How To Apply Devcon

[Skeeter]

From what I have been reading here on the site, many of you have been having some problems with Devcon. I have some experience with this stuff. So I am going to share with you what I know about applying it. .

Devcon is a resin based epoxy. It is best applied when the room temperature is between 70 to 74 degrees. Optimal temperature is 72 degrees. Below 68 deg. it becomes tougher to spread. Above 80 deg. it cures quicker making it tougher to spread and even out in the drying wheel. Humidity needs to be above 50%.

I use a Testors model paint brush to apply Devcon. You can get it at Wal Mart where they sell model cars. It is a white brush with a metal sleeve on it. It costs about a dollar. It is the brush to use. If you care for the brush properly, then you will be able to coat about 30 baits with one brush. I will get into brush care later.

I mix my Devcon in clear plastic clamshells that are used in packaging. I just get one and wipe it out with a damp cloth and store it where dust and dirt will not collect on it. DUST AND DIRT ARE YOUR ENEMIES !! Next I get two paper towels and fold them into a square. One towel is used to lay the bait on. The other is to wipe excess Devcon on. I then fill a small glass jar with acetone. Acetone is the deal for cleaning up epoxy of any kind. Acetone is a very strong and hot (evaporates quickly) thinner. Therefore, if you use something to hold the acetone other than glass, the acetone will dissolve it. Fill the jar with enough acetone to cover about mid way up the metal sleeve on the brush handle. Use the plastic stir that comes with the Devcon to mix your epoxy. It cuts down on the amount of bubbles that occur during mixing of the two parts. No matter what you do you will get bubbles in you mixture. Some of them are from stirring and some of them are from the reaction of the two parts mixing together. You will have less bubbles if you use the plastic stir. These bubbles can then appear in the clear coat on your baits. You can also have a toothpick standing by to pop any bubbles that may appear after the Devcon is applied to the lure.

Before you start clear coating your lure, make sure that you cover the following bases. Some of this may sound silly or obvious, but I am going to say it anyway.

• Put on old clothes and put something down to protect your table, rug, or whatever. Once Devcon gets on fabric or anything porous, it is there to stay. You can wipe it down, but it will always be there.
• Tell everyone to leave you alone and don’t interrupt you. Once you get started applying the Devcon, an interruption can really mess you up.
• Wash your hands. You are going to be handling your bait and tools while clear coating. Clean is good.
• Check your bait and tools for dust and dirt before you get mixing the Devcon.
• Have everything laid out in front of you and know where it is. Once you mix the Devcon, you will have about 10 minutes to coat your bait before it starts to set. You don’t want to be hunting anything while you are in the middle of clear coating.
• Have your ZEN going. If you are tired, cranky, or just plain don’t feel like it, then don’t do it. You have to be clear and in the right frame of mind to get good results. Clear coating with Devcon is a skill just like painting or anything else having to do with making baits. It takes practice, patience, and skill to turn out a good clear coating job.

Now let’s get clear coating. Get your clamshell propped up a little so that the Devcon will stay in a corner of the shell so that you can thoroughly mix it. Mixing on a level surface just spreads everything out too much and you don’t get a good mix. Put your Devcon in and stir it with the plastic stir slowly. You don’t want to whip it. If you mix too quickly then a lot of air can be injected into the mixture causing more bubbles than you will ever want. Some bubbles are going to happen. It is caused by gasses that are released from the reaction of the hardener and the resin. You can’t stop this. This is not just a Devcon property. It happens with 2 part anything where a chemical reaction is taking place. Stir your mixture for about 1 minute. You want to make sure that it is completely mixed. When you are finished you can give a breath or two over the mixture and you can see some of the gas bubbles rise and pop. I clear coat the lure with the lip already installed. I can hold the lure by the lip as I work. I dip the brush in the Devcon and get a blob on there and start on the back stripe of the lure about 1/8 of an inch from the nose and make a stroke toward the tail. You will notice some Devcon built up where you started the stroke. Take your brush and press it down behind this and push the brush forward. This will shove the Devcon over the seam where the lip enters the bait. You want to push a little onto the lip also. Do this until the Devcon is into this seam on the front and the side of the lip slot. Make sure that there are no missed spots. Continue to brush the Devcon onto the lure from nose to tail. Move around the bait and do the belly of the lure like you did the top. Start 1/8 inch from the nose and then push the Devcon into the seam on the bottom of the lip. Make sure that you get around the hook hangers well too. Once you get the lure coated then brush around the entire lure from nose to tail. If excess Devcon builds up on the tail of the lure then get it off with the end of your brush and put it on the paper towel that you laid out for excess Devcon. Don’t put the brush on the towel because you could pick up lint or dust from it and get it in your brush. Just touch the excess Devcon to the towel and pull your brush away. Once you get the hang of this you will be able to apply a Devcon clear coat that is not super thick. By stroking the brush from nose to tail, you will be moving excess Devcon to the tail of the bait where it can be moved off of the lure. Don’t worry about shallow brush marks in the coating. When you put the lure on the drying wheel they will level out and be gone. If you get too much Devcon into the hook hangers then you can use a tooth pick to get it out. The same goes if a bubble forms in the clear coat and rises to the top. Pop the bubble with the tooth pick and the Devcon will flow into the space. Now, just put the bait on the drying wheel and forget about it.

FAQ and PROBLEMS:

1. Clear coat stays tacky.

You did not mix equal amounts of hardener and resin. Or you did not stir the mixture thoroughly.

2. I get a lot of bubbles in the mixture.

Use the plastic stir supplied with the Devcon. Stir it slower or fold the mixture together. You can also give a breath or two over the mixture to remove some of the bubbles.

