Masking the lip during the epoxy coat

[skeeter jones]

I want you opinion. Do you mask your lips with tape when epoxy coating. I have had two baits peel paint when I tried to remove the tape. I have seen some guys use it others don't. It seems like I am getting just enough epoxy on the tape to stop it from bonding on the lure.

[Tally]

forget about masking off the lip unless you are spraying the clearcoat. Somewhere Skeeter explained how it is done. Basically he "pushes" the brush toward the lip to clear the bait by the lip. A little epoxy on the lip where it meets the bait is no big deal and actually helps lock the lip to the bait. Just try and make it as neat as possible and move on

[doomdart]

Yes, a very small bead across the lip joint area is desirable. The "pushing" is the best way to describe it. You can use the brush as mentioned. I find it easier for me to use a bent wire, but the idea is the same.

[fatfingers]

I paint the bait with a piece of junk polycarbonate in the lip slot.

When the painting is done, the lip is installed with Devcon2 and the bait is immediately clearcoated.

No masking required.

[Yake Bait]

Great idea on the junk polycarbonate! How tight do you keep your lip slot? I tend to have more slop that I like so I have used 5 min epoxy which gives me a few minutes to position and hold the lip while the epoxy cures.

[fatfingers]

Pete, I want that lip slot tight enough that I have to work a little to get the lip place in there.

Here's a trick for positioning the lip straight.

Before you install the lip, make a paper template of it. (Or better yet, save the template you used, if you cut your own lips out of Lexan)

Then fold the template in half so that you have a line that runs right down the center of the lip. While the template is still folded in half, run the edge of a permanent marker down the edge of the template where its folded.

When you unfold the paper template you now have a fine line running perfectly along the exact middle of it.

Glue the template to the top of the lip with rubber cement and give it a few minutes to dry.

Peel off just enough of the template so that when you put the lip in the slot there's no paper where the lip goes into the slot. It will peel off easily because rubber cement disconnects from the Lexan easily. Cut off the excess paper you peeled back with a razor knife or scissors.

You can now use that centerline from the permanent marker to help you be sure that the lip is centered.

Now glue it in and hold the bait by the tail and sort of sight down the back of the bait and see where that centerline lines up for you. You can easily tell if the lips need to be aligned to the right or left a little.

Here's some pictures to give you a better idea:

Cut paper template...lay the lip on a piece of paper and cut around the lip with an exacto knife:

Next fold the template precisely in half:

Make a mark along the folded edge with the edge of a permanent marker (Its easier to do with the side of the marker instead of the tip):

Now you have a centerline precisely down the middle of the template:

Finally glue it back on the lip with rubber cement. I've drawn a pencil line and arrow showing the part you cut off before you install the lip:

In this photo, I've place the lip in the bait to show you how you can use the line to align the lip by sighting down the back of the bait from different angles. You can also see how I've removed the part of the paper template where the lip goes in the slot:

[rofish]

Fatfingers, you could improve your trick if you would make your templates on computer. When you design the lip, just draw first a vertical line on the computer, then draw the 2 symetrical halves. Some simple CAD softwares have a tool called "vertical mirror" . You just draw one half, than you "mirror" the other one. So no more need to fold the template and mark the centerline of the lip.

[Vodkaman]

I offered to produce pdf files of lip templates (with centre lines) to your own exact designs. These can be printed out accurately without having to scale. Every windows based computer has a pdf reader called acrobat.

No takers so far. Maybe everyone already has CAD!

The work involved from my part is minimal, call it a little bit of pay back to TU for what I have learned.

If you want to test the idea out, PM me with basic sizes, body width, max width, length and a description of the shape, or email a photo of a hand made sketch.

folicallychalled@aol.com

[fatfingers]

Vodkaman, that would be great! What you might consider doing is making up a sheet of lip in different sizes and configurations so that we could download the entire file and then resize them as needed.

You could either post it as a tutorial or on the "tips" thread so that the entire membership could download it and use it.

Just a thought, I hope I'm not being too forward here.

[Vodkaman]

Not at all fatfingers.

I looked into this a few weeks ago, with a view of doing something like you suggest, but quickly realised that the numbers were astronomical.

Personally, I know to the millimeter, exactly what I want and I designed this series of programmed CAD files to give it to me quickly, with a minimum of effort.

Publishing a handful of patterns is unlikely to satisfy anyones exact requirements and that service already exists.

With a minimum amount of information, I can give you exactly the size lip you want, imperial or metric.

I expect at the start, to have to draw a few new drawings, but once they are done, producing diferent sizes is seconds, I just type in the numbers, press refresh and the lips are drawn. Save to pdf and e-mail it, job done.

Publishing a jpeg gives poor quality, out of scale results with very jagged lines. You then have to fiddle about with plotting scales to get what you want.

It's up to you guys, the offer is there.

Sorry about the hijack Skeeter Jones.

[Tally]

Fatfingers, you could improve your trick if you would make your templates on computer. When you design the lip, just draw first a vertical line on the computer, then draw the 2 symetrical halves. Some simple CAD softwares have a tool called "vertical mirror" . You just draw one half, than you "mirror" the other one. So no more need to fold the template and mark the centerline of the lip.

yep and while you are there you might as well mark the line tie holes as well if the line tie is in the lip

[Vodkaman]

No problem. I suggest two small circles for the epoxy holes and one for the line tie, I find this easier to position the drill than cross hairs, but what ever people decide.

Just tell me how far in you want them.

[Yake Bait]

Good tip Fatfingers, thanks!

[BobP]

I was told by pro rod builders and a company epoxy expert that there is a minimum epoxy film thickness required to get the best surface-to-surface bond. So I worry that a tight lip may wipe enough epoxy off that an ideal bond may not occur. I'm not saying tight lips fail. What works, works. I also use scrap lip material to keep paint out of the lip slot while painting. The fake lips have holes drilled in one end so I can hang baits on nails over my workbench. I increase the thickness of the scrap with blue masking tape until I get a firm secure fit. The scrap is also a neat handle by which to hold the bait with locking forceps while painting.

[rofish]

I forgot to say something. Besides the center line, some of the templates which I make on the computer have several horizontal and parallel lines at the bottom of the lip, so when I cut out the template I can choose between several lines, and I choose the one which best suits the width of the lip slot. Practically, you have several lengths of lips on the same template.