Sanding Question

[Vandy]

I seal my lures with 2 coats of etex. The first coat always soaks into the wood slightly and raises the grain a little. After the first coat cures, I give it a quick sand and then apply the second coat which leaves a nice, smooth surface. So my question is this: why spend so much time sanding a lure before sealing when the grain always get raised by the sealant and the second coat leaves a smooth surface? Is there a benefit to sanding a lure with a fine grit that I am not seeing?

[Jdeee]

I just recently stopped sanding once I get to the shape I want. I use to sand to try and get a smooth finish, but now I shape and then hit it with Solarez then cure it, after that a light scruff sand and a second coat of Solarez and I am ready to go.

I think the epoxy grabs better without sanding to much.

[Vodkaman]

I agree with you, it is pointless sanding, other than achieving the required shape, until the grain has been fixed.

 

DAve

[DaveG]

After sanding I brush the lure with a coat of wood glue (PVA) this dries fairly quick and doesn't raise the grain well at least on the wood I use, this acts as a  sealer too, I then paint and add two coats of etex.

Edited May 26, 2014 by DaveG

[mark poulson]

Waterproof wood workers glue is a great sealer, since it soaks into the wood, is sandable, and seals the wood, too.

Plus it's cheap!

[BobP]

I've heard that shops building crankbaits for sale typically coat unsanded wood blanks with a thick "build coat", which is a waterproof coating that serves as the undercoating/primer and covers up all of the minor glitches in the wood at the same time.  This makes sense if you are building in volume and want to avoid as much hand finishing work as possible.  So how much you sand depends on the thickness of the first finish coat you apply to the lure.  I typically use one coat of Devcon 2 Ton, which goes on thicker and cures faster than Etex.  But I still use hand sanding to fine tune the shape of the lure.  To each his own.

[barr5150]

BobP,

 

Any idea what the "build coat" is that the big shops use? Reason I ask is I recently acquired a few dozen old bagley lures on the cheap. All of them are in ruff shape, missing lips, chunks of the body missing, etc. but most are all brass so I figured they are worth restoring. Anyway, they have a super thick white shell on them. I assume this to be the build coat your talking about. At this point it pretty much just chips off the lures, I'm guessing water got into the wood and under it, but it's pretty tuff stuff. It's fairly thick too.  

[Musky Glenn]

BobP,

 

Any idea what the "build coat" is that the big shops use? Reason I ask is I recently acquired a few dozen old bagley lures on the cheap. All of them are in ruff shape, missing lips, chunks of the body missing, etc. but most are all brass so I figured they are worth restoring. Anyway, they have a super thick white shell on them. I assume this to be the build coat your talking about. At this point it pretty much just chips off the lures, I'm guessing water got into the wood and under it, but it's pretty tuff stuff. It's fairly thick too.  

I have seen custom lure painters dip in this thick white "paint" material, hang over night to dry and have a beautiful white surface to start their painting on. I would also like to know what material they were dipping in. It did go on very thick and visually added size to the lure. Musky Glenn

[ravenlures]

I think it would be helpfull if we stated what type of wood and size of lure you are talking about.

Because we go from a small bass lure to a 10" musky lure.

[barr5150]

The bagleys I have are balsa and possibly cedar? Either way they are all covered in the same white shell.

[BobP]

Barr5150, The build coat can be any number of thick coatings dipped on the lure.  One guy told me his shop used flooring glue as their build coat.  The build coat on Poe's lures is very flammable while the build coat on Rapala wood lures is non-flammable.  I found this out when torching a few old lures to take off the finish before repainting.  A Poe bait burst into flame and was basically destroyed!  The Rapalas came out with the build coat perfectly intact and ready to paint.

 

Personally, I'm not into volume production so don't use a build coat approach.  A coat of Devcon Two Ton or 5-8 dips into a propionate/acetone solution usually does it for me.  I think most of the build coat candidates would take multiple days of drying.  And I don't mind 5 minutes of sanding to remove grain pops.

[Skeeter]

The bagleys I have are balsa and possibly cedar? Either way they are all covered in the same white shell.

 

Bagleys are made of balsa. I know that the older ones were made out of hard balsa. Balsa does come in grades. Older Bagleys were sealed with clear lacquer paint. Then they were dipped in a thick white lacquer paint (So were the Poes). This was done to cover any inperfections in the bodies and cover any raising of the grain (Bagleys rarely had any....Poes had a lot).

 

Skeeter

[Nathan]

Skeeter is right..White lacquer paint..dip and let hang for a day or two..Nathan