I might finally get an airbrush setup soon and I have a question about how paint (acrylics, enamels, lacquers) react to different temperatures in my house.
I currently live in a house that has no A/C so during the summer it is really hot in my house, I live in Michigan so it gets pretty humid outside all year round as well. I do have window A/C units in some rooms, but not in the room that I will be spraying. I’m not quite sure what the temperature will be in my house, but will the paint react badly to warm temperature in terms of the spraying/drying/curing process?
While the temperature is a factor, I believe the humidity can have much more influence on the paint. This depends on type of paint we’re talking about - moisture could potentially be pretty bad on enamels, they don’t mix with water, so water droplets would create surface defects on the paint. Acrylics could probably absorb some moisture, but I don’t have enough experience to predict the exact results - so you will have to experiment with it anyhow. In case of enamels thinning the paint some more would be recommended, to compensate for faster thinner evaporation at higher temperatures. Hope it helps, good luck with your projects
Usually enamels dry slow enough that moisture condensing on surface is not too big a problem. I do find sometimes enamels dry a bit slower in high humidity. Lacquers, on the other hand, suffer from what is called “blushing”, where the rapid drying lowers surface temp of paint and a whitish, rough area results from condensed water.
Lower temps also retard drying of enamels. I use Testors enamels primarily, so I built a drying cabinet, using a 40W light bulb in lower chamber, one of those translucent storage containers as the upper chamber (where the model or parts go). I find it runs at about 105F, and really speeds up drying, reduces humidity and is a dust-free environment. Dries quite well in about 12 to 18 hours for an airbrushed coat.
I’m not sure, I can only tell you my hygrometer indicated 70% relative and I could still airbrush humbrols without major problems. The air temp was 20 - 22 degrees Celsius. In fact some humidity helps to keep the dust down, from what I see. Good luck with your projects, have a nice day
Humidity problems is one of the prime reasons I had for moving to CO2 instead of a compressor. I could never rig up a moisture filter that worked well enough to stop all the water splatter. I got tired of waiting days on end for our killer humidity to drop enough to finish a project.