token12 Posted August 27, 2014 Report Share Posted August 27, 2014 Hey all, Yesterday I put a protective coat of epoxy over a crank bait I made and its still really sticky. The epoxy I used is 30 minute epoxy from Harbor Freight. I've have not had this problem before with this epoxy. If I put another coat on it will that cause the sticky epoxy to harden as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Posted August 27, 2014 Report Share Posted August 27, 2014 One of two things happened...You either didn't get your ratio's right or you didn't mix it well enough...It's usually the latter of the two.Just throw another well mixed coat over it and you'll be fine...Nathan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
token12 Posted August 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2014 I'm pretty sure my ratios were off. Just finished up putting on a new coat. We'll see how it turns out in a few hours. Thanks for the reply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Posted August 27, 2014 Report Share Posted August 27, 2014 It's usually poor mixing..Besure to scrape the bottom and sides when mixing...Nathan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobP Posted August 27, 2014 Report Share Posted August 27, 2014 X2 what Nathan says. Guys often hurry the mixing and don't realize that the hardener/resin have to be blended to the molecular level for the chemical reaction to take place and the epoxy to harden. And if one component is not measured right, some of the component that is in excess will not react and remain in its liquid uncured state. Best practice is to use epoxy syringes to measure and then mix the hell out of it. I used to measure by eyeballing equal pools of epoxy. Most times, that worked just fine. But as the very last step in building a crankbait and considering the hassle involved if it doesn't harden, "most times" just isn't good enough any more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
token12 Posted August 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2014 I scraped off the old stuff off before applying the new coat. Before I left the house the new coat started setting up. Thanks for all the info; now I know what I can do in case it happens again. WWould you guys know how to attach a line tie to the bill of a crank bait? I currently have the line tie inserted into the wood. Would that make a difference in diving depth or does the angle of the bill make the difference in diving depth? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobP Posted August 27, 2014 Report Share Posted August 27, 2014 Take a look at pics in the Gallery to see how to mount line ties in lips. I suggest using soft temper stainless steel wire to make a twisted screw eye, then bending it to insert through a hole in the lip and back into the body of the bait below the lip. Your question about how it and the lip angle might affect diving depth is right on, but the answer would require a whole tutorial in lip design to answer. A short answer is that shallow diving baits tend to have the line tie in the nose. As a lip gets longer and longer to try for more depth, the line tie in the nose becomes unworkable at some point because the lure will begin to spin uncontrollably when retrieved. Lures designed to dive beyond about 5 ft generally have the line tie out on the lip surface. And exactly how far out on the lip surface is very critical to getting the best action from your bait. You should explore various TU threads to get more info. One of the best teachers is to take a critical look at commercial baits to get a general sense of how their lips were designed. They all work. If you make a similar bait and follow their lip design, yours probably will too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silo1688 Posted August 28, 2014 Report Share Posted August 28, 2014 The next time this happens and your epoxy coat is sticky due to poor mixing...just dip your lure in spar urethane (for outside use) that is found at home depot ~$12.00. it may require 2 dips, waiting 4-6 hours per individual dip. that way it no scraping is needed. give it a whorl on a practice lure 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
