Need advice on spray booth filters

[GU-11]

That's an awesome idea! The lid on one of those transparent plastic food containers (those really cheap wafer-thin ones food vendors use for takeout orders) should be light enough to do the job.

The smoke absorber protrudes a little out of the window seal's slot though, since it's tilted at a slightly upward angle. Maybe I could fashion a sort of "socket" from a square food container and tape the lid onto the side to form a hinge.

I'll keep you guys updated!

[GU-11]

Just tried out AB'ing some Tamiya X-7 red on the spray booth. Glad to report that there was no hint of paint thinner at all. Still wore a mask just in case.

There's one problem, though. The Tamiya red I sprayed was supposed to be glossy, but ended up with a flat finish when dry--semi-gloss at best. I thinned it 1:1 with Tamiya's own thinner, and only sprayed a few light coats on the plastic. Spraying distance is about 3 to 4 inches. I also did that trick Fichtenfoo mentioned in his site, blowing air from the AB between coats to help it dry faster--not such a good idea in retrospect. Could these be the reasons?

Could humidity also be responsible? It rained yesterday evening, but I decided to try out the airbrush this morning, since I have to test out the spray booth anyways. Ground outside is dry, though.

Any advice?

Edited November 29, 2012 by GU-11

[EXO]

Try buffing it with a lint free cloth. Put tape on the other colors if it's not the only color. Sounds like you're doing everything else right though.

Also try mounting the piece on a stick or something and try to hit every surface as head on as you can.

Here's what one of my set ups look like. It looks like a warning to all other saddle bags not to come near.

what's the temperature in the room? if it's too cold you might want to heat up the paint a little. When I spray with a can I eat it up slowly with a blow dryer or put it in hot water. Air brush I just keep it next to a portable heater.

And always wear a mask. I work where there's a whole room is a giant paint booth and I never go in there without a mask.

[MechTech]

It sounds like you're getting there! - MT

[GU-11]

Many thanks on the pointers, EXO!

LOL! That saddlebag setup is equal parts awesome and gruesome! I do something similar, except I stick the plastic parts with blutack onto chopsticks, and I use a cardboard egg carton. I'll have to either use something heavier than the egg carton or weigh it down, now that I'm using an airbrush. The air pressure is very concentrated and toppled the whole thing when I brought the nozzle near one of the scrap plastic parts.

It was around 25-28 degrees Celcius that morning--not sure if that's considered cold. I know that you should heat spray cans in a bowl of hot water, but what about acrylic paint jars? Do you heat it up after thinning or before?

I think I might not have mixed the paint up sufficiently. I gently stirred it until the alcohol and pigments mixed together, but apparently you have to stir it up really well, or the "binders" might remain separated from the paint, and not give a gloss finish. That's probably the only part I didn't do right.

As for my mask, it's no good for filtering fumes, but I still wear it to keep paint dust and larger paint particles from getting in my lungs. Hopefully the fan will sufficiently suck in all the fumes.

It sounds like you're getting there! - MT

Yes, thanks to all the helpful advice from you guys! I'm still a ways from even being remotely efficient with my AB, but I'm starting to get used to how it works and behaves. My quest for modeling excellence has just begun.

[MechTech]

I shake the heck out of my Tamiya bottles and then stir them with a toothpick. It gets them well mixed and the last step helps drive out the bubbles. Cap them and keep them in a well sealed container. I've got bottles that are sold old I lost count! They just need a little mixing and thinner sometimes.

I hope things work out with the humidity. You're spraying in summer temperatures for the states. Cold, no. Humid, yeah! I hope all works out for your painting. - MT

[derex3592]

I always stir my paint as well with toothpicks before mixing. I also stir them as I'm airbrushing if it sits for more than just a few minutes between coats. I find the acrylics separate from the thinner rather quickly. As I live in Texas I deal with a lot of temperature extremes, from very hot to very cold to a lot of humidity, so I just kinda paint when I need to paint and hope for the best! As I have a garage to work out of it's not that bad usually. I've been keeping up with this thread as I need to build a spray booth of my own. I don't like using cardboard boxes as the small hairs from the cardboard get into my paint and cause me a lot of stress!

