WEIGHT OF EPOXY FINISH'S

[mark berrisford]

just starting to put epoxy coats on my jerkbaits but am finding that it is upsetting the balance especially on the cigar style gliders how do you guy's factor in for this extra weight?was thinking of increasing the hook size during the initial weighting process to allow for the weight of the epoxy would this help?any help much appreciated

Thanks

Mark

[michael merrill]

I betcha Skeeter knows.If I were you, heed that man's word. I am sure that he will answer in time.He is very knowledgable in regards to epoxy and weighting issues.

[jigmeister]

I guess the only way to know for sure would be to weigh a bait before and after epoxy coating with a high accuracy scale and compare . I have done the same thing with jerkbaits I wanted to suspend in the water between twitches. If they turned into slow sinkers after epoxy I would drill out a little lead until they the bait just slightly floated up then patch the hole with some more epoxy. You can always add "suspend dots" to a slow riser "floater" but if a bait is heavy and sinks you have to remove lead .

I use a balance- beam powder scale since I had one for reloading already and be sure to keep notes for future referance. Good luck- Jigmeister

[BobP]

The brand of epoxy you use, the temperature, how thick you coat the bait and the shape of the bait all make a difference, so that's a difficult question. On flat 2 1/4" bass baits, the Devcon 2 ton I apply at room temperature adds about .025 oz. I record the weights of components during the build so it is easier to replicate them but the initial one is trial and error. I'd try finishing the bait without ballast and then float test it to find the correct ballast/position. Yes, having patched ballast holes is not ideal but it gets a bait that works, and you can build "perfect" baits with the information you gather.