Keeping paint off the hook eye solution

[Markell]

When working with powder paint, it has been very frustrating for me trying to keep powder off and out of the hook eye. Having it plug up the eye is unacceptable and even having paint on the eye seems to drive me crazy. Any way, I have found the solution... Take a small pinch of Sculpey clay. Roll it into a ball with your fingers and bury the eye into the clay ball to for a cap. Pre heat your jigs in an oven and dip into powder. The heat will harden the clay. The clay cap and jig head will get a coating of powder. before putting the jig into the oven again to cure it, pop off the cap. So far it has worked great. My next experiment will be to plug up the weed guard hole and see if I can keep the powder out of the hole. The only issue I have found is the sculpey cures at a much lower temp than the jigs need to pre heat. You have to play around and find a comfortable working temp. The temp I have had the best success with will burn the clay but it works just fine.

[reeves]

Markell:

Here is a method I use for something very similar. The jigs I paint are for a larger manufacturer and have the eye of the hook incorporated into the nose of the jig with nothing exposed, totally weedless. I get no paint in the weed guard hole either. This is how to do it.

Get some PTFE Teflon rod (found in McMaster-Carr) cut them into about 3/4" pieces. You will also need a piece of spinnerbait wire large enough to fit through the eye of the hook you are using, cut this about 4" long and sharpen one end. Now you are ready to paint.

Heat your jug holding it with needlenose visegrip pliers (it can't get away from you using these). Heat the jig as hot as you dare for you need as much time as possible. Once hot, insert the piece of Teflon into the weedguard hole and dip into your powder ( I use fluid beds), if you are clear coating with metalflake, immediately dip it in there and tap off excess and remove the telfon. Now take the piece of wire and run it through the hook eye removing all unwanted paint.

Hang on rack and bake in oven. You will be surprised at how quick this is and you won't be cleaning any clay off later. The teflon rods will last forever and the heat of the jig doesn't bother them either.

I use a Cyanoacrylate Glue to glue in the weed guards. You can find this in remote control hobby shops in 2 oz bottles and it only takes a small drop per guard, can do thousands of jigs with one bottle.

Hope I have helped, and good luck.

George Reeves

H & P Tackle

Welch, OK

[LedHed]

I haven't tried it (still a paint picker) but a small piece of aluminum foil, wrapped snuggly around the eye, might serve the same purpose.

McMaster has a high temp aluminum tape ? might leave adhesive residue..

Markell ? still trying to figure out how you do your splotches.

[Markell]

reeves, Thanks for the input. I like the weed guard idea. how do you keep the rod in the weed guard hole? The issue that I have been trying to solve is not keeping the paint from clogging up the hook eye but to completely keep paint off the hook eye. The jig that you describe sounds like the eye is part of the design of the jig and I too would want it to be the same color as the jig. Because of the painting process I use, any paint that gets on the line tie, takes away from the looks of the jig because it is a slightly different color than the rest of the head. This has been driving me crazy. I need to completely do away with paint on the line tie. The clay will harden in the oven and turn to like a hard plastic texture once it cures. There is no cleaning needed. The cap just pops right off and you are left with a shiny clean hook eye. This has enabled me to go back to dipping into the powder instead of using small paintbrushes to avoid my problem. Much faster for me.

LedHed, I have used the aluminum foil but it does not stay on well enough. The clay really works well for this. The "Splotches" you are refering to started my problem in the first place. That technique has really been popular for me. I have about 20 color schemes I have worked up using it and am trying to get the process down where I can use it exclusively.

[reeves]

Markell,

I failed to mention that the teflon rod size you need to get must match the size of the weedguard hole. Most often it is .150. but depending on the jig size you are making it may be smaller. The rod will fit into the hole snuggly. Naturally. the hotter you get the jig the hole will expand a bit from the heat. Make sure it is seated to the bottom of the hole or you may lose it when you dip and swish in the powder ( I have retrieved many). When removing the rod, try pulling and twisting at the same time, this will leave a clean paint edge on the hole.

One other thing, on the glue, use the EXTRA THICK, so much easier to control.

As for your problem on the hook eye, the only other thing I can think of is wax. I used to melt paraffin wax in a pan and dip hooks that I did not want paint to stick to and just peel it off after. Just make sure you remove it BEFORE you bake to cure.

Good Luck

George Reeves

H & P Tackle

Welch, OK