Spray booths.


S

stang_crazy

Member
Ok since im using the airbrush alot more along with enamel paints & thinner I wanna get me a small spray booth bought or made.


Just wondering if anyone has any reccomendations the largest thing it would need to hold is a model car.

Im wondering if theres a decent one for a good price or am I better of building one (which im fully cable of doing).

If i was to build one I dont know what kind of fan to go with (brushless I know) CFM I dont. what size to make it ect.. ALso this would be in the house so the more fumes,ect it can suck out the better.

any info would be great as i wanna get some major painting done.

thanks Mike
 
Here's a cheap homebrew booth.

http://www.modelrailforum.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=1396&view=findpost&p=125060

Numerous on the web for ideas. The only thing that seems to cause concern is spraying non-acrylics but I did read somewhere that it had been tested scientifically and it is extremely hard to get laquer's etc to explode using a simple fan. But best to be on the safe side and get a non sparking fan as was also said elsewhere.

Here's more ideas

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=homemade%20spray%20booth&aql=&gs_rfai=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
 
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Try Harbor Freight Tools or Northern Tools. Both have catalogs on line.
I made 1 out of an old Computer carton & a squirrel cage blower, but the blower kept getting clogged up w/paint & finally quit working. Then I tried a small Walmart fan w/all the drier vent hoses & that fan quit. So, now I paint everything outside in a box to keep the wind down to a breeze.
A paint box/cabinet has all of the safety features w/a lot of convience & that would be the way to go.
 
I found where someone used some plastic storage boxes for his 'cabinet' .. looks like a good way to do it. I took that (found it on Sketchup Warehouse) and applied the 'data' from the website I linked earlier .. thinking of doing this ... so rolled the two together to make this.
 
I remember seeing that Sketchup diagram as well. Not that its much more of an expense. But you have to have 2 storage boxes in order to make it. But that one is at the top of my list of booths to consider.
 
I built my own airbrush booth using a flat 110 volt fan and some thin plywood (and a bit of help from my carpenter father-in-law)
spraybooth2.jpg

The dryer hose is connected to the back of the fan and the piece of plywood in the window is cut to fit in the sliding window tracks. When I have some painting to do I open the outside window and plug the fan in.
Spraybooth1.png

The furnace filter slides into place on a set of wooden 'tracks' that are visible from the top. That catches the paint particles before they can enter the fan.
I have since painted the interior white to reflect more light. Speaking of light the swing light from my workbench (opposite the airbrush booth) provides the light that I need. My compressor sits under the table for easy access.

spraypaintholder.jpg

This is the painting stand that I made. It's basically a 2X4 with holes drilled ever 1/2" apart so that bent rod can be inserted into them at the right lenghth for the model being painted.
 
@CNR Glenn. How efficient is it? What I mean is - does it trap and remove all the paint particulates or do you get any settle in the room outside the spray booth?
 
it works very well. of course if you're spraying something closer to the front there may be a bit more overspray outside than if your part that you're painting is closer to the filter. The nice thing about the filter is I can remove it, take it outside and brush the loose particles off. The fan behind it stays nice and clean. no filter means your fan motor is going to get fouled and quit of you
 
Ok. I was wondering .. using it in a workshop, it wouldn't be a big deal if a little drifted down and around the spray booth .. but it would make a big difference if you were doing this on the kitchen table .. :)
 
Unfortunetly I inherited it from my father who got it from who knows where. It looks like a large computer fan (square housing). I would suggest an electical supply warehouse or something simular. I'll post pictures of the fan later today when I get home from work.
 
You wanna move air? You have to do it right.

Take it from a guy that's cheesed it up with spraybooth technology. I jacked around with flexible dryer duct, computer fans, fart-fans, etc. They don't work.

I have a 175 CFM, 12VDC squirrel cage blower from Grainger mounted into the countertop in my studio. The exhaust duct is 2 feet long, has no bends and exhausts to an exterior wall below and behind the countertop. The motor is sealed. It's been in-place for 3 years. I run lacquer thinner through my airbrushes after each use or after a color change, and spray straight into the opening in the counter top. I never smell the lacquer thinnner as long as the fan is on.

Grainger has ALL sorts of fans at different voltages and CFM. Take your pick.

www.grainger.com and drop this in the search blank "blower shaded pole"

Here's mine: http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/2C646?Pid=search

FLOW is the name of the game. You can buy an expensive 300 CFM blower ($150) and cheese it up with 10 feet of flexible dryer hose, multiple bends, a reducer or two, etc, and drop it to no-flow unit in short order.

A few thing to take note of before building a spray booth:

1. "Squirrel cage" blowers will pack the most punch of all types. Fart-fans for the bathroom will never cut it, unless they are squirrel-cage type. Non squirrel-cage units are pissing in the wind.

