Yellow UV cure

Stonedfish · Sep 26, 2023

I’ve got a couple things I want to experiment with this winter.
I bought some Solarez black color cure quite awhile ago. Not real happy with it but I see they now have Bone Dry in colors. I like the regular Bone Dry. Anyone have any other brands of color UV cure they really like?
SF

Jake Watrous · Sep 26, 2023

Stonedfish said:
I’ve got a couple things I want to experiment with this winter.
I bought some Solarez black color cure quite awhile ago. Not real happy with it but I see they now have Bone Dry in colors. I like the regular Bone Dry. Anyone have any other brands of color UV cure they really like?
SF

I’ve been having good luck with jewelers uv cure resin. Lots and lots of colors, much cheaper, holds up well, you can buy literally gallons of the stuff as well as buy it in small applicator bottles.

Downside is it doesn’t set up as fast—even with the biggest loon light I could find.

Tom Butler · Sep 27, 2023

I'm curious about a preferred UV product as well. I got a the solarez 3 pack to start with and I hate the stuff. The small applicator opening puts out too much. And even when I use the bodkin I get this long filament of product between the fly and application tool. Just can't figure it out. Drives me nuts.

Mike Cline · Sep 27, 2023

Give UV Resin Dye and Inexpensive UV Resin for jewelry a try. Works exceptionally well.

Amazon product ASIN B082GTDQ6J

Dr. Magill · Sep 27, 2023

I really like this stuff
Comes in different viscosities:

James St. Clair · Sep 27, 2023

Tom Butler said:
I'm curious about a preferred UV product as well. I got a the solarez 3 pack to start with and I hate the stuff. The small applicator opening puts out too much. And even when I use the bodkin I get this long filament of product between the fly and application tool. Just can't figure it out. Drives me nuts.

That's what I got when I first started, and yesz those little tubes are a PITA!

However, don't discount solarez. Their bone dry in the glass bottle with brush applicator is pretty awesome stuff. I use it for finishing heads on most of my flies. It is super thin though.

For wing cases, or coating thread or quill bodies, I like the Loon Thin or RaidZap thin.

For building heads on baitfish, same as above, Loon and/or RaidZap, but in Medium.

For colored resins, I think Gulff does it best, but RaidZap is also good!

My .02

James

Norm Frechette · Sep 27, 2023

solarez bonedry clear for me. i basically use it for fly heads and on some bodies

i tried the bonedry black and it didnt seem to cure correctly

Stonedfish · Sep 27, 2023

James St. Clair said:
That's what I got when I first started, and yesz those little tubes are a PITA!

However, don't discount solarez. Their bone dry in the glass bottle with brush applicator is pretty awesome stuff. I use it for finishing heads on most of my flies. It is super thin though.

For wing cases, or coating thread or quill bodies, I like the Loon Thin or RaidZap thin.

For building heads on baitfish, same as above, Loon and/or RaidZap, but in Medium.

For colored resins, I think Gulff does it best, but RaidZap is also good!

My .02

James

James,
Are the Gulff colors solid rather than transparent? I should have said that is what I’m looking for in my original post.
Thanks
SF

_WW_ · Sep 27, 2023

I looked into the uv stuff a little bit and I think it matters as to which light frequency you use as to whether it cures right.

Long_Rod_Silvers · Sep 27, 2023

Also in the bone dry fan club, although I haven't tried the colored stuff. For what it's worth, not a huge fan of the Loon UV color resin. It always seems to be a bit tacky, no matter how long you cure for.

James St. Clair · Sep 27, 2023

Stonedfish said:
James,
Are the Gulff colors solid rather than transparent? I should have said that is what I’m looking for in my original post.
Thanks
SF

These are all RaidZap colored Resins. Gulff is very similar. I would say both are mainly solid, but if you look close, slightly transparent near the surface.

Stonedfish · Sep 27, 2023

James St. Clair said:
These are all RaidZap colored Resins. Gulff is very similar. I would say both are mainly solid, but if you look close, slightly transparent near the surface.

View attachment 83725

View attachment 83726
View attachment 83727
View attachment 83728

Thanks James.
Much appreciated. I think that would work for the idea I want to play around with when I’m bored this winter.

