Fed up with acrylic clear coat

[davent]

Dave, have you had any problems with lengthy cure times when using the Target 7000?  I'd love to switch to a low VOC finish... I've been using Krylon & it's actually worked pretty well, but man does that stuff stink...  

From the can, these are instructions for Unfinished/New Wood Substrates but it's what i do. Allow each coat to dry for a minimum of 45 minutes to 1 hour before recoating, Sanding between each coat is not necessary unless contamination has affected the film formation. Sand with 400-grit stearate-free sandpaper to remove imperfections...

Complete chemical cure takes place after 150 hours of cure time within these temperature ranges. (60-80°F)

I usually do 4 coats a day for however many days it takes, put it in an old shoebox to dry, after my final coat i'll leave it a week before doing a final sanding/buffing if i want to change the luster and install all the jacks etc.

For the stinky stuff i'm down to only having to using self-etching primer and i use rubberized rocker panel paint for the back plates, have to do this stuff outside, season permitting.

[rousejeremy]

I'm baking an enclosure right now in my bathroom. Door closed and window open, it stinks bad in there. Hope the smell clears out before the woman gets home.

[jdub]

I'm baking an enclosure right now in my bathroom. Door closed and window open, it stinks bad in there. Hope the smell clears out before the woman gets home.

Yeah, my wife and son hate me whenever I coat an enclosure in the basement...stinks up the whole house, even with max ventilation.  "Pee-ew! Mommy, Daddy's painting his stupid projects again!" 

[rousejeremy]

It stinks. I'm going to move the toaster outside because I was starting to feel nauseous at one point.

[Arcane Analog]

I find that with thin coats there is no need to bake the enclosure. I spray a few thin coats, wait a few minutes and repeat until I have the coverage I want. After that I let it sit under a flood light for a little bit. The next day it is hard as a rock. I usually let it stand for a day or two and it is always good to go. Probably no need to let it stand that long but I usually have other things to work on.

Anyone else skip baking?

[bluebunny]

Anyone else skip baking?

Yep.  Used to bake, but didn't seem to get any benefit from it.  Perhaps baked too hot/too cold/too long/whatever...  Anyway, now I do a coat (or two) of primer, leave to dry overnight, a couple of coats of colour, leave to dry overnight, apply waterslide decal, leave to dry overnight (there's a pattern emerging here...), a couple of coats of acrylic lacquer.  Now I try to be very patient and leave it at least a day or two or three before assembling.  They seem to come out better now - no soft finishes, seem to be pretty rugged.