While looking for a vinyl dip for some wire grates I came upon these products and videos for vinyl paint used for lures. Could be a good alternative to head cement. Once you click on the website you’ll find other sections with products and videos for coating lures.
http://www.csipaint.com/instructions/techniques-instructions/applying-vinyl-paint.asp
looks more suited to lure making not head cement
This is not a good alternative to head cement at all. This is a vinyl coating and will crack at soon as it will hit rocks on the bottom of the stream the first pass. Plus you need a primer for this as well before it can be applied. I don’t see how Sally Hansons, or hard as hull or Griff’s thin & thick is an issue to apply, buy and try. I just don’t get why all the extra unessesary work when very good products are available to us that have been tied and found true with very simple usage.
And you fly fish? 
Smarty pants
i use a clear semi gloss laquer, i got the tip in one of AK Bests books, if its okay with him, i guess it will just have to due with me. hardware store sells it by the quart, a can of laquer thinner and the quart will set you back about 12 bucks for a lifetime supply.
Laquer and Laquer Thinner = Sally Hansons and polish remover!
1 qt. Minwax Gloss Lacquer = $12.98
1 qt. Kleen Strip Lacquer Thinner = $7.26
Total = $20.24 for 64 oz. (assuming you cut it 50/50) That’s only $0.32 per oz. That’s 32 CENTS per ounce
Whereas Sally Hansen Hard as Nails is $3 per .4 oz bottle at CVS which equates to $7.50 per oz.
Now, if you split the 2 quarts with a buddy you’ll still end up with 100 times the amount of 3 of those $3 bottles for the same price. There really is just no way to argue the financial logic behind this. But hey! if you want to spend $7.50/oz for what you could have for $0.32/oz, you are certainly entitled.
However back to the original topic, I don’t agree that a vinyl dip is an alternative to head cement.
I use jig head paints and some vinyl dips for small fly jigs that I tie but i also tie bigger jigs for bass fishing. I have never thought about using the paint for anything other than coating metal surfaces of jigs. interesting idea but I don’t know if it would work on the thread head of a finished fly. but as far as the vinyl stuff holding up against rocks and other underwater obstacles, to include teeth, it seems to outlast the materials tied to them so I have no complaints but my jigs don’t last but a few fishing trips so I am not a good source of longevity for the material.
fletch tite used to glue fletches on arrows
TyroneFly,
First off, thanks for sharing! I like my head cement to have good penetration. I don’t see vinyl being able to do that. Actually, there is an alternative to using head cement, and that is not using any head cement. I use it 95% of the time. There are those who don’t use the stuff at all.
Best regards, Dave S.
That’s all well and good but it seems lacquer is no longer available.
the only major problem most folks have with this is storage and use containers. No, there is certainly no financial argument against making your own, UNLESS you have to order a bunch of small bottles from a place such as Lab Safety to store and use your homebrew. I’d hate to be opening a 2-quart container every time I apply head cement… I’m lucky in that sometime in the past I acquired several dozen brown glass chemical bottles about 1.5 ounce capacity. I like to use “flexament” and found that Shoe-Goo mixed with Toluene IS flexament. Now, Flexament in the fly shop ($3.99 per ounce) equals somewhere over $650.00 PER GALLON and evaporates very quickly. Home-made flexament roughly $20.00 per gallon— no brainer as long as you have a way to package it which is user-friendly.
If lacquer isn’t available locally, it’s available all over the Internet. Of course shipping charges for chemicals could double the cost, but you’d still be under 50 cents/ounce once mixed.
Just because you buy a quart of lacquer, doesn’t mean you have to mix the entire quart at one time. You can reuse old head cement jars and just mix up an once at a time. Same goes for flexament.
By the way, Hard as Nails is $960/gallon
I have used Fletch Tite to add eyes on my baitfish patterns.
I would use lacquer since it is cheaper, It doesn’t it get old? That is way way more than I could use I believe. It works just as good as Sally’s? It is just as hard, and holds up as well I mean? If so I may switch. I am always buying more Sally’s it seems.
I use Sally Hansen, dosen’t cost me a dime, I just steal it from the wife 
oh! it costs you more than money! 
Ok Normand, I guess you could call that “Insert foot in mouth disease” You are absolutely correct 
Unintended consequences:(