SF

Dr. Magill · Sep 27, 2023

My only beef with the Solarez is that I have a negative reaction to it - some others have experienced this as well
No issues with the radizsp

onefish · Sep 27, 2023

I wasted a bunch of money trying a bunch of different products. I have narrowed it down to
Solarez bone dry, brushable krazy glue and for coloured resin I have had good luck with Gulff products. At this point I doubt I will ever be enticed to try anything else as these all work exceptionally well.

Northern · Sep 27, 2023

Dr. Magill said:
My only beef with the Solarez is that I have a negative reaction to it - some others have experienced this as well
No issues with the radizsp

Same here. In fact, I recently pulled an older fly from my box that I'm pretty sure was tied back when I still used Solarez, years ago. Held it in my mouth for a moment while I prepped the line, and had my lip swell up for a couple days!
No reaction issues with Loon, Raidzap, Gulff. None cure as hard as Solarez, but a quick final coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dry clear, and they're good to go.

c2peak · Sep 27, 2023

I agree that Solarez is excellent but I also have a negative reaction to it. Loon has been fine for me. Thanks for the tips on the Gulff and RaidZap. Gonna give them a try.

Kfish · Oct 4, 2023

I have these and this is what they look like. I especially like the uv orange from loon it really pop and non transparent. The solarez are ok, sometimes you get a wonky brush that can be annoying to work with and it does get snotty stringy. Chartreuse is not solid, pink is semi solid, white is solid.
Hope that helps narrow down your choices

Stonedfish · Oct 6, 2023

Kfish said:
I have these and this is what they look like. I especially like the uv orange from loon it really pop and non transparent. The solarez are ok, sometimes you get a wonky brush that can be annoying to work with and it does get snotty stringy. Chartreuse is not solid, pink is semi solid, white is solid.
Hope that helps narrow down your choices View attachment 84615

Lou,
Thanks for the examples. Here is what I wanted to accomplish with the yellow resin.
I’ve got tons of nickel plated dumbbell eyes in various sizes that I don’t use.
I really like the 5/32 nickel / yellow eyes (real eyes plus) for salmon fishing and I go through a lot of them. I just ordered another 200. I just like the look of the yellow porcelain eyes and have a lot confidence in them. The fish probably don’t care.

Porcelain dumbbell eyes are tougher to find in smaller sizes, namely 1/8 and 3/32, but I found some so I ordered 100 of the 1/8 size. I like the smaller sizes for cutt fishing.
My plan was to make my own using the smaller size nickel dumbbells I had on hand.
This was my first attempt, but I used acrylic paint I had on hand rather than UV cure. Takes awhile to dry is the downside. I’ll put a clear coat over the top to toughen them up. Durability to be determined. I still may go the UV cure route once I go through the ones I made.
SF

Kfish · Oct 6, 2023

Stonedfish said:
Lou,
Thanks for the examples. Here is what I wanted to accomplish with the yellow resin.
I’ve got tons of nickel plated dumbbell eyes in various sizes that I don’t use.
I really like the 5/32 nickel / yellow eyes (real eyes plus) for salmon fishing and I go through a lot of them. I just ordered another 200. I just like the look of the yellow porcelain eyes and have a lot confidence in them. The fish probably don’t care.
Porcelain dumbbell eyes are tougher to find in smaller sizes, namely 1/8 and 3/32, but I found some so I ordered 100 of the 1/8 size. I like the smaller sizes for cutt fishing.
My plan was to make my own using the smaller size nickel dumbbells I had on hand.
This was my first attempt, but I used acrylic paint I had on hand rather than UV cure. Takes awhile to dry is the downside. I’ll put a clear coat over the top to toughen them up. Durability to be determined. I still may go the UV cure route once I go through the ones I made.
SF

View attachment 84795

I didn’t know they make eyes from porcelain?!?

Nice paint job! Did you sand the nickel surface a bit prior to painting? It holds pretty well?

Stonedfish · Oct 6, 2023

Kfish said:
I didn’t know they make eyes from porcelain?!?

Nice paint job! Did you sand the nickel surface a bit prior to painting? It holds pretty well?

I assumed they were porcelain based on how they break when I ding them on the beach.

Now that you mention it, I’m not sure what the material is on the real eyes plus.

No, I didn’t scuff up the surface but thought about it. Probably way over thinking this though. The acrylic seemed to stick fine on the smooth nickel plating pretty well but took too long to dry, so production was slow. I think a solid yellow UV cure would be a better option as far as time and quantity production goes.
SF

Edit….real eyes plus are enamel not porcelain.