Sorry for repost, but my registeration was mixed up.

My question is what do I do to get flexcote lite to level out on blank where I want to apply a waterslide decal? I applied the FC with part of a credit card after seeing suggestion here. It left some small wavy areas, so I went over it with a new camel hair brush. I then used heat gun, on low, to debubble and warm finish a litte to help get to flow. After that I put on 8RPM rod turner for 7-8 hrs. It ended up with the FC still a bit wavey in places.

Thanks for any help you can give me. Thanks also to those two who posted a response, but got deleted before I saw them.

99.9% of the time, wavy finish is caused by too much finish and/or rod not being perfectly level. I don't know if you saw my response before your first post got removed so here it goes again

I usually apply liberally with a "custom spatula" from McDonalds (individually wrapped) and get the whole area covered. When it starts to sag on the bottem, I remove the sags and rotate rod 180 and let sag again, removing excess. With Threadmaster (same with any finish), I do this for about 45 minutes to an hour and then turn on my dryer. Since I started doing this, I have gotten the best finishes ever. On long wraps, open wraps, I often use a playing card and lightly hold it against the back of the blank while it turns (I use a 3 rpm dryer) which smooths/levels and removes excess finish . The key is to have the blank level and let the excess sag on the bottom, remove turn 180 degrees and repeat until you no longer get sags



Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

the finish will level by itself if you let it. Waviness is mostly caused by applying
to heavy a coat and not removing the excess.

After applying the finish (any type of epoxy finish) let the rod sit level for a couple
minutes and DONT turn it. The finish will sag and drips will start to form and
drop if left still long enough. After 2 min. wick off the excess sags from the bottom
and rotate 180 degrees let sit again for another 2 minutes wick off the excess and
rotate 180 degrees. Repeat this procedure 5 or 6 times at least waiting a tad longer
between rotations each time. Then put the rod in the dryer or better yet continue this
for about 2 to 3 hours or until the extra finish you have on the foil or in the cup begins
to set up hard.

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

Ed...

Here is what this rookie builder has done with Decal Connection decals:

Apply a VERY VERY LIGHT coat of finish. I mean very light coat. It should level well enough for you apply a decal over after it dries. I'm using Threadmaster, but I'm sure this would work for the FLex Coat as well...but then I may be wrong. Make sure you get one or two "small" drops of water on the blank before you apply the decal in order to move it and center it if needed. And, use wet fingers to squeegie out the air bubbles under the decal...

Paul

Mike,
When ever you and I respond together you ALWAYS beat to the gun! Either you took typing
lessons or I'm just longer winded! LOL!

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

Good words from Mike and Ray.

Don't try and make the finish level by brushing or using cards or anything else. 9 out of 10 times you will lose the battle. Let the finish do what it wants, which is level itself. Put it on, let is sag, wick them, and repeat a few times. I hand turned for many a year with nice finish. A few years ago, I tried something new that I read about and started using a motor and my finish quality went down immediately. I went back to hand turning and have nice finish again. Don't get me wrong, motors are great and have their place, ONCE the finish is basically stabilized (excess removed). With practice, you can get down to three, even two turns manually with wicking excess before you slap it on a motor if you don't want to babysit it or get distracted by a good football game, watching the birdfeeder, etc. But if you rely on a motor to try and get a level finish without a bit of manual labor, more often than not, you'll probably wind up disappointed.

Mick...And mine wasn't good info? I feel left out.

Ed
The info I gave you is directly from Decal Connection..they have turn out "perfect" everytime oif you follow that...

Paul

You're putting on too much finish. That is nearly always why a finish gets wavy. It's too thick and heavy and is sagging and then as you rotate the rod you spread the sags all around it. Put on LESS finish.

Read Mick's post again, those are real words of wisdom. I thought that the dryer/rotater was the best thing since sliced bread and it took me about 15 rods to limit how I use it. I hand turn for about an hour and make sure I go through the wicking process I put he rod in the dryer. My finish turns out flat and smooth and I don't wind up with footballs on the guide wraps.

To me it doesn't matter how 'flat' you get it when applying the finish. You can use a credit card, a spatula, a brush, or a brick mason's trowel. It simply doesn't matter if you don't allow the excess to drip off. Now if you originally applied a VERY thin coat, then the dripping process may not be needed. BUT I would guess that 90% of us...me included...apply way more epoxy than needed. Heck I apply too much on purpose. But I always allow the rod to sit, drip, and expell the excess before I put in the dryer. This usually takes a whopping 3-5 minutes to perform.

Your decal area WILL be level if you get rid of the excess and allow it to SELF level.

Jay

You may find that the wavey finish you experience with lite formulas on top of water slide decals is not related to your application technique of the finish. Did you use the Micro Set and Micro Sol in the procedures as reccomended by Decal Connection and by Rodmaker Magazine? If not, a poorly cut and sealed edge of the decal can easily start a small ripple effect on the first coat around the edges of the decal. This will carry over to subsequent coats if the lite stuff is used. The edge of the decal needs to be cut at an clean oblique angle, properly treated, pressed flat and allowed to dry before the application of finish.

Gon Fishn



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2006 06:36PM by Bill Stevens.

i am a rank amateur. i had the same problem with lumps and waviness over the factory decal so i will try to answer the question posted-

the recommendation i got was to use a SHARP razor blade, and holding it at 90 deg to the finish,
carefully scrape longitudinally along the high spots to level them off. turn the rod frequently between strokes.
put a wrap or two of masking tape at the limits of the finish. the tape is a protector for the rod.

use a straightedge to gauge your progress with a strong light source behind. better yet, if you have a piece of straight piece of drill rod or a straight mandrel, use that. the two round surfaces should only touch on one line along the point of contact. change razor blades often. i used 4-5 to knock down my lumps.

you are trying to scrape off a little at a time. thin little shavings. you might be taking off 3-5 thousandths per scraping. you are trying to level it off. you are not trying to remove it completely.

think of a contour map with the contour lines of a hill. you are going to get a wider and wider outline as you scrape down. you are knocking off the point of a hill. that hill may be oblong, but i think the analogy is close.

after you level it off, then apply a THIN coat of finish to clean it up. the scraped surface will disappear under the last coat. you will want to remove the tape protector and bring the new finish coat to just wet over the basecoat.

yes, its tedious. i probably spent a total of 30 minutes scraping time to scrape it down. i took breaks (actually, i went fishing a couple of times in the middle of the process) until i was happy with it. maybe 5-10 minutes per session.

since this is a spot that you are usually looking at near the grip!, in the end, me results were much nicer that the lumpy mess i had. it was time well spent.

good luck

dennis

Dennis get one of the green ones with the 800 grit and save yourself a lot of grief -

Wet or dry sand and leave the razor blades in the box -

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