Good morning all.

I just received for my birthday a new airbrush and compressor, a VL by Passche. My question is this: What paints / clears are best when it comes to painting blanks?

Regards......Doug@
TCRds

You can start with the Createx Auto Air line of airbrush paints...Easy to clean, good color pallette which includes flairs, and easy cleanup. Get them for the price and ease of use. Once you get your technique down the selections are nearly endless as is the price range.

Make yourself a spray booth and filter out the airborne particles of paint or wear a particle mask unless you want to be blowing you nose in fully colors. Been there, done that. A drying cabinet would also be a good idea as well, especially if you live in a colder of more dusty environment.

As for clears...Look for ones that possess a UV inhibitor.

Derek L. McMaster
Rohnert Park, CA

Born to Fish, FORCED to Work

Doug,
We are currently looking at adding a line of very high quality urethane paints specificasslly for coating blanks. I airbrushed some blanks last week with the prototypes, and the results were outstanding. LAst night I mixed up some med. blue and white for a baby blue...it looks really really nice.The Poly we are looking at is a Water Based Linear Polyurethane. It is VERY durable, but very flexable. If we pick it up, it will be available in many different colors which can be mixed for custom blends. In addition the water base makes for less votility, no need for a spray booth (with an explosion proof exhaust) , easy cleanup etc.... Several of the major US factories are already using or testing a similiar resin (made for dip coating or pour application). Plus since it is water based it is recyclable.

There are still a few kinks to work out, but I'll keep you gusy posted as this progresses.

Andy Dear
Lamar Fishing Products

Derek and Andy,
Do you have any idea how much weight those coatings will add?

Andy thanks, I'll be looking forward to it.

Is anyone else using water based coatings to paint rod blanks at present. I've been looking at several products on the internet, but haven't purchased any as of yet. Besides, I'm still practicing and getting use to setting up and using the brush.

Regards......Doug@
TCRds

Emory,
Yes, they will add weight, but no more than the weight that comes with a factory applied finish. I'll run a test blank here in a few minutes and post the weight differential.

Derek, yes, I know of several blank amf, that do. However they are not your readily available "off the shelf" minwax style coatings. What we are going to offer will be a much higher quality resin. I'll also post some pics on the photopage today as well.


Andy Dear
Lamar Fishing Products

I have been using "Durocoat". It is a paint used for painting firearms. It comes in variety of colors plus high gloss clear. VERY tough paint and I do use a VL airbrush with a #3 tip.

Don't get me wrong I am not arguing to not put a finish on a blank. I am just asking about the performance implications. Most blanks come with a factory applied finish. Unless you remove the factory finish aren't you ending up with two that could be enough added weigh to be a performance issue. The weight of the finish is not insignificant. What I have read about the weight of a finish coat on a blank is that it adds roughly 5% to the weight of the blank so two coats will be roughly 10%. One way of thinking about it is, this is roughly the equivalent of adding an extra guide or two.

Andy,
You might want to consider measuring the resonant frequency of the blank before and after applying the coating. That would be a much better indication of the effect on performance than just the before and after weights.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2006 11:54AM by Emory Harry.

Well, the blanks I coat I always remove the factory finish. And there are times when aesthetics overtake performance. You'd be surprised at how many pink and white CTS blanks I am selling.


Andy

I too remove the finish prior to coating a rod to be used for casting. Most of what I paint though is standup or boat rods. Those I just prepare the surface with Scotch brite, clean and paint. So far, so good!

Regards......Doug@
TCRds

Actually after thinking about it a little more maybe it is not something to loose any sleep over and is not going to be the equivalent of adding the weight of an extra guide or two. Because of the blanks taper the majority of the added weight will be back toward the butt where it has much less effect on performance.

Emory,
I was going to say that EXACT thing, but I didn't want to ruffle your feathers in cas you disagreed.

Uncoated 6'6" spin blank: 2.07oz.
Coated with my experimental urethane in "powder blue" : 2.135oz

Pics will be up on my website in a few minutes


Andy Dear
Lamar Fishing Products

Yes you can damage a blank by sanding it. I know for a fact, because I've done it. I remove the finish by lightly sanding first with 400 grit Wet / Dry then clean everything up with 600 grit Wet / Dry.

You just go slow and check your progress often. It's not hard to tell where your at in the process.

Let me say, painting blanks is not something I do everyday. If I can buy the color I'm looking for, then it saves me time and money to do so. But, I get requests from time to time for a particular color, or to match the color scheme of a particular boat. These rods I paint.

Regards......Doug@
TCRds

Here's how you remove the finish from a blank. First, DO NOT sand it...you will run the risk of damaging the fibers. Get a butterknife, dull edge down and scrape the finish off (back and forth). Once you get it at just the right angle the finish will sort of scrape/peel off. Don't use downward pressure, use slight pressure along the axis of the blank. It's a bit of work, but the risk of damaging the fibers is much less this way. Todd Vivian told me he has done this with a dull razorblade before, Ralph O' Quinn I think used a butter knife like I do. Once you have the excess removed, you can then scotchbrite it with a 7447 maroon pad to even out the surface, wipe clean with IPA, and then recoat.

Pics are up at www.lamarfishing.com


Andy Dear
lamar Fishing Products

Andy, just checked out the new paint job. It came out real nice!

Regards......Doug@
TCRds



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2006 01:13PM by Doug Moore.

Doug,

As far as waterbased finishes, we use a paint made by Testors called "Pactra". It was made for painting flexible Lexan R/C cars bodies and has a good flex agent in it. You can find it online or at most Hobby Shops. We shoot it from A Passche gun as well, usually at about 35lbs line pressure. They DO offer a clear, buit we use Perma Gloss over it instead.

Mark Griffin
[]
C&M Custom Tackle
San Dimas, California

Andy - why stop at the blank, how does a reel seat look painted with that stuff? How about the butt cap? Why not wrap the guides, and paint those too? Once you've gone that far, you might as well paint your reel to match.

Seriously, it would be nice to have a matching reel seat, reel, and blank - might be something someoen wants to look into as a side job for those of use too lazy to do it ourselves. I'm sure there are a LOT of us in this boat.

Thanks for the info Mark.

Andy, I'll have to give the butter knife a try next time. Sounds like it will take less time than the way I've been doing it.

Regards......Doug@
TCRds

The waterbase urethane were using is much more sophisticated than anything else available off the shelf. This is an industrial grade coating that several of the major US blank manufacturers have and are using in a similiar form...although there "recipe" calls for the finish to be baked in an oven, whereas this one does not. In addition they are using the clear version with a tint for that transparent look. I see no reason why one could not coat a reelseat or anything else with it, provided the surface is prepped properly.

I'll keep you posted as this progresses.


Andy Dear
Lamar Fishing Products

Doug,

Check out wasco. com. Its a taxidermy supply company and they have a wide variety of natural and vivid colors designed to paint fresh and saltwater fish. I've found them to have the biggest selection of airbrush paint.