First Problem With Glitter Top Coat Powder Paint

[smalljaw]

Hey guys, I found a problem I'm wanting to know about of fix, its the glitter top coats from pro-tec, I normally either spray these on or use the paint brush tapping method but the today I was doing some football jigs and decided to use the fluid bed for the glitter coat since I was doing quite a few, well after I did 3 I quit, it seems that when you use the fluid bed to apply this stuff you get like 1 great big area of all glitter, so I turned down the air a bit and still the same result. So, is this an application that doesn't work with a fluid bed or is there something I'm missing or not doing right? Like I said, normally if I'm doing a bunch of muti colored jigs or spinnerbaits I'll spray them and if I'm only doing single colors I use the fluid bed and most times I only have a few I'm going to glitter coat so I just use the paint brush method but this has me confused to why so much glitter, I would think the problem might be the opposite and the glitter would fall to the bottom. Does anyone have an answer as to being able to use the fluid bed for glitter coats?

[brendandrage]

Hi Smalljaw,

I had the same problem with the purple glitter coat, I found that if you heat the upper section of the lure only and let the heat transfer through and also to make sure you swish the lure through the bed left and right as opposed to dunking the lure gave me an even coating.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Brendan

[reeves]

I purchased some of Pro-Tec's purple pre-mixed glitter a couple of years ago and found it way too heavy to even fluidize in my fluid bed. There was way too much glitter in the mix. I reduced it by just adding regular clear powder until I got the consistency I wanted. Looking at it as it is fluidized in a fluid bed, it appears that there is still too much glitter in the powder and this can be deceiving, so experimenting will get you where you want to be.

I have always just mixed my own by adding glitter to the clear powder and this has worked best for me. For some reason Pro-Tec mixes it very heavy with glitter. Something to note, the hotter your jig, the more glitter will be in the finish. By not heating your jig quite as hot will reduce the amount of glitter that adheres. It takes a bit of experimenting, but this is necessary to acheive the results you are after. Also during your painting session, you may need to add some clear and/or glitter to maintain the mix you want.

Hope this helped.

[smalljaw]

Well I tried the reduced heat method and still too much glitter, I haven't tried mixing it with straight clear because I don't have any at the moment but it looks as reeves is right and I believe it's heavy with glitter in order to get a good glitter coat by dipping a jig in the jar right after a regular color without reheating, I don't think they invisioned it to be used in a fluid bed. I do get a nice coat of glitter by spraying it or tapping it on with a brush so I guess I'll stick to that, I was just hoping I could use it in the bed because it is so much faster.

[reeves]

Don't give up on the fluid bed idea Smalljaw. Just get some clear next time you order your powder paint and give it a try, you won't be sorry. I have been using it as described in my previous post for years. I have a cup for each color of glitter mixed with clear powder so I can switch easily when needed. Remember to add clear powder until you reach the coverage you are after. It works for me!