Paint Booth

[Neova]

I just moved and need recommendations for a new spray paint booth / hood setup. I have a room where I will setup my workshop but the one window leading out is small. 2 foot wide with a safety gate wrapped around it. The best I could do is get a 12" opening and stick a funnel out. I will need a filter in place and need to have the booth collapse for storage if need be.

I was thinking of McGyvering it with a 12 - 14" AC fan, wrapped in cardboard schroud, charcoal filter in the back and funnel / ducting out the window. Or I was thinking about one of those 16x 20" kitchen range hoods with twin fans but those cost ~ 250-300 USD. Very powerful though.

I live in an apartment complex so I need to have that filter there to keep from killing small animals and children, not to mention painting my neighbors windows.

I saw those Tamiya and Mr. Hobby paint booths but those were like 150 USD and up here. I'm not in the US btw so shipping will hurt unless the high quality domestic units are cheap.

Let me know!

[wm cheng]

Hey Neova,

I'd be very interested in what you come up with. I am in the basement, but I would like to vent to the exterior too. I think the hobby ones are too expensive and small - I was hoping to find some industrial ones, but the kitchen idea seems neat. If you can send any sites for research - it would help.

My dream would be a retractable setup, pulled down to paint, and retract up to the ceiling to build my model in the same place - I can't afford the space for a separate spray booth.

Does anyone here work in a vented setup?

Edited May 12, 2004 by wm cheng

[Mule]

One thing about the kitchen range hoods: the motors are inside the duct. All motors spark continuously and your fumes will be going right over that. The sparks will be mostly contained in the motor housing, but I really don't think those motors are explosion proof. Just a risk you should consider.

I built my own hood using the calculation and instructions from this site. The thing is, I spent about $150 to $200, about 2 weeks, and a bunch of my dad's tools to do it. The blower motor alone was about $120. The effort I put into it almost justified a $300 dollar store bought hood. Cost aside, I really recomend you get or make one. Don't skimp on the price or you'll end up with one that won't vent at all.

I beleive Less Than Super Ostrich has a nice little store bought hood. Check out his VF-4 build ups to see pictures of it.

Edit: Motors that run on wall voltage will frequently spark. Low power motors will not spark as much or not at all.

Edited May 12, 2004 by Mule

[Anasazi37]

I just recently built a spray booth in my garage. I needed more space than the ones you can get commercially. It's 28" wide by 24" high by 18" deep. The fan unit is a kitchen range hood with variable speed. And there really is nothing to worry about when it comes to sparks and whatnot. Keep in mind that these fans are safety rated to vent fumes over an area where you are cooking. This includes flammable oils, etc. I haven't had any problems so far and I do not anticipate any.

I went all out on this setup. I built a frame out of plywood and 2x4's and made the three large side and back panels removeable for easy cleaning. Each of these panels is covered in linoleum so I can use strong cleaners to get rid of built-up paint. The range hood is attached to the frame at four points which can be easily unfastened. I screwed in two shoulder hooks on the outside of the booth to hold my airbrush when not in use. I installed lighting high within the booth, too. Man does that make a difference when you're painting! To vent the fumes outside, I atttached a dryer hose to the range hood, one of those slinky flexible ones. When I need to paint, I open the garage door a few inches, shove the hose outside, and I'm ready to go. When done, I collapse the hose and leave it on top of the range. I built this booth anticipating that I would be moving to an apartment next year. Turns out I won't have to move, but this setup should work for anyone who's in that situation. It wasn't that difficult to make, but I had access to a professional woodshop. As a result, some of the features I incorporate might not be as readily available to you. All told, I spent less than $200.

I'll try to take some pictures of it later today, if anyone's interested.

Edited May 12, 2004 by Anasazi37

[Anasazi37]

Here are some pics of my setup. Please excuse the mess--I haven't had time to clean up the booth since I finished my last custom project.

[Neova]

Anasazi37,

That was nearly what I was planning to do except I would use cardboard sheet sides so I could toss them out and replace em, have the vent facing me on the back plane and stick a filter in there somewhere. The top vent is a better idea since I won't spray directly into the fans and clog them.

Can you tell me what was your fan size and noise level? I fully remodeled my parent's home last year with a friend thus the kitchen range hood idea. The hood we bought was expensive but man, did it clear the room of any foul aerosol quick!