3. I get globs of Devcon on my brush and the bait when I am applying it to the bait.

Humidity is too low in the room and/or the temperature is too high. Optimal temperature is 72 degrees and above 50% humidity.

4. I used the long cure Devcon and I still see some yellowing.

I have seen this at times. There is nothing that you can do about it. I believe that the hardener included with that batch of long cure may have been made a bit hot. The resin side of Devcon is the same for both long cure and the 5 minute epoxy. The difference is that the 5 minute epoxy has a hotter hardener. This fast reaction is what makes the 5 minute epoxy yellow. You can feel it if you mix up a little in some tin foil and hold the foil in your hand. The 5 minute will get hot to the touch from the chemical reaction between the hardener and the resin. You won’t even feel any heat from the long cure.

5. I coated a pop-r and the Devcon is cracking around the mouth of the bait.

Devcon does not like sharp edges. It WILL crack on its own without any help. It will work just fine around lip slots. But for baits with sharp edges you have two choices: Dull the edge with sandpaper or use something else for clear coating.

6. Devcon is hard to find and is expensive.

Go here, http://www.devcon.co...20Clear%20Epoxy
Call this number,
Customer Service: 800.626.7226

I order my Devcon straight from the manufacturer. You can do 6 to 10 three inch baits with a tube. That is 50 cents or less per bait. I seen guys that put trebles on a bait that cost 1.00 apiece and pay a bunch of money for premium paint, but they cry about the cost of the Devcon. And if you are shooting urethane clears and crying about the cost of Devcon, then you just don’t have a clue.

Skeeter

Edited April 10, 2016 by Skeeter

[Griffond]

question for your FAQ if you want to thin Devcon how much acetone should you use?

[Richard Prager]

Thanks for taking the time to write this, Skeeter.......excellent stuff right there! I never thought about using the toothpick to pop any bubbles. Takes the worry out of getting you lips full of D2T while breathing on the lure

[RayburnGuy]

Thanks for taking the time to write this, Skeeter.......excellent stuff right there! I never thought about using the toothpick to pop any bubbles. Takes the worry out of getting you lips full of D2T while breathing on the lure

Never got it on my lips, but I did get it in my beard one time.

Ben

[Skeeter]

Griffond,

I never thin Devcon. I have tried thinning it with a lot of different stuff. Never liked the results. When using acetone for a thinner you can get a swirl effect in the Devcon. Sometimes it will evaporate out and sometimes it will not. If you practice enough you will learn how to control the thickness of the Devcon on the lure by pulling the excess off at the tail like I explained.

LOL Ben,

You are not the Lone Ranger !

Skeeter

Edited April 7, 2012 by Skeeter

[Big Bass Man]

Nice tutorial Skeeter, Thanks for sharing!!

Patrick

[BobP]

I work in the garage and the temp and humidity is what it is. When it's cold/cool, I use a FEW drops of denatured alcohol to thin my Devcon. Mix it in after mixing the hardener/resin. It will make the Devcon easier to brush and extend the brush time by about a minute. I leave the lures on the lure turner for about 1 1/2 hour if the Devcon has been thinned, versus about an hour for unthinned. It will cure within the same general time frame as unthinned Devcon - hard enough to touch in 5 hrs, hard enough to fish in 24 hrs. I have also tried thinning with lacquer thinner and acetone. Both can be problematic, while I've never encountered a problem with the end results using denatured alcohol.

I prefer not to thin Devcon if I don't have to. But when the garage is 45 degrees and the Devcon is the consistency of paste, you need to do something.

[saltshaker]

I work in the garage and the temp and humidity is what it is. When it's cold/cool, I use a FEW drops of denatured alcohol to thin my Devcon. Mix it in after mixing the hardener/resin. It will make the Devcon easier to brush and extend the brush time by about a minute. I leave the lures on the lure turner for about 1 1/2 hour if the Devcon has been thinned, versus about an hour for unthinned. It will cure within the same general time frame as unthinned Devcon - hard enough to touch in 5 hrs, hard enough to fish in 24 hrs. I have also tried thinning with lacquer thinner and acetone. Both can be problematic, while I've never encountered a problem with the end results using denatured alcohol.

I prefer not to thin Devcon if I don't have to. But when the garage is 45 degrees and the Devcon is the consistency of paste, you need to do something.

I thinned once with acetone by accident (grabbed the wrong can) and things did not work out well. Like Bob says...denatured alcohol is the way to go for thinning.

[Coley]

Good job Skeet.

I buy Devcon 2T here. Weigh out an equal amount into

the bottom of a beer can and mix well, It is a lot cheaper

buying it this way. And they have sales on it at various

times.

http://hobbylinc.com/htm/dev/devs-33.htm

[Skeeter]

Coley,

My friend, if there is ONE PERSON on this site that does NOT need to read this post it is you. You are better at it than I am. Good to see you.

Skeeter

[LaPala]

Great to see you back Skeeter. And for those who are not aware, Skeeter is the Devcon God .

[Skeeter]

LP !!!!!!!!

SO GOOD TO HEAR FROM YOU !!!!! Glad to see you here as well.

Skeeter

[bluetickhound]

I'm brand new to TU but I'm an old timer on VolNation. Are you the same Skeeter that posts there?

[Skeeter]

No sir...... I have never been on that site.

Skeeter

[bluetickhound]

I ask because the other is highly respected on VN both for his insights on fishing AND his insider knowledge on UT recruiting!! And his killer avatar of his Skeeter boat doesn't hurt either..