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Food Dehydrators & Paint Dryers


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depending on how much effort you are willing to put into your paint job, there are things you can do to keep the dust down that most people might not use.

Turn the spraybooth on a while before painting, and leave the room for a while giving it a chance to sort of pull some of the loose dust in the air out.

If you are so inclined, take a spray bottle, put about 1/2 inch of Downey or similar laundry softener and the rest water, then spray the floor. This will serve to also knock more dust out of the air, will keep static out of the rug or carpet if you have a carpeted work area, and will also serve to dampen the floor to keep dust from "kicknig up" into the air as you move around the room. Same principle as the 1:1 guys who hose down the shop floor before painting.

make sure to keep the sides of the paint booth etc wiped down as well, as loose debris will fall from there as well from time to time.

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Bought mine at Harbor Freight for $15.00. Best money I've ever spent. I have put tons of bodies and parts in it from almost every major model brand and had ZERO problems. I did add a $2.00 power switch. As long as youre using it to dry model parts and bodies, theres no need for a temp control.

Does the HF dehydrator that you have do adjustable temps?

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Does the HF dehydrator that you have do adjustable temps?

Dante, I've got an older one from HF (Almost 10 years old), and it has no temp control or fan, just vents in the lid. The temperature stays between 100-105F, and the only thing I've ever warped was an old body I left in for 24 hours...my mistake. Clears dry at the same rate as colors, it just depends on the type of clear used, lacquer, enamel, etc.

Here's a shot of my old warhorse in use last night with a nail polish paint job....it took about an hour to get the paint cured!

1969Barracuda0139-vi.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

This is a couple of photos of the dehydrator I made from one a friend gave me. It only had 2 trays and had no height to it. I took some lexan and made it high enough to hold a lot of parts. I had to seperate the fan and heat so I could adjust the heat. I ran another cord and seperated the fan and heat circuit. I took a receptacle and took the tab off the hot side to seperate the two plug ins. Took a dimmer and ran it to one plug and left the fan hot all the time. I ran the fan through the front switch on the unit so I could just use air and use the dimmer switch to control the heat.

Not very pretty but it works great.

Richard

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  • 2 months later...

I use a Nesco American Harvest dehydrator and I have to tell ya, it's one of the best investments I've made in my hobby so far. Set it to 105 degrees and let it run over night, and my paint is ready to be rubbed out. Takes the 'sit down and wait ' factor right out of the painting-finishing part of the hobby! I recommend one of these to anyone who builds.

I will second that!

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Man, these things look like the answer to my prayers. I think.

I use acrylics (either Model Master or homemade - Future plus pigment) as my paint. I then use Future as a gloss coat. I have found that for a thick coat of Future to be dry, you're looking at at least 2-3 weeks, sometimes. This is lame.

Has anyone here used these dehydrators on Futured car bodies? Did it work? I know Future can get VERY hot; I dry stuff between two lamps, and sometimes, the part is so hot I can't touch it. Yes, I know that's likely too hot, but nothing has warped yet. Even with this technique, though, I'm waiting a week or so of 16-hour drying days. Future seems to be wet below the surface for quite some time...

Anyway, if anyone's got any notes for this, let me know!

Thanks!

Oh, Happy Easter to those who celebrate it!

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Adam, I've put models in the dehydrator that were cleared in Future. One of them is pictured below.............

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I built this back in 1993-94, long before the Mach 5 kit was available. One caveat is you can't put the Future in right away, as it can tend to yellow somewhat in areas where it has "pooled". I'd wait maybe an hour to let it set up, then put it in the dehydrator. As you can see, the model's a little worse for wear as the decals are starting to split, and the build itself is a little crude compared to how I would do it today. ;)

Hope this helps!

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Man, that's nice work!

Interesting about the Future, too. I've never notice it yellow, and I hope I don't because I use it on everything! Hmm... Good to know about letting it set up, though. I will definitely take that to heart!

Thanks, man!

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The reason I noticed it because it was used over Krylon White, which is a REALLY bright white. I had put the body in the dehydrator immediately after I airbrushed the Future, and after letting it sit in there for maybe an hour, I noticed that the white had a slight yellowish tinge to it.

I stripped it to start over, and sure enough the nice bright white returned. It came to mind that maybe I should let things sit for a spell before putting it in, and the next time it came out fine.

Edited by MrObsessive
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Okay, I was looking for a dehydrator at Walmart today, and all they had was the 240W Salton one.

Anyone ever use this thing? is it any good, or should I take it back.

It was $50, which doesn't sound like much to some people, but it's not inconsequential, either.

I don't like that the trays are shallow, I can tell you. I'll have to get creative there, if I choose to go with this model.

Any feedback would be appreciated!

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Okay, I was looking for a dehydrator at Walmart today, and all they had was the 240W Salton one.

Anyone ever use this thing? is it any good, or should I take it back.

It was $50, which doesn't sound like much to some people, but it's not inconsequential, either.

I don't like that the trays are shallow, I can tell you. I'll have to get creative there, if I choose to go with this model.

Any feedback would be appreciated!

Most, or rather all, food dehydrators have shallow trays. I just cut the centers out of a few to use the outer rings as spacers. If you get stuck with something that isn't adjustable and is too hot, wire it into a dimmer switch. be creative.

Dale

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The best I've had yet is this one I bought on eBay. They're pricey at $165.00 but the best I've used yet. Adjustable temp with timer that goes up to 40 hours. Cabinet is all stainless steel and comes with eight removable racks for plenty of room. I average building 40 to 60 models a year so I need something that can handle my demands and this one does a fine job.

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  • 2 months later...

So, question...what is the point in using the dehydrator? Does it simply speed up cure time, or are there other advantages?

You got it!

Especially those water based Tamiya (and others) acrylics! I know if I clear something with Tamiya's X-22 acrylic paint, I can count on it to not be thoroughly dry for a week or longer. If I put it in the dehydrator overnight for instance, the next day it's hard as a rock and can be rubbed out and polished with no problem.

Some enamel paints can be notoriously slow drying------Testors comes to mind. The dehydrator is excellent for curing those somewhat troublesome paints too. 

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Sorry for how I'm sure this is gonna sound...

  Is this all just about time and the general lack of patience... or, is there a real genuine advantage to using this process? Is it all about the paint... I realize that most fillers dry fairly quickly to begin with - so is there any advantage there?

  Seriously, not trying to be or sound like an a** or anything... It's just that my schedule often allows me a week or two at a time before I get back to my bench - so if it's purely just a time thing... ... ...

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Sorry for how I'm sure this is gonna sound...

  Is this all just about time and the general lack of patience... or, is there a real genuine advantage to using this process? Is it all about the paint... I realize that most fillers dry fairly quickly to begin with - so is there any advantage there?

  Seriously, not trying to be or sound like an a** or anything... It's just that my schedule often allows me a week or two at a time before I get back to my bench - so if it's purely just a time thing... ... ...

To me the reduced wait time is important.  Not just for car bodies but for some small parts which require multiple colors and multiple masking operations. I also think that it makes the paint finish harder than when just  drying at room temperature. I don't just use it for drying paint - I dry the parts after washing them, I cure resin parts in it (again they set quicker and harder). I also often use it to warm up the container with paint stripper with the parts immersed in it (to make the stripping solution more aggressive).

So I guess it all depends on your building techniques.

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