I just finished epoxy sealing and priming. Now for the big decision. How are they gonna be dressed??

I was thinking maybe white sparkle with a little pink on the sides??
or maybe black over gold scale?? or maybe my favorite trick color shifting chameleon with a gold eel belly???? I dunno :scatter:

I'll think of something...

Digger

Those look Most Pissah......:kewl:

Just finished painting mine Tuesday night. Now to start the Epoxy-ing.

Glad I made extra's...screwed up the paint on one.....its now Blurple :D

Learned the Extras lesson last year...when I would screw one up and have to spin up another everytime.

Digger,

Do you mean the "heat the wood and dip in epoxy sealing method"? What kind of epoxy are you using? I always thought of trying it but just assumed it was too messy.

John

P. are those thin Dannys, Gary2 type. Very nice. I am sure your paint will be pretty.

That sounds good :drool:


"or maybe my favorite trick color shifting chameleon with a gold eel belly????"

John E, That's right. I heat the plug blanks in a toaster oven to about 225 deg. Then I slather on epoxy inside and out. I was using Systems 3 Clear Coat. It is very thin and it penetrates deeply into the blank. After about 15 minutes I just wipe off any excess. There isn't much because nearly all of the epoxy soaks into the wood. If you try it, be sure to run a piece of coat hanger down through the through wire hole and drag a pice of sheet metal (I really use an old lip) through the lip slot to be sure that nothing gets plugged up. It's not as messy at it sounds. I wear surgical gloves to keep my hands clean. The plus side is that your plugs become nearly bulletproof, and they are ready to prime in about 12 hours instead of days or weeks that are needed to dry after an oil bath soak.
I am now using West Systems with the 105 resin and the 207 specialty hardener. I like the way it mixes and the pumps on the containers make measuring idiotproof (and I need that:kewl: ) Big Rock turned me onto the West Systems stuff. It's pricy to get started with it but it's worth it.

Professor M, You gotta ask Gary about that. I think he borrowed some of that "Slim Plug" of his from me. Not the other way around :uhuh: I could be wrong though..Great minds think alike :bl2: Ours are similar, but mine is a little longer, and the front end is more rounded , and I use a pikie lip where Gary makes his own. Mine is kinda snakey on top where Gary's has a tighter swim. It's funny. He and I were just comparing the 2 plugs in my shop the other night. He made the mistake of leaving one of his blanks behind for me:kewl: I made some extras Paul and you're on the list.

OK Slip. You got it.. Super cool trick chameleon paint it is.

Patrick aka Digger

Patrick,
Do you try to get it in the thru wire hole with a pipe cleaner or something? Also I like the idea of West System epoxy. I have some left over from a strip canoe that I used the special non yellowing hardener on. I have never had a bad mix with that stuff. The pumps work great!!

When the plug is hot, I let the epoxy run off the brush into the nose and the tail till it runs out one end or the other. I have a 1.8" dia stainless rod that I slide back and forth a few times to make sure that the epoxy is well worked into the through wire hole.

Patrick

You can buy 1/8 brass rod at homies if you need it.:tooth:

Patrick,

Thanks for the help. I will give it a try in the spring once the plug shop thaws out. Will also definately give the West Systems a try. I've had an eye on it but didn't want to spend the $$$ without some input on it first. Have you guys tried this method on maple and other hardwoods yet or just on cedars?

Patrick the reason I said G2 is I got a couple recently and was only using it as a reference to the shape:angel: :faga:
Jerry K. told me about that style of sealing a year or 2 ago and Matt told me about it last fall but I never tried it as I had too much of what I was using at the time, very interesting. I am curious how many plugs can you seal with each batch you mix? Are you using the West Sys. for your final finish epoxy coat too? The plugs I have from you and Matt are very hard I noticed. Basicly you are putting 2 coats of epoxy on them, 1 under the paint and 1 over. Do you prime after the 1st coat and before the airbrush or just put paint on over the seal coat? Thanks for the info. P.

Regrets....
 

Its with deep regrets that I must withdraw from the swap. I am in way over my head this season and other comittments that I must honor first, and I have the Asbury show to do this year, and after my fathers passing early in the year I have been overseeing the sale of his home and moving mom in with me over the last 2 months, I have had scant time to build. Getting 400 done by March 11 is going to be rough enough, and I am really bummed that I will miss out on so many awesome plugs, hopefully the future will afford me another opportunity to participate in such a huge event. I'm sorry for any inconvienience this will cause, but I bit off more than I could chew.

It's OK Professor:btu: I'm glad you got some Gary2 Slims. He is a meticulous builder and his plugs are very strong producers.

I do a small batch of epoxy at a time. 1 pump of resin and 1 pump of hardener equals about 5 or 6 drams (in a medicine cup) of epoxy mix. I get 8 or 10 plugs out of the batch depending on the size of the plugs. You really can't do too many at a time because you have to wipe off any excess and clear the lip slot and wire hole before the epoxy hardens. The stuff hardens much faster than normal due to the high temp of the blank. So:
I mix a batch of the epoxy, quickly coat the plugs, wipe them down, mix another batch, etc till I'm done. Doing 50 plug blanks took me about a hour.

After the epoxy cures (overnight) I prime with Kilz Red Label primer. Then I lay on a coat of Createx Base Coat sealer (either white or black depending upon the desired paint color), spray on my colors, and then I wire and apply the final coat of epoxy to the outside. I do not use a separate clear coat or scratch coat. I epoxy right over the paint. I will use the West Systems for final finish unless I'm painting over pure white. White plugs will continue to get a coat of Systems 3 Mirror Coat or Clear coat depending upon the plug.

