Getting started with powder

[AtticaFish]

My foot is in the door! WooHoo!!! Was waiting to get a little cheapy/2nd hand toast oven to get hard cured heads before i bought paint, but my wife surprised me with a brand new toaster oven for my birthday on friday. Told her it was way too fancy to ruin by baking lead in... then said THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Saturday afternoon took a road trip to Toledo - Janns Netcraft! Ended up with white, red, yellow, blue, watermellon & clear... black was out of stock. Painted a few today - pretty slick stuff.

Questions, questions.....

1st Step - Heat Source: With out taking a trip to the store to make an alcohol burner like was posted here, my best bet was a cig lighter. 1st 1/16th oz. head i tried, melted 90% of the lead off the hook - plop - oops! - hot lead!!! Did have a heating pad on the desk though. 2nd head i heated less and dippedin white, but tried to re-heat after i noticed i missed a spot. Guess it got too hot because the paint started bubbling/smoking and turned brown... fudge-a-roo #2. :dodgy: Cussed a little.... scratched my head... then looked at my fancy new jig oven. :idea: Quick read through my Jann's catalog mentioned that the metal has to be 350 degs. for powder to stick. SO, set the oven to 400, hung a few jigs on the rack and set the timer for 15 mins. Watched through the window as the lead turned shiny. Ding! Pulled one out with forceps and dip. Eureka! Back in the oven at 350 for 15 mins. to cure and it glossed over smooth as goose sh!t thru a screen door in the process. :beer:

1st couple questions... there will be more to come.

If i have read right, lead melts at around 600 degs. Farenheit or so, correct? I should have no problem with lead melting even on small 1/80-1/64 heads if i keep the temp around 400 right? Does 400 degs. mess with the hook any.... make it brittle?

Why have i never heard of anyone using a toast oven to heat the jig before painting? I CAN NOT be the first. Seemed to work ok and was even able to tap some color on a few to add multi-color after a short re-heat in the oven.

I will post some pics soon of my progress into this.

 

[Jig Man]

There is a guy on youtube that heats um in the oven before painting, its just easier to do it the other way. Different strokes for different folks. It took getting used to but I use a propane torch on low low. Melted a few starting out but I got used to it. Main reason I use it is because I already had one.

 

[LedHed]

Embossing gun or heat gun are a reliable heat source for multi color painting down to 1/48th.
Get a good temperature measuring device (I use a TC reader).

 

[ScottV]

I use an alcohol burner I found on eBay. I adjust the flame to about an inch high and heat 1/8 oz jigheads two seconds, turn it over, and two seconds on the other side. Then I grab the jighead with another pair of forceps by the hook eye and dip into the powder paint. That keeps paint out of the eyelet. Works great for me.

 

[SaltyBuckster]

I use the toaster oven to preheat my bigger jigheads.I just leave the oven at 350 and heat for 6 minutes then dip them one at a time until I am finished.Tutones,3 tones.Does'nt matter.When they are all finished I set the oven for 20 minutes and cure them all.But,I only do maybe a dozen at the most at one time.I think 400 will give you too hot a temp for black and white.

 

[CrappieHappy]

x2 what Scott says... you typically only need a few seconds per side base on jighead size... I have used a lighter as well but never melted one... You just wanted to see if a lighter would get it hot enough... lol

 

[Radtexan]

Alcohol burner has been my preferred method for the last few years,but I ran out of alcohol a few weeks ago and been using the gun..Its almost as good if it wasnt so NOISY..........


You got some pics yet ??

 

[AtticaFish]

Thanks for the replies all...

Doc - The nail polish will not go to waste - i have an 8yr old daughter. Not sure which smiley should follow that statment. A or a :s She WILL give me a run for my money and put many gray hairs on my head.

Glad to see there are others that are heating jigs with an oven... seems most effecient (for me) at the time, but that could change. A heat gun sure sounds interesting without having an open flame and all, but the noise factor could be an issue since i do most of my work in the basement after the little ones are in bed for school the next mornin'. Wht does it sound like - a hair dryer? They look like a souped up hair dryer anyway. Embossing gun - are they noisy as well?

RT - Pics will be coming... just pulled them off my camera. :jig:

 

[AtticaFish]

Pictorial...

Heads n' hooks: a wide assortment. :jig:

Quote: Brittany Spears - "Oops i did it again." Spose to be a LA baits 1/32 socketed pill head. I found a mini torch lighter in the cuboard... 4 seconds per side is TOO long!

Ok - colors and experiments - i can see me going through a lot of jigs to get this how i want...

