Paint Booth Idea???? What Do You Think?

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Johnathan

Johnathan

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As I am away from my pens right now, which is good, as I'm waiting on some Enduro and Lacquer to dry, I had an idea. As I am also the most inpatient man alive ( my wife would would be jumping up and saying "Amen to That!"), I was wondering about a drying box. When you get your car custom painted, they put the car into a heated paint booth to cure the paint fast. Could this be an idea to use for pens? Who knows, but I'd love to hear what others think. Heated drying racks or something to speed the drying process up. Thanks for your comments and helping me to continue being inpatient.[8D]
 
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one question that I have any time someone wants to speed up the curing or drying of anythings is this. many (but not all) coatings have a drying time that was "engineered" to be what they are. one subject near and dear to me right now would be concrete. speeding up the cure of concrete woudl be damaging to the final strength. you actually want to slow it down as much as possible. other things like epoxys, paints, etc need the time for there structures to get realigned so to speak.
in the even the above concerns are warantless. then a box with a bulb or two in it should work quite well as a drying box. I do the same sort of thing to make warm boxes for baby animals. makes things right cozy and really helps keep everything dry inside.
 
Great Idea! Paint Spray Booths do several things, minimize dust, paint cures at an optimum temperature.

Years ago, when drying Photographic Film, we used a drying box.

Plans should be available on the "net" for one with a reostat, so you could "dial" in the proper temperature...
 
Just remember when using laquers and such that all paints have a minimum flash time you must wait for the solvents to escape before you can bake the finish. My years as a PPG rep I had seen body shops not wait the minimum time for the paint to flash and they bake the solvents right into the paint and eventually the finihs will solvent pop and well then you will be stripping all finihs and redoing it. Just also remember that laquer fumes are very volitile and spray boths use explosion proof fans and such.
 
Where I work we make high end kitchens, the finishing dept. use a oven to speed up the hardening of the lacquer. I would avoid anything that would create a spark, like a socket or switch. You could turn on your heater and place the blanks inside after it has warmed up. I know I have read on this site that lacquer needs five days to cure, we have shipped kitchens the same day right out of the paint shop.
 
DWK is totally right about solvent pop. Lacquer will get little boogery bubbles if you apply much heat to it unless it's dry to the touch. I'd only use heat to cure it to a durable handling point for assembly (I'd also make sure they are cooled down a good bit b/c warm cured lacquer is really soft).

Like AJM, I build 'spensive cabinetry. He's right in that lacquer really doesn't reach a good settle strength for several days even though it's touchably dry (and recoatable) in minutes.
 
I've tried using heat to quick dry Enduro and it bubbles up. I used the heat from light bulb and when ever I held it near to long the bubbles started popping up.

Wayne
 
Most final finishes are designed to dry and cure in a vell ventilated area. I would suggest a small fan ne the area but not directly pointed at the object to be dried. In most cases heat will generally lead to early deterioration of the finish. As far as temp, I just read the can.
Jim
 
This also depends on where you live. Here on the Florida Gulf Coast the humidity is very high. Finish that drys in Arizona for example just stays sticky here. I took an old dorm-size refrigerator and put a light bulb on a dimmer switch to help dry blanks, but I have also stuck some finished pieces in there to dry a little more than they would if I just left them in my shop. I also agree that it takes patience and go slowly.
 
OK OK, I've got the point. I'm not going to try this. I'm just going to have to be patient. The problem is I was waiting for a certain blank and it took forever. Now that I have a pattern going I can have some drying while working on others and it doesn't seem like I'm waiting around. Thanks everyone!
 
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