Set Up For Powder Painting

[Will Wetline]

It's been an expensive and somewhat frustrating trip making the transition from lead to lead free alloy since Massachusetts prohibited the use of lead weights and jigs under 1 oz. in 2012.

However, a few months ago, www.rotometals.com introduced a new lead free alloy with a high enough melting temperature to permit a full cure of powder paint.

http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/leadfreebulletalloy.htm?utm_source=Thanksgiving+Sale+2015&utm_campaign=tk5&utm_medium=email

I decided to go for it and gear up for powder painting.

At this point I want to say, "Thank you!" to smalljaw, a valued contributor to BassResource.com, TackleUnderground.com and YouTube, who offered advice, encouragement, and tipped me toward tjstackle.com. TJ's makes a fluid bed which sells for less than half the price of the two other online component suppliers I regularly use.

Let's get started:

An aquarium pump keeps the powder in the fluid bed fluffed up so you can get a thin, even coat in seconds - and by seconds, I mean two. Longer than that, you've applied too heavy a coat.   

To the right of the fluid bed, see jumbo and regular paper clips and a #55 drill in a pin vise. the paper clips work fine to clear a hook eye filled with paint. Do this immediately, before going on to next jig in the batch. In the 84 jigs I painted (in two batches) I had to clear fewer than a dozen eyes.

I had locking forceps on hand for the project and they worked great holding light and medium wire hooks.

A home made jig container/rack left over from my vinyl painting days still serves well.

A Wagner HT3500 Heat Tool works perfectly as a heat source. $39.00 from Home Depot.

2 oz. containers hold Pro-Tec powder paint, packaged by CS Coatings for TJ's who sells it at a better price than most outlets. Understand that I have no commercial interest in TJ's Tackle - just an entirely satisfactory first experience with their products.

These instructions are posted with permission. Take the time to read them and refer to them if things aren't going right.

In a photo, the powder paint looks like pimples on a ghost's face. Take my word for it, it's bubbling.

The jig rack is easy enough to make if you've got a hacksaw and a brad point drill. You'll find Sterilite 4 Quart containers (12" X 7 1/4" X 4 1/4") at dollar stores and lengths of 10-24 threaded rod at hardware stores. Don't forget to buy a box of hex nuts.

I heated the first batch of jigs at this setting and went to 750º for the second.

Rotate the jig slowly and count: "One smallie . . . two smallies . . . three smallies . . ." You know because you've read the instructions that you have to experiment with heating time - for each size jig - to get it just right. Same for "swish" time. Don't forget to clear the eye if you took a too-long dip.

After I got done with brown Brush Jig #6 I had a forehead-smacking realization - I had forgotten to block the fiber weed guard cavities with the teflon pin! I'll either glue in a thinner guard on the 6 or go without. When using a pin, pull it as soon as possible. If it lifts paint around the hole, reheat it and it will lay back down.

Now it's time for the curing process.

You do know that you can't use a toaster oven to broil burgers and cure powder paint, right? I decided on Eastwood's oven and bought it on sale, direct, for $89.99. Shipped from PA to western MA the cost jumped to $113.20.

Internal dimensions are: 16"W X 14"D X 8"H. As you see, there are two racks. That's more than enough capacity for this hobbyist. I placed it on a table in the middle of the tackle room because the safety information stated that there should be "a minimum of 4' of adequate cooling space around top, rear and sides of oven." There was one hot spot in the back but this heat dissipated in a couple of inches. I'm guessing that Eastwood's lawyers wrote this instruction. Think I'll still use this arrangement because while the baits are baking I'll just swivel around and work at the bench you see in the reflection.

Eastwood didn't have bismuth/tin jig molders in mind when they put temperature markings on their oven. I approximated 275º best I could and watched the thermometer in the oven. Clearly, something was off. The oven thermometer read 225º after 25 minutes. Testing this thermometer in the kitchen oven set at 295º it read 300º. Hmm. Two more tests had similar results. 

Well, "It is what it is," as they say. I baked the jigs for a full hour.

