Painting your own jigs

Got a couple questions for those who paint your own walleye jigs. What do you use to seal them, and how many do you need to do to justify the cost of the paint and sealant?

Thanks.

Here's a batch of powder-painted jigs fresh out of the toaster oven.  Made about 140 assorted jigs yesterday in less than 5 hours. The bread-pan/chicken wire set-up makes it easy to cure a bunch at one time. 15 minutes in the toaster oven. 

FIB Mel -
I had heard that about toaster ovens being good for jig painting.  Back in my ebay selling days I started picking up old ones at rummage sales and estate sales.  Don't know what all the buyers were doing with them, but they sold well in the spring.

I raid daughters finger nail polish do a few jigs when i go fishing. Dont worry too much about mess in tackle box where I walleye fish you dont grow to fond of any jig

Admittedly, I have not done a lot of 2-tone jigs, but in my limited experience, I just did the lighter color first, cured them in the oven, then picked out 6 or 8 to make 2-tone. Heat them with the heat gun again, making sure not to over-do it (or you'll melt the first coat) and then re-dip them in the darker color. I always did similar colors for my 2-tone jigs tho, like Chart/Green, Chart/Orange, etc. Not sure what you'd do if you wanted Green/Pink or Orange/Pink...

Use powdertec paint and then bake in the oven to cureY you can find directions on making a fluid bed for coating the jig hooks online and the procedures on how to do it

You can also get an airbrush affect by using a small paint brush or woman's make-up brush they use for blush.  Dip the tip it in the powder and than tap it over the heated jig like you are tapping the ashes off a cigarette. 

You can get a two-tone by completely coating the jig in the first powder, tapping the hook shank on an edge to shake off excess powder,, and then quickly dipping a portion of the jig in the second color.  But you have to make sure the jig is hot to start with, and work fast. This method works well.

Have you tried doing a 2-tone with the powder?

Good to know Piker.  I used our oven, lined a cookie sheet with aluminum foil just in case, but didn't have one single drip - even the 6 I had to re-dip and do again because I didn't get decent coating the first time.

I didn't get them hot enough prior to dipping to melt the powder like the instructions say, but I must have been close the second time around - they were warm enough that I couldn't use my bare fingers on the hooks to dip them, had to get a needlenose.

I had a batch drip ONE TIME at 300 degrees...my house smelled like burnt plastic for 3-4 days and needless to say, my wife was NOT impressed...I now do them at 225-250 and haven't had an issue dripping or with the finish quality (chipping/flaking). Also, if you use a toaster oven and do them at 300-350, I found that the paint started to bubble and discolor a little, which isn't ideal. The nice thing about doing them at 250 degrees is that if you get sidetracked doing something else and leave them in longer than 20 minutes, there isn't really anything to worry about. The higher the temperature, the more you have to babysit them. I also think that if you use a toaster oven, the smaller space is not as conducive to high temp curing. I try to do mine in our oven because then I can do 75-100 jigs at a time versus 20-30 in a toaster oven. YMMV, but I have found 225-250 to be fine for curing ProTec powder paint. I have 6 or 7 colors and all seem to cure just fine.

You will want to fully cure each coat,some make the mistake of not curing the top coat.Which will cause the next color to bleed in the top coat and will drip.I do each coat at 350F for 20 minutes,and don't have any dripping issues.Also have done 2 tones with a rattle can and seal with UV clear.

Ok, I lied.  Went and got a container of hot pink Pro Tec paint.  The possibility of having a gummy mess in my tackle box pushed me over the edge.

Interesting, the directions said cure at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, a lot hotter than the 200 or 250 some of you recommended.

I was fairly pleased with the results, though there was a learning curve with how much to heat them prior to dipping - had to redo a few because they weren't hot enough and had poor paint coverage.

Definitely will get a container of chartreuse next.

I use powder coat paint and fot the eyes with nail polish 

As Master_Piker posted, curing your jigs is important.  There are plenty of resources online to help.  One thing that you definitely want to do is make sure the eyes are free of paint before placing in the oven.

I have repurposed an old toaster oven for this.  Keeps the old lady happier  lol  It's nice to be able to take anywhere.  Gives you something to do when weather ruins a fishing day, or when needing to make up more of the colors you need on a trip.

Thanks for all the tips.  I ordered a batch of unpainted jigs - gonna do the simple/cheap route with the nail polish (color choice, then clear coat).  Lots of snags where I'm planning to use them, so no sense in going to great lengths.