How long to let rattlecan paint dry?

I tried to use search, but for some reason there are hundreds of threads about painting...:wink:

We had a very pleasant evening today (Thursday), so I took advantage of it to spray some rockets I built over the winter. I used Krylon, Rustoleum, and whatever the Wal-Mart brand of paint is. My daughter would like to fly Saturday morning, as it looks like it will be a good day. Will the paint be hard enough to fly by then (about a day and a half), or should I leave them at home and fly something else?

The sniff test is what you want to try here. If the paint still smells like...well...paint, it's probably still curing.

Most rattle can paints list the dry to handle time on their labels.

As a rule of thumb if you can touch the paint its OK to handle, but as far as curing it might take longer It's kind of up to you if you want to fly it I mean after a few flights I'm sure the finish will have some nicks and dings due to landing and such. If you want to find out if its dry enough to handle don't touch the rocket, but something you may have got paint over spray on like the masking paper or tape.

+ 1 what he said. In all likelyhood, you should be good to go if you applied it right and not too heavy.

Whatever you do, read the instructions when it comes to dry and repainting times. I didn't once, and the results were frustrating and expensive.

Drying time can be different based on material. Paper and wood dries quicker than plastic, at least with the paint I use. As stated above, layer(s) thickness will affect dry time, so will the ambient humidity of the air. Another test I use is use your fingernail (in a conspicuous area) and try to scratch or dent the finish. If your fingernail runs across the paint is dry, if it digs in or makes a dent, I consider it still wet.

All good advice here but I have a feeling it's kind of a moot point. I suspect that if your daughter really wants to fly the freshly painted rocket then Dad will bring the freshly painted rocket !

Of course, there's no law saying you can't fly a model around noonish that was hit with a final coat @ 8:00am.

To speed up the cure/drying rate which helps to harden the finish, place rocket in sunny window or on dash of car in sun, where the heat will build up.

We call that a redneck curing oven...LOL

Go fly and have fun with your daughter. Fun family time beats waiting on a perfect finish any day of the week.

Flyfalcons said:

Go fly and have fun with your daughter. Fun family time beats waiting on a perfect finish any day of the week.

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I agree!!!

The paint will be cured more than enough.

It's probably dried by now!

Your daughter is interested right now to fly rockets. Don't lose this opportunity to get her interested in rocketry for that perfect finish. Things can come up or they lose interest easily. Take advantage of the opportunity.

Thanks for all the advice and feedback, everyone.

o1d_dude said:

The sniff test is what you want to try here. If the paint still smells like...well...paint, it's probably still curing.

Most rattle can paints list the dry to handle time on their labels.

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Rustoleum says it's dry in 24 hrs and wait 48 hrs to recoat, but the other paints didn't say anything. One said it could be handled in a few hours, but then said to wait 4 days to recoat, so I thought maybe 2 days to dry? Anyway seemed ok after a day or so.

samb said:

All good advice here but I have a feeling it's kind of a moot point. I suspect that if your daughter really wants to fly the freshly painted rocket then Dad will bring the freshly painted rocket !

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Oh yeah, you are correct.

Flyfalcons said:

Go fly and have fun with your daughter. Fun family time beats waiting on a perfect finish any day of the week.

Click to expand...

Never gonna have a perfect finish, at least not for long. I'm ok with "Good Enough."

JERRYR708 said:

Your daughter is interested right now to fly rockets. Don't lose this opportunity to get her interested in rocketry for that perfect finish. Things can come up or they lose interest easily. Take advantage of the opportunity.

Click to expand...

The upshot? My daughter had a sleepover Friday night and completely forgot about rockets, she was having so much fun with her friend. Wind picked up in the afternoon, but there's always next weekend...

Anyway, here's the new birds:



Murphy's Rocket, Flutter-By, and a Cosmic Explorer.

I had a lot of trouble with the silver paint on the Flutter-By--it looks splotchy and I ended up putting too much on, so it has some runs. I'm debating whether or not to try and paint the red stripe, but as I didn't quite get the masks straight on the other rockets, I'm tempted to say good enough.