1st attempts didnt go all that bad. On the left is straight dipped watermelon flake - left middle watermellon flake with a white basecaot - left bottom white base coat with watermellon flake tapped on the top-side. On the right top is w.mellon w/ whit tapped on belly - w.mellon dipped w/ yellow tapped on bottom - 1:1 mix of w.mellon & white.

Next up - some mixed tapped on colors on 1/4oz. heads. Top left is a solid w.mellon lake. Bottom was a bluedip with red taped on that did NOT turn out purple as i thought it might. :blush:

Not going to go into detail on all, but do see i have some issues with too much paint on the socketed heads that are supposed to get stick on eyes. Mostly playing around with mixing and figuring it all out. I do like the orange i came up with... a mix of 2:2:1 flame red/yellow/w.mellon flake.

Top left on this pic is 2:2:1 flame red/blue/baitfish that turned out a killer purple! Bottom right is a white base with w.mellon tapped on top.

Close-up of one of my wobble-heads, going to copy Heather's craw style jigs with these.

 

[Pup]

AF,

Outdoor utility lighters work well for me. The kind used to light charcoal grills.

I roll a jig from nose to collar horizontally, back and forth, through the flame with a count of "1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4". No "Mississippis" or "one-thousands" in my cadence. Works for my collared jigs weighing 3/16 of an ounce and less.

Good start. :icon14:

 

[AtticaFish]

On to step 2............ of this 12 step program.

Settled on a heat source for now - an old oil lamp that has a glass flute/globe on it. The heat from the lamp is funneled up the flute... gets them hot quick and have not melted lead off the hook with it - yet. And no more guessing how far from the flame the jig is since it can only go so far in.

After screwing up several heads due to nips and drips (some hanging all the way down to the catch pan underneath) i have all but given up on even trying to dip hot jigs straight into the powder jars. Don't dip back in the salsa after you took a bite off that tortilla chip - same goes for double dipping into my powder jar. I did make up one of those threaded rods that hold the heads vertical when curing - no more nips, but could see i was still getting way too much paint on them. Instead, have been getting them hot then quickly tapping the paint on with a brush. Most of what i am doing is more than one color anyway, so don't think it matters that it takes a few xtra seconds. I won't be dipping until i can get a fluid bed put together.

Have learned so far:
- That for multi-color heads not to worry about making sure every little piece of lead is covered the first time you tap on a color. As you re-heat it and add more paint, the original paint will continue to spread out and fill in.
- To get a smooth gradient effect of blending one color to another, start out tapping farther from the jig and it spreads the falling paint out better. As the paint is tapped off the brush, you can get closer and tap. Also, mixing just a little color to alot of clear (making a 'candy' color) helps to spread the color out and get a smooth gradient. Been using alot of the clear and now see why Roger suggested to get extra, that was good advice.
- This is WAY TOOOO addicting and my wife is getting sick of me bringing up jigs and saying 'check THIS one out!!!'

Couple new paint jobs below.

Junebug over a candy gray baitfish mix

Some little shot heads on #8 hooks - that is a quarter for size reference

Dug out some old blades and gave them a try also. Wife saw the bigger willow blade and said she wanted it to put on her key chain. I got the heat tape from work. Cut the shape out with a razor blade - paint it - peel off the tape. Leaves no adhesive on the blade. Put the dots on a few by placing an alumnium plate with a hole punched in it over the blade then tapping the paint through the hole. Just messing around to see what all i can do with this paint.

 

[Lost Pole]

Heh. Everything looks excellent! Very impressed with the blades. Tell me more about that tape and where to get it pleaaaase.

 

[CrappieHappy]

nice job Russ... if your getting drips and nips, your getting the head too hot, and the paint is going on too thick......try 1/2 the time per side, then try the fluff and stuff... you can always put back over the heat to gloss it over if needed....

 

[SaltyBuckster]

Aint powder painting FUN ???lol

 

[JSC]

I see someone gettin "Hooked" on PP ... Fun ...

 

[AtticaFish]

LP - the tape is from a company (Stahls i think) that sells the vinyl numbers and letters that go on sports jerseys. Can be used at pretty high temps on our heat press and holds up ok. Dont use it much at work except for some odd jobs. I looked around and found 3 rolls.... 1 of them fell in my pocket before i left work and didn't realize it was there till i got home. I have almost a full roll - if you want to mess with some, i can wrap some on a a piece of metal (or something) and send it to you - only take an envelope to get it there. Let me know!

CH - I'll have to give it a try again with less heat. I knew for sure a few of the 1st ones i did were way too hot since they would smoke and bubble a little. They quit smokin' so figured i had it right. ha! Work has an in-fa-red (however you spell that) tempature gun... may have to bring it home over the weekend once just to get a general idea. That will have to go back though - pretty sure they might notice that one!