Epoxy, powder paint or other?

I’m looking to make some jigs to occupy my time over the winter. I will mostly be making bass jigs and a few walleye jigs. The question I have is on paint, Epoxy, powder paint or other. I’ve used powder before and it’s worked out ok. I think at spraying would give me more a custom look. What are your thoughts?

Thanks
Rick

I would go with spraying. I tried the powder and I thought it was tough to work with and I didn’t like the finish when dry.

I like powder painting – it’s fast, easy, and durable. If you want to add some highlights to your jigs you can use a small paint brush to sprinkle a contrasting color on the head while it’s still warm. You can also paint eyes on the jigs with vinyl or use stick-on eyes. A lot of good tips on the web for techniques if you do a search.

My jigs are usually quite plain, and for me I view getting “artistic” with painting jigs as a contest to see who can leave the prettiest jig stuck in the rocks.

Good luck.

Dan

I’d go with the powder paint, then bake it as directed to toughen it up if durability is an issue for you.

You could use the the powder paint and forgo the baking, then use spray to achieve some customized paint jobs or to help give the jig a layered appearance.

Adding glitter to a transparent powder paint can help dress up jigheads to. Eyes are another addition that can be added.

Lots of ways are available as paint jobs go, but keep in mind that if you plan to bake the powder paint, you have to do it prior to applying other paints.

Powder paint all the way
Its easy nearly NO mess with NO smell and you can bake them in your oven with NO affects to your oven .

I am a no frills kind of guy, no eyes, tried two tone and decided not to any more. Powder all the way. I use a torch with a triger ignition, stick my jig in for a quick 1 2 3 pull it out of the flame and do the same on the other side dip it into the powder tap the excess off on the side of the jar. Then I have a piece of aluminum pan I bent and added a few pieces 3/8″ all thread to hang the jigs on to cool and bake. I clean the eyes on the jigs before I bake them. I’ll try to post some pictures tonight. Almost forgot bake at 350 deg for 20 minutes.

For sure Powder Paint is the way to go

I suppose it depends on how durable you want them, I can’t remeber who posted it up last year, but someone posted a pic of a bunch of jigs in a box that they had lugged across the ice quite a few times, just about all the paint was off the powder coated jigs, and the B fishing and tackle jigs looked brand new. IIRC they are painted not power coated.
Maybe that makes a difference to you.

Like I said I would post some pictures the first is a picture of the torch I use. The second is a picture of several of my b fish n tackle jigs that I painted and a few that they painted, can you tell the difference? I am color blind so I cannot tell the difference by looking at the bottom, but from the side like in the third picture I can see the eyes that they paint on them. The fourth picture shows the paints I use and the pan with 1/8th ounce jig up to a 5/8th ounce jig hanging. I am not saying that the powder paint is indestructible but the stuff is terribly tough, so tough that I clean the eyes on the hooks before I cook the jigs. I have more than 500 miles of traveling in a plastic plano tray with these jigs, no paint is missing or mared. Nick I would guess that person that had the paint missing from their jigs may be because they may not have baked the paint onto the jigs.

IIRC they were purchased jigs, in which case you may be right, I just remembered the post.

Well for me powder coating has worked great. Fairly quick, easy, and durable. After the jigs are baked they are really tough to chip. I bang them throught wing dams and usually donate it to the river before it chips.

I too, use mostly powder paint but add lots of different coatings afterwards (glitter, eyes, stripes etc). It’s a tough coating and takes a pretty good beating before flaking off.

Powder coating is my preferred method, but I also use a few sprayed finishes to enhance the finish. I use a compressor/airbrush with the powder, allows more precise placement of multiple colors. I do mainly spoons and blade baits, but have done a few bass and walley jigs also. The transparent and irridescent colors are pretty effective with powders also, gives ’em a 3D effect if clear coated.

Couple examples of spoons…..