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FishingTennessee

Question About Clear Coating

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so i just started airbrushing this week and i have done a few of the 1.5 crankbaits well the paint is looking good on them...but when i go to put the clear coat on im not sure how much to add its like it globs up.Any ideas or tips im using the Devcon 2 Ton Clear High Strength Epoxy Also how long do i let the painted crank sit for befor i put the clear coat on?

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Devcon:  like Mark says, measure it well, mix the hell out of it for one minute, then mix in a few drops of denatured alcohol.  That will give you about 4 minutes to get it on the lure before it starts to get too thick to brush.  Once on the lure, it needs to be rotated for the first 45-60 minutes or gravity will cause it to sag.  If you don't have some mechanical way to constantly rotate the lure, you can put a hook on the hose and tail of the bait and switch ends every little while it begins to harden.  It should take about 5-6 hours to get hard enough to handle at room temperature.  If it's still soft the next day, you either didn't measure it accurately or (most likely) you didn't mix it thoroughly enough.

 

Don't mix more epoxy than you can brush on one or two lures at a time.  With experience, I can do up to 3 lures at a time but that's pushing it!  You don't want to be in too much of a hurry - that makes for screw-ups.  And you WILL want to devise some way to rotate the lures automatically, so start thinking about that.

 

Two other top coats are fairly easy to use and don't require rotation:  UV cured polyester like Solarez and moisture cured urethane like Dick Nite S81.  The Solarez requires UV light souce, like a UV bulb or sunlight to harden.  The Dick Nite can just be hung up to dry, but it requires a special storage regimen to keep it from hardening in the storage container.  Do a search on these options before you plunge in.  There's lots of discussions here in Hardbaits on all of them.

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Hmm - I've never seen Devcon "home" epoxy.  Maybe it's a new variety of Devcon?  Heretofore, Devcon has come in a Two Ton 30 minute version and a 5 minute quick cure version.  I buy the 30 minute Two Ton in a 9 oz bottle set and it is labeled for a 30 minute "work time" and 2 hour "set time".  Devcon is a glue so the times don't reflect using it as a finish coating.  Never use quick set 5 minute epoxies because they cure too fast to brush on, will not level out, and they turn brown with exposure to UV light.

 

Devcon has been a popular brand, not least because you could buy a 30 ml double syringe of it at Walmart for $1.95.  They stopped selling it a couple of years ago.  But guys have used various brands of slow cure epoxies with good results.  Many "30 minute" glue epoxies work well.  Also, epoxies used for coating rod guide thread (e.g. Flexcoat) and "pour-on" epoxies made for art decoupage or table top finishes (e.g. Envirotex Lite, aka ETEX) are also popular.  The nice thing about Devcon is its cure time makes it easier to use than many brands:  it gives you a few minutes to brush it on, then hardens to a sag-free state within one hour, then is hard enough to softly handle in about 5 hours.  The rod guide and pour-on epoxies do not harden so fast and require longer rotation times to prevent sagging.

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