How long does it take to dry resin?

ArtResin is dry to the touch within 24 hours and fully cured within 72 hours.

However, say you have a big exhibition coming up and you've been working to the last minute on your projects. Now you need to get them dry ASAP so your artwork can be hung on time!

Can you reduce ArtResin's curing time?

Yes! It is possible to make epoxy resin dry faster using heat.

Here are some tips on DO's and DON'Ts to make ArtResin cure faster.

✅ What to do to speed up the curing time of the resin:

• Increase the temperature: The ideal temperature for curing ArtResin is 24-30ºC. The curing time is affected by the temperature: warmer temperatures facilitate curing and colder temperatures slow curing.
• Place a heater or heat lamp near your figure to encourage the resin to harden faster.

💡TIP: Remember to keep the temperature constant during the first 24 hours of curing. If there is a temperature drop, you can get things like pitting or an orange peel effect in the cured resin. Keep the temperature constant for the first 24 hours

✘ What NOT to do to speed up ArtResin's curing time:

• Do not add more hardener to the mix because you think it will speed up the setting time. It won't - all it will do is throw off the delicate 1:1 mixing ratio, causing your resin to not harden at all and remain tacky indefinitely.
• Do not replace the ArtResin hardener with another brand of hardener that advertises a faster cure time. Each paired resin and hardener in a kit works together as a system and cannot be interchanged.
• Do not add any additional agents or solvents to the mixture to try to promote faster curing. ArtResin is not designed to accommodate these and you will end up with resin that may not harden at all.  

Factors affecting ArtResin's curing time:

When ArtResin was formulated, priority was given to safety , that it would be crystal clear and exceptional protection against yellowing .

To achieve this, they chose to cut back on the additive that promotes curing (called an accelerator) for two reasons:

1) Accelerators

Accelerators are usually yellow in color, so too much accelerator results in a product that looks yellow rather than crystal clear, like ArtResin. That extra few hours of curing time was worth it to maintain ArtResin's exceptional clarity!

2) Rapid curing and yellowing of epoxy resin

The faster the resin cures, the more chance it has of yellowing as a side effect of a fast cure time. Heat is a byproduct of the chemical reaction that causes the resin to harden, so if it hardens too quickly (as with quick-set epoxy glues), heat guns can cause the resin to look yellow after it hardens.

Unless steps are taken to promote faster curing, ArtResin is dry to the touch within 24 hours and fully cured within 72 hours.

After 24 hours, a piece can be moved from its curing position and hung on a wall. The difference in hardness between a 24-hour cure and a 72-hour cure is usually only an important consideration for artists who want to pack and ship their work or if they are making coasters, bar tops, or other heavy projects that require a less flexible cure . For coated paintings, drawings, mixed media pieces and sculpture for example, the marginal difference in hardness from day one to day three is negligible.

ArtResin: Made for artists, by artists