Cleaning Hook Hangers

[gone2long]

I don't sell just paint for myself, does anybody clean the hook hangers after painting and before top coat? It just looks crappy was looking for ideas for cleaning them off without damaging the paint, I was thinking just carefully scraping with an xacto knife, any ideas?

[RayburnGuy]

I wait until after top coat to clean the hook hangers, but I don't allow the top coat to build up inside the eye. Before the baits go on the turner I run a toothpick through the eye to remove excess top coat. The small amount that is left seems to bind with the paint and that makes it easier to get the hangers clean. At least for me. To do the actual cleaning I use an Exacto knife.

 

Ben

[gone2long]

Good deal and thank you sir that's what I was looking for, so with the top coat it kinda chips off? I use Etex Lite but the last batch I did I tried something new and inner coat cleared with future floor shine, haven't sealed them yet but it seems to have made a hard finish to the paint - I don't make many at a time (6) and give days between coats of different products.

[RayburnGuy]

With DN S81 and BS epoxy it doesn't really chip off. It's more of a glob of gunk. Kind of rubbery if that makes any sense. It's not really soft, but it's not hard enough to chip either. If your using the Future it might very well get hard enough to chip. Not sure on that as I don't have any experience with it. And I don't wait any length of time before top coating. I heat the crap out of each layer of paint and usually by the time I'm done the bait is warm enough that it's a little uncomfortable to hold in your hand. The only "hang time" my baits get is however long it takes to clean the airbrush and get set up to apply top coat so if your hanging lures for days it may indeed cure hard enough to chip off the hangers. But no matter the Exacto should still work well. And by keeping the top coat out of the eye with a toothpick, or whatever you decide to use, it does away with the need to run a drill bit through the hanger to remove the cured top coat.

[saltwater]

Gon2long, I attach the hook hangers as the last step. They go on after the eyes. The eyes and hook hangers are placed when the lure is completely finished. They never see any paint or top coat.

[bassguy]

Dremel has a small wire wheel that I use to clean the hook hangers and line ties. Just have to be careful around where it goes in to the bait.

 

Jerry

[gone2long]

Sorry not the split rings but the actual eyes built into the bait.

Edited April 13, 2014 by Gon2long

[diemai]

I don't sell just paint for myself, does anybody clean the hook hangers after painting and before top coat? It just looks crappy was looking for ideas for cleaning them off without damaging the paint, I was thinking just carefully scraping with an xacto knife, any ideas?

I'm painting my lures with handbrushes nowadays , so quite a bit of primer coat and paint gets onto the hookhangers , .....if too bad , I'd scrape those paint remainders off with a carpet knife(Stanley knife)having a pretty blunt blade .

 

But after having applied a few epoxy topcoats the eyes most likely get clogged up with epoxy as well , so I'd drill the epoxy out with my Dremel and small drill or router bits , my Stanley takes care of the rest .

 

But I've read , that this could be unfavourable when done to the line tie , as those little nicks on the wire eye caused by the knife might wear out your line faster leading to line breakage , .......I know , that many of you fellas over there tie on your lures straight to the line , .......over here we always use some kinda leaders connectect with snaps , as toothy pike are almost everywhere , ......so this would not be an issue .

 

When I still used to spraypaint my lures with rattle cans , I've masked the eyes with pieces of approbiate vinyl tubing , ...simply cut off tubing pieces of matching length and fuse one end together by heating it up with a lighter or candle flame and press it together with pliers to bond , ...after just stick the tubing piece over the wire eye to mask .

 

These masking tubing pieces are re-usable , when scraping off all lose paint before next use , ......to make the initial cleaning easier , one can put all previously used tubing pieces into a small tin or plastic container together with some screws or nuts , etc . and shake for a while , most paint would come off this way .

 

Please check out this video of mine , as from 4:22 on you can see some sequences displaying such masking tubing pieces :

 

 

When done painting , you can carefully separate the tubing with the Stanley knife , .....but for topcoating I'd leave the eyes plain , as I was always concerned , that the epoxy topcoat might crack up at the transition to the tubing to be separated .

 

Greetz , diemai

[Cougarftd]

I use a jewelers reamer

[bass100]

I clean all of my hook hangers and like bassguy I use the dremel wire brush wheel.  I then use another little attachment that dremel has that I put inside the hook hanger and clean the inside of the hook hanger.  Sorry, but I can't remember what that attachment is called.

[BobP]

I clean the hangers when the lure is ready for split rings and hooks and they are usually completely clogged.  I use a Dremel with a micro drill bit (maybe 1 mm) and it's easy to zip finish out of the hangers with that.  Takes about 30 seconds per lure.

[Hughesy]

X2 on the small drill and dremal wire wheel.

[Reelentless]

I take 2 extra minutes to apply blue tape to all the hangers before I paint.I've been using Etex so as long as I'm careful it's a not a problem.

[HAWGFAN]

I wait until after top coat to clean the hook hangers, but I don't allow the top coat to build up inside the eye. Before the baits go on the turner I run a toothpick through the eye to remove excess top coat. The small amount that is left seems to bind with the paint and that makes it easier to get the hangers clean. At least for me. To do the actual cleaning I use an Exacto knife.

 

Ben

X2