What is the best and easiest way to paint your jig heads, what else is needed besides that paint? Is power base a better choice
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What is the best and easiest way to paint your jig heads, what else is needed besides that paint? Is power base a better choice
Probably least expensive to get into is to buy some nail polish - can get it on sale $1 at discount stores. Get whatever color but also get a good clear coat to put over top, I use hard as nails.
Learned a helpful hint from my wife... if you put more than one layer on, let them dry for 6 or 8 hours before you put the next coat or else the under-coat may never dry.
Don't know nothing about powder paints... sounds like alot of work IMO.
I think powder paint is the way to go.All's you need is a heat source,powder paint and a forceps..heat,dip, shake off excess and your done.NO WAITING.You can cure them in oven and you get a nice hard finish.Some think that the curing process isn't necessary.
Doc Crappie:"i learned something here"
Well, don't know that I do things right... Way I do it is to paint a coat on a bunch, hang em and usually let sit overnight. Am sure others have dif thoughts.
I'm interested to hear what others say about which lasts longer. I've bought some gumball(?) jigs that I ended up putting a coat of clear polish on because they chipped so bad!
I use the finger nail polish quite a bit. The hard as nails brand for my clear coat. For colors I use the powder paint and cheap nail polish such as some other member suggested. Also have tried minwax clear poly urethane and it works well for a clear coat.
The powder painting is not as hard as it sounds. After about 15 minutes of playing with the average joe gets the hang of it. Fluidizing bed equipment can get expensive unless you make our own.
For ultra lite jigs -
Fingernail polish is great;
Cheap
No brush clean up
Fast drying – you can also get accelerators to cure faster
Lots of colors
Easy to get (enamels and acrylics)
Assorted finishes
Makes great eyes
Downside;
Vapors (VOC)
Thinning – tends to dry out quickly
Residual odor – eventually goes away
Not sure about the cure time of 6-8 hours, have applied 3 to 4 coats, in less time, with no problems.
Also powder paint is a very viable alternative;
Lot’s of colors
Multi- color application without dry time in between
No vapors
Very tuff finish
Cheap – if you shop around or swap
Downside;
Set up cost - if you use a fluid bed and the cost of a dedicated curing oven
Requires a work area
Dealing with heat
You can try air brushing – you would have to be doing bulk painting.
You can clean the eye before you cure; some cover the eye when applying the paint.
Try the search function for powder paint.
I personally love the powder painting and think its easier overall than any of the ways to color jigs. Its as close to instant color/use that you can get. I have used all the paints over the years and think it has risen to the top of most jig makers. I use polish in a few instances in a pinch and hard as nails comes in a variety of colors now. i do not bake always but it does make the paint pretty indestructible. One time I took a jig that had been baked and squeezed it to make an aspirin jig and the paint was still fine. I have dented them while shooting under docks and piers and the paint was still in tact.
well from everything that i am hearing I do think that i am going to give it a try with the powder paint and see how things turn out. I guess it should get easier after every jig that is dipped. Do these need to be hung right after dipping or does it dry pretty quick
I keep a rack next to where I am coating and hang each one...but it only takes a few seconds for it to dry and a few more for it to cool enough to handle. If you were to coat 3-6 and hang them, the first one would be more than ready to do whatever you wanted to do with it.
Powder paint is what I use and its easy to do. Heat lead and dip. Follow instructions on bottle.
Okay using Testors but a white base coat on let dry while doing second batch of jigs. When the first coat of batch one is dry put your color coat on. That has to dry for several hours while you work on batch 2 and 3.
With powder paint you heat, dip clear eye when this stage is done you put back in oven or whatever your head source is cook for 15 minutes let cool and your done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Easy to figure out, but I still do some regular painting even with the powder
Fatman
Don't mean to be picky, but have you read any of the sticky post for new tiers? Or done a search to see if any of your questions have been answered before? I know all of them have been talked about in detail.
Check around a bit to see what you can find and after that if you still have questions fire away.
Here are a few links from a simple search for painting...
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/jig-t...ting-jigs.html
http://www.tjstackle.com/ also has a video.
Make a simple search and you will find many post on painting.
