eBay UV Resin

So after my epoxy dramas and the humidity still been a bugger up here I thought I would try some of this UV Resin.

I’m sure most of you have seen the Alumi-UV video.
After reading up on the Alumi product and seeing it takes 3 months to get to Aus and then only has a 12 month shelf life I thought I would try a Chinese brand as a tester that was half the price.

The “Engineered Angler” put a comparison video on YouTube and said he couldn’t tell the difference between the two once set.
So why spend twice as much money on something you don’t need to...

Anyway I was able to play with it lastnight and get a top coat on a few Lures.

First impressions are Great!
I was thinking it would be much more temperamental than what it was.

Starting off I did one coat on a lure with the resin at room temperature and it seemed to go on nice and spread around with ease.
Brush strokes would disappear almost instantly and it would fill in an even coat over the lure.
I allowed the lure to spin on my drying rack for 5-10 minutes and come check to see what the resin had done.
Did not move at all and stayed as it was when I left.
It does get air bubbles in it but not nearly as much as Epoxy, they can just be removed the same way.
Once I was happy with it I turned on the 3 x 9$ eBay UV torches I bought and propped them in front of the lure as it spun.
Once the lights hit each surface the outside of the resin set enough you could pull it off the rack and hand it if you wanted.

The second test I did was with placing the resin in a cup of hot water and letting it sit in there for 15 minutes before applying.
I then followed the same procedure.

Personally I thought the hot coat was better than the room temperature.
It seems the thinner coats don’t shrink or create air bubbles while curing compared to the thicker cooler coats.

The resin does not fill in as well as epoxy does over a previous coat (that was tried by sanding back a failed epoxy coat from 80grit - 800grit)
It seems to leave a satin finish below the surface.

The gloss finish on the UV Resin is as good if not better than any epoxy I have used.

One recommendation is if your going to give this ago and you are trying to set with UV lights at night in an area with a few insects maybe try creating a sealed curing box.
These little bugs LOVE the UV Lights.

From my short experience I would say that 30 seconds of UV torches followed by 20-30 minutes each side in the sun is all that’s required for a rock
hard finish with this product.
The Torches I have are 3W 395nm LED UV from eBay
The supplier does not give a recommended Wavelength for your UV lights.
Will be looking at other lights and seeing what seems to be better for it.

Thanks mate
Was fence sitting on it for a while!
Now just for these Tradewinds to stop and I can get out and throw a few over the reef.

Barndog wrote: Very interesting read mate. How many coats did you put on?

Just the one coat so far.
I did a test run over the sanded back resin today. It adheres to the old resin as epoxy does in the same instance.

I just gave it a quick coat this morning (it was just on first light) before heading to work.
The coat only had 5 minutes of turning with the UV light before getting hung up to cure more whilst I was away.
Only getting 270 degrees as most of UV curing during the day it has caused a hairline blemish in the final product.
I blame that on the limited exposure to UV and the resin slightly shrinking whilst curing.

I did happen to drop one of the tests from head high this afternoon that was still tacky on one surface. There were no scratches or blemishes from this.
Pretty happy with that.

Have just ordered a 900mm UV light bar that is 240v supplied so this should allow me to keep it rotating and curing.

https://djcity.com.au/product/ave-ledbar-uv18-3w-uv-light/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjOmynLGT4wIV0jUrCh1DjAXiEAQYAyABEgKWUfD_BwE

Will keep updating this with further progress

Looks good Wadey,

Yes this stuff is great. I use it for coating lures and a host of other applications including pouring my own bibs in a silicon mold.