I tried using a propane torch for about 2.5 seconds and dipping but it seems to be picking up too much powder. when baking in the oven it does become good and hard but it tends to run down to a point. Also what do you guys do to keep from getting the eye of the hook covered? Is the propane heating it too much you think where I should just use a regular open flame like a candle?
Candle will leave soot and change your paint color...I prefer an alcohol burner,but do well with a heat gun.
heat gun
sterno
$20 wagner heat gun from lowes. works well but it is a glorified blow dryer, A bit noisy but not too bad on the lower setting.
wat is sterno?
Alcohol Burner. Yes your getting them too hot or leaving them in the paint too long. I use a wood tooth pick I sharpen to clean the paint out of the eye as soon as I take it out. I first pass it through the flame again to make sure the powder is all melted and that is has enough paint, then the tooth pick I stick through the eye and then wipe the sides of the eye on the side of the tooth pic and usually that keeps it open enough. If not open after the oven cure I take care of it at tying time. I do that with a thin bodkin that I heat up and it will melt the paint right back open. I clean it after that with my thumb nail usually.
I hate listening to a heat gun half the day so refuse to use one.
Skip
Here is a summary of some of the notes I've taken off this site and a couple of ideas that have worked for me. Hope you can find something to give you some help.
Heat gun or propane torch (I use a heat gun from Lowe’s that will go up to 1,000 degrees)
One pair of needle-nosed pliers or hemostats to hold the curve of the hook
One pair of hemostats that are curved on the end (long thin locking pliers) to grab and cover the eye of the hook.
1 bigger plastic container (what I use to put some powder paint in to shake so it will be light and fluffy
-this helps you get a thinner more consistent coat on your jighead)
1 wire rack –long straight bars are preferable
1 toaster oven –to be used only for jigs (can use heat gun if you are only going to do a few)
(use in a well ventilated area because of fumes)
Procedure
Pour some powder paint in a plastic container, close the lid and then shake till it becomes light and fluffy. (do not let the powder paint become packed as you will waste a lot and it could become lumpy)
Take the needle-nosed pliers, grab the bottom of the hook and hold the jig head a couple of inches over the heat for about 4 seconds on each side (total =8).
Take the curved hemostats and grab the jig eye making sure the eye is completely covered. This prevents powder paint from getting into eye.
Quickly, swish the jighead briefly thru the powder paint. Tap jig on side of bowl to remove excess powder paint. Remember, less is more when using powder paint. A thin layer is all you need and it will adhere quickly to a hot jighead. (usually it will start to turn the color you want in the first 4-5 seconds)
If eye should get some powder paint, now is the best time to clean it. You can heat a paper clip, bodkin or small wire and run it thru the eye until clear. (because the powder paint hasn’t been heated (cured) the hot wire will melt any excess off the jighead eye.
Option 1 –remove to a rack or bowl or somewhere where it can hang and cool. The jighead does not need to touch anything yet as it is easily scarred. When you have enough you can put them on a rack inside a toaster oven at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes.
Option 2 –as soon as you tap off excess powder paint, you can return it to the heat gun to cure right then. This takes about the same amount of time as it did to heat the jighead.
To put on Eyes
I buy small cans of paint from Lowes (usually red & black)
Use the flat side on the bottom of drill bits, dip in paint and press against side of jigs
Outside of eye can be yellow, red, white, silver, etc. and needs to cure for 24 hours before adding pupil.
The inside (pupil) should be painted black and is about ½ the size of the outside dot. Let cure 24 hours.
Seal coat
*There is no need for a seal coat if you don’t add painted eyes to a powder coated jigs.
*Many crappie fisherman will tell you they catch as many crappie off jigs without eyes as they do with eyes.
Those of us who use them know this but just like the way they look. It gives us a little added confidence.
If you use seal coat, each jig will need to be hung after coating for about 30 seconds. I normally do 4-5 jigs at a time and then swipe the seal coat off that collects on the nose with a paint brush. I then put them on a rack and let them hang for at least 24 hours.
Epoxy
This is my preferred method as jigs are supposed to look like new 20+ years later.
I usually mix in a baby food container (small rectangular plastic bins about 1 ½” wide and 2” or so long)
I dip these one at a time in a 2 part epoxy (50/50) that has been mixed together. I hold the jig by the bend of the hook and lower it till epoxy covers all of the lead on the jig and epoxy comes together under the eye of the hook. I remove it and hang it on the side of a rack allowing the excess to drip to the nose.
After 4-5 jigs I take a small piece of thin cardboard that has been previously cut into strips about 1” wide and 3” long and touch the bottom of each jig to absorb any extra epoxy hanging on the nose. I then place in a rack spacing them ½” apart. I let these cure for 24 hours.
When jigs have cured I put them in tackle boxes with Zerust (a rust inhibitor) and store in a warm, dry place. Otherwise, you risk wire hooks rusting with the possibility of losing the whole box of jigs.
It is not recommended to put jigs in water after heating. Do It Co. told me this makes them brittle and susceptible to breaking. Once jigs are taken out of toaster oven, they will be cool to the touch in a matter of minutes.
Most of the information gathered here was learned from the great people on this website.
Guys, sorry about that last one. Too long winded. Just copied and pasted some old notes I had made.
Bronson Great notes and thank you for keeping them. Copied and pasted them in word Doc and put them in my fishing folder on the computer. A good tutorial for some one new to powder painting. Think you covered all the bases with that post. About the only thing that I do different is that Mine spend less time in the oven for curing. At the rate I lose jigs here to the river gods I don't think that I will ever have a jig that is 20 years old.