Edited November 30, 2012 by derex3592

[GU-11]

I shake the heck out of my Tamiya bottles and then stir them with a toothpick. It gets them well mixed and the last step helps drive out the bubbles. Cap them and keep them in a well sealed container. I've got bottles that are sold old I lost count! They just need a little mixing and thinner sometimes.

I hope things work out with the humidity. You're spraying in summer temperatures for the states. Cold, no. Humid, yeah! I hope all works out for your painting. - MT

I was told years ago that shaking the bottle isn't good for the paint, as it creates bubbles. But after reading your post, I guess stirring afterwards can get rid of the bubbles.

I keep all my paint bottles inside a tool box, in a frequently air-conditioned room.

Humidity-wise, it's getting ridiculous. I check the online weather forecast, and humidity has been steadily climbing from the high 60's last week to 84% today. Then again, it's a generalized report encompassing the whole city, so it might not be as bad where I'm at. The ground's pretty dry with no signs of dew on the plants outside. The weather's nice and cool, although the weather report says it's 29-34 degrees.

Honestly, I don't know how much I should believe in this stuff, as the forecasts in different sites and vary by over ten percent. The site I go to says it's a whopping 94% humidity, bu another says it's 84%. Either way, both reports are too high to do any painting, so I'll err on the side of caution and wait until the highest average is at most 60%.

It's probably overkill to buy a hygrometer, though.

[Jefuemon]

As I have a garage to work out of it's not that bad usually. I've been keeping up with this thread as I need to build a spray booth of my own. I don't like using cardboard boxes as the small hairs from the cardboard get into my paint and cause me a lot of stress!

Back when rec.arts.anime.models was an actual alive newsgroup, and not a spam receptacle, I read about one guy who made a spray booth out of an old stovetop range hood, and some spare plywood boards. Made a box out of the plywood same size as the hood, and said it worked out pretty well.

[GU-11]

I always stir my paint as well with toothpicks before mixing. I also stir them as I'm airbrushing if it sits for more than just a few minutes between coats. I find the acrylics separate from the thinner rather quickly. As I live in Texas I deal with a lot of temperature extremes, from very hot to very cold to a lot of humidity, so I just kinda paint when I need to paint and hope for the best! As I have a garage to work out of it's not that bad usually. I've been keeping up with this thread as I need to build a spray booth of my own. I don't like using cardboard boxes as the small hairs from the cardboard get into my paint and cause me a lot of stress!

Thanks for the tips on stirring the paint during airbrushing, Derex! I rarely spray for more than ten minutes (I follow Fichtenfoo's technique of spraying light coats and blowing air on each coat to dry them), so I don't usually notice the paint separating since I spray continuously. Speaking of which, the relatively low psi (15 max, 7 continuous) of my sprayworks basic compressor requires a closer spraying distance than I'm used to when using spray cans.

Yeah, I've heard about the cons of using cardboard as a spray booth. A solution I've been thinking of doing is to line the interior with duct tape. Should work, as the tape feels almost like tarpaulin, and should seal off the surface of the cardboard.

Another crazy idea I've got is to line the interior with plastic folders that are cut to size and super-glue it to the cardboard. Should work in theory.

Either that or I use the cardboard version as a guide to build another one out of MDF. That would require a bit of carpentry, which I don't have to tools for.

Edited November 30, 2012 by GU-11

[derex3592]

Somewhere on the Internet ....maybe it was YouTube, I saw a guy build a nice spray booth out of high-quality pegboard...that way he had a ton of little holes to hold the parts on the sides and bottom of the booth and spray from almost every direction....and the back part the holes acted as part of the ventilation system.

[GU-11]

Somewhere on the Internet ....maybe it was YouTube, I saw a guy build a nice spray booth out of high-quality pegboard...that way he had a ton of little holes to hold the parts on the sides and bottom of the booth and spray from almost every direction....and the back part the holes acted as part of the ventilation system.

Does it have a fan of any sort? The whole point of a spray booth is to suck in the fumes and either vent it outdoors or filter it. I've seen some people simply build three walls out of cardboard or wood to contain the overspray, sometimes without even wearing a mask, which is totally missing the point.

Pegboard is great for holding up skewers with plastic parts on them, though. If I could get my hands on some, I could fashion a stand of some sort .

[derex3592]

Yeh...it had ventilation.