What's the best topcoat for blades, and or spoons?

[Petros#38]

Just wondering what is the most durable top coat for painted blades, and spoons. I need something hard to hold up and be durable under constant contact with clevises, beads, and split rings in trolling situationswithout peeling off or chipping. Is devcon the way to go, or is etex better? Is brushing on the coat better or is dipping? Also, how can one make a home made drying wheel with minimal cost. I need something that can hold a large number of blades or spoons. Thanks!

[BobP]

For topcoating blades, I like thin epoxy so minimal extra weight is not added to the blade. Etex Lite would be better than Devcon 2 ton for that. Hang curing is maybe better than rotating here because it sheds extra epoxy/weight. Two notes - most epoxies tend to yellow a bit over time, as will urethanes. Also, epoxy will often draw away slightly from a sharp edge as it cures, which may be an issue. But I haven't found anything else as durable overall.

[BobP]

P.S. I seldom paint SB blades any longer - the mechanics of doing it neatly are a big hassle. The colored crystal glitter SB blades from Staminainc.com hold up surprisingly well. I guess the finish is baked on.

[dicknite]

Petros#38,

I don't want to be one of those guys who stops in and hawks his wares without adding something... So, along with telling you about our Clear Top-Coat ( http://www.dicknite.com ), I thought I'd add a bit about how we paint our spoon blades.

I know that a lot of folks here use epoxy, and for plugs that is great. I suppose that if you could figure out how to thin and apply it, it would work.

We paint and distribute about 200,000 spoons a year, and the way we paint them is:

.. Clean them - we use vinegar and hot water. On a scale like ours, we need to be as ecologically friendly as possible. Using acetone, lacquer thinner, dilute acids, etc., works fine, but only on a small scale unless you want to figure out how to dispose of the cleaning agent...

.. Rack them for painting - we use 1/4" hardware cloth and lay them out side-by-side. We can get 300 - 600 of our spoons on a 15" x 15" piece.

.. We then spray them with our White Undercoat, let them dry for 15-30 minutes. Actually, we usually rack up 10 to 12 racks and by the time we are done spraying the white on all of them, the first ones are ready for color.

.. Then comes the color coat(s). We usually spray one coat, wait a few seconds, then apply another - depending on the depth of the color we want and how thin we made the color coats (which brings up another thing - thinning the paint... We use Acetone. It is pure. Lacquer Thinner can be made from any number of things. In the dead of summer, we will move to Lacquer Thinner, as Acetone is very "hot" and evaporates quite quickly)

.. We let color coat dry for about the same as the white - maybe a bit longer.

.. At this point, we use our Clear Top Coat (Moisture Cure Polyurethane). We thin it about 4 to 1 with Acetone, and spray it on the spoons, same as white and color. We spray a VERY THIN coat of Top Coat - what some would call a "wet coat" - so that it covers the lure, is shiny, and covers any imperfections left from paint, metal scratches, etc...

.. We do let the Top Coat dry considerably longer. Overnight without heat, or for about an hour in a 100 degree oven.

Then! We turn the lures over on the racks and start over with the other side - which on our lures is usually Pearl. We top coat it also.

All-in-all, our lures have about 4 to 7 coats of paint on them, and being as small and light as they are (less than 1/16th ounce), the coats have to be thin as well as durable to keep from ruining the action.

I don't know how big the spoons you are making are - if they are casting spoons, the weight of the paint won't be as critical as with thin-bladed spoons like ours.

As you can see, laying them out on a rack also relieves you of the need to rotate them or hang them to dry.

Hope this helps a bit - I don't know how far you are into the manufacturing of your lures, so thought I'd dump the whole thing on you - you might very well have the painting down to a science and just be wondering about Top Coat.

Good luck with your spoons!

d|:^)

Dick

[Petros#38]

Dick

Thanks for the great info. I plan to mainly paint #'s 4-8 Colorado and Indiana blades for walleye crawler harnesses, as well as "stinger" type spoons both small and large. I will let you all know how they turn out!

[woodieb8]

years back when we did blades and spoons we racked them and sprayed the epocy primer. then the color or artwork. when dry we used automotive clear. put them in a lo bake oven. at 145 fareinheight for 5 minutes. then when rock hard we tipped the racks onto a sheet spilling them into bags. our outdoor test showed they stood up in harsh enviroment for 2 years. hope this helps

[Petros#38]

Where can I find automotive clearcoat. Does carquest or autozone carry it? Will a toaster over be sufficient for a drying oven?

[woodieb8]

automotive paints will be sold at your local autobody supplier. look under automobile paint and supplies. the clear we used was dupont 2500 plus. as for a toater oven i would not go there. heat lamps in a box maybe. our lo bake had 2 bathroom heat lamps with a blower. it was built to hod 5 racks at a time. sorta like baking cookies. it worked great for metal products, never plastic. hope this helps and merry xmas to all. we are all fortunate

george woodie b8s