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Nathan

Ac1315 Concrete Sealer Top Coat

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Well I finally broke my test crankbait, the plastic though, not the clear coat, the bait itself broke before the clear coat cracked. I was shocked. So needless to say, I'm sold. D2T is now a thing of the past!

 

Mark - I'm glad to see it is working out for you, I felt the same way you did about the coating but went ahead and let it cure longer just because of what I had read with the other concrete sealers. Did you fish your baits "hard?" that had only cured for a couple of days? Catch any fish with them?

 

Cougar & Rayburn - I have not noticed any smell what so ever after letting mine cure for a couple days. I put it right on my nose the other day before I made a cast just to see if it smelled before I fished them. I'm big on scents on my hands and baits while fishing.

 

I'm going to be coating some more baits tonight so glad to see I may be able to fish them this weekend after only 4 or so days of curing.

 

I'll be coating some of my hand carves this time so I may coat them 4 times just for the added thickness. And because it just makes me feel more warm and fuzzy.

 

C

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C,

I fished the crank for a few casts, just to test the water proofing, and to see how it held up after being wet, and then dry.

I never got bit on it. 

I had dipped it twice the day before, 4 hours between dips and two passes with the hair dryer, once the first coat was dry to the touch, and one on the second coat, once it had dried to the touch.  I got up early the next morning for a tournament (fifth out of ten boats) and put the hooks and split rings on, and tossed it into the boat.  When I tied it on in the boat mid morning it felt totally dry and hard.  This morning, the day after, it was fingernail proof.

I am going to try painting some plastic knockoffs this week and dipping them.  I'm going to see if I can hurry the drying time even more.  I'll let you know how it works out.

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In regards to GST I'll do my best to help. Is it sandable? I wouldn't know, I haven't had to try.

 

For the drips it's pretty simple. Keep in mind I dip cranks though, not spoons. A few minutes after the bait is dipped I run the tail hook hanger along a paper towel which seems to "wick" off the excess sealer. I usually hang it again for a minute to see if it's done dripping. If it is, I clean the hook hanger holes with a tooth pick and hang it to dry. Now, in regards to spoons, I would be careful wiping the spoon itself against a towel or piece of paper to get rid of the excess. The GST gets into the paint (createx) and makes it soft. If you touch the surface itself on anything before it's dry the paint will come right off. For me I'm not concerned with the paint coming off the rear hook hanger, that will happen with use anyway. I have tried to flip the lure while it's curing but it doesn't work. Basically for me the GST dries before it drips back off the other side causing runs that harden. You could try a lure turner? It might help level things out while it cures? 

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I dip outside, and then bring the bait back into my open garage after it stops dripping.  But I live in SoCal, and it seldom gets down to 50 here.

 

I just painted three plastic cranks with Createx and Wildlife paints, added some shad dots with a black solvent based sharpie, heat set each coat and the sharpie, too, and then dipped them one time each.

No problems with either the paint or the sharpie, and I was able to add split rings and hooks after an hour.  I did hit the baits twice during that hour with a hair dryer, after they were dry to the touch (about 20 minutes here).

I'm doing this as an experiment.  They will be fished on Sat, so I'll see how one dip coat holds up.

I've been letting them drip back into the open container and, so far, no issues at all.

This stuff feels really hard after a few days, and I hope one dip coat is going to be enough for bass baits.  I don't know how it would hold up to toothy critters, as we don't have any in the fresh down here.

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I need to amend my post about solvent based sharpies.  The black doesn't run when it's dipped in the Ac1315, but the red bleeds a little.  If you don't want it to run, shoot a coat of Createx clear over the red first.  I used red to accent the gills, so a little bleeding didn't mess up the lure.

I dipped a 4" Sammie knock off that I had finished with nail polish and sharpies over a year ago.  It had become somewhat dull over the year, and the split rings had started to rust.  The Ac1315 really cleared up the bait, making all the glitter and colors vivid once again.  I took the opportunity to change out the split rings, too.

And I dipped a brand new clear plastic 1.5 knockoff that had become a little cloudy after it's acetone dip.  It made the bait gin clear again, and really brought out the iridescent violet over light black on the back, and the sparkle white on the belly. 

I have now dipped five baits once only.  They were dry to the touch in less than an hour, but still felt soft.  They are hanging over my workbench curing now, and will be tied on tomorrow to fish Saturday.

If it doesn't fade due to UV, which it is supposed to be protected from, this looks like my new dipping top coat, when I don't want the slight haze and weight of the Solarez.

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Correction.  The red solvent based sharpie did NOT run when I dipped a newly painted lure with red gills.  Evidently the bleeding I saw on the older bait I redipped was from the previous topcoat, and the AC1315 just brought back the clarity of the paint job so well I could see it again.

Doh!!!

 

I have a digital scale that measures to tenths of a gram, and one dip coat on a 15.1 gram lure didn't add enough weight to change it's weight on the scale.  So, if this stuff holds up, I won't have to worry about the weight of the topcoat affecting the action of my lures.

 

As I said before, I dip outside, let it drip back into the container, use my finger to remove the last drips and put them back into the container, and then move them into my garage to dry.  I have the back door open and a fan blowing back to front, to push any smell out the open front door, but the smell is gone pretty quickly.

 

I liked the idea of using a concrete sealer because I know they need are really high film strength, to be able to stand up to car tires.  The drying and curing times they recommend are for concrete, to be sure it's strong enough for traffic.  I think, for our lure making, hurrying up the process won't hurt that strength enough to matter.  If I blow dry one coat, and let it hang, after 24 hours the lures are too hard to dent with my fingernail.

