Enclosure finishing in less than ideal weather

[CodeMonk]

Right now I am living in Northern Nevada (About 60 miles east of Lake Tahoe).
I moved back here in October.
Since I moved here, the temperature has not gotten above 40F (4.44 Celsius), except one day last week we got up to around 50F.
Right now, 11pm, its about 20F.
Temps are averaging around 20F - 30F throughout the day, dropping to single digits at night.
Humidity is currently around 60%. Humidity is usually VERY low during the summer months.

Anyway....
What are ways around these weather conditions when it comes to finishing pedals?
I'm talking about rattle cans and such or any other alternatives anyone can come up with.
Airbrushing maybe? Special paints?

I am looking into having some enclosures powder coated locally, but would like to be able to just spray paint some now and then as needed.

Suggestions?

[Seljer]

If you can't do it outside, you have to move the job inside. That may involve building a paint booth to keep dust under control and coercing significant others into putting up with the fumes for a day or two 

[deadastronaut]

warm the box a little , spray it, run inside and put on radiator, or straight in a toaster oven....(window open)

thats what  i do to avoid 'blooming' etc...

[CodeMonk]

warm the box a little , spray it, run inside and put on radiator, or straight in a toaster oven....(window open)

thats what  i do to avoid 'blooming' etc...

Looks like the best option so far.
I would like a paint booth, but lack the space
Now I just need to get a cheap toaster oven.
Thanks.

[arma61]

(Disclaimer  I didn't use this method yet, (I should on the weekend) I was told about it by a guy who build gliders for work, they use for small parts instead of the big oven.)

.. and to dry it up fast, put it into a big thick cardboard box, make a hole on a side and stick the nozzle of an hairdryier and seal it with some tape from outside, point the noozle to the top/or bottom (not vs the exnclosure), I've been told temperature rise up to 80C (you make the calcultaion in F  !!), probably you need to re-open the box outside for fumes.

Ciao

[Mustachio]

Yeah I do the same thing as rob except I use a heat gun. But I'm going to convert an old computer armoire into a paint booth soon with an exhaust fan.

I've done the outdoor winter shaker can stuff and it can be hit or miss. I suggest filling up a container with hot/warm water and putting your shaker cans in it for like 5 minutes before you do this too. You want to get the paint around the ideal temp before you spray it out and same with the enclosure your going to paint . That will better your odds.

I don't have a toaster oven for baking paint jobs so I use a heat gun and I usually put the enclosure in a cardboard box with a heating pad under it for drying over longer periods. So you can usually use the heat gun to speed up the drying of the primer and the first few coats of paint . Then Ill dry overnight in a cardboard box with a heating pad under it. That works on the cheap and pretty good. But really if your in a small living space the fumes might be a lil rough.

[Giglawyer]

Get a heavy duty cardboard box and line it with aluminum foil.  Then, use a heavy duty halogen or other utility lamp as a "heat lamp" right over the box to warm the air in teh box.  Not terribly efficient, but it should work. 

[davent]

Hello, I use an airbrush with waterbased lacquer and spray indoors year 'round. Very low VOC, virtually no odor, (i do use a chemical respirator), and the stuffs looks great. Takes many thin coats, but if you want to finish pedals in a wintery Canada, is the best option available to me. Using Target 7000, waterclear spraying lacquer. StewMac sell it for guitar finishing but Target products look to be widely distributed. I would think a spraygun would get the job done more quickly.

This one was done with StewMac's discontinued waterbased lacquer and finished to a gloss surface.



Have also tried airbrushing various waterbased polyurathane varnishes and you can get real good results but the spraying lacquer goes on much better, much easier to work with.

This past weekend we did get to a balmy 15°C so got outside to prime a bunch of enclosures with self-etching primer. Just put the can of spray primer in my pant's pocket for a while, was at 30°C when i primed, heated the enclosures to the mid 20's before priming in the great outdoors. A day like that is extremely rare.

dave

[Seljer]

warm the box a little , spray it, run inside and put on radiator, or straight in a toaster oven....(window open)

thats what  i do to avoid 'blooming' etc...

Looks like the best option so far.
I would like a paint booth, but lack the space
Now I just need to get a cheap toaster oven.
Thanks.

You don't need a huge booth for little stompboxes. If you skim over the internet there are people that have made disassemblable spray booths out of plastic sheets and PVC pipe frames.

[GGBB]

Warming the spray can and enclosure are musts, but the biggest problem I've encountered is that air temperature cools and dries the paint too much between the time it leaves the nozzle and the time it hits the enclosure.  The paint will stick to some degree, but not as well as it should, and surface flow (leveling and smoothing) is also affected.  Other than heated/indoor spray areas, I don't know of any solution.  Slow dry paints?

[petey twofinger]

although i dont offer much , i did a video on this topic recently :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9OFH6iHnbI&list=UUzL6Rp7DwrTOfNq84mxlJ2A&index=2

i do demo an alternative to the toaster oven that i feel is much better .

that air brush paint job is amazing !