preping lead heads before painting

[canuck]

Hello fellow tackle makers.

I have just experienced on a batch  of  spinerbait heads having the baked on powder paint coming off easily.

Some  in large flakes and others chipping  without a lot of use.

I had received an order of guppy spins that were beauty,  looked like  spin cast molded. Perfect castings with a dull almost aged lead   (raw unpainted ) look.

I heated the heads using my heat gun and tap method dropped powder paint on to each one and applied additional heat from the gun to get that high gloss luster before putting them in my baking oven for 35 minutes at 325.

They looked great coming out of the oven and I thought that they had cured well. 

  My question is should I be prepping the lead heads for oxides removal prior to  heating  to get a better bond with the powder paint ?

The temp of the lead head was hot enough to melt the paint on contact and only required a small reheat time to even out the finish and coverage before oven curing.

What should I use to clean prep the heads before to ensure not having this frustrating recurrence. If that was what it was oxides..

Fortunately I just make them for myself so suffered no real damage to my quality reputation ... Still a huge time waster and a bit disappointing.

  A point of note this was happening on several baits while using different colors of paint so it was not a bad paint  batch scenario. 

Appreciate greatly your feed back and advice.

Canuck.

[smallmouthaholic]

If the lead has truly oxidized,forget getting paint to stick. Brush you lead jigs in acetone w/ a toothbrush in a well ventilated area to ensure clean lead prior to painting. Don't smoke around acetone..

[canuck]

Thanks for your feed back smallmouthaholic. the strange thing was the castings looked perfect ,maybe a little hard looking like  it had some kind of hard alloy mixed in for tensle strength  not just pure soft lead. No residual or dust just a weird hard polished look. I just deducted that that could be a cause. Have you on any one else  ever seen powder paint  flake off  in 1/4 inch sections before after baking at 325

[mark poulson]

You might try curing at 350.  I do that, do not do any lead cleaning, and have never had any powder coat flaking.  

[Jig Man]

37 minutes ago, mark poulson said:

You might try curing at 350.  I do that, do not do any lead cleaning, and have never had any powder coat flaking.  

X2  and I have painted some nasty looking heads that have been poured for several years.

[dlaery]

II would bake them at a higher temp, maybe 395.  I bake everything at 395 for 25 minuets.

baking at a higher temp runs the risk of running or drips on the end of the jigs if you have too much paint on.

usually when i have chipping is a result of too low or not long enough baking, or both.

 

 

[Jeff Hahn]

I bake at 350 for 15 minutes and haven't had a problem with chipping.

[cadman]

If you want to be adventurous and try a few again to try to solve your problem, you can strip the heads and repaint them.  I use paint stripper from Home Depot.  Put a few jigs in a small glass jar, and fill it with paint stripper. In about 15 to 20 minutes, take out one jig at a time and see if all the paint comes off, by wiping it with a paper towel. If it does, then you can wipe off the rest. If not leave in for another  15 minutes and try again. Once they are stripped, take all of your jigs and wash them in warm/hot water using Dawn or some liquid dish washing soap and a old tooth brush. Let them dry and repaint.

In regards to your painting problem, I have never had that happen with cured powder paint. I would bake them at 350 degrees for 15 minutes as well. If the jigs are not freshly poured and have been around for awhile, you can put them in vinegar. This will etch the old lead, and give the paint something to bite into. Hope this helps.

Edited September 12, 2017 by cadman

[canuck]

Thank you gentlemen for all your much appreciated feed back and experience. Over the years of reading and sharing on this site I have  picked up a lot of invaluable wisdom coming from hours of your hands on experience. Some of which included a list of suggested color curing times and temps. It seamed at the time a very intensive volume of critical information which made me believe that paint curing needs to be very precise to avoid paint burning color degradation ,bleed etc. I did not how ever refer to this large volume of information before selecting my choice of temps and times for this batch...... Something to be learned here !  for my own experimental experience. Nothing like learning by trial and error to hone the skills of our craft. At this point it would take to much effort to tear down and strip all of the heads but I will definitely try two and repaint at a higher temp plus verify the accuracy of my oven temp controller.

