Air Brushing Crankbaits

[tooboocoo]

How do you guys keep the hook eyes clean when you paint? If I try to clean them when they're still wet I screw up the paint. If I try to clean them out after they dry, the paint chips. I've tried various things to cover the eyes as I'm painting but removing them, wet or dry, presents the same problems. Thanks

[BassmanRudy]

Maybe a small piece of a toothpick while painting then removed before drying?

[Smallie_Stalker]

Maybe a piece of small heat shrink tubing applied before you paint and then cut off after?

Or a piece of narrow aquarium tubing if they make it that small?

I don't really know so feel free to disregard.

Sent from my One Plus 9 Pro 5G using Tapatalk

[bigjim5589]

I don't paint any crankbaits, but do powder coat a lot of jigs and I use two items to keep the hook eyes clean. One is a high temp silicone cap that fits over the hooks eye, and the other is teflon tape, that I use to wrap smaller eyes that the caps don't fit well on. The tape is time consuming, and a bit tedious to work with, but I'm used to working with tying tiny flies, so has not been a big deal. I get it from Harbor Freight, and wrap hook eyes when I'm not busy doing anything else,  like at night. Part of my process for painting is dipping the jigs in acetone to remove oils, and it doesn't affect the teflon tape at all.

If you use the teflon tape, you'll need a good pair of scissors. I cut across at an angle so I have a strip to work with about 3/16" to 1/4" wide. It gets tossed once the painting is done.

These are the silicone caps & source that I use, and they're made for powder coating, but other paints shouldn't stick to them either. They have several sizes, and they're reusable.
https://hightempmasking.com/collections/high-temp-silicone-end-caps/products/3-32-id-high-temp-silicone-rubber-end-caps

This is how the eyes on my jigs end up. 

[Oldfart9999]

I powder coat also, I use a pair of needle nose pliers and hold the jigs by the hook eye, every so often I need to clean the pliers but using another set pliers and just twisting the paint breaks it off, several seconds and back at it.
Rodney

[Oldfart9999]

For hook eyes on crankbaits and jerkbaits blue tape from the hardware store, it comes off easily enough.
Rodney

[D.W. Verts]

I've painted a few crankbaits. A few. I don't do anything to the eyes. I even clear coat them. I even have videos...!

Dale