Jump to content
Jeep

auto-air dry time

Recommended Posts

You just wanna make sure all the moisture is gone before you seal it up......if your just lettin the stuff air dry it may take awhile, but if your using a heatgun or hair dryer to speed up the process it shouldn't take more then a couple of minutes.....You can usually notice that the shine on the surface seems to fade out into a dull flat finish as the water evaporates....thats what you want.

I always ran a heat gun over my stuff when using AA......heated it up till its nice and warm in to my touch and all the shine was gone....that always worked for me when using that stuff on helmets and motorcycles....never had an issue once it was cleared.

Edited by 68KingFisher
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is a difference between dry and set.

I'm no chemist, but T shirt paints, like Createx, may be dry if left to sit long enough, but they don't achieve the cross link molecules that make them waterproof and strong unless they are heated above a certain temperature.

I know there has been a thread here in the past that dealt with that. I'm having trouble finding it with the search feature, so I'm going to ask a question here about that thread, in hopes that Snax will answer.

In terms of heat generated cross link molecules, didn't I read here that the new water borne paints, like Wicked Colors from Createx, don't actually need heat to form their cross link molecules? I've sprayed a color, then had to clean up and go in before I could heat set it. I've always heat set it when I resumed painting, before the next coat, but, if memory serves, Snax said this new paint doesn't need the heat to achieve the cross link molecule set.

68KingFisher, if you know the answer, I'm all ears, except the foot that keeps finding it's way into my mouth. :eek:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The way I understand it is that the original formula acrylic paints designed for airbrushing onto tee shirts from either Createx or Aquaflow or whoever, must be heatset which caused the crosslinking Mark mentioned.....this insured the paint bonded with the fibers of the cloth, so this heating with blowdryers and heatguns or heatpresses came about for that reason.

Since their creation, these paints have been reformulated various times......So i'm not 100% sure what their policy is now, but from what I could find on their website, the original Createx acrylic paints are still designed with the tee shirt artist in mind and needs to be heat set...nothing was mentioned reguarding "crosslinking".

Their AutoAir line does not mention heatsetting anywhere I could find, and even has a new line of waterborne paints(4700 series)....not your normal waterbased........the new line called "Wicked Air" is called an acrylic polymer according to the MSDS sheet, and uses its own reducer for thinning....which i'm assuming is NOT water?....no mention of being waterbased or waterborne was found on their site or in any literature I could find.

Now, on a personal level I can tell you that having used the original Createx and the AutoAir that both paints bonded better when using a heatgun to set the paint peridically as I painted........How do I know it bonded better than not heating??.....Cause I've tried it both ways on motorcycle helmets, and I can assure you that when it comes to sanding those paints back off that i'd much rather sand the Createx that was not heat set....Why?....Because its sands off waaaaay easier......So that tells me one thing......Heatsetting does something and it works cause it tough to sand off once its heatset, so my suggestion to all those using regular Createx is to always heatset if you want good adhesion.

Edited by 68KingFisher
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi guys,

Sorry I've been really busy and haven't checked the forums in a bit. Some of you are probably curious as to why Mark was hoping I would chime in. I speak with Craig Kennedy of Createx/Auto Air on a regular basis and use their paints exclusively. If there's a question about their products, chances are I can give you the answer.

As far as the Auto Air Colors and the new Wicked and Auto-Borne paints go they only need to dry not be actually heat set as with the Createx for t-shirts etc.

The main suggestion I have to ensure maximum adhesion is to spray light coats and hit them with a blow drier on hot or heat gun on low in between coats. You should achieve full coverage of color in three coats minimum. The first coat is only supposed to look speckled and the next two fill it in. Any heavier spraying will potentially cause adhesion problems down the road. You never want wet coats on wet coats either.

The beauty of the Wicked Colors and Auto-Borne is that they contain a small amont of solvent which not only helps speed up the drying times but it also helps atomize the paint so it sprays very smoothly. If you've been using Createx, give the new paints a go and I promise you'll be amazed! :yay:

By the way, Wicked Colors and Auto-Borne are the same paint, just labeled differently for different market bases to avoid confusion.

Edited by Snax
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...


×
×
  • Create New...
Top