Saw a post from March 2020 re: flooding the engrave with acrylic paint. I’m doing that, and yes, it worked wonderfully, but if the application is for a keychain, which this is, should I put some sort of coating over it so the paint doesn’t wear off or run off if it gets wet?
Once the acrylic paint dries it shouldn’t have any issues with getting wet - but it might be worth annealing the whole thing (putting it in the oven and slowly raising the temp to 250-350ºF (look it up I’m not sure)) or running some acrylic glue over the top (the liquid stuff that melts the acrylic together).
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I have a toaster oven I use for crafting. Will try doing a little Easy Bake there. Thanks!
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I spray my keychains with krylon and let it dry before removing the masking. So far at least I haven’t had anyone complain about the paint coming off. I have thought about spraying the entire thing with polycrylic after, but I think I’ll hold off on that unless I get complaints of the paint wearing off.
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Yeah, that’s a no. That temp is going to result in a slump at the higher end.
For annealing you want to put it into a 170-180F oven for 1hr/mm of thickness. At the end of the time, turn the oven off and let it cool down naturally before removing the pieces from the oven. That will anneal the acrylic.
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Maybe try a clear UV epoxy? A bit easier than a 2 part epoxy and should prtect it well.
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I have enjoyed using UV resin as a topcoat, it also adds strength to the keychains. The cheapest/ easiest way is to use the UV resin they use for fake fingernails, and use the sun to cure it. Apply the resin indoors in a room without natural light, one some kind of tray, then move the tray outdoors for a few minutes.
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