I've been painting frames over quite a few years now with rattle cans. I get good results, and I have quite detailed instructions on my website that others have used to equally good or better results.

At present, I have a project to change the colour of Machka's steel Surly fork that she opted for on her titanium bike (she has an aversion to carbon forks).

She acquired a green Brooks saddle and has some green tape to go on new, wider bars. And she wanted the fork changed from black to a dark green -- Brunswick green is what it is called on the spray can.

I stripped the fork and primed it. Originally, I put on four coats of the Brunswick green, but didn't wait long enough for the paint to fully harden (a combination of cold weather and my impatience).

Consequently, when fitting it back on the bike, I chipped it. Oh well... I took off the paint with stripper and started again.

Trouble is, we are going away for six days over Easter and we are taking the tandem, my carbon and her titanium, and we leave on Thursday night. So there is some urgency in getting this project done.

Then I got thinking about baking paint. A mate of mine at my previous workplace said the reason why car bodyworks use ovens is to make the paint dry quicker and harder, and it's economically effective because it reduces the wait time.

I googled it, and came up with some answers, mainly from model train makers and Cub Cadet owners. But they were really helpful.

So last night I applied the four coats of finish paint (the wonders of modern spray cans allow you to do that), cranked the oven to around 195 deg F, and popped the fork in after letting it sit for an hour. I left the door open, and had the exhaust fan on full power and windows and doors open.

An hour later, and the fork came out and this morning when I checked the paint was all nice and hard and ready for four coats of clear finish, which will get the same oven treatment.

I was really impressed. It's a way to shorten the process considerably. Comments on the forums I consulted said the paint was harder and seemed to adhere to the metal better.

Obviously this is not something I would contemplate with carbon components, although I think the epoxy resin has a high resistant to heat to a certain level.

I do, however, have three metal frames (Machka's steelie touring bike, an aluminium Giant MTB for my new commuter, and my steelie fixed gear) all lined up for new paint. Now I am on the lookout for a large enough cabinet that I can set up a barbecue plate and bake them, too.

I had to laugh at one of the posts on the train-makers forum. It said someone had put a nice locomotive model into a toaster oven to bake, but was unaware it had been assembled with low melting point solder. He ended up with a model kit for his trouble.

Anyone else here tried baking painted parts?