One of the colors that I was using was ruby slipper. It has a metallic red flake in it which I would not want to decay or burn/ruin the luster of the Finnish.  Trial and error.

Thanks again  for all the feed back.

Cheers

[mark poulson]

You can experiment with temps and times by hanging some egg sinkers on paperclips, powder coat them with different colors, and then cure them at different temps and times.  I'd guess the temp/time combination that works for one will work for most, but clears and special colors like your ruby slipper may need their own setups.

I use a toaster oven to cure my baits, and I learned I have to not hang a bait directly over the heating element, or it will burn and dull the paint.

I load my oven, set the temp for 350, and the time for thirty minutes.  I figure it takes a little time to get up to 350, and to cool back down after cooking, so I'm guessing it's at 350 for thirty minutes total.

I've learned to just keep the oven's door ajar when it's cool down time, and let the baits cool down completely in the oven, instead of trying to remove hot baits to speed the process.  Hot powder paint will stick to itself, and ruin any bait that touches something else.

[canuck]

Thanks  Mark for the feed back. I have experienced first hand the tacky stick to other baits effect already.. I was using a small toaster oven with a home made rack set up. Found it too small for a larger amount of baits. 12 at a time was just taking to long at 30min a load. I was fortunate to come upon a convection isotherm industrial drying oven that was slated for the dumpster and repaired it. Beauty two shelf system with four concealed  heating elements . Customized some new racks for it and now I can run around 60 large spinnerbaits at once. It is not as light and portable as the toaster oven is but it is definitely purpose designed for the task. Still plenty of fishing time this fall so the playing and testing will most likely happen after the snow starts to fly. Thanks again for your input.

[mark poulson]

3 hours ago, canuck said:

Thanks  Mark for the feed back. I have experienced first hand the tacky stick to other baits effect already.. I was using a small toaster oven with a home made rack set up. Found it too small for a larger amount of baits. 12 at a time was just taking to long at 30min a load. I was fortunate to come upon a convection isotherm industrial drying oven that was slated for the dumpster and repaired it. Beauty two shelf system with four concealed  heating elements . Customized some new racks for it and now I can run around 60 large spinnerbaits at once. It is not as light and portable as the toaster oven is but it is definitely purpose designed for the task. Still plenty of fishing time this fall so the playing and testing will most likely happen after the snow starts to fly. Thanks again for your input.

Man, I am sooo jealous of your convection oven!  It sounds like the hot setup.

[SW Lures]

One thing I didnt see in these suggestions. If it has, please excuse. Get a quality thermometer for your oven. Not all ovens are accurate, matter of fact very few.

I have been doing quite a few heads/spinners for some time now. Not as much as some that are giving you suggestions here. I preheat the heads as all do to get the initial paint adhesion. As soon as I get a rack of about 150 I put them in a perheated oven at 350-375° for the final cure. I've never had flake off even with multiple color layers. If I am getting fancy I will clear coat over them, especially when using eyes.

Good Luck!

 

[andy1976]

Likely temp/time issue in my opinion. Get a oven thermometer. 

[BLT]

I also have painted several year old jigs with no issues. Put them in the cold toaster oven, turn it on @ 325 and let them in there for 25 minutes. I figure 10 for the slow heat up, 15 for the cure.

[canuck]

Thanks everyone for your important and valuable feed back. I especially appreciate that this topic generated responses from all levels of experienced makers. When I started on this sight I was a little apprehensive about having any accurate  input of value so just read everything of interest and limited myself to asking questions about my experiences and snags. It is an amazing site that connects novice to tackle building greats. It would be great to actually meet some of you all but I guess  geographics  seperates where electronics brings us all together. Any way of getting localized builders/members  locations to see if meeting up would be an added experience for this community? Probably should put this up as a different topic.    Thanks again to everyone.