Uv Coatings Sealing He

[fish pirate]

Dear Brothers,

I promised a report on my uv coatings testing. To start i"ll say that I have built balsa crankbaits for many years. I am what some call a mass producer. I built a very successful company by learning from some of the best of you and the industry leaders. I decided to take my outfit uv 2 years ago. I had to put alot of infrastructure into place and some of it ain't cheap. This is my results and i ain't to step on toes or mislead, here goes.

This covers sealing baits. 

All testing was done on 3 inch fat body balsa bodies.I have mine cut by a firm because of cost and large number that i use.I live in southeast Missouri where the humidity is 75% to 98% on a good day. I keep my shop around 72 deg. and humidity between 60 to 75%. I have read on here over the years many methods for sealing. I have tried them all. I can tell you that the first piece of equipment you need is a pin-type moisture tester! Second piece of equipment is a dehydrator! Balsa is cut below the equator,kiln dried there,containerized,put on a ship, hauled across the sea to the east coast, shipped to American Balsa, out to my bait cutter then to me, sits in a box waiting to learn how to swim.See the problem? Moisture is 99% of all bait problems period.Here are 3 baits results: In grams

Body wt. before      Moisture in    Moisture out     After Drying        Wt. loss

4.0                           13.7              0.0                    3.69                   .31

4.4                           13.9              0.0                    4.08                   .32

4.51                         13.9              0.0                    4.17                   .34

 

You have to fix moisture first, PERIOD !!!!!!!

 

[fish pirate]

Next are your sealing options, or lack of as I like to say. Unless you are pressure treating wood the are no realistic gains in sealing wood except for grain raise. If you dip a bait in lacquer sanding sealer 1 time thats all its going to do for you. Coat number 2 is just build coat. Remember this, HOOK RASH ! You stop water from the outside to begin with. You cannot ever stop it with sealer. I tested moisture in bodies at 0.0, sealed them 3 times with different sealers, let them hang in 72% moisture for 48 hours and they all tested above 12.6%. Gary at Solerez supplied his uv sealer. I like it purely because I know that it is dry when i want it dry. Lets face it, we are encapsulating a piece of wood, it likes to breathe.If you dry it to as near 0 as possible you will have no bubbling problems with any of your other steps. Here's how to do this, dehydrate, seal twice,dehydrate, get 1 build coat on quickly. I use Solercure light system. Dennis is a super Guru of lighting that is the most affordable to us. Other light systems start at $16,000.  

[Vodkaman]

A couple of very good posts. Good information, thanks for taking the time and sharing.

 

I designed and built a two pin moisture detector, for testing plaster molds in the drying process. I tested it out on blocks of wood and it worked just fine. It is not digital, but an LED flashes and beeps with moisture, the slower the flash, the lower the moisture content. Zero flashing is zero moisture.

 

I built a fan circulated box, heated by two 100W bulbs for drying the molds and this would work perfectly for drying the bodies. If I was mass producing, this is what I would do.

 

You are correct; zero moisture = zero problems.

 

Dave

[Jaw]

Would a food dehydrator work? I haven't seen one in years but curious about the practicality of using one

[fish pirate]

Yes, a food dehydrator is what we use. A good cabinet model is about $300.00 Sorry about the results figures coming out jumbled on the mobile app. I have read for years about the many ways of sealing and it is a waste of time. 2 layers of build coat, paint, and 2 layers of top coat and a balsa lure will not fail bass fishing. Save your time for fishing, less building!!!

[jonister]

People seal their baits because some have to deal with little (or big ) toothy critters that will chomp your average bass crank to peices. It is just a extra protectant so your baits can catch a few more fish. 

[Vodkaman]

A good penetrating seal coat, apart from everything else, will give a strong attachment from the outer surface right through INTO the wood.

 

Should this layer ever be breached and water enters the lure, this strong attachment will hold everything together. Then the lure can be thoroughly dried out and the breach sealed.

 

Without this strong connection, the paint and topcoat layers will separate and the lure is ruined, requiring stripping and re-painting.

 

Achieving a good connection to the wood through to top coat is not expensive, not time consuming and not difficult. Why skip the step that greatly increases the life of the lure. A premium price is paid for hand made lures. If I am paying, I expect my purchase to be better built than a mass produced commercial bait.

 

Dave

Edited September 26, 2015 by Vodkaman

[fish pirate]

How deep and how strong do you think sealer is? Just do the test of applying it 3 layers deep and hang it up, in 24 hrs it will soak up humidity alone. I have repaired many lures of all makes for customers and without removing the entire layers of top coat, build coat and paint the moisture cannot be removed from the bait.

[JRammit]

Never woulda thought about wood getting wet just sitting around... Makes sense though, good read and good info..... Makes a strong case for using PVC!

[mark poulson]

If you're a hobby builder, or making a proto type to test, sealing the wood lets you play around with ballast and other stuff by swim testing without having your bait absorb water.