2. The longer your exhaust pipe, the less flow you'll have (just like on a race-car)

3. The more bends in the pipe, the less flow you'll have (just like on a race-car)

4. If you use a flexible slinky-type duct (like a dryer hose), you'll end up with the less flow than with rigid smooth-wall metal duct.

5. If you neck-down or reduce a 6" outlet on a squirrel-cage type blower you will seriously limit flow. Match the exhaust duct to the blower's outlet diameter. Got a 4" outlet on the blower? User 4" metal duct all the way.

6. The bigger the volume of the booth, the more CFM you'll need to evacuate it properly. You should not be smelling paint when you are spraying.

Before mounting ANYTHING permanently, test your fan, with the duct you plan to use. Generate some smoke and see if your rig moves it out. Don't know how to make smoke? Get some incense, punks, or smoldering paper towels. Don't burn down the house.

--Jon
 
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While I agree that a squirrel-cage fan works very well I have to respectfully disagree that any other type of fan and a dryer hose doesn't work. My fan and hose works just fine for pulling fumes and paint particles out of my workshop. I don't need smoke to see it, I just look at the evidence in the furnace filter and the lack of paint fumes I smell when I am spraying when it's on. Before I built mine I researched how some of the manufacturers make their booths. Pasche for one uses a flat fan simular to mine.

As promised here's some close-up pictures of my booth:

Here's the fan/ dryer duct hookup
Shadow032.jpg


With the ducting off. The paint residue in the adapter plate obviously shows that the fan is working, and That I have to clean the ducting out.
Shadow031.jpg


The fan from the inside with the filter lifted out:
Shadow033.jpg


The filter lifed out on it's tracks
Shadow034.jpg


And slid down showing the tracks on each side:
Shadow035.jpg


I also have a clear vinyl sheet that can be folded down over the front so that it keeps dust from dropping into a drying paint job.
 
Mobile Spray Booth

I built a 'mobile' one by using a rolling monitor/TV stand I picked up at a college surplus store. This allowed me to move it arround the basement, or over to the exit door (for ventilation outside), or outside totally.

I put the compressor and all the stripping stuff in the bottom rack, and made the upper rack the spray booth. Just taped heavy cardboard around the perimeter, and mounted some old computer fan units (surplus also) on the rear face. Added a computer keyboard slide drawer for paint bottles, small brushes etc.

Sorry, photos aren't too good, and there is a lot of 'stuff' sitting in the rotating pan when I took them
 
Here's a few photos of mine -- it REALLY sucks! LOL

The first photo is of the spray area itself. The 12V blower (so I can vary the suction) is mounted recessed into the countertop. I drop a 12" x 12" airfilter in it to trap particles now, but was not doing that previously. I just had a metal grate over the round hole you'll see in the next photos. The squirrel cage got coated with paint, but it still runs like it always did, and is not out of balance, so I'll just leave it.

Spray_area.jpg




In this next photo, I removed the air filter, so you are looking down into the mouth of the beast. Nice round hole (not). I threw in a bottle of Testors model Master paint to give you an idea of relative size. 11 inches from the bottom of the squirrel cage to the top of the counter.

Blower_from_top.jpg




This next photo is underneath the cabinet, showing the blower motor and the 4" whoopie-duct, which is totally compressed, so the inside of the duct is smooth. Total distance from the blower outlet to exterior of wall is about 16". Standard dryer vent going through the wall. And this proves you CAN have fun with duct-tape (I need to re-do it with the shiny aluminum tape, it's better).

Blower_from_bottom.jpg



I have a 2-stage 60 Gallon air compressor supplying 120 PSI of filtered and dried air to this rig. The green line shows airflow through the system. The heart of the system is the Bellofram <-- (brand name) precision regulator. This gem allows me to dail-in airpressure in 1/4 psi increments. A little rediculous for airbrushing, but I got it for free, so what tha heck, right? It's a $200 regulator! This regulator has a built-in leak in it from the factory. This allows you to increase or decrease air pressure and have it adjust on-the-fly, unlike other cheaper regulators. You have to let air out of the system at the airbrush while adjusting those regulators in order to get the correct reading on the gauge.

The gauges just show input air pressure from the compressor, and output air pressure to the airbrush. The water trap is a secondary and it never fills (prolly need to remove it). The primary traps and filters are downstairs in the garage. 1/2" galvanized steel pipe brings the air upstairs to my studio, the last few feet are copper 1/4" tube.

The cut-off valve is a 1/4 turn ball valve. Remember that built-in leak in the regulator? Well if you leave the air on long enough, the compressor cycles on and off a few times a day. Turn off that ball valve and the cycling stops.

Regulator.jpg
 
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