Floating Stringers From Vinyl Paint

[spoonbender]

I'm airbrushing up a few prototype stickbaits with CSI vinyl paint in transparent Chartruese and get a very noticeable amount of floating stringers looking similar to cobwebs. I thinned it with the appropriate MIBK/Xylene mix to about a 70/30 ratio, run it at about 25 psi through a Badger 350 with a medium tip. The lure finish is acceptable, but the durned cobwebs are also building up on the lip and hook eyes. They seem to dissolve when I wet them with paint but are a tad irritating floating around my paint area. Thoughts?

[philB]

Sounds to me like the thinning ratio may be wrong. Only a guess but sounds like the paints are drying before arriving at the surface. If that was happening to me I would look at thinning less and/or a larger airbrush nozzle. Potentially I would also look at reducing the psi as well. There is something there making the paint dry or bond prematurely. These are only thoughts and not definitive answers as I have not faced this problem.

[Salty's]

Use a slower thinner and thin it more. What's happening is it's drying in the air as it's atomized.

I'm airbrushing up a few prototype stickbaits with CSI vinyl paint in transparent Chartruese and get a very noticeable amount of floating stringers looking similar to cobwebs. I thinned it with the appropriate MIBK/Xylene mix to about a 70/30 ratio, run it at about 25 psi through a Badger 350 with a medium tip. The lure finish is acceptable, but the durned cobwebs are also building up on the lip and hook eyes. They seem to dissolve when I wet them with paint but are a tad irritating floating around my paint area. Thoughts?

[stratos201]

I'm airbrushing up a few prototype stickbaits with CSI vinyl paint in transparent Chartruese and get a very noticeable amount of floating stringers looking similar to cobwebs. I thinned it with the appropriate MIBK/Xylene mix to about a 70/30 ratio, run it at about 25 psi through a Badger 350 with a medium tip. The lure finish is acceptable, but the durned cobwebs are also building up on the lip and hook eyes. They seem to dissolve when I wet them with paint but are a tad irritating floating around my paint area. Thoughts?

I have some CS paint as well and have experienced the same problem. Basically I dealt with the problem. I do believe that CS makes a retarder for the paint. This allows the paint to stay wet a little longer. The cob webs are caused by the atomization of the paint and the solvent is evaporating out of the mixed paint. I do believe that CS specifies to use their vinyl paint thinner with their paint. I have a small fortune wrapped up in their paint an thinners. I cut my losses and when to Createx.

[spoonbender]

I have some CS paint as well and have experienced the same problem. Basically I dealt with the problem. I do believe that CS makes a retarder for the paint. This allows the paint to stay wet a little longer. The cob webs are caused by the atomization of the paint and the solvent is evaporating out of the mixed paint. I do believe that CS specifies to use their vinyl paint thinner with their paint. I have a small fortune wrapped up in their paint an thinners. I cut my losses and when to Createx.

UPDATE: I've reduced the amount of thinner, which seems to have helped, and it does appear to be more of an issue with the chartruese than other colors. The weather was probably an issue also, was high 80's and very humid that day, may have had a negative effect. The thinner is very expensive thru CS so I make my own. Chemically it's just a mix of MIBK and Xylene that I put together for about $20 a gal.

Edited August 27, 2010 by spoonbender

[mark poulson]

I'm glad you worked it out.

Those solvents sound nasty.

One of the reasons I use both water based paints, and water borne urethane, is because they don't have the nasty fumes that solvent based paints have.

Personally, I get good results with the Createx-type paints, so the only solvent based paint I use is rattle can primer, because it really bonds to the lures, fills small imperfections, makes for a good surface for my finished paint schemes, and I can spray it outside on my driveway, downwind.