Redman
I use a propane torch and a fluid bed for the powder paint. the paint seems to go on more evenly, and doesn't matter how long you heat it for. A few seconds usually does the trick. Then clean the eye of the hook with a pocket knife before baking. IMHO, the fluid bed is the key to powder paint.
You may want to check out this pictorial post I made a few years ago. It should be a sticky on this forum it would help a bunch of folks out that are just getting started.
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/jig-t...ting-jigs.html
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slabo
thanks for the tip slabo, Ive been making jigs for years, and never thought about gripping them from the eye of the jig.
Brian
Bronson - great how to article. Thanks!
I consider that very high praise coming from you. I'm hoping to make thousands more than I'll ever use so my sons and grandsons (2 so far) will use them one day. I think they might like catching crappie with jigs their grandad had made for them many years ago.Quote:
Originally Posted by Redman
Great info stated, I prefer an alcohol burner, I hate the noise from a heat gun.
Best of luck with your decision.
thanks for the tips guys. i'm gonna try round 2 coating some new jigs this week and we'll see how it goes
Heat gun also. Just luv this hobby !!@@#### STEVE
I use a heat gun I got from Harbor Freight for about $9 on sale. It's noisy, but the heat is very consistent and you can turn it on and off with the flick of a switch. I do my painting on a lap desk that sits in my lap, so I don't want anything with an open flame.
Sure can see why you don't want an open flame for sure. I have 2 heat guns, but just like the alcohol burner best for me and just because it's right for me doesn't mean it's right for everyone. I sure would never use a toaster oven to heat my heads and I just like heating one head at a time. I don't worry much about how long it takes me. I can tie a lot faster than I do if I wanted to. Of course every thing you add like even flash strips adds time to the tying. I know some can tie hundreds a day when they fish a simple pattern they like using, but I have never tied over 120 or a little more in a day, but that was before my shoulder was getting in my way some. Now I am down to max 60 to 80 depending on the amount of steps for that pattern.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shoemoo
I also like to paint sever al orders all at one time because I can take 1/2 day or even an entire day for painting and then don't need to do more for a couple weeks.
Skip
A bic lighter
I use a heat gun and a fluid bed,one of the great things about a fluid bed is that once you get the hang of it you rarely have to clean the paint from the eye of the jig.
Just lay'em on top of my wood heater.
I use a Milwaukie heat gun....the way to go no doubt!!! 3 seconds in front of thr gun, into the powder, tap, and pass it over the gun to tighten it up, hang to cool, clean out the hook eye's and into the oven 285 degrees for 30 min.Remember to clean those hook eye's before you bake to harden...you'll wish you had!! my .02
If you forget to clean the eyes or find they've closed up during baking, you can clean them easily by heating a metal bodkin or unfolded paper clip. It will melt right through the paint.
I just use a small propane torch, U soon figure out the length of time to heat each size jig head. one quick dip in the paint, let it dry for a couple of seconds and pass it back through the flame two quick times and I am through. Open the eye with a jig eye tool I carry in my tackle box.
I wish I had thought about heating a piece of wire to melt through???? I hate that when (that) happens... great info...man I'm dumb!Quote:
Originally Posted by Shoemoo
I use the same toaster oven that I use to cure the powder paint. Just hang the jig heads on the rack, heat 'em at 375* for 10 - 15 min. I remove them from the oven using forceps, dip them and hang them on a wire (a coat hanger works well) to cool. Then, back on the oven rack to cure for another 15. min. I generally do 20-30 at a time using this method, so it's not for the high production guys, but I can do a couple hundred in pretty short order.
Tom
I was reading some jig tying tips the other day and noticed that most of the good lure makers were using an alcohol burner. "Great", I thought, here is something else to buy. So I went to Google and put in alcohol burner and two sites came up for making a burner. One was text and the other was a short video. I used an empty Cheese Whiz jar (metal lid), a piece of paper towel for a wick and a $1.98 bottle of yellow HEET. Works great!! The first time that I lit it I took it out into the yard and the family was looking out the window to see if I would be blown up.
Wow you guys are serious. I use a black sharpie. Sure I powder paint my bass jigs because they take a beating on the rocks. I use cig lighter, wood stove, oven, etc.
Ps if your not using a fluid bed to powder paint, back up and punt.
Well I tried getting a small pan to shake up some powder in but for some reason it never seemed to coat as good as out of the jar. So doing that and using the fluid bath, then a 20minute bake in the oven in some modified pie pans(dont tell my wife). Also got a little pair of pliers to grip the jig by the eye. Still getting the coatings abit heavy but significantly better.
heat gun is what I use to use when I was still painting jig I haven't had time to make jigs since my wife and I have started our family I do miss it but just don't have time for it any more but I still pour jig head when ever I get some alone time when my wife and baby aren't home I retreat to my man cave to pour jigs :)
Josh
I have recently found that the cookers from under a warming tray work good. They are round and and mine has lasted a very long time .
I use a heat gun or toaster oven, depending on how many jigs I wish to produce. If only a few: it's the heat gun';anything more than a few, I'll use the oven. I always cure them in the toaster oven.
Heat; dip and hang. When I have a rack full, I'll turn on the oven.
Hint; My toaster oven came with a fixed rack at the bottom, so turned the whole thing over. Now I have an oven with the rack at the top.
Some good tips here. Thanks! C2
It is a gel based fuel source mainly used to keep food warm in the catering business. It is extremely hot and burns clean. No black smoke to foul the heads. It is not too expensive and comes in its own container. Once you use it all just recycle the can.Quote:
Originally Posted by yellowjacket