RayburnGuy Posted December 21, 2015 Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 Thanks for all the help and ideas guys it made my curve over the weekend go much smoother. After reading past conversations I plan to go with the Dick Nite S81 the one thing I did take notice to was every video I saw a can of bloxygen. Would I be ok to go and put that into a ball/mason jar and then after each use give a 3-5 second shot of that product into the jar and seal it and be ok for storage. I saw the other way of tapping the can as well but I thought maybe I could get by with the mason jar+bloxygen and still not risk it curing in storage. Thanks again everyone for all the advise! Any.......and I do mean ANY..............exposure to the moisture in the air around us is going to start the curing process. Just the act of decanting DN into smaller jars is exposing it to moisture (unless you live in Death Valley) and will start the curing process. Many people have tried many different things to stop DN from curing in the container, but the sad truth is that once the container is opened the curing process is going to start. The ONLY way that's been found of keeping DN fresh for long periods of time is the tap the can method. Tapping the can means that dipping is out, unless you want to waste a LOT of product, and you will have to either brush it or spray it. Now if you don't mind wasting time and money you can go ahead and try pouring it into smaller jars and spraying it with Bloxygen, but everyone that's ever used DN already knows what's going to happen. Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pool 4 gold Posted December 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 I appreciate the answer on that. I guess I will have to learn how to tap an spray. Any particular product you prefer to use for the gun to clean it after spraying to prevent it from curing in the gun as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayburnGuy Posted December 22, 2015 Report Share Posted December 22, 2015 I use strictly acetone to both reduce the DN for spraying and cleaning the brush. DN is a solvent based top coat and needs to be cleaned with a solvent. (acetone) Just don't set your airbrush aside and start doing something else after spraying the top coat through it. (this is true of pretty much any top coat) As soon as you finish spraying the top coat you'll need to clean your airbrush. This keeps the top coat from starting to cure inside the airbrush. Now don't worry. It's not like your handling nitroglycerin. You have some time. Just don't dilly dally around and then come back and give me a cussin' because the top coat set up in your airbrush. Now to answer your next question before you have to ask it. lol I thin my acetone with somewhere around 30% acetone. It's not extremely critical as the mix is fairly forgiving if you use a nozzle in the .4mm to .5mm range. Another thing to watch for is how far you hold the airbrush away from the lure your spraying. If you use a strong mix of acetone to DN and hold your airbrush 5 or 6 inches from the lure you can experience "spider webbing". Sort of like what happens when spraying Silly String. When held too far away the acetone will start to evaporate before the spray reaches the lure and cause the silly string effect. Hold your airbrush within a couple inches of the bait and you won't have this problem. If this does happen don't worry. Just move the airbrush closer to the bait and spray over any "webbing" that stuck to the lure. The acetone in the mix will dissolve the "string" and melt it back into the surrounding top coat. If you'll use the steps outlined in post #14 of this thread you should have no problem "tapping the can". If anything is unclear just holler back. This may seem like a lot of stuff to keep up with but it's really not. Not trying to scare you away from giving spraying a try. Just making you aware of what I learned the hard way and make your learning curve a bit easier. good luck, Ben 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedbump Posted March 13, 2016 Report Share Posted March 13, 2016 Hey Ben at what ratio are you thinning the MCU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayburnGuy Posted March 13, 2016 Report Share Posted March 13, 2016 (edited) I knew somebody was going to ask me that. Don't think I've ever used an "exact" ratio. I try to get somewhere around a 25 to 30 percent mix as I think that's what Dick Nite recommended, but in all honesty I just eyeball it. It doesn't seem to be that critical to me. I don't build for sale and only build a few baits at a time so getting away with SWAG (scientific wild a$$ guess) is easier for me than it is for someone building hundreds of baits for customers. Best advice I can give you is to try it at the ratio above and adjust from there since things like temp, humidity and application time can make a difference. hope this helps, Ben Edited March 13, 2016 by RayburnGuy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobP Posted March 14, 2016 Report Share Posted March 14, 2016 A comment about my experience with different MCU's. I've tried Dick Nite as well as a couple of other brands formulated for coating floors, such as Garco. The floor brands are much cheaper but were thicker, less clear, and behaved differently than Dick Nite. When I scrape the finish off a Dick Nite coated lure, it seems the MCU penetrated through the acrylic paint and bonded with the underlying substrate (metal or plastic). That's a very durable finish, as good as you'll get with a factory finish. The floor brand MCU's I tried did not penetrate the acrylic paint and were therefore inferior. That difference is particularly important when coating metal blades (which is what Dick Nite is really formulated for), but it also applies to any lure. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
