Powder paint quality

[Bass Junke]

Are powder paints all the same? When I was checking out that Colombia Coatings website someone here mentioned, I discovered a lot of types for various applications. So that stuff is pretty cheap in comparison to say Pro Tec. Then there is Boss jig armor. Is any one brand better than another?

[Jig Man]

There are definitely differences.  I own 3 different kinds.  I don’t sell so I may not be as particular as some guys.  What I use most comes from Harbor Freight.

[heavyduty]

54 minutes ago, Jig Man said:

There are definitely differences.  I own 3 different kinds.  I don’t sell so I may not be as particular as some guys.  What I use most comes from Harbor Freight.

Checking Harbor Freight online all I see is white and black. Do they carry other colors?

[KDW96]

Ive been very happy with using CS coatingsPRO TECH. I only do 10-24 at a time though.

[cadman]

There are definitely differences. The top seller used to be Pro-tec. Over the years other companies jumped on the bandwagon (ie Columbia,, Dupont and Sherwin Williams) also Harbor Freight. I have heard good and bad with Harbor Freight. Some have gotten good powder and some said the powder is thin and crumbly. I can't make a comment about it, because I don't use it. Harbor freight powder is very reasonably priced. Anyway, I do know that Pro-Tec, Columbia, and the others I mentioned are top quality if that matters to you.   Good Luck.

[Munkin]

Columbia Coatings is as good or better than ProTec and I have been using it for 15+ years. Harbor Freight is hit or miss so I would be careful with it.

 

Allen

[Bluebasser86]

I've had good luck with Harbor Freight except 1 tub of black that clumped up and was useless. The other 4 or 5 tubs have all been just fine. Just got a few bags of Columbia Coatings paint in and they paint baits very nicely. 

[Bass Junke]

Anyone use Boss's jig armor? It's pretty cheap. I have a couple of colors. Seemed as good as the Pro Tech colors I have. Haven't fished them yet so I cannot attest to its durability. 

[Bluebasser86]

4 hours ago, Bass Junke said:

Anyone use Boss's jig armor? It's pretty cheap. I have a couple of colors. Seemed as good as the Pro Tech colors I have. Haven't fished them yet so I cannot attest to its durability. 

I ordered 1 bag of it and it clumped up bad on me.

[Bdnoble84]

Is there any difference in durability after curing? Ive only used pro tec and it gets beat up pretty fast in the rocks

[Bass Junke]

On 2/11/2022 at 4:16 PM, Bluebasser86 said:

I ordered 1 bag of it and it clumped up bad on me.

That is too bad. I like some of their colors. I have 2, dark green pumpkin and black pearl w/ blue flake. The pearl comes out really nice. 

 

14 hours ago, Bdnoble84 said:

Is there any difference in durability after curing? Ive only used pro tec and it gets beat up pretty fast in the rocks

When jigs get added to my on water tackle they usually get a coating of nail polish on them first. 

 

I didn't use a heat gun for my power coats I baked them for 10- 15minutes. I want to see how durable they are. So we will compare this season, without nail polish.

[InfantryMP]

If you are just looking for powder, check out Prismatic Powders. They have over 6500 colors to choose from to include clears. (I use to own a custom powder coating shop). 

[MickD]

4 hours ago, Bass Junke said:

I baked them for 10- 15minutes.

Take a look at the video by Smalljaw on powder painting jigs, his process seems like a piece of cake compared to using an oven.  

 

[Bass Junke]

19 hours ago, MickD said:

Take a look at the video by Smalljaw on powder painting jigs, his process seems like a piece of cake compared to using an oven.  

 

Thanks Mick. So this was one of the videos I watched when I got curious about powder paints. I did a little more research and found that the paint cures harder if baked. As stated earlier I bought a couple of colors of Boss jig armor. The instructions for jig armor specifically state to not use a torch or heat gun but to bake in oven for 15-20 minutes for best results. 

When I first received a jar of paint I bought a bunch of cheap ball head jigs to practice on. I used a heat gun, and it worked fine. The hook eyes were fairly easy to dig out. 

Fast forward to about a month later, I got some good jig heads and a bunch of colors and was planning on making jigs that I will fish. Once they get out of the oven you have about 10 seconds to clear the eye or it hardens. I missed one. Well that one eye was much more difficult to clear than the eyes of the jigs I used a heat gun on. 

Maybe someone with more experience in powder painting can chime in on this point. Does powder paint cure better in an oven than with a torch or heat gun?

The other thing I played around with was a fluid bed. I made one and it works okay. I found that unless you are doing 5 or more jigs at a time, it was just as easy to give the jars a little stir than to bother with a fluid bed. 

[dopey]

I have powder from Janns, Pro-tec, Rosey's, Powder by the Pound, Columbia and Eastwood.  It's all good stuff.  Never used the stuff from Harbor Freight but on another forum a guy put some clumped up Harbor Freight through an old Flour sifter which put it back in fine powder and added some clear and is still using it.  

 

I got my plans for a fluid bed from Cadman and learned brush tapping through his posts.  I've gotten pretty good at mixing up colors also.    Don't be afraid to use it, it works.  

[ChrisD46]

On 2/9/2022 at 7:42 PM, heavyduty said:

Checking Harbor Freight online all I see is white and black. Do they carry other colors?

*A couple of years back , the HF stores also had red and yellow powder paint on the shelf in the same large size containers the black and white come in . Not sure of the additional color status now for HF powder paints .

[fishballer06]

On 2/11/2022 at 11:26 AM, Bass Junke said:

Anyone use Boss's jig armor? It's pretty cheap. I have a couple of colors. Seemed as good as the Pro Tech colors I have. Haven't fished them yet so I cannot attest to its durability. 

