to let a lure with solarez drip. I didn't do any sort of light cycle either with the HR, I just flipped the switch and let it bake for 2 minutes. I noticed thin spots on the angles of my lures from Solarez, I think 3 coats of the HR provide better corner coverage. Not saying that I won't use my Solarez by any means, but if having a glossy finish is more of a concern, than this may be a better option. Anyway, the part that really matters. I'm doing a submersion test today for 24 hrs. I plan to weigh the coated balsa lure before and after to see if water is absorbed. Will post results tomorrow.
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http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/amcalexa/20130416_184806_zps6ce5bac6.jpg the lure on the left has 3 coats of the headlight stuff, the lure on the right is 1 coat of solarez (which is one of my best finishes with the product so far).
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What tools do you guys like to use for cleaning up the hook hangers/ line tie on your cranks after paint/clearcoat? I've been using a pointed diamond bit with my dremel, but I feel there is a better tool for the job.
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I've been very happy with the predator bass bait eyes! I normally try to put the largest eye I can on a lure, but mainly because I think it looks cool.
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http://www.cureuv.com/lensbright-uv-headlight-restoration-coating-8oz.html I tried this product on a lure the other day. The stuff is water thin. However, it was easy to brush on and the cure process was a breeze with a nail light. Perfect clarity and very glossy on a rootbeer chartreuse pattern I painted. The product seems to be similar in appearance to DN, only easier to use. I'll post a pic later. I HAVE NOT DONE ANY SUBMERSION TESTS YET! I haven't done anything other than cure it. One thing I did notice, this is a flexible finish too. But it came out better than I was expecting. The major benefit, none of the timed light cycles necessary for a great looking finish. I brushed a coat on, let it hang for 2 minutes and recoated. I put 3 coats on, each coat making a significant contribution to increasing the glossiness of the finish.
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gotcha. Have you tried solarez over your decals? Any issues? I used to print my swimbait fins on decals when I was using epoxy. They looked great, but the only bad thing about swimbait fins was the size. One crack in the clear from hitting a rock and the fin would look horrible since water could spread underneath the decal. But my signature is big enough, I'd like to just put "April 2013" on it in very very small font.
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To keep your ink from running. Shoot a layer of clear createx top coat over the signature and heat set. That should solve your problems. But yeah, I use the needle point sharpie too. I may use your idea rayburnguy, perhaps for putting dates on the lures.
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http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/amcalexa/20130328_194656_zpse755b58b.jpg This is the oven I received... I'm still working on a rack system, but for now I have a couple flat irons pieces going across that I just hang the lures from. Since the lures I just "cooked" were ones that I had already tried to paint, I left the lips in (since they were CA glued anyway). I did not notice any weakening of the lip adhesive after baking. I chucked one all day against the rocks the day after and didn't bust a lip, so I figured it was successful.
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Just an update. I heated a batch of lures at 150F in my lab oven. Based on the 2 lures I've re-painted, I've had no issues whatsoever with sweating when heat setting my paint. Now, I did have to remove the old paint (using lacquer thinner). After letting them dry for about an hour, I placed them in the warm oven for about 3.5hrs and then turned off the power for the night (but left the lures in). I haven't tried this on a recently cured lure, only on the resin batch that I had all the sweating issues with. I had the oven next to my half open garage door and made sure not to breath when I opened the hatch to check on them. At 150F, I didn't notice the resin getting soft, but noticed that they were sweating out.
