soft paint

[jim]

i have been using rust-oleum enamel paint to spray things around the house and every time i use it, it seems to never dry hard. i use it according to the instructions with cleaning and primer, correct spraying temperature and humidity. this last time i was restoring 2 vices and used their up scale rust-oleum professional primer and high performance professional enamel. the vices were wire brushed and cleaned. the metal was very clean. sprayed at 70 degrees with 2 coats of primer and 3 coats of color. 2 lighter coats and one heavier coat. let dry in sun for 3 days and 4 more days after that. very nice gloss finish, but the paint is very soft and you could pick a hole in the paint with your fingernail after 7 days of drying. any suggestions would be great. jim

 

[n8n]

That's been my experience with rustoleum as well, it just doesn't produce a hard finish.. Krylon enamel is much harder, and appliance epoxy is harder yet.

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[JimVonBaden]

Rustoleum used to be great, but not so much any more.

 

[jkwilson]

Often soft paint is caused by applying it too thick. Multiple thin coats with dry time between will produce a harder finish.

 

[jim]

has anyone used the rust-oleum automotive and lacquer paints? would i have better off using these lines? do they dry any harder? jim

 

[84944Redline]

I've used both the spray can and roll on versions of the paint, and had the same experience as the OP. I painted a knob with the spray and refrigerator with the roll on. Both took weeks to fully cure. I did put it on thicker than suggested, and did multiple coats. At least a month after, the paint has hardened and I can no longer make a mark with an end of a nail.

 

[n8n]

BTW I forgot to mention that I painted a filing cabinet with the RO hammer tone paint, and that does not seem to be nearly as soft as the regular RO. Probably not as hard as real Hammerite though but I couldn't find any Hammerite spray locally.

 

[48RON54]

I used the roll on on some car parts and that stuff dried hard as a rock....i did multiple thing coats. Not sure on the spray paint as I've never used it on anything i particularly cared enough about to spend time inspecting it. I guess I'll just be weary of it.

 

[K13]

Applying heavy coats of enamel is a death sentence to trying to get enamel to get hard. It dries due to a reaction with the air so when you put on a heavy coat the surface cures and the rest underneath stays soft you need to apply with thin coats and follow the recommended recoat windows.