UV resin-varnish-goo

[g1zmo]

I've read through some of the previous threads on here but I'm after a bit more advice. In order to keeps costs down would there be any disadvantage in using car window UV resin or the nail build up UV gel/nail UV glue and buying a 9w nail curing light rather than lashing out for a 'proper' fly tying kit? If I bought non fly tying materials I could get it all set up for around £15 including the light. I may continue to use the clear rapid set epoxy and just use a top coat of UV resin/glue/goo to stop it going cloudy when used in the briny.

[Charliea1234]

I ended up getting the Deer Creek outfit for 30 quid and it is very good - one of the best torches and the resin dries very hard, very quickly.

There are sites where you can get resins in larger volumes for a similar amount but they were still £15-20 for the goo and you would need to know which one exactly to get. A good torch is going to be more than £10, and most of them have to be imported so cost/time/risk.

In the end, for a first effort, unless I were using huge amounts, I figured it was not worth cutting corners.

Charlie

[g1zmo]

Ok, thanks for that

[flytire]

i too bought the deer creek kit and the light even works with bug bond

[Charliea1234]

Like I said there are plenty of UV resin and glue sites and they describe the products in a lot of detail - most cure with a similar wavelength and the Deer Creek torch is both powerful and reasonably priced, even compared with eBay and other sources.

Charlie

[g1zmo]

Ok, thanks for the replies guys. I've now dipped my toe in the water and bought 1oz of UV gel and a UV torch (total cost £5.39) to see how I get on. I may uprate this setup after Christmas if it goes ok. I've just noticed that I have a lamp that will take a 9w UV bulb so I may try that out.

[Charliea1234]

Please let us know exactly what you bought and how you get on with it. I am really interested to see what sort of results you can get at this end of the price spectrum.

Thanks

Charlie

[g1zmo]

I will do. I may need to experiment a bit with the actual resin but this is what I've ordered 2 of these 160658219915 and one of these 200672055885 (ebay). I have no idea how well this combination will work but it will be interesting to see how it compares with the more expensive kits. As I said I can uprate the lighting set up and possibly change the resin (the car windscreen stuff is looking favourite at the moment). As the gel is coming from HongKong it'll be a while but I will post a report on how I get on.

[GuyFromLaw]

UV light is UV light. The car window gel works. The cheap torches work too. Anyone who says it doesn't has not tried it or has something else for sale.

[g1zmo]

Originally Posted by GuyFromLaw

UV light is UV light. The car window gel works. The cheap torches work too. Anyone who says it doesn't has not tried it or has something else for sale.

That's what I was thinking. The torches supplied with the 'special' fly tying kits look exactly the same as the ones available from the far east for a couple of quid and none of the nail kits say you have to have any particular wavelength of UV light. I assume that some of the difference between the gels/resins themselves are down to the viscosity of the liquid.