Heat transfer chrome without machine

[Chuck Young]

heat transfer foil..pdf

I am still new at this process. But I have had some good results. Hopefully this will provide a foundation which we can build on. Please let me know what you think. If you think of something new, please keep me posted .

 

[hazmail]

Nice ''Chuck'', this is the ''holy grail'' of finishes as far as lures are concerned, great result and thank you for posting.

I have been dabbling with this problem too for a while, mainly using gold and silver leaf which is not as ''chromy''  as heat transfer foil. - I have also tried transfer foil but all were attempted using various ''glue sizes'' with varying results,,,50/50 .

Your process with the vacuum appears to have overcome some of my problems (mainly inconsistencies in the coating). From past experience, one area I think may be helpful to you is in your use of 30 min epoxy- I played around with this and it seemed a bit too touchy in that one day it would tack up after 3 hours and next day it would be 4.  SO I started experimenting with UV epoxies, very quick set but again very inconsistent,, except for a "Solarez Epoxy'',  which on curing (in a couple of minutes in the sun) it  retains a tac on the surface which will ''grab'' anything that comes in contact including leaf,  but not sure about heat foil - this tack lasts for days, even weeks.

As an aside I have wrapped lure blanks in gold leaf, then inserted it into a latex tube, with a suction pump (food vacuum machine) the air is removed from the tube, atmospheric pressure then presses the tube onto the leaf , then the leaf (or foil maybe) onto the lure,  works very well with gold /silver ''leaf'' but the down side is leaf is very delicate to handle.

And by the way the best latex tubes I have found are condoms which may be a problem over there !!!!!!!!!  .

Thanks again for posting and keep the results coming.

Pete

[Chuck Young]

Thanks, Pete. I value your opinion a lot.

By way of update, I tried 3m spray adhesive as well. It grabbed the foil fine, if you got he timing right. But you can't slide the foil around, and the finish was not as smooth or shiny. Any residue that got on the "chrome" was easily contaminated. Superglue also proved useless, contaminating the chrome.

I didn't wait for the epoxy to get tacky. It went into the clamp right away. It stays there until  it is cured.  I tried waiting for the epoxy to tack up before applying foil,  but the results were unsatisfactory.  Any epoxy that gets on the chrome does not ruin it. In fact most excess gets removed with the plastic film. Atmospheric pressure or vacuum pressure was not enough to compress the thin epoxy. The pressure from that particular foam with the parallel clamp is perfect for conforming to the details of the lure. The thin epoxy and relief cuts allow the excess to escape.  It was surprising that virtually no weight was gained with this process. 

The uv cure epoxies might not fully cure once under the reflective chrome, unless they are a dual cure formula. But tackiness is not as big a problem as some make it out to be. Paint sticks to it, so does the top layer of epoxies. Those laminating fiberglass use a special epoxy that remains tacky, so it will bond properly. 

[eastman03]

This is awesome! Thanks for your experience.  Got me thinking I want to try something like this! I love the effect when you paint/epoxy over foil like that.

[Chuck Young]

I noticed in my experimentation that the foil coating is so thin that it is translucent. A further improvement has been made by sandwiching the lure in the first layer of foam and holding it in place as close as you can to the lure with jumbo or large paper clamps.. This helps the foil conform to the complex curves of the lure. Then add the rest of the layers of foam before  placing it in the parallel clamps.