Best powder coating, and soft plastic dye ?

[Fish Chris]

I need two different things....

1) Some good powder coating... good color selection, easy to work with, decent size containers (I have about 180 jig heads to coat) and good value...

2) The best, brightest fluorescent chartreuse soft plastics dye, to dye some white soft plastic lures (not soft plastic coloring)

I know Cabelas and BPS have a few options to choose from, but just curious if you guys know of anything better ? If so, links would be great.

Thank you,

Fish

[Mattlures]

Protec powder paint ... a couple pointers. After you dip your heads, clean out your eye holes then cure them. If you dont, it will be very hard to clean them after they are cured. aslo be sure you cure them. If you dont they will chip easily.

You can use spike it dye but I think you would get better results by using worm coloring. Yes the type we use to mix into our liquid plastic. The color chartruse bleeds if anything touches it. If you took you white baits and put them in a ziplock bag and poured in some coloring from lurecraft or MF all your baits would turn a nice bright chartruse

How is the mold working out for ya?

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

Powder coating is something I thought was only done in a powder coating shop, no?  What do you do, bake in the home oven?

[Alpster]

Powder coating is something I thought was only done in a powder coating shop, no?  What do you do, bake in the home oven?

It only requires heat and some way to charge/magnetize the work piece. Most hobby guys use a toaster oven for baits and small parts. You can buy kits from Harbor Freight, Northern tool etc. that are not real expensive.

Ronnie

[Fish Chris]

the mold worked pretty well, even though my buddy has the crappy top pour melter. We had a few issues with the lead making it to the collar. Had to repour about 1 out of 4, but in the end, we had 180 very nice custom 1/4 oz football heads, on the sweetest Owner hooks :-)

You said > After you dip your heads, clean out your eye holes then cure them < Great tip ! But I have a question.... For curing, these don't need to be baked in an oven, do they ? I'm sure somebody has considered this before me, but I'm always paranoid about messing with the tempering of the hook.

BTW, I have done a little powder coating way back in the day (might have used Protec) and all I did was slightly heat up the jig head with a propane torch on very low heat, dip it into the powder to get a nice even coating, then hold it back over the torch until it was all melted. Let cool. Done. So, please tell me no oven afterwards......

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay... so I will get chartreuse worm dye. The only stuff they had in BPS was the scented type, and I really don't want / need that anyway. I'm sure this will be easy to find online.

Thanks again,

Fish

[Munkin]

I bake my jigheads in a small toaster oven I bought at Big Lots for $9.

Allen

[Mattlures]

Yes you have to cure them. If you dont the powder coating is brittle and will chip with just about any contact. You dont have to heat them too high to cure them. I think I put them in the oven @ 350 for 15-30 minutes. I have never had problems with it doing anything negative to the hooks.

[Catt]

One thing I've always wondered about is when you place the jig into the oven to cure the paint does it hurt the weed guard? I understand the oven doesn't heat the hook enough to affect the temper but the weed guard is a fiber.

[Munkin]

I just glue the weedguards in after the jig is powdercoated.

Allen

[Fish Chris]

Wow ! 350 degrees seems pretty sizzling to me ! I might do it..... But I want to talk to Owner first. 250 for a full hour won't do it ?

I know.... I'm probably worrying for nothing.... just like checking my drag and my hook points, every other cast, all day long....

Thanks again,

Fish

[dampeoples]

Steel melts at somewhere around 3k, 350 is a walk in the park for it, besides, how do you think they got that nice finish on those hooks?

Ben from TJ's Tackle tells you all you need to know about curing here, you can even get your supplies from him. If you get the liquid coloring, Lurecraft sells this powder stuff as well, Kim even got the new colors in recently.

Shake the fire out of the chartreuse, and keep the powder fluffy.

[Fish Chris]

I actually took a semester of college metalurgy. Don't remember a lot of it, but I do remember that the tempuring properties of metals happns at a significantly lower temp than the melting point. I also remember that slow cooling is what tends to maske metals softer / weaker, where fast cooling / quinching is what makes them stronger, but also more brittle (break before they bend).

350 still just seems a little warm.... but if I learn that the tempering is not bothered below 900 degrees or something, I'll be okay with this. I just need to know some actual numbers to be confident.

Thank you for that link... I will go check on it now.

Peace,

Fish

[harshman]

I have been using power paint on my jigs for a couple of years now and  sold hundreds of jigs without incident in sizes ranging from 1/16 oz to 1 oz and every hook size in between. If done right it is absolutely the best finish you will ever get on a jigs as far as performance and appearance goes. One thing you have to keep an eye on sometimes though is the second bake or "curing" step is you have an overage of paint on your jigs it will heat up and pool the lowest point possible, sort of like self leveling epoxy. I have found that some paints take less heat on the initial pre-heat to get less paint on the head to make sure this does not happen, watermelon and hot pink are two of my problem children. As far as the tempering and alteration of the hooks and baits I have had no problems as long as you follow the powder painting specs on the container. I use a small toaster oven with a home made rack in it to hang my jigs by the hooks. I would also caution against cleaning out the eyes before the cure unless you can do it with out chipping a lot of paint off of the jigs, the paint is very brittle at this point and very easy to chip off in large chunks if not careful. I wait until after the curing process and use a small drill bit in a Dremel to clear out the eyes other wise like Fish Chris said it is impossible to get the paint out of the eye otherwise and this is not something you want to find out while fishing.

Harshman

[Siebert Outdoors]

Harshman,

If your paint is getting real thick you probably have moisture in it.  I had this problem with some watermelon and black.  my 2 worst colors to deal with.  I just left them open for awhile and ran them through the fluid bed allowing the air to mix and draw out the moisture.  Fixed the problem.  Making sure you have a good air flow and powdery loose powder is critical too.  Otherwise the paint will glob.  With the right combination you should just have a very thin layer of paint.  With bigger hooks you can just leave the powder coat on their because they wont clog up.

FC, it wont hurt them. I've done alot of hooks and never had a problem. alot of your jig companies use powder coat. Its durable, easy, and doesnt have a stinch like vinyl paint.

Here is a link to a bunch of colors.

http://www.barlowstackle.com/acb/showprod.cfm?&DID=6&CATID=58&ObjectGroup_ID=175

Like the other guys said make sure you clean the eyes before coating.

Also make sure your powder is well stirred or it will get gloppy and when you clean your eyes you will chip the paint off the sides on some types of heads.

#2 Spike it. its the brightest I've seen

[SENKOSAM]

After the Protec is cooled in cold water, I cure by holding over the same candle flame, rolling the lure but avoiding the weedguard. I'm wondering if epoxy coating will work.

Lurecraft.com sells some bright colorants, as does M-F (http://www.fishingworld.com/M-F-Manufacturing/Default.tmpl?Cart=11926387929896054). Both offer great service and variety!!