 

On 2/11/2022 at 4:16 PM, Bluebasser86 said:

I ordered 1 bag of it and it clumped up bad on me.

My experience has been the opposite. The two bags I ordered have been great and I like the added color options they have over Protec. 

[smalljaw67]

On 2/15/2022 at 12:26 PM, Bass Junke said:

Thanks Mick. So this was one of the videos I watched when I got curious about powder paints. I did a little more research and found that the paint cures harder if baked. As stated earlier I bought a couple of colors of Boss jig armor. The instructions for jig armor specifically state to not use a torch or heat gun but to bake in oven for 15-20 minutes for best results. 

When I first received a jar of paint I bought a bunch of cheap ball head jigs to practice on. I used a heat gun, and it worked fine. The hook eyes were fairly easy to dig out. 

Fast forward to about a month later, I got some good jig heads and a bunch of colors and was planning on making jigs that I will fish. Once they get out of the oven you have about 10 seconds to clear the eye or it hardens. I missed one. Well that one eye was much more difficult to clear than the eyes of the jigs I used a heat gun on. 

Maybe someone with more experience in powder painting can chime in on this point. Does powder paint cure better in an oven than with a torch or heat gun?

The other thing I played around with was a fluid bed. I made one and it works okay. I found that unless you are doing 5 or more jigs at a time, it was just as easy to give the jars a little stir than to bother with a fluid bed. 

 

The instructions on jig armor paint is confusing. It says " Do not use a torch or heat gun to cure". I can assure you I cure my jigs in an oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  What the instructions are saying is not to CURE the baits with a torch or heat gun and I agree with that. It doesn't say not to paint them using one of those options.

 

I use a torch and heat the jig to paint it and then hang on a rack in an oven. Cure time as I stated before is 15 minutes at 350 degrees. So in my oven, it takes 4 minutes for the oven to hit the set temperature. Then an additional 2 minutes for all the jigs to reach 350 degrees and that is when the time begins. That means I put my jigs on the rack and place them in the oven for a total time of 21 minutes but the time the jigs are actually at 350 degrees is 15 minutes.

[Bass Junke]

On 3/17/2022 at 9:34 AM, smalljaw67 said:

 

The instructions on jig armor paint is confusing. It says " Do not use a torch or heat gun to cure". I can assure you I cure my jigs in an oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  What the instructions are saying is not to CURE the baits with a torch or heat gun and I agree with that. It doesn't say not to paint them using one of those options.

 

I use a torch and heat the jig to paint it and then hang on a rack in an oven. Cure time as I stated before is 15 minutes at 350 degrees. So in my oven, it takes 4 minutes for the oven to hit the set temperature. Then an additional 2 minutes for all the jigs to reach 350 degrees and that is when the time begins. That means I put my jigs on the rack and place them in the oven for a total time of 21 minutes but the time the jigs are actually at 350 degrees is 15 minutes.

I read the instructions on fishingskirtsunlimitied, their website has changed. So has the instructions for jig armor. A torch and heat gun is no longer mentioned. New instructions basically read: bake, dip, then bake again. 

Their instructions are kind of screwy, depending which paint you click on temp ranges are from 325- 400 degrees. 

I can't see why a torch would not be a good way to pre-heat the jig to dip into the powder. The baking process in the end cures the paint. 

[Jig Man]

You can heat them in the oven but I have never been able to do more than 6 before they cool.  The torch gets too hot too quick for me.  I’ll stick to my heat gun.

[Munkin]

Heat gun (Harbor Freight) to heat and apply the paint. Cheap toaster over (Ollie's Discount Warehouse) to cure the heads.

 

Allen

[Munkin]

On 3/17/2022 at 9:34 AM, smalljaw67 said:

 

The instructions on jig armor paint is confusing. It says " Do not use a torch or heat gun to cure". I can assure you I cure my jigs in an oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  What the instructions are saying is not to CURE the baits with a torch or heat gun and I agree with that. It doesn't say not to paint them using one of those options.

 

I use a torch and heat the jig to paint it and then hang on a rack in an oven. Cure time as I stated before is 15 minutes at 350 degrees. So in my oven, it takes 4 minutes for the oven to hit the set temperature. Then an additional 2 minutes for all the jigs to reach 350 degrees and that is when the time begins. That means I put my jigs on the rack and place them in the oven for a total time of 21 minutes but the time the jigs are actually at 350 degrees is 15 minutes.

 

I do the same,  put them in the oven and bake for 20 minutes and have never had a problem.  Only issue I have had with powder paint is flake.  Both my GP black flake and black blue flake have issues.  The flake is heavier than the powder and settles to the bottom of the fluid bed. I stir the crap out of it but it isn't perfect. 

 

Allen 

[Bass Junke]

On 3/28/2022 at 1:26 AM, Munkin said:

 

I do the same,  put them in the oven and bake for 20 minutes and have never had a problem.  Only issue I have had with powder paint is flake.  Both my GP black flake and black blue flake have issues.  The flake is heavier than the powder and settles to the bottom of the fluid bed. I stir the crap out of it but it isn't perfect. 

 

Allen 

I noticed that also. I have pro tech watermelon red flake. It almost seems like the heads need to be immersed for a split second longer, otherwise they come out with a thin coating and all the red flake has collected at the lowest point that got dipped, if that makes sense. 

What does work awesome is Boss jig armor black pearl with blue... sparkles. They are much smaller than the flakes and that paint sets up just as good as solid colors.