Built A Fluid Bed

[Vic Nightingale]

I finished building a fluid bed. It works, but I have some questions. I've noticed some little small volcanoes in the powder when the air is pumping in. The more I open the valve, the more the powder becomes a big cloud of smoke. When I turn the valve down, there is very little movement. The powder paint seems very thick. I mixed it up before I put it in the canister, and then mixed it up again once in the canister. Also, when you are using glue to secure a vacuum bag to the bottom of the canister, if you sit it on top of a piece of wood to press down and secure it, it sticks to the wood, and the rips when I try to lift it off. Any suggestions..

[Jig Man]

The volcanoes just show that the air is coming through. When this happens to me I turn the air down a bit and stir the paint. They usually go away.

Use silicone instead of glue. Put the medium on a flat surface and place the cup on the silicone, press it down and go away.

[geckert]

Don't bother with vacuum bags or coffee filters you will always get volcanoes. The reason is the inconsistency in the fabric the weak spot will always volcano. What size tube are you using? I make cups out of 3" tube but I also pour ALOT of baits. I buy paint in bulk 1lb at a time. The other thing is do not cheap out on your pump. I forget which ones they are but the blur ones that look like a tent are for crap horrible inconsistent flow rates. Go for a top fin brand or better. If your using 4oz of medium I recommend at least a 30 gal pump or larger. Your membrane should be made of Porous HDPE. Ill put 4 inches of powder in my cups and when they are fluidized they almost come up to 6.5 inches there is alot of air in there and it coats very nicely. Shoot me a pm when you get the ability ill walk you through making a real fluid bed for a few dollars more than a generic bag one. Good start tho.

[Vic Nightingale]

Thanks for the replies. Jig man, thanks for the advice with the silicone. I will use that in the future if I have to replace the canisters. Geckert, your profile says you are from the jersey shore. Even though I live in SC right now, I moved down here from New Jersey. I lived in morris county. About 5 minutes from lake hopatcong. I got the fluid bed working and finally used my new weedless football jig mold today. The paint job came out great. When I cured it in a toaster oven, the were no runs of paint at all. I will post some pictures of the 2 jig heads I made today. Just a test run before I start to make more. I have noticed that the powder paint seems to be very thick and constantly needs to be stirred up. But it works great. Just a quick dunk, and the paint is good.

[geckert]

With the thickness issue its just a trial and error on heat and quickness of the dip. If your dipping small jigs you have to be quick from the source to the paint or they cool REALLY FAST. If your seeing smoke after you dip they're way to hot, knock the temp down a little. There is a lot of trial and error involved in getting the right mix of temp and paint. just keep it going you will get it down in no time.. Lets see the pics.

[Vic Nightingale]

I made 2 football jigs using the new mold and the fluid bed I just built. The pictures didn't come out that great.

[Vic Nightingale]

I'm trying to upload a picture, but it doesn't seem to be working. How do you upload a picture to this site.

[Vic Nightingale]

Here is a picture of the jigs I made with the new jig mold and the fluid bed I had recently built. They came out nice. When I cured it in the toaster oven, there was no run of paint, which happened before when I would just dip the jig into the jar. This weekend I will be doing more.

[geckert]

Nice job.