only mounted a few squirrels so far,was wondering if bondo could be used to set the eyes instead of clay ,the clay seemed to dry and crack right away. ive been mounting them from kitsthat came with mache also should i use that instead of clay? i searched the archives and they didnt mention bondo for eye setting so am i to assume it shouldn't or couldn't be done?one last thing is bondo the same as auto body filler,got some tapes coming ,just thought i would try to get a heads up ,i want to try buying straight from the suppliers what i need instead of kits. thanks to all in advance..p.s. go ahead and give me some shots if i deserve them,im as thick skinned-headed as these squirrels.
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For setting the eyes on your squirrel, use sculpall or all game. It is a non cracking epoxy adhesive clay. It is water soluable and can easily be manipulated for your purpose.
where do you get sculpall,and is it a two part epoxy?
Or any other taxidermy catolog and yes it's an epoxy.
Would some of you old farts remind me what we used before they invented Bondo? LMAO
Hi Derek, Clay is a good material for setting squirrel eyes. I am not sure what you are doing which allows your clay to dry and crack .
If you are using a tanned hide, then the moisture left in the hide from rehydrating ( damp ) is enough to stop it from cracking and drying too soon. We use clay on all our squirrel eyes with great success. Sculpall and bondo dry and set fast so you can't adjust the eyes the next day if needed.
Even when we use to use borax, we always used clay. Try all the methods and see which one works best for you. Good luck.
Derek,
Someone just told me recently that when it comes to bondo, the stuff at Walmart works just fine....hope that helps.
I appreciate all of your responses,Len so far ive been using the D.P. that comesd with the kits but from what I gather here that is the wrong way to go.when I used the clay i wet my fingers to smooth it out but when it dried it got crumbly,oh yeah i set the eyes about a day before i mounted the skinmaybe that had something to do with it.the kit didnt mention anything specifically about it.oh well i got 5 more squirrels in the freezer and my video should be here any day i'll just keep on trying ,thats half the fun anyway.thanks again you have a great,forum here ive learned a ton already.thanks Derek.
Hi Derek, I would still use clay with DP. You can set your eyes when you are ready to mount the squirrel. I recommend using the black bubble eyes because they are easy to set and look great. We do set a lot of our eyes on our mammals the day before and the clay does dry out. Using a tanned skin, it is still wet from rehydrating and the clays absorbs the little water in the skin and the clay becomes soft again so we can do the eye work.With clay, you can rehydrate the clay a week later through the skin if you want to redo the eyes. Bondo works great for a lot of things, but I wouldn't use it for setting eyes.
Also I would would use a good clay ( Critter clay ) for doing eye work. Good luck.