I need to find a place for a charcoal filter setup and wonder if I should mount it before the fans to or downstream after the fans. It also gets super hot and humid during the summer here so a secondary use would be to vent the room's heat fast.

Thanks for sharing. I'll post my findings after I do more research.

Pics of commerical booths for 200+ USD... little guys compared to Anasazi37's custom setup:

Mr Hobby Paint Booth

Edited May 13, 2004 by Neova

[Neova]

Mr Hobby Booth + Filters. Looks like a leaf blower setup with a plastic schroud doesn't it:

[Neova]

Tamiya Paint Booth

[Myersjessee]

Great...something else I need....sigh

[fernarias]

You can buy inexpensive squirrel cage fans for you paint booth here:

http://www.surpluscenter.com/electric.asp?...atname=electric

F.

[Kurt]

I also used the range fan idea. This setup has worked like a charm for about a year now. And I have sprayed just about ever type of paint in here with no explosions! I used a dryer vent to the nearby window. The good thing is that I can still open the window when I'm not painting. The only thing I need is a bit more light.

[Kurt]

vent

[Mule]

Here are a few pictures of my booth:

The dimentions are 16" deep, 16" tall and 25" wide. The filter in the back is just a standard furnace filter with the blower motor behind that. The walls are made of 1/4" particle board. The top has a plexiglass window to let light in and a florecent light sits on top of that. As Anasazi37 said, the light makes a huge difference. The 3 switches are for the light, the blower motor, and the outlet attatched to the back which usually runs the airbrush compressor.

Front on with 1/100 Glaug for size reference:

Edited May 13, 2004 by Mule

[Mule]

Here's a picture of the motor around back:

[Mule]

And last is a picture of the top and the filter removed:

[Mule]

I know many of you think I'm exaggerating, but from the research I've done into this, kitchen vent fans are just not meant to vent flamable/combustable solvents and propellents. Cooking grease just isn't as flamable as the stuff used in paints and areosol cans. If you look at the pictures of the Tamiya and Mr. Hobby hoods on this page, both of them have blowers with external motors. I'm not saying kitchen hoods are guarenteed to blow up or that external motors are 100% safe, but it just makes sense to keep the electrical device out of the stream of the flamable/combustable vapors.

[Vince]

I bought a bottom of the line artograph setup, the whole thing is made out of card board and the housing of the fan unit has a 5 inches open (same size as the dryer, it is sitting on top of my dryer right now).

It is the cheapest one I can find, and it actually work pretty well, the fun is not the most powerful but it does suck. Only problem is not having a top window.

So, I use the same dimension and made a new hood for it. I used project board for the sides, the top, and the back, and use a piece of clear plastic from a cheap picture frame (the kind with clip on edges) as the top window. epoxy them together and I got a new booth weight in about a pound with the whole top side as a window.

The new hood cast me about 7 bucks.

I'm thinking about making a new one with a new base the same way, but replace the fun with a few 80mm pc case fans since I have some 32 cfm fans around the house.

[dyowelb]

Hope this might help...

[THOR]

Here's my spray booth. I found the plans in an old Model Railroader magazine. It's a little small for the 1/32 planes and 1/25 trucks I do but perfect for smaller subjects.

[THOR]

Here's the rear...

[THOR]

Notice the motor is outside of the exhaust stream. This is important so no sparks from the motor ignite the paint fumes/mist. I used a Dayton 4C447 blower.

[THOR]

I made a power cord and ran the hot wire into a regular dimmer switch/outlet. This gave me control over the motor speed and extra outlets. If I make another one I'll make the walls out of lighter materials and make it collapsible.

[dyowelb]

Here's my spray booth. I found the plans in an old Model Railroader magazine. It's a little small for the 1/32 planes and 1/25 trucks I do but perfect for smaller subjects.

do still have the website?? what are the dimensions of your booth? where did you buy the fan and how much?

thanks,

d

[THOR]

I bought my blower from a Industrial Supply company in Fort Myers, FL. I think it cost me ~$65 brand new. Look for at least 250 CFM (cubic feet per minute), 110/115V and you can put it on a dimmer switch to slow down the air. Also remeber to find a blower with the motor outside the exhaust stream.

Brand New from www.grainger.com:

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/searchresults.jsp

You might be able to find something similar on Ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...3818888721&rd=1

As far as the plans, I'd have to dig up that old Model Railroader magazine and scan the pages. I'll see if i can do that because the article had great information about the electrical hookup, etc.

Hope this helps...