fish pirate

Yes, a food dehydrator is what we use. A good cabinet model is about $300.00 Sorry about the results figures coming out jumbled on the mobile app. I have read for years about the many ways of sealing and it is a waste of time. 2 layers of build coat, paint, and 2 layers of top coat and a balsa lure will not fail bass fishing. Save your time for fishing, less building!!!

Next are your sealing options, or lack of as I like to say. Unless you are pressure treating wood the are no realistic gains in sealing wood except for grain raise. If you dip a bait in lacquer sanding sealer 1 time thats all its going to do for you. Coat number 2 is just build coat. Remember this, HOOK RASH ! You stop water from the outside to begin with. You cannot ever stop it with sealer. I tested moisture in bodies at 0.0, sealed them 3 times with different sealers, let them hang in 72% moisture for 48 hours and they all tested above 12.6%. Gary at Solerez supplied his uv sealer. I like it purely because I know that it is dry when i want it dry. Lets face it, we are encapsulating a piece of wood, it likes to breathe.If you dry it to as near 0 as possible you will have no bubbling problems with any of your other steps. Here's how to do this, dehydrate, seal twice,dehydrate, get 1 build coat on quickly. I use Solercure light system. Dennis is a super Guru of lighting that is the most affordable to us. Other light systems start at $16,000.

Dear Brothers, I promised a report on my uv coatings testing. To start i"ll say that I have built balsa crankbaits for many years. I am what some call a mass producer. I built a very successful company by learning from some of the best of you and the industry leaders. I decided to take my outfit uv 2 years ago. I had to put alot of infrastructure into place and some of it ain't cheap. This is my results and i ain't to step on toes or mislead, here goes. This covers sealing baits. All testing was done on 3 inch fat body balsa bodies.I have mine cut by a firm because of cost and large number that i use.I live in southeast Missouri where the humidity is 75% to 98% on a good day. I keep my shop around 72 deg. and humidity between 60 to 75%. I have read on here over the years many methods for sealing. I have tried them all. I can tell you that the first piece of equipment you need is a pin-type moisture tester! Second piece of equipment is a dehydrator! Balsa is cut below the equator,kiln dried there,containerized,put on a ship, hauled across the sea to the east coast, shipped to American Balsa, out to my bait cutter then to me, sits in a box waiting to learn how to swim.See the problem? Moisture is 99% of all bait problems period.Here are 3 baits results: In grams Body wt. before Moisture in Moisture out After Drying Wt. loss 4.0 13.7 0.0 3.69 .31 4.4 13.9 0.0 4.08 .32 4.51 13.9 0.0 4.17 .34 You have to fix moisture first, PERIOD !!!!!!!

Yes, all the testing is being done with balsa.

I am using this product with great results. I am running tests on several UV products and will post results soon. I can say that this is a great product.

Thanks Nate, look forward to the results.

I've found over the years thru allot of testing that it is purely the action of the bait along with the mood of the fish. I design baits that shake a rod to the handle but one of my top baits has a belly roll to it that has won a lot of money over the past 5 years. I know during testing that if it will catch fish with out paint then I have a winner. It is true that it is 80 percent action 20 percent color but if your using the wrong tool at the wrong time it will fail 100 percent of the time!

Great to here about your results Jaw. I'll be testing with both of those products. What kind of light set up are you using? How big are the bulbs, how many nanometers wave length, and are you turning the lures as they are curing

Whitewater, Mo I agree but sometimes you have to get out of the box to improve. It is costly to set up for UV curing but there are so many options out there that I believe it will pay off. I build about 1,000 baits per year and custom paint a lot so this will speed up things if it all pans out. I'm working with 2 light companies and 4 uv resin companies at the present time. Let me know where you are from too!

Just checking in to see if there are any updates on solar ez or any other uv cured coatings. I am installing a uv curing system this Wednesday. I'm going to start with Alumi-UV. I hope to put enough trials together to assist others in this endeavor. I currently build with Amazing Clear Cast with great results. I just want to stay on the cutting edge with my crankbaits.