Top coat Help

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Hi

 I am in the process of completing another 3 lures, while doing top coating with envirotex lite I came across following problems not able to sort out.

 How I did it ;

 First I clean the lures with rubbing alcohol and put them on my drying wheel. Mixed resin & hardener thoroughly for 4 minutes before applying on the lure and start my drying wheel. After 15 minutes I use hair drier to blow away air bubbles if any. Kept the lures on drying wheel for 4-5 hours and then stop keeping the lures still on the drying wheel for curing.

 The coat was uneven at all the places with small pots and lumps at few places. After 72 hours I sanded the lures lightly and tried putting thick coat and the end result top & sides of lures were nicely finished but the belly is in bad shape with pots at few places & lumps.

 Here are the pictures :

 

 

Would appreciate if some one advise me where I went wrong and how to correct the belly now.

 Thanks & Regards, Raghubir

[21xdc]

Heat does not get rid of air bubbles... Carbon dioxide does. So either exhale on the baits or use a small torch at the appropriate distance.  It should explain this on the directions. . It may have started to set up before you finished applying.  Mixing good is important. Try and use a wide acid cleaning brush to apply the product as fast and thick as you can, Then using the brush, try and rake as much off as you can. This leaves the proper amount on the bait. This is how I used to do this before I went to all KBS Diamond Clear. 

 

 

[gliders]

Raghubir,  looking at the  pictures the worst problem seems to be the belly - if thats correct then I suspect you are probably using more and/or thicker coats of opaque to hide the foil edges. If thats the case then your belly paint is probably  not completely cured - it's easy to forget you have far more coats of paint there on foil baits. 4 hrs is also on the short side raghubir but not what caused your issue. I assume you coated foiled lure with envirotex before painting ?  Another issue that can occur with envirotex is a reaction with the adhesive used on the foil tape ,but if its been coated already and your painting onto that coat then its probably  uncured  paint . As for saving the lures ,you could try wiping with alcohol and re coating,  if you touch epoxy bare patches with alcohol the paint will be rubbed off. You may have to carefully sand belly to a be bit more even ,repaint the belly and go fom there.  Good luck.....glider

[ravenlures]

One thing you might consider is when you apply hot air it might soften up the epoxy and with the lure in the turner with top coming over first it might settle the epoxy on the bottom of the lure. I would try thinning out the epoxy and brushing it, also just how hot is it in the room you are turning the lure. You just  might have multiple issues. One more thing how fast is your turner going you might have to slow it down.

Good Luck

Wayne

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Hi guy's

thanks for the suggestion, advise and probably cause of problem. What glider said was correct:

- I did first coat of epoxy after putting foil and then applied color

- 2nd it is also correct I put more color to hide the foil on the belly. (I used jacquard colors which comes is pre reduced form but are too thin to apply single coat unlike createx) 

- 3rdly I gave enough time for drying 24 hrs before applying ET .

Do I need to apply epoxy to the affected part only after light  sandling to save my hard work ( it's a pain to loose lure after so much hard work)

I notice one thing after applying coat to whole lure everything was Ok for some time and gradually it stated and I thaught may be epoxy is getting dry up I use more hot air with my hair dryer. May be this has worsen the things.

Will try as suggested, glider you have G8 experience and hit correctly how I may have done the coat.

thanks once again glider, Wayne and 21xdc for your prompt suggestion will try tonight.

 

Regards, Raghubir

 

 

 

[gliders]

Raghubir, using to much heat can hasten the issue but not the likely cause ,the epoxy appears to pull away completely in places and then gathers in lumps. This is because the envirotex is trying to get away from the uncured or contaminated belly paint and has to go somewhere.  Dont over do with the hair dryer /heat , a few passes 2 or 3 times 10 mins apart should be ample.  To save lure for fishing with you can either sand belly lumps without going to deep into paint ,then coat. Or gentle wipe with alcohol then another coat e-tex.  Its tempting to add a realy heavy coat and hope for the best ,this usually makes the problem worse. Purely for fishing with - I would give them a gentle wipe with alcohol  and a light coat of e-tex  and go easy with the hair dryer............glider

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Thanks buddy 

Will follow as advise.

Regards, Raghubir

 

[BobP]

The only times I've had lumping problems with epoxy is when applying heat.  Too much  will liquefy the epoxy and make it run.   It will also expand the air in a wood lure and force bubbles out into the epoxy.  You have to be very judicious with heat.  I Prefer to just blow on bubbles or prick them with a needle instead of blasting the lure with a heat gun or hair dryer.  There's a knack to brushing epoxy.  Always keep your brush loaded and work from a wet edge.  Don't over-do the brushing because that just adds air bubbles to the finish.  There's an excellent member submitted tutorial on applying Etex by Fatfingers entitled "trying to achieve a flawless finish".  Well worth a read.

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Thanks BobP for your tips & suggesting the post, will go through the same now .

Regards, Raghubir

 

[SW Lures]

Glade you got it fixed. I had the same thing happen to me but on the back. It was just what Gliders stated. Mine was a different top coat but the results were the same. I now allow for maxium curing time. I had a fishing trip and I rushed that one bait through. Live and learn I guess. 21xdc is correct also about the bubbles. I suggest to not use heat on top coats. Let it cure on it's time.

Take care,

Dale

[BobP]

The only way to correct lumpy epoxy is to sand it smooth.  Of course if you sand too much you also ruin the paint job.  Sand it down, wipe with denatured alcohol to remove the dust and apply a thin coat of epoxy that will make all the sanding marks disappear.  It's a devil's choice between correcting the problem versus maybe ruining the lure.  The problem will almost certainly not affect the fish catching ability of the lure so correcting it is just for esthetics, not function.

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Thanks Bobp for your views and tips. What my worry is without correcting it if the use the lure it may not last longer since there are some fisheyes which may distory the surrounding epoxy coat.

Thanks, raghubir