Cmiller23

bass100 - I dipped one last week and the paint wrinkled a little, especially on the last half of the bait as well, I think this may be more me not heat setting the paint well enough or putting on too thick of a coat therefore it retained a little moisture because none of the other baits I have dipped wrinkled at all. Maybe you had the same thing happen? Mark - I fished a couple of crankbaits this weekend pretty hard I had dipped two days before, got into a school of 14-16 inchers on a grass bed and caught about 15 on one of them. Same results, finish held up great. This stuff is so easy I'm going back and dipping some of my old hand carves that have been fished a lot, and some of my old bagleys just to toughen them up. Haven't had any problems dipping a D2T coated bait or auto cleared baits. Still coats it like a dream! C

Well I finally broke my test crankbait, the plastic though, not the clear coat, the bait itself broke before the clear coat cracked. I was shocked. So needless to say, I'm sold. D2T is now a thing of the past! Mark - I'm glad to see it is working out for you, I felt the same way you did about the coating but went ahead and let it cure longer just because of what I had read with the other concrete sealers. Did you fish your baits "hard?" that had only cured for a couple of days? Catch any fish with them? Cougar & Rayburn - I have not noticed any smell what so ever after letting mine cure for a couple days. I put it right on my nose the other day before I made a cast just to see if it smelled before I fished them. I'm big on scents on my hands and baits while fishing. I'm going to be coating some more baits tonight so glad to see I may be able to fish them this weekend after only 4 or so days of curing. I'll be coating some of my hand carves this time so I may coat them 4 times just for the added thickness. And because it just makes me feel more warm and fuzzy. C

This stuff is rock solid, so after a two week cure now, I went out and tossed one of my old test crankbaits I coated in it 30-50ft in the air and let it smash onto the concrete just to see, I did this probably two dozen times, my wife gave me a funny look. I cannot hardly tell, I can only find some minor blemishes, no cracks, nothing. I'm sold. D2T will be a thing of the past for me now. Now my nurse wife can stop stealing big 10mL syringes for me to measure my D2T out accurately!

Musky - I dipped it directly into the can, that may or may not be a good idea, time will tell. You would waste a lot of it if you threw away what you did not use from dipping it.

Nathan - I looked at the direct colors website, AC1315 is high gloss, there doesn't seem to be an AC1315 satin finish. The satin finish is just another type of concrete sealer they sell I think. CMiller

There we go, see the attached photos. This was after one dip. Nathan there is a high gloss, I thought the AC1315 was the high gloss only? Another application I thought of recently would be for the guys that paint reels! This stuff goes on so thin it seems like it would be perfect for clear coating a reel. I have an old bass pro qualifier I might give it a shot on. I'm always scared to spray stuff other than createx through my airbrush though. Mark - That is another positive to this stuff also, you can order it in the sample sizes, not just by the gallon. I ordered a pint, perfect size for dipping lures.

Nathan - So far this stuff is amazing, I painted 6 Spro LJ knockoffs, heat set the paint in between every coat. Then I dipped them 3 times and let it cure for a week in the garage. I waited anywhere between 4 and 12 hours in between dips. The stuff really does seem to melt into itself. If you have a little excess on the rear hook hanger (hanging them by the bill) it will turn that excess into a highly viscous liquid again from a solid. (however not nearly as viscous as the AC1315, its more like water) I used all createx paints. The only thing I think I may have messed up a little is not putting a enough createx clear over my sharpie signature, because they did run very slightly, or maybe I didn't heat set the clear long enough. They are still very legible, but you can see it ran ever so slightly. I fished one of the baits for awhile in a tournament this past weekend and then checked it out and it looks perfect still. It is actually a little bit frustrating how amazing this stuff is as a clear coat so far, I've ruined so many of my handcarves with D2T by not having the proper mix or an oily spot on the bait, etc.... if this stuff keeps holding up it will be all I use. I may dip my cedar baits at least 4 times because it goes on so thin. I am a little ashamed that I cannot figure out how to post a picture in this post, is there a way? CMiller

Hello everyone, after reading this entire thread twice I've decided to give the concrete sealers a try also. I am unable to get GST or eagle supreme but I found a local company (Oklahoma) that makes a lacquer based sealer that is 30% solids by volume. It's called AC1315 from direct colors. I will post my results when I receive it and try it out. For the guys that do wood cranks how did the concrete sealers work for sealing wooden cranks? I currently use propionate still but am curious about these concrete sealers. Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the info guys. At my college here we have a CNC machine that will cut out the aluminum mold for me. It does not cost me anything, besides outrageous tuition I was thinking of making a right side / left side molds with that CNC machine with 4 points to bolt it together on each corner. Do you think that the mold would withstand the amount of pressure for an injection mold. Im a mechanical engineering major, but over in the chemical engineering department they already have a small injection molding machine that I may be able to get access to as well. Im not exactly sure of the tolerances of the CNC machine but im hoping I an make a good mold. (I get to keep the mold after my research study is over) So basically I can design my own crankbait! Probably a 2" - 2 1/8" flat sider much like the spro little john with a few modifications of my own.