John E I've used this method with excellent results on birch, AYC and Western Red. I heard of 2 plugs of mine that were Western Red that split last year. I think that this was due to me having to drill out the hardened epoxy from the through hole in a batch that I neglected to clean out during the sealing process. I probably got down into unprotected wood on those plugs and the WR swells like a sponge. I haven't experience any other problems doing it like this. No delamination, no peeling.:btu:

Rock, :wavey: I'm sorry to hear that you will not be able to complete the swap. Do what you have to do. I'll come and buy some of your plugs at the Asbury Show!

Patrick

Thanks P. When you say Base coat are you talking about Opaque because I don't see the Base coat listed where I get it from. Another thing is do you find the tail hole for the weight shrinks up very much thus making a tight fitting tail weight a PIA to get in with the epoxy because I would imagine wiping off the outside not to be a problem but internally could be a little hard. Also as far as belly weights do you have something that adheres good to the epoxy to hold them in? Thanks as always. P.

Thats too bad, I was looking forward to seeing a bigrock plug in person. Maybe I'll make the trip to Asbury. Hope everything works out for you.

No Paul. It's not just opaque paint.
It is the Createx Auto Air base coat sealer I think it is the 4400 series paint. It comes in white and black. Check out the Createx Auto Air web page and look at the way it bonds coats of paint together. It's pretty impressive.
If your plug blank is hot, the epoxy really does suck right into the wood and it should not result in buildup that would restrict the opening. I have never had a big problem with it. A quick swab with a Q-Tip while the epoxy is still wet would certainly prevent any issues.
Patrick

Thanks for your time.

OOPS The Auto Air base coat sealer is series 4000. The seriea 4400 is the gem chameleon and flair tint colors. My bad.

In addition to the black and white base coats, they also sell a clear base and 3 grades of bright metallic aluminum base for use under their candy colors. I use them. they are gooood!:btu:

Patrick

Instead of spending $100+ on west system epoxy, there's more generic boatbuilding epoxies out there. I've used marinepoxy from boatplans online's web store on a boat I built and I personally liked it better than west system. There was no amine blush with the marinepoxy and there was a lot with the west system. Both were watery thin and had excellent penetration, but the cheaper stuff seemed a little thinner.

I know this previous info on epoxy sealing was a hijack of the Moass thread. Can it be put in a how to thread as it is full of great info that some might miss.

Patrick,

Thanks for all the info. Good stuff.

Finally, ready for sealer. Started with 39 and lost 3 along the way. :smash: Hope to have a good 30 outa whats left when done. :hihi:

Tick Tock ,Tick Tock

Ya P. i shoulda listened. :hihi: Live an learn. :D

I'M DONE !!!:D

Are we posting pics or do you all want it to be a surprise???

Patrick

Goes ahead, rub it in. :btu:

I'm where JPI was yesterday, wood all spun and machined waiting for sealer. Put'em on the back burner so's I could get something done for PlugFest. PlugFest plugs are in primer:scatter: Shakin' it boss, I'm shakin' it! :bc:

BBJ...I'm in a dead tie with ya. Just came out of the garage from priming some plugfest plugs and the Moass plugs are ready for the dip.

Nicely done, JPI...look forward to saying the same. I'm startin to see my moass plugs in my sleep!

Lets See'em.......I need a fix.

I got 6 completely done.....the rest are waiting for epoxy......hoping to have them done by the end of the month.......Got a few other things on the burner right now

I have mine all painted and ready for hardware but i'm out of belly gromits so i'm going to wait till plugfest to get some.I'm also working on a few for the plugfest and for diggers auction.:angel:

Ready to Paint
 

Hope to have all these done by within the next 2 weeks. I never realized how much work a 30+ run would be! Would have been much harder without my Professor M cutting tool!!

yup Lower, how these commercial guys do it is beyond me. :doh:

Fred kinda said it all with sweatin guy :bc:

:D

I was just reading the PlugFest Thread and found that I have an extra week to build plugs. I thought that it was next week and found it was the week after!! A whole nother week!!:rollem:

Thats great now you can make me a few more cause one can never have enough of BBJ plugs ,bass just love them too much.:drool:

You can say that again! I also got a late start due to some personal issues PLUS I'm slow :rollem: but I'm slmost there. :boots: Won't have time for any fancy paint job though, at least not if you want them in 2007. :spin: Did I tell you I'm slow?

I got piles of wood everywhere :hihi: no sawdust yet :hee: the stuff for diggers kid auction is almost to primer :conf: Everything is going to be black.

Just want to say this forum has been so lame ,with you beavers all making your 30 .. Thank god for Numbys "get this party started "thread that only a handful of us particapated in .. I say for now on if there's a 30 swap you gotta make 31 ,,, The 1 being a random plug to start a new thread .. Or this place will be a ghost town like when were're all fishing .. If you been making anything other than your 30 I say pony up ,,and post new thread now .. WORD !!! :boots:

Ya Tagger, i heard someone say one time, "it's not about us it's about the plugs". :rotf3:

Ya Tagger, i heard someone say one time, "it's not about us it's about the plugs". :rotf3:

Alot more important than respirators. :hihi:

a few - but the big row of rockets are for the swap :D :D - others are for me and my fishing companions:bl: :bl: