Cooking with Lacquer

[scadaman29325]

I guess this is mostly for us Low Power guys... You High Power folks take this to the max... :kill:

At our last club meeting one of the guys who works for McDonald Douglas told us that the guy over in the paint shop advised that he use aircraft Lacquers and cook it in the oven at about 120 degrees for awhile. He said it will strengthen the body tube considerablely. His little Bull Pup looked pretty good!

Having no experience in this, I thought I would submit this before the rocket gods, for comment.

Any special prep or priming?

TIA

 

[powderburner]

I have not heard anything about baked- on lacquer, and cannot see why toasting the materials at that temperature would magically add any strength at all (I mean the oven treatment, not the use of lacquer coatings). Perhaps he was merely trying to get the lacquer coating to dry out a bit faster? The real problem with this would be getting permission to 'stink up' the family oven?

I would think that soaking the BT in CA or thin epoxy would be a similar way to add strength, and there are plenty of guys here on TRF who can give you expert advice on THAT option. It would also avoid all the quirks of working with lacquers (some of them are finicky about how you apply them, if you want a nice finish) and does not require the use of an oven.

 

[shockwaveriderz]

cooking laquer in an oven sounds to me like an explosion just waiting to happen....

instead you might heat it up on a stove top.....this stuff is exteremly flammable so I would be very careful ....

In fact I would not recommend doing this.....

 

[Micromeister]

many of you know i'm in the sign manufacturing business. We have and use a complete spray booth /drying facility. I've spoken to all our Factory trained applicators about this subject. Not one has ever hear of the process. I've contacted Dupont and Matthews paint systems.. both have a Lacquer base paint system requesting information on any speed drying or "bakeing" operations.
Thus far only Dupont has responded, they simply said "DO NOT do it"! Lacquer thinner emits extremely explosive vapors, with a fairly low flash point. Heat lamps may be used but only with care and distance from the painted surface.

On a side note We've "Baked" Enamels for years in an oven like (IR heat lamp) chamber to speed the trying time with excellent results. a word of causion with this also, enamel thinners, terps, and even miniral spirits could explode if placed in a lite oven. maybe bring the over up to temp. than insert the model for a period may increase the dry time. but has No effect on the hardness of the paint.
The addition of "hardners" to emamel paints create "polyurethanes" or plastisized enamels, "harder" than a straight enamel, but also prone to chipping.
Hope this helps a little.

 

[powderburner]

Looks to me like we have rather thoroughly and authoritatively debunked the idea of attempting any sort of lacquer/oven combination.

If you want a stronger BT but do not want to mess with fiberglass and resin, there are enough other safe and proven choices that work well. These include:
1--shop for thicker-walled BT (I think LOC makes some?), or different tube materials (phenolic, etc)
2--slip a 'doubler' BT inside or outside your basic BT to increase the wall thickness, glued in place with white or yellow glues or slow epoxy
3--someone in another recent thread here on TRF pointed out that addition of a stuffer tube (with additional CRs) will effectively strengthen the main BT----you can even foam-fill the dead spaces between the BT and stuffer to stiffen the overall airframe
4--install some lengthwise stiffeners inside the tube, like spruce (model aircraft 1/8 x 1/8 or similar) or dowel rod materials

Lacquers used to be used extensively in the furniture industry. A lot of big furniture factory fires are the main reason that the use of lacquer has been mostly discontinued.