Powder Coating Your fishing lures

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oldranger
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Powder Coating Your fishing lures

Post by oldranger »

Repainting Z-Rays

I have some z-rays that have not proven very effective and then when the company that makes them decided to quit the business I bought whatever colors I could in the sizes I wanted. As a result of my large orders the company also sent me some extras but in sizes I don’t use in the backcountry. However I just experienced using the smaller versions for Kokanee and decided even the small ones are worth keeping.

Doing a little research on the internet I found that it is possible to powdercoat paint over existing lures. So I decided to try it.

Most of the descriptions for doing this say simply to heat the lures to 325 in the oven then drop or actually kind of swish the lure into the container the powdercoat paint comes in. This may work just fine for jigheads but not for a 3/8 oz Z-Ray. Also they say to put back in the oven for about 20 minutes to better cure the paint. What all this means is that you probably shouldn’t use an oven that is used for cooking and you need a bigger container for dipping a 3/8 oz. Finally it was suggested that using a fluid bed would result in a better coating on your lures.

Solution: Purchase a cheap $20 toaster oven. Buy or build a fluid bed at least 3” in diameter.

Oven--bought

Fluid bed built with 3 inch white pvc endcap, smooth end to male threaded 3 inch pvc piece, and a female threaded pvc piece. So the smooth end of the male threaded piece is fitted into the endcap, securing it with pvc glue. The only endcap I could find had pointy protrusion in the middle so I took some L shaped aluminum bar that I had and screwed two pieces on for a base. I drilled a hole in the side of the female threaded piece and placed a nylon tubing connector into the hole and used some pvc glue to help hold (not sure how effective it will be on nylon)Then I took a coffee filter and laid it over the male end then screwed on the female end. I attached some tubing to the tubing connecter and the other end to a small aquarium airpump and my fluid bed was complete. The point of the fluid bed is that after pouring the powdercoat into the fluid bed the airpump keeps the powdercoat paint particles bouncing around and not caking up so that the powdercoat spreads evenly over the lure.

Click on pics for higher quality view.
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How did it work?

Right off I learned that taking the hooks off was a big mistake. The powdercoat liquifies as soon as the 325° lure is covered with powder the powder that attaches to the lure becomes liquid consequently the lure must be hung some way rather than being set down which would result in flaws in the paint wherever the lure touched something. So the hooks become the means of maneuvering the lure from the oven to the fluid bed and back to the oven. Either hemostats or small needlenose pliers are used to grasp the hook and drag the lure through the powdercoat paint.
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The next lesson is that the split ring and the hook are likely to get some paint bonded to them. If the original treble hooks are still on the lure and you are planning on replacing them with a single hook the hook getting coated is not a problem. However the coated split ring is likely to get bonded to the lure and even after breaking it away may not move freely. Consequently in the future I am planning keeping the original trebles on the lure and then after powdercoating simply cut the split ring off and put a new split ring and single hook on the lure.

Other than that I am surprised at how well things worked out for a real clutz. Markskor had said he wanted some white z rays with red spots. The choice then was to paint the spots with acrylic paint or to get an airbrush and apply the dots with an airbrush. That would be one more thing to buy and I had serious doubts as to my artistic ability. So plan C. Buy some reflective tape and then use a paper punch to punch out dots. So that is how the white lures came to have red dots. I’m thinking about getting some black and silver reflective tape to apply to some of the red lures.
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I read that it was recommended that pre painted lures be coated with white Powdercoat before applying any other color as the original color otherwise will impact the final color. That seems to be the case.

Finally since you have to clean out the fluid bed whenever you change colors and that means a loss of a little powdercoat I strongly suggest that you pre coat all lures with white before you start applying other colors. That might be kind of boring but will save paint.

The other colors I will be applying are gold and chartreuse (the result of a recent fishing trip). I also have glitter and uv top coatings that I will try.
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Mike

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Re: Powder Coating Your fishing lures

Post by ERIC »

Wow, cool stuff Mike. My wife will kill me but thinking I may need to get up in the attic and save that old toaster oven from the garage sale area. I have several old spoons I want to try this on.
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Re: Powder Coating Your fishing lures

Post by The Other Tom »

Good job Mike !!
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Re: Powder Coating Your fishing lures

Post by TahoeJeff »

What a great post!
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Re: Powder Coating Your fishing lures

Post by RooPhillip »

Just outstanding, thanks for that! :thumbsup:
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Re: Powder Coating Your fishing lures

Post by rlown »

:thumbsup:

I think you're going to be getting orders soon. :nod:
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Re: Powder Coating Your fishing lures

Post by oldranger »

Russ

I don't think anyone could afford me. I charge by the hour and you know how slow I am at everything!

Mike
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Re: Powder Coating Your fishing lures

Post by rlown »

One thought came to mind. Your fluid bed doesn't cost much to build. How about building 1 for each of the 3-4 colors you're going to do? reduces the cleaning time. Air pump can be used with each.
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Re: Powder Coating Your fishing lures

Post by oldranger »

Russ

That is almost a great idea. I will modify it slightly by just buying the top piece. Once the coffee filter is screwed in it sticks to the threads so I can empty most of the paint out into the original jar then unscrew the cap and use another piece for a different color. On the other hand why not just do the whole bunch in white in one evening.

Mike
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Re: Powder Coating Your fishing lures

Post by RooPhillip »

Not to suggest that your reflective tape isn't brilliant (because it is! :thumbsup: ) but another possible material for the dots are the adhesive tape eyes used in fly tying. There are lots out there but here is one example: http://hareline.com/ae.html
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