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BobP

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BobP last won the day on January 26

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    Summerfield, N.C.
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    Bass fishing, lure making, tackle, boats

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  1. I add a FEW drops of denatured alcohol to D2T to thin it out a bit and also to e tend the work time a couple of minutes. Maybe 4 drops into enough epoxy to coat 2 medium bass baits.
  2. BobP

    UV Clear coat

    You’re using it.
  3. I get wire from McMaster-Carr online. Lots of types, lots of sizes, pretty good prices.
  4. Like most of the above, I’d opt for KBS. It’s clear, cures well, and yields a tough high luster coating. Big plus: you simply dip lures into it and hang them to drip and cure. Optionally, you can brush it on and hang it. I use several coats to build a very good coating.
  5. I build various size baits and a store-bought stencil kit wouldn’t be very useful, if that’s what you’re talking about. I went to an art store and bought a roll of FRISKET, which. Is paper with a peel off plastic backing. After using it awhile, I realized it was best if I didn’t take the adhesive backing off and instead just held it against the lure. Added benefit, you can keep the template and build a library of them. Frisket is easy to cut with a razor knife.
  6. I painted some spoons with acrylic airbrush paint and topcoated with Dick Nite Fishermun’s Lurecoat, which is a moisture cured urethane. The Dick Nite seemed to penetrate the paint and adhere directly to the metal, forming a very durable finish. No primer was needed. Dick Nite is a spoon manufacturer who also sells paint and topcoats. Mark above mentioned an important detail - your primer, paint, and topcoat are a related system. Not all paints work with all primers and not all urethanes work with all primers. I tried an aerosol auto primer on some spoons and hated the esthetic result and the strong residual smell. Bottom line, you may have to experiment to get a finish you want.
  7. Amen. Ben was a very good friend for the TUers who knew him.
  8. I think basswood is similar in density (23 lbs/cu ft) and much nicer to sand and finish to a creamy white texture. It’s also widely available in hobby shops.
  9. I’m mostly a Devcon 2 ton user but you gotta respect builders that swear by Etex. Their baits are often some of the most beautiful to be found. I looked for the Fatfingers tutorial I mentioned but couldn’t find it. The primary suggestion it made was to mix the Etex and let it sit for 12-15 minutes before application to allow some of the solvent to flash off and let the epoxy start to cure slightly. I haven’t heard a lot of complaints about Etex, except that it is more prone to fisheye than other epoxies. Frankly, I didn’t use it because it requires longer to cure and multiple coats to build up a finish as thick as glue or casting epoxies single coat. Nowadays, I mostly use KBS MCU in 2-3 dip coats. It’s the lazy man’s finish.
  10. Whittler, I surely don't “know it all” after 25 yrs of building lures but the idea of acrylic paint curing escapes me. I’ve not heard of any chemical reaction taking place after application of water based paint, which would constitute curing. I always thought it just lays there and dries. I use a hair dryer after shooting every color and don’t have a problem clearcoating lures soon after. Redaddy24, Etex lite is a good product but it takes peculiar application procedures to apply it over a painted wooden lure. I suggest going to Member Submitted Tutorials and looking for a tutorial by Fatfingers for best Etex practices. Bar top epoxies like Etex contain lots of solvent to expel bubbles while curing. Casting and glue epoxies don’t, which can make them easier to use.
  11. Etex in multiple coats is popular with guys who build large musky baits. I’ve used Devcon Two Ton glue epoxy for years on bass baits with good results and it has good abrasion resistance, so I still use it on baits that will be trolled for hours. I really prefer to use moisture cured urethane on most bass baits, usually with 2-3 dip coats to build up a thicker coating to fend off rash. For the same thickness of coating, I think MCU is just as tough as epoxy.
  12. Yep, PPE protection is not a bad idea if you are concerned. I don’t expose my skin to a uv lamp for more than a few seconds, and I don’t look into the super strong light either. How much exposure is too much? Well, suntans are caused by uv light too. And sunlight contains the widest spectrum uv radiation. Do you mummify yourself before fishing? Some do. But I think a common sense approach to handling lures under uv is sufficient. Whatever works for you.
  13. BobP

    UV tacky

    I’ve tried a few different uv polyester clearcoats, most recently Chinese resin from Amazon. You don’t really know the quality of this stuff, which is sold for amateur jewelry making. Having the right uv light source is important. My fingernail uv lamp from Amazon was not a good match and I had to set the lures out in the sun on a lure turner to get them hard. After storing them for a few months, I found the clearcoat was becoming somewhat tacky again. I gave up and returned to using KBS moisture cured polyurethane, which yields a hard very clear tough coating.
  14. If you’re gonna build 500 baits I guess it would be cost efficient to buy a press and have a tool steel punch made professionally. Got a few hundred bucks? But as a hobby builder, I think using Wiss aircraft snips to rough out the lip and a Dremel sander to finish the lip is an easy and efficient way to go. It takes me maybe 45 minutes to shape 6-8 lips this way. Of course, I build bass baits and use 1/16 inch thick G-10 sheet. Using very thick G-10 would be a problem but I use thin stock expressly for better lip performance and so do commercial bait makers.
  15. There is no topcoat that won’t hook rash. Epoxies are only slightly more dense than water so you might be surprised at how well a bait will float with even a fairly thick epoxy coating. IMO, the thinnest and hardest topcoat is probably moisture cured urethane such as KBS.
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