 

Ben, you just might have to "git u sum".

http://www.directcolors.com/product/ac-1315-high-gloss-concrete-sealer/

Edited by mark poulson
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I fished one of my plastic knockoff 1.5's hard yesterday.  It was cleaned with acetone, painted with Createx and Wildlife colors, and dipped once in the AC1315.  All of that was done on Thursday.

I caught one largemouth, several nice smallies, and a 4lb striper on it, fishing it over and through grass.  I didn't bounce it off any wood, but I did run it over the top of some shallow rock, so it dug and bounced during the retrieve.

The finish held up great.

I also fished a wiggle wart knockoff painted at the same time, but not as much.  

Again, the finish is still great.

I just posted pictures of them in the Hard Baits Gallery.

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Can or has anyone used the concrete sealer on top of polyurethane casting resin ( Alumilite, Smooth-on, ect.) to see if paint adheres to it better than trying to paint directly on to the resin???

In other words like a base coat.

Edited by Jdeee
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I dipped some raw PVC trim board, and it held fine.

I haven't cast resin, so I can't help you there.

I tried their 8 oz sample, which cost $14 plus shipping.

I called first to see if they would ship to California, and they did.  Give them a call.  Their number is on the website, and a real person answers!

http://www.directcolors.com/products-pages/gloss-sealers/

Edited by mark poulson
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I decided to give this a try and dipped 6 baits with no problem.  Today I dipped 12 baits.  4 of the baits were jerk baits and the wildlife paint wrinkled but they only wrinkled on the last half of the baits.  I think because of the longer baits it just takes a bit longer for everything to drip off after dipping.  Other than that this stuff is great so far.

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bass100 - I dipped one last week and the paint wrinkled a little, especially on the last half of the bait as well, I think this may be more me not heat setting the paint well enough or putting on too thick of a coat therefore it retained a little moisture because none of the other baits I have dipped wrinkled at all. Maybe you had the same thing happen?

 

Mark - I fished a couple of crankbaits this weekend pretty hard I had dipped two days before, got into a school of 14-16 inchers on a grass bed and caught about 15 on one of them. Same results, finish held up great.

 

This stuff is so easy I'm going back and dipping some of my old hand carves that have been fished a lot, and some of my old bagleys just to toughen them up. Haven't had any problems dipping a D2T coated bait or auto cleared baits. Still coats it like a dream!

 

C

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C,

I dipped three Sammie knockoffs that were too long for the container, so I had to dip the head half, and then switch and dip the tail half.  I didn't get any wrinkling, but I had heat set them really well.

I also redipped some older lures that had either urethane or nail polish top coats, with no problems.  The redip brought back the luster of the paint and glitter, and actually made some clear finished baits clear again, after they'd clouded from use.

I just ordered a quart, so I'll have a deeper dipping container,  and that should last me the rest of my lure making life.

I like how thin it is, once it's dripped off.  I use a digital scale, which shows grams to the tenth, and one dip coat didn't even register on my scale.

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Dave,

You said you got some buildup on the bottom of your baits with GST.

When I dip, I hang the bait over the container and let it drip back into it.  It typically stops dripping in about a minute.  Then I use my finger to remove the last drips still on the bottom, wipe it off back into the container, and take the bait back inside to hang over my workbench to dry.  I wick the last buildup off the bottom with a piece of paper towel.

So far, I haven't gotten any buildup on the bottom, and everything is hard by the next morning.  

I do speed up the curing process by hitting the bait with a hair dryer, and that might help prevent buildups on the bottom.

I also think this material has more solvents, so it sets faster, with less time for buildup on the bottom.  It is not a California specific coating.  I was worried that they wouldn't ship it to CA, but when I called and asked, they said they would.

I do have to pay attention not to lose concentration and leave something too long, but, so far, it's easy to work with, and hold up fine.

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I don't wipe the excess off of my baits with anything.  I wait for them to get done dripping and then give a very light puff of air from my mouth and everything is opened up.  If you have baits that have the small mouth or gill plate holes just a simple blow and they are opened up.  Been doing this for a while and it has made things go alot faster and no accidental marks on my baits.  Don't blow hard just enough to open up the holes.

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All I can think is that you may have put on too thick a coat of paint each time, so the paint stayed soft.

Having the paint really dry first is key.

I do multiple thin coats, and heat set them well.

Try thinner coats.

You can also try letting your baits dry overnight in a warm place.

Other than that, if you're using the same type water based air brush paints I use, like Createx, Wildlife, Folk Art, and Apple Barrel, I'm at a loss why your paint wrinkles.

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Pledge takes an hour or two to dry.  Like other acrylic coatings, I'd hit it with a hair dryer to make sure it's bone dry before topcoating.  AC1315 is a topcoat new to most TUers so there may be something in your detailed finishing process that is causing the problem vice the acrylic paint.  I don't want any solvent based topcoat to remain in a liquid state on top of fragile acrylic paint any longer than necessary.  The best way to prevent that is simply to dip it and hang it so any excess quickly drips off the tail of the bait.  From prior posts, I read that the solvent in AC1315 is Xylene, which is a pretty "active" solvent.

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I tend to agree with Bob. I also believe it has to do with the length of time the finish stays moist before it hardens. It seems that concrete sealer reacts with the paint if it remains wet to long. I would guess cooler temps allows for longer drying times also. I would say the quicker you can get concrete sealer dry the less time it will have to react with the paint. They don't play well together. Musky Glenn

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