Hi everyone! Still new, and this may have been discussed before, but I can't find any direct mentions of this idea.
Once upon a time, I worked in auto-body collision and restoration shops. Often times, if the spray-bake booth was occupied, we'd do small spot repair priming out on the shop floor. And, being that production was always a target, we'd use infrared heat lamps set to about 180-200 *F to cure the primers. Even in a small mom and pop shop, he rigged his booth with a couple lamps around the interior of the booth to bake clears, and it worked superb!
Yes, we still followed OEM instructions on the paint, and advised customers not to wax their cars for at least 3 months, due to continued possible off-gassing. However, everything always came out of the booth ready to handle, and never had to worry about finger prints and such, unless you were REALLY trying to make a point. Usual bake time (if I remember right) was 45 mins for primers, and 90 minutes for clears (each OEM had their own time and temps).
I'd imagine this should still work for us. Chemistry tells us that (typically...) adding heat speeds reactions due to increased energy, more effective collisions, etc.... So, this, along with a fan (especially for clears to prevent dye-back, and solvent based paints like automotive color coats and lacquer) should get rid of the "weeks and weeks" of waiting for dope, latex, urethanes, rattle cans, etc to dry, right? And, being that it's light being used, it's actually heating the surface, rather than relying on hot air, so a fan wouldn't be counter productive (within reason, if airflow was just enough to blow fumes away, not so much as to negate any heating). Yes, pro level spray-bake booths use hot air... They have a heat exchanger built in to the intake side, so they are passing hot air over the vehicle. I'm not spending $30K on a booth big enough for a car
But, a couple hundred on a heat lamp, and maybe some wizardry with an arduino or raspberry pi and a thermistor and relay......
I also fly high-powered model rockets, and waiting a 2-3 days or even a week for them to dry between spray-bomb colors for masking is a joke...! I've been curious about this for a while, but it's now becoming a "justifiable" possibility.... I'd be getting an all around good deal on this, two hobbies with one (or two) lamps!
https://www.amazon.com/Bestauto-Infrared-Curing-Baking-Bodywork/dp/B07CTGFL31/ref=lp_15707171_1_11?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1527086990&sr=1-11Thoughts?