Did my first cresting job tonight!
 

Well, I measured off my Gold Tips and sprayed the crowns with white Bruning Silothane Gloss Enamel. I let the shafts dry between coats, and it took three coats to cover.

After drying again, I put them into my crester, and just kinda went for broke -- no templates or anything. Figured if the first one turned out good, I could make one off that.

They look good, but next time I think I'll work harder at getting the old fletching glue off, as well as putting at least a couple coats into the cresting as well. I used red over the white, and it's a bit thin.

Also found out it makes a difference which direction your crester's spinning! <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

Haven't sealed anything yet, but guess I'll use the poly then gasket lacquer if I can find it before fletching with Duco -- If I remember everyone's best suggestions.

Thanks for all the help, ladies and gents; look's like this is gonna be kind of fun -- and addicting.

RE: Did my first cresting job tonight!
 

Waterloo is just up in Iowa..not sure the distance but I know Northern Mo is about 8 hours from central MN LOL! I am not so sure you really need gasket lacquer on your carbons though...anyone else? Just seal them to prevent it from scuffing/chipping and go. I think your poly will work fine for that. Hopefully you can get some pics up....it only gets worse, next you will be trying to figure out splicing and all the snazzy pin striping LOL! Have fun....

RE: Did my first cresting job tonight!
 

On my aluminums, the polyacrylic dip (4 dips) is still weaker than 2 dips of gasket laquer. Home Depot carries a thinner nitrocellulose laquer that you can use with dip tube just like Gasket laquer, just dip a couple of extra times is all. BUT, you gotta have that layer of polyacrylic - or thats my experience so far.


I'm going to email you those pics this evening too ...

RE: Did my first cresting job tonight!
 

I was pretty pleased with my first attempt, but after looking at the first one for a while, I decided to strip it down and work on removing the glue some more. I stripped the fletching off five more, plus the first one, and worked for nearly an hour scraping with an Xacto knife and sanding alternately.

I'm excited about this go-around, after realizing the importance of getting that base coat on smooth.

RE: Did my first cresting job tonight!
 

can you say addicted...sign here <img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>!

RE: Did my first cresting job tonight!
 

Well, my second attempt looked really, really, really good, if I do say so myself. But then I went and started fiddling with it, and added a pinstripe above the nock and below the top-most crest. I decided I didn't like those, and tried to dab them off very gently with paint thinner. I burned through my cap on the upper-most part, so I had to re-spray my cap on. I'll touch up the cresting in a bit.

Bad thing about being a perfectionist. But I guess I wouldn't have started cresting if I wasn't.

RE: Did my first cresting job tonight!
 

stealthy, what is the name of the nitrocellulose lacquer? How much of an odor does it have? drying times etc....

RE: Did my first cresting job tonight!
 

Sounds like you're getting it figured out. Post a pic if you can! I don't spray anything over my cresting except sometimes a quick shot of shellac to protect against mild scuffing while in the quiver. If the cresting gets smacked hard by another arrow between shots, it's going to get nicked no matter what's been sprayed over it. Unlike polys or other finishes, any type of glue sticks to shellac. (Don't get shellac on the front end of your arrows though as it creates bad target burn. Learned that once from a whole 2 doz. arrows I finished with the stuff.) Whatever you do, don't dip your nicely crested arrows in any kind of laquer when you're done...or your laquer based cresting paints will dissolve right off when placed into another laquer medium. Have fun!

RE: Did my first cresting job tonight!
 

Hey Pat, shoot me an email. Not really sure how far you are from Tn but if you want I can give you the info to get 5 gallons of gasket lacquer for 85 bucks! Also sherwin williams is a nitro based lacquer.

Hey MQ...pics???? <img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>

RE: Did my first cresting job tonight!
 

I'll have to see if I can borrow a buddy's digital camera -- and all I've done so far is crest. Haven't put the fletches back on yet. I'm still trying to experiment with different patterns to see which one I like best before duplicating that with the rest of 'em.

I did like what I did with my first one, but ended up stripping it all off when I started tinkiering with it, so I had to start all over. Now I can't remember what I did! <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>