How Do I Test---

Baby Talk
1

How do you test your vinyl pieces to assure that your air dry paint has been fully cured (after letting set for a couple of weeks) before adding your varnish and after adding the varnish. @anjsmiles

2

I used to lightly rub across mine with a damp q-tip but I don’t now. I find all my paints are cured enough to varnish after a week usually. Sometimes I wait 2 weeks.

2 Likes
3

That’s a good question !
I can rub a wet q tip with notting coming off after a day or two, so for me it isn’t a good way to test I think.

4

Typically that only tests for surface cure. Acrylic paints form a skin that hardens on the top first then it cures in the under layers over a period of weeks.

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5

Here is a good article by Golden
https://www.goldenpaints.com/technicalinfo/technicalinfo_drying

Even though I feel my paints are cured enough after a week to varnish, I wait another week after varnishing them before shipping or letting a customer receive the doll. The paints can continue to cure after being varnished but the varnish will slow down the time of the under layers of paint hardening so it is best to wait if you are in doubt. If I used a lot of paint layers such as doing an AA baby or using retarder in a lot of my layers then I will give it 2-4 weeks cure time before varnishing.

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6

Thank you ladies for the information.

edit to add: after you let it sit so the paints can cure, then you add your varnish, do you let the ‘parts’ sit alone for a while or when the varnish is dry to the touch do you go ahead and assemble and THEN wait another couple of weeks before selling/shipping? Or when the varnish is dry can you just assemble and sell right away? Does any of this make sense?

7

I let my kit sit for a week before varnish, then do hair (few days more), assemble, take pics, and the time they sell it take a few months for me so it’s totally cure by the time.

8

I let parts sit for a week after varnishing before assembly. I do not root hardly ever any more but when I did I would wait a week after varnishing before rooting.

9

Thank You ladies, I really appreciate the information, rather new to the air dry scene.