musky r Posted August 14, 2007 Report Share Posted August 14, 2007 Hi I have been making crankbaits from basswood. Recently I have had a few where the clear coat has cracked and flaked off the lure. I'm guessing water got behind the epoxy, expanded the wood and the epoxy cracked? I was wondering what some of you use for sealing wood lures? Or has anyone else had this problem? I've been useing XIM primer/sealer, createx paints, and envirotex epoxy? I think it's mainly a sealing problem, but I would like any other input please. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjbass Posted August 14, 2007 Report Share Posted August 14, 2007 Water leakage is probably the culprit. I use minwax sanding sealer, then a coat of devcon 2ton previous to prime, paintand top coat and have never had a problem. I have done it this way for hundreds of baits. Maybe overkill, but the water does not get in. I can tell you though that basswood is very absorbant like a paper towel, and if any water gets in it will expand a ton and split your top coat. Places to give extra caution are around the lip area, line tie and hook hangers. I usually use cedar for my musky baits for the action, which does not absorb as much as basswood if water does get in. This has been my experience. Rod Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatfingers Posted August 14, 2007 Report Share Posted August 14, 2007 Rjbass is right. A sanding sealer, which is more like a varnish than a primer, actually seals the surface of the wood much better than any primer you can buy. I had a very old can of penetrating sealer, which was the best stuff I've found so far. It penetrates the wood very very deeply and prevented the water from passing through the bait in the event that the clearcoat was pierced or somehow breached. Unfortunately, I can't seem to locate another can of it. All I've been able to find is "sanding sealer," which is okay, but it really doesn't do the same thing. It seems to penetrate only the surface area of the bait as opposed to penetrating the wood fibers through and through. Priming directly over the bare wood has caused several of my early baits to get ruined when water got beneath the surface of the clear somehow. Sound like the same thing may have happened to yours. Do a search on this site for propionate sealing techniques. It is a method that sounds quite promising. I will be giving it a try this winter after the musky fishing season is over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vodkaman Posted August 15, 2007 Report Share Posted August 15, 2007 It seems to me that the most likely place for a water breach would be the eyelets. The breach would not be visible to the human eye, but it is the part of the lure that undergoes the most stress under load. The surface of the metal is generally very smooth and polished. Although in many posts we have established that the lure is best not handled for good paint adhesion, I suspect that the same attention may not be given to the metalwork. The metal should be degreased in acetone to remove finger grease. The metal that comes into contact with the top coat could be scraped with a craft knife or similar. This would give the top coat something to bind to. Great care should be taken when cleaning excess epoxy from the eyes. This process should be done well after the epoxy has cured, even though it is easier while the epoxy is still soft. It is also easy to disturb the seal around the smooth metal. These are just my thoughts on the subject, would be interested to hear more opinions on the subject of leakage, as it seems to affect many builders judging on the number of related sealing posts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MR KNOW IT ALL KIND OF Posted August 15, 2007 Report Share Posted August 15, 2007 TRY THIS!!! EPOXY THE HECK OUT OF IT!!! GET IT ALL OVER THE O ring holders... Let the epoxy full them up..... Then take a dremmel.. drill out the holes after it drys..... I had a o ring linkage problem when I first started...Now I clear coat the heck out of the O rings.. I tried that and got high and wrecked the truck.. No problems since I used the dremmel.. See if that works... Its much easier than burning the O ring holders.. This tip is for keeping water out of your lure...Listen to the rest of these guys about primer and all that other stuff.. Im just a Rookie! But try the 0 ring trick..I have stock in dremmel and I need the money. The_Rookie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musky r Posted August 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 15, 2007 Thanks for the replies guys, I'll try some of these tips. You guys making musky baits have you ever had the clear coat crack after a fish or several fish bit the lure? one lure I had a the e-tex started pealing off and taking the paint with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatfingers Posted August 15, 2007 Report Share Posted August 15, 2007 I tried envirotex for musky baits and found it to be a bit too soft. I've switched back to Devcon2 which has served me well with dozens of muskies over the last few years. The envirotex seems to more susceptable to failure near the lip and screweyes. I know that is a matter of great debate and I'm not trying to spark one on this thread; just sharing my perception and my first-hand experience with musky fishing and envirotex. Muskies can eventually destroy any bait, commercial or homemade. Its a matter of physics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lure--Prof Posted August 15, 2007 Report Share Posted August 15, 2007 Anytime you pierce or void an epoxy clearcoat you're subject to water penetration and delamination. An unsealed lure compounds the problem as it is subject to more expansion and contraction and hygroscopic action. V-Man's tip about cleaning any metalwork is essential, particularly with stainless screw-eyes which are normally shipped to your door with a coating of cutting oil! As epoxy cures it will also pull away from any edges on your lure--on sharp edges you're lucky to get any coating at all to stick, but what's less noticeable are the more rounded edges where the coating dries much thinner than on a flatter surface; this is common near the nose and tail of the lure, and are commonly the first places for the coating to be penetrated. This is one reason why most builders using E-tex never use less than two coats. In addition to what V-Man said about cleaning oils from screw-eyes, one should also remove any paint that might be between the metal and the epoxy for the same reason. Dean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MR KNOW IT ALL KIND OF Posted August 16, 2007 Report Share Posted August 16, 2007 Dean, What does Hygrocopic action mean!! Honest not being funny.. .I really dont know.. I think that word was on the SAT when I tried to pass it for college admittance... For all I know it was the one word that kept me out of Harvard.. LOL The ROOKIE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodieb8 Posted August 16, 2007 Report Share Posted August 16, 2007 sanding sealer. then primer. immerse the bait in the sanding sealer. water will find a way in regardless. trolling baits at 5 mph for miles and toothy critters chomping is the only way. remember to start with dry wood.. we seal and paint a minimum of 1 dozen daily and this process has proven to be reliable over a couple decades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lure--Prof Posted August 16, 2007 Report Share Posted August 16, 2007 Rook, Hygroscopic action is the tendency to actively absorb moisture from any available source, including the atmosphere. Think of a compressed sponge, very slowly expanding, for instance. Dean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
