Which solarez to buy?

[Glideb8]

Hi there,

 

I was hoping that some of the guys that use Solarz can chime in.  Which kinds do you all use?  I spoke to Gary and he suggested that I buy the thin hard or thick hard depending on that kinds of lures that I was making.  I saw a few posts from a year or so ago(Mark maybe?) saying that they used the dual cure polyester resin.  I bought a few of the 5 gram tubes to try out.

 

Any comments would be appreciated!

[BobP]

Most of us tried the dual cure gloss resin.  It's pretty cheap compared to their other options.  The down side for many of us has been that it contains wax flakes which act to "suffocate" the resin cure so it will end with a hard slick surface.  A side effect of this is a white blush that can be apparent over dark areas of a bait.  This doesn't bother some guys.  Some guys, including me, it does.  So I use it for undercoating baits rather than topcoating.  I don't consider the other more expensive Solarez resins to be cost effective compared to other option like slow cure epoxy.  JMHO

 

You might try the Alumi-uv resin as an alternative.  Haven't tried it myself so can't comment on its clarity but it is sold as a bait topcoating uv resin and is less costly per volume than the small tubes of resin sold as fly tying products.

Edited July 5, 2017 by BobP

[Glideb8]

Ok, good to know.  I want to see how the thin and thick hard work.

 

Have you tried  Alumi-uv at all?  I was going to buy some, but I haven't seen too many people talk about it on here.

[fshng2]

I use Solarez Thin-Hard 2 oz for Streamer flies which could  be used over lures too.

I would not recommend thick as it is way too thick.

Thin-Hard is the same viscosity as 30 wt. motor , easy to apply,

 it is self leveling so I rotate the fly by hand  when applying UV .

I then set the streamers outside in the sun to remove tackiness.

The final finish is Crystal clear, very hard and not tacky.

Tip: If you buy it in a bottle I recommend getting a syringe cap-applicator. When ordering It is listed at the bottom of the page.

http://solarez.com/products/syringe-cap-applicator/

Edited July 5, 2017 by fshng2

[BobP]

No, I haven't tried Alumi-uv because frankly, $19 per 4 oz bottle is Multiples of what I pay for epoxy, though it seems cheaper than Solarez's price for the same type of resin. I assume they are both "dom-ing" resins originally designed to encapsulate electronic components.  But I don't know that for a fact.  I'm willing to pay a premium for a uv resin for ease of use and speed - if the price is right and it's crystal clear when cured.  But even Alumi-uv is about 3x the cost of epoxy.  I'm not in that much of a hurry!  And when I want tough, thin, glossy, and water clear, I use moisture cured urethane.  To each his own.

[bigblue2]

hi I was just wondering if minwax one coat polyurethane 3x will hold up I use it to cover my topwater lures?i have to slightly thin it out with orange clean citric acid usually put on 3 coats and let dry for a few days.i spray it with a finish sprayer!

[BobP]

Lures have been coated with the polyurethane for decades.  However, the advent of better epoxies, uv cured poly, and moisture cured urethane is a step up in durability, water and yellowing resistance.  Some of the new stuff is better suited to hobby building than manufacturing for various handling, application, and time reasons so there are still commercial builders using polyurethane.  In the end, only you can decide if the topcoat you choose is durable and waterproof enough for your lures.  You have to build and fish them to find out.

[Anglinarcher]

5 hours ago, Glideb8 said:

 

Have you tried  Alumi-uv at all?  I was going to buy some, but I haven't seen too many people talk about it on here.

Yes, I use it.  It is thin enough to not add a lot of weight, tough, water clear, fast curing, and will cure under black light, UVA or UVB. 

I used the Solarez myself some time ago and it was a good learning tool, and cured faster then AlumiUV, but it was not as clear, or as tough.

I try not to write post that say "look at me, see what I use" so you won't see much from me about it, but I will answer questions.  I do know I have provided links to videos of it.

But, like BobP says, " In the end, only you can decide if the topcoat you choose is durable and waterproof enough for your lures."  I use AlumiUV a lot, but not exclusively, sometimes I still use D2T or Envriotec if I am doing a big lure.  My UV system is small but my old lure turner will do very large lures.

 

[Glideb8]

Thanks for the replies.  I'm usually using BSI 20 min, but I wanted to try something else out for a more efficient/faster workflow.  Especially since I moved to the east coast(NJ), the humidity/winter plays a big part in applying and curing epoxy since I can only do that in my garage.

[mark poulson]

1 hour ago, Glideb8 said:

Thanks for the replies.  I'm usually using BSI 20 min, but I wanted to try something else out for a more efficient/faster workflow.  Especially since I moved to the east coast(NJ), the humidity/winter plays a big part in applying and curing epoxy since I can only do that in my garage.

 

If you have questions about Solarez,  they have been really helpful when I contacted them through their website:

http://solarez.com/contact-us/

I do use the dual cure resin.  I dip my bait in it and hang it with my garage doors shut, and my LED lights off.  Once it stops dripping, I wipe the excess off the bottom, and hang the bait in my UV fingernail lite box for three minutes to cure.

As Bob said, I do notice a "blush" on dark baits, but it doesn't bother me.  Even the light baits are not crystal clear, but they're fine for my use.  I haven't tried any of the other resins they sell, so you should probably give them a call to talk about what they recommend for your needs.