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Best way to keep the eyes clean is don't get any powder paint on em in the first place! Easily done by taking some hemostats and holding the jighead by the eye to dip into powder paint. the hemostats keep any paint from gettin on the eye. Hang em and bake em to cure. Faster than nail polish and more durable.
I have some of the vinyl jig head paint that bass/pro sells and it takes a base coat of white under the chartruse or hot pink an then a clear coat. so I switched to the powder paint it makes a beautiful finish and if you get it in the hook eye it is best to clean before you bake. it don't soften up if you leave a tube or grub on it but it will chip if you miss your target when shooting docks.
Believe it or not, but I use automotive touch up paint that you can get a WalMart or K-Mart. It dries quickly, is very tough and hard to chip, and you can get some of the colors with the metallic finish. One bottly will do several hundred jigs. Just a thought.:D
hemostats to prevent eye from clogging
fluid bed
alcohol burner
fluid bed
If you dont have a fluid bed, sprinkle paint onto jig w/ paint brush or strainer
I do not believe this to be the easiest or least time consuming way, but does anyone dip with artist acrylics and then clear coat with water-based polyurethane?
Makes for an attractive lead head. Even a satin clear coat supplies a beautiful glossy shimmer. Acrylics are also good for forming eyes before the final clear coat. Bake in a toaster oven for the proper time and the jig head looks really good and toughens well.
Acceptable durability? Seems tough to me. I conducted a hammer test on a few versus some powder-coated heads. Several swats on each group resulted in similar results (i.e. chipped heads). When floated beneath a float as opposed to pounding rocky banks, why not?
I'd like to think that I paint jigs similarly to Lonnie Stanley. A commercial jig maker that I like to keep tabs on.
This does require a little bit of time. But, if you happen to have it, hey, try it out.
Hey Pup
Welcome from So Cal.
Very interesting paint method. Have a few ?s - Does the artist acrylics evaporate, do you have to have a specific thinner?
How high is your cure temp? Is there a lot of odor, vapors?
Hope to see some of your jigs posted up..
I use fingernail polish ( tough as nails ) sally hansens. powder paint, testers enamel and also tamiya acrylic. they all have their place. paint eyes with testers enamel. touch up paint? gonna have to try that one too!
LedHed,
I meant to thank you for your invitation. This is a really nice site indeed. Lots of neat stuff to learn and look at here.
Not when I keep them capped tightly. I haven't tried to thin any yet. It seems to me that the higher-priced acrylics are thicker. Good question. Fortunately, they are very cheap ($0.50 - $1.20) and can be mixed together to create different colors. My first mixing experiment resulted in a milktreuse color. :)Quote:
Does the artist acrylics evaporate, do you have to have a specific thinner?
Approximately 200 degrees F. No apparent odor or vapor. However, I bake them within a toaster oven located outside of my home in an unattached garage.Quote:
How high is your cure temp? Is there a lot of odor, vapors?
What kind of powder paint do you use? Also does the UV kind work well? Thank you!
I use Pro tec powder paint because I have found it to be the best. I use heat gun to heat up the heads then just dip and shake. There is no need to bake if you fish wood or brush piles. You do need to bake if you fish rocks are dock shoot. The bake finish makes them super durable if that's what you need. I found it is by far the best way to paint jig heads. Your mileage may vary.
Powder paint, fluid bed and heat gun here. I use 1/16 oz heat shrink to protect jig eye. 100’ roll $7 shipped on ebay.
Attachment 366945
Lotsa real good ideas...For years before powder paint I was a die-in-the wool vinyl lure and jig finish guy and made some drying racks for the vinyl.Still use them when cooling powder painted cured jigs.Protecting eyelets and crane swivels (harder to deal with paint) on road runners from heat I use 1/4 stainless tubing about 6' long.Use about 8 of them and rotate to let cool between uses.I also buy round toothpicks and use them once per end for each eyelet whenever I need to clean out some unwanted paint.I also bought a heat gun from true value that sets on it's own base.
Got tired of changing cups for colors of powder paint -bought a bunch of cups for the fluid beds.Use a 2" and a 3" fluid bed but much prefer the 3"for better air control.
There is a lot of ways to skin a cat.
Just a few more ideas/suggestions.
Sorry guys I am closing this thread. Would love to see new post on this subject, but this thread is 11 years old.
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