Green Stuff vs The Hair Dryer

EArkham

EArkham

Necromancer
Just wondering if anyone\'s ever tried this to speed up the process of curing.

I have a rather large piece that won\'t fit in my \"lamp oven.\" It\'s under a lamp right now; not quite as fast as the lamp oven. There\'s a second piece of similar size I\'ll need to work on, too, and I\'m hoping I can speed the process for that one.

Kep
 
Shawn R. L.

Shawn R. L.

New member
Two part putty relies on the reaction of the two components not \'drying\' or baking. I dont think it will speed things up and could potentially screw things up.
 
R

Rodnik

New member
@Shawn----greenstuff curing can be sped up with moderate heat----that\'s the reasoning behind the \"oven\". It\'s a fairly common practice with some sculptors.
Overheating will \"melt\" the sculpt---so the trick is finding that happy medium.
You can also slow the curing time significantly by placing it in the refrigerator....

Kep,

Use aluminum foil.

That is, take aluminum foil and make a little bit bigger oven by extending the lamp reflector with the aluminum foil. Put the \"reflective\" side to the inside.

Also, consider a higher wattage bulb than what you are using in combination with the foil.

Any of that make sense?
Kev
 
EArkham

EArkham

Necromancer
I use wax to fill the bottom slots of my bases (it prevents sand, etc from creating a depression when adding basing material, plus it makes it easier for me to pop off when I hot glue them to my painting handles). You can imagine what happened the first time I tried a lamp oven. <snicker>

You can\'t really leave a sculpt in the lamp oven very long at all. I think 15 minutes is considered a fair amount of time.

The aluminium foil idea is a good one... let me try that out. Makes perfect sense! Thanks!

Kep
 
Einion

Einion

New member
I use a good long blast from the hairdryer to speed curing of putty quite often. You have to get it pretty hot - too hot to handle comfortably - and keep it that way for at least 30 seconds for it to really make a lot of difference; doing this you can quickly take a putty past the sticky stage (heating, then letting it sit for maybe five minutes while you work on something else). I find this very useful if you want to get it to stick in place while putties are most malleable, but then want to get cracking on smoothing and detailing ASAP when a firmer consistency is desirable.

Einion
 
M

marineboy

New member
Shawn -- shells built of fiberglass sheeting bonded with epoxy glue are commonly used to build canoes and kayaks. The epoxy glues used often have a quite short gel time after being mixed, somewhere in the order of 5 minutes or less (in the pot, depending on the glue being used).

One common method used to increase working time with these glues is to spread the glue out into a thin layer immediately upon mixing the components -- the heat generated by the reaction between the to components speeds up the curing process, by spreading the glue into thin layers the heat can disipate, slowing the curing process.

A pot of expoxy glue can get pretty hot if left to itself. Greenstuff doesn\'t show the same heat-buildup (not with a curing time of 24 hours as opposed to minutes), but heat most certainly is a part of the process. Sounds logical that heating it up would hurry the curing along.
 
M

Marmoset

Guest
green stuff when not completely dry melts under a hairdryer, and expands and goes puffy in the oven:)I recommend just waiting!

Bill :D
 
A

Astonia

New member
The hairdryer is better for painting, I can\'t actually believe that I used to paint without one! Dries inks and paints in seconds instead of having to sit and wait. Just a tip... :)
 
EArkham

EArkham

Necromancer
Yup, I already use a hair dryer to dry inks. Figured since it was handy, I could kill two birds with one stone. :)

Extra lamps and tinfoil worked fairly well, at least better than just the one lamp. ...though with the extra lamps, I think the tinfoil might have been unnecessary.

Kep
 
freakinacage

freakinacage

Well-known member
i bought a heat torch thing (not the technical term for it!) the other day. brilliant it is. smaller and quieter than a hairdryer and a lot cheaper (about £6 it think). but don\'t let it get too close - there is a cone of heat in the middle of the air that it expels that is VERY hot. bubbling paint isn\'t a good thing.... :(
 
P

Patrick

New member
Yeah - I ruined a sculpt once using a shrink wrap heat gun. Bubbled the green stuff right off of the armature. Only useful if you want to start completely over. :rolleyes:
 
D

DrEvilmonki

Active member
I think the problem with using the hairdryer will be control. Lower heat levels from multiple lamps etc may take longer but will not have the risk of over cooking it.
 
EArkham

EArkham

Necromancer
The main deterent was actually talc. I was using it so I could get a piece nice and flat, and when I aimed the hairdryer, talc went everywhere. I decided I wasn\'t in THAT much of a hurry after all. :D

I ended up just using a little more yellow in the mixes, which makes them cure faster, especially under a lamp. Simple solution.

Kep
 
EArkham

EArkham

Necromancer
Works the opposite for me... My original mix -- the one I was lamenting since it took so long to cure -- was 60% blue and 40% yellow. My current mixes are 50/50 and they cure much faster.

I have no way to explain why, unless all uneven ratios take longer than even mixes.

Kep
 
EArkham

EArkham

Necromancer
Label is long gone (and most of the tube, for that matter), but it should be Kneadatite... Same stuff from the CMON shop.

You know... it could also be due to the mix being incomplete in the original 60/40. The colour appears totally blended, but that\'s no guarantee it\'s truly mixed. I\'ll try a small 60/40 mix today and see if the same thing happens.

Kep
 
M

marineboy

New member
Interesting to hear your results, Kep.

In a 50% mix, there should be plenty of catalyser to get the hardening process done -- no company would risk sending a product as this out with the risk of it not hardening completely. Bad for business.

No idea what decreasing the amount of catalyst will do to the hardening time, though.
 
M

minimaker

New member
Originally posted by green stuffDuro and Kneadatite.
Click to expand...
To avoid misunderstandings, the Duro sold in France is Kneadatite blue-yellow packaged by Sylmasta in the UK.
The US Duro is by loctite and useless for fine sculpting.
 
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