Now, time for a durability test. If I tossed a handful into a tub of Marshmallow Fluff I wouldn't be disappointed. There's nothing comparably fluffy in a smallie's habitat however, so I took the jigs to the loading dock at work. I tossed a handful up into the air and collected them where they had scattered on the concrete. Repeated this test three times.

Hey, not bad. These results are acceptable. I tried to enlarge the chipped areas on the Pumpkin Brown and the Watermelon using a fingernail and could not. That tells me the adhesion is good. I was particularly pleased that the Crinkle Copper was hardly bruised at all because there was a label on that container that read "cure at 400º for 10 min." The heat was nowhere close to that.

Trials on pewter come next . . . especially since the larger bismuth/tin jigs are very difficult to remove from a hot mold.

Questions and suggestions are welcome.

[smalljaw67]

Excellent information!!!!!!

[Munkin]

I have been using a fluid bed from TJ's for like 10 years with good results.

 

Allen

[buzzed bait]

incredibly detailed post there Will, that's awesome!

[corn-on-the-rob]

Are the ingots 1 lb?

[Will Wetline]

3 hours ago, corn-on-the-rob said:

Are the ingots 1 lb?

Yes.

Check out http://www.rotometals.com/

[dopey]

Ouch!!!  $15 a pound!  That hurts -

Why did you bake for a full hour??  If it's as close to lead as they can get it it shouldn't have taken that long, can you explain this more??

You guys got hosed bad in Mass!  I'm in Vermont and we're still fighting it.  On say a 1/16th oz. head what's the weight difference between the lead jig and the weight from this new material??  Have you weighed them out yet?

Thanks

[Will Wetline]

5 hours ago, dopey said:

Ouch!!!  $15 a pound!  That hurts -

Why did you bake for a full hour??  If it's as close to lead as they can get it it shouldn't have taken that long, can you explain this more??

You guys got hosed bad in Mass!  I'm in Vermont and we're still fighting it.  On say a 1/16th oz. head what's the weight difference between the lead jig and the weight from this new material??  Have you weighed them out yet?

Thanks

Dopey, I wasn't sure of the oven temperature so I baked it longer. No being a metallurgist or a Ph.d anything I often use the time-honored trial and error method of figuring things out. Also, I'm not sure that you got the point that every alloy has a different melting point. From the info I had available, This alloy melts at 295º. Powder paint fully cures at 275º. So.

I haven't bothered to make weight comparisons. My approach has been to adjust with a rod/line combo on the water - and this has worked out.

After much muttering about the MA lead regulations - and I do believe the fisheries biologists' research - I'm accepting what I need to do re weights and jigs to be compliant with the regulations and figuring out what I need to do to continue with the bait making materials and processes.

[dopey]

My reply wasn't concerning what each person believes about the  fishereries research, but since you stated that you believe it I guess I'm safe saying I don't and I've read and studied it the original report is

www.gop.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-1994-03-09/html/94-5298.htm

 I don't believe most reference this report any more as it factually shows that the researchers put lead into the birds in their studies!!. but that wasn't the reason for my reply.

I just wanted to know why you had baked for an hour and you answered that, and yes I know every material has different melting points, and learned more than I would have ever expected from a metallurgist who's a reloader on Castboolits.com, and there's been lots of conversations!!! LOL  

I've talked to the guy who owns TimmyTom jigs he's on another board I go to and he switched to a non-lead mix years ago, and he has been using a bismuth/tin mix for a long time but he's mixing it himself.  

I really wanted to find the weight difference especially as you say you adjusted with a rod/line combo.  

[Will Wetline]

I don't have a gram scale so cannot give you an exact comparison between pure lead cast in say, an 1/8 oz. cavity and 88% bismuth/12% tin. I only have the vague description from rotometals.com that this alloy is "as close as you can get to lead."

Last year's on the water experience showed me what I needed to know - that my gear was fine re casting distance for 281 alloy (58% bismuth/42% tin) because I wanted to effectively approach smallmouth in very clear water with hair jigs molded in an 1/8 oz. cavity.

I think that you're more inclined - and more knowledgeable about how to calculate this comparison. I did come across specific gravity charts but being much happier dealing with grammar than mathematics didn't pursue exactitude any further.

May your line be tight.

WW