UV cure epoxy alternative Solarez

[Dan Harrison]

Love surfing and when my surf board got smacked on some rocks in Santa Cruz I was looking to do some self repair. A friend told be about this company called Solarez that makes surf repair and building products. He told me to pick up Solarez Fiberfil UV-Cure polyester putty but upon looking at there web site my mind was filled with fly tying glory. www.solarez.com
They are based in the Bay Area and I quickly had the three products that I ordered.
The product that I found the best for fly tying applications was there Vinyl Ester Epoxy UV-cure Resin, “An extremely tough, corrosion-resistant resin with great adhesion. It is the base resin in our Solarez extreme putty. Cures by only UV-light but can be ordered to cure by MEKP catalyst too. This is a remarkably clear Vinyl Ester.” I have been using this along with CCG over the past two weeks and here is my review. Take in mind Solerez is not made with fly tying in mind.

Solarez is made to cure with sunlight company states 3-4 min but it cures with the CCG light in about 15 sec it cures to a much harder durable surface after sun exposure. What I have done is after form is solid and set (15 sec with CCG light ) then when possible i but them out in the sun.

Solarez is thinner than the CCG thick so you have to be a little quicker on your toes when forming heads. Easily used as a thin or even brushable application.

Solarez after cured with sunlight is very durable but after comparing to CCG with different cutting tools I would say that CCG is more durable.

Solarez dries with a tack free clear finish, (no yellowing over time according to owner)

Ok so after reading this basically why would any one want to use solarez instead of CCG, Bug bond ect.. Well CCG is $10.50 for 10cc. Solarez is 236cc or 1/2 pint for $13.75 To get 236cc of CCG you would need around $240. Oh you could get the a full pint (472cc) for $15.95. And they have even larger options. Right now I get 10cc syringes from the ER and fill it up with Solarez then wrap electric tape to prevent UV light curing. Following pics are of some striper and beach snook patterns I tied up with Solarez.

[Flyfisher70]

Thanks for sharing that bit of information Zen. I just purchased the CCG a couple of days ago, I will certainly try the Solarez out. Thanks again.

[Dan Harrison]

Thanks for sharing that bit of information Zen. I just purchased the CCG a couple of days ago, I will certainly try the Solarez out. Thanks again.

No problem flyfisher, CCG is a great product much better than Solarez but I was treating my tube like gold. Wasn't using it much because i didn't want to waste it. I will continue to use CCG but for a lot of apps Solarez works great.

[JD]

Good tip, Zen. Thanks. At the price, Solarez sounds like a much better product to experiment with than any of the specialty UV products designed for fly tying. The 'specialized' stuff is just too dang expensive. The 'Clear "dual-cure" Polyester Resin' sounds particularly interesting. There's a lot of interesting products used for board repairs, and this definitely will require further research.

[mar]

thanks for the tip Zen. I've used about 2 tubes of CCG during my experiments and I think only 6 or so flies made it to the fly box...the rest went to the trash or given to my kids after cutting off the hook shank. Should have just gone to the flyshop and bought the flies but it wouldn't be as much fun.
Nice flies, BTW. Have you tried fishing these? I'm curious about the effectiveness of that last fly with the big head. I tied almost the same thing, just using CCG for the head. An ugly copy of the airhead. Worked great in getting the fish to take but very lousy in keeping them hooked.

[Dan Harrison]

The last fly is a rear weight deciever pattern that was inspired by Dave Sellers. His post can be found at the following link over on the Blanton board.
http://www.danblanton.com/viewarchive.php?id=148752&archivefile=/arch201012.php.
Unfortunately I havn't fished that one yet, the cold has keep me off the delta as of late. When the water temp goes up a couple degrees I be back out.
Fyi talked to solarez and the can do a special mix to make the product thicker and speed up the uv cure time.