epoxy

[wnctroutbum 0]

Ok I have never used epoxy before so I have a few questions. What is better 1min or 5min? Do I have to have a rotating dryer? Whats the best way to apply it? Thanks in advance for any help anyone my be able to give.

[Guest]

Ok I have never used epoxy before so I have a few questions. What is better 1min or 5min? Do I have to have a rotating dryer? Whats the best way to apply it? Thanks in advance for any help anyone my be able to give.

 

 

All quick drying epoxies will yellow over time. If you want whatever you epoxy to remain clear, use 20 min. or longer.

 

If you are going to do a lot of flies at one time, you need a dryer. You can make your own by buying a rotisserie motor and mounting it to a wooden stand.

 

I use a toothpick to apply epoxy.

 

 

[Dart 0]

I've only used epoxy once (planning on trying it again in the very near future). I used the 5 minute and it set up WAY too fast for me. I've read a lot of guys use the Devcon 30 minute epoxy (2 ton) with success. Post-it notes or something similar to mix it on would work and application with a tooth pick makes for easy clean up. Depending on how much epoxy you add to the fly, a rotary dryer may be helpful. Someone posted a picture of a make-shift table they made (I was thinking it was Kirk), but I've spent 30 minutes searching for it and can't find it.

 

Basically they took a piece of styrofoam and made legs on the top and bottom - imagine two tables stacked on top of each other, with the one on top being upside down. Then you can stick the flies in the side of the foam and manually flip the table ever so often. I hope that makes sense... and helps.

[tidewaterfly 0]

I've had the best success with 60 or 90 minute Devcon, but I usually do large batches of flies at a time. I have 2 rotators that will hold about 25 large flies each.

 

A plastic lid from a butter/margarine tub works good for mixing, and when the epoxy sets, the leftover is easy to peel off. For larger batches, I use cheap plastic souffle cups, like the kind you sometimes see in fly shops, that they put flies in when sold.

 

For coating poppers & such, I use cheap plastic bristle hobby brushes, and for coating heads or smaller fly bodies, a cheap stainless dental pick works well. I used tooth picks too, but seemed like every time I needed them I didn't have any, so the dental pick was added to my tools. You can buy them on Ebay real cheap too.

[skidoosh 0]

You can also use rubbing alcohol to thin the epoxy without messing up mixing rates. This helps if you get lots of bubbles developing. There are now many options like clear goo as well but it can be an expensive set up cost. Go with at least 30 minute epoxy.

[FishyboY 0]

clear cure goo or tuffleye is da way to go!

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Hey Dart, yeah, it was me. I'm the crazy one that thinks motorized turners are overkill when it comes to flies and epoxy. The more flies you have, the more efficient this set up is. No stopping and starting of turner motor and you can have several of these made up that will allow you to do dozens.

I also use the cheap plastic handled and bristled brushes - I think you get 30 in a bag for a dollar. The trick to a really nice finish is to not coat it to thickly. As said above, 5 minute epoxy yellows. For a top coat, I only use "30 minute" epoxy; never tried the 20-minute one but that would just cut down on your working time.

 

Place your coated fly in a clip and keep doing one fly after another until the epoxy is to thick to spread thinly.

 

Flip over and begin mixing your next batch of epoxy. By the time you have it mixed and the next fly coated, the sag of epoxy will have leveled off and you can flip it back over and resume coating/clipping.

 

This is a picture of how I used to do it before I got high-tech and created the rig above.

 

If you are mechanically inclined and just have to make a turner cause everyone else is doing it that way, then here is a link to a post with a great bunch of answers about epoxy turners that Dart was looking for.

 

http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?sho...=51954&st=0

 

Kirk

[wnctroutbum 0]

Ok, i have a dumb question? why do I you have to rotate the fly? what will happen if you just let them set and dry?

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Epoxy is thick but until it sets, it will "run". If it applied really thick it will run really fast. Even applied thinly, it will run and you will end up with a hard blob of epoxy on one side of your fly or another.

 

Kirk

[Stippled Popper 0]

This point wouldn't matter as much on some flies, however as epoxy begins to set up certain areas of the surface you are trying to coat with your craft brush may not receive an even coating of epoxy or perhaps may receive none at all. This is easy to fix if you give the thing a quick overall glance before you put the fly on whatever you are using to allow the epoxy to cure. But if not, once it has hardened you may later find you have a dimple on your body.

 

I used Loon Hard Head to fill in the dimple on the few that did this on me before I trained myself to inspect the epoxy before placing the fly on my epoxy drier.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

...But if not, once it has hardened you may later find you have a dimple on your body...

 

Great point! I forgot all about those. I often wondered how those happened cause I am uaually pretty thorough when coating the heads but it does happen.

I'm gonna get me some of that Loon stuff one day.