Paint Spraying Booths

[Nick]

I spray in my shed on a bit of old newspaper....  :w
Mind you, I have seen various designs for DIY foldaway spray booths.

Nick

[lancer]

Whe I start a new kit, I first cover my cutting mat/building area with some white A4 sheets. I do this for a couple of reasos, firstly, it helps when locating those small & fiddly bits that are buggers to spot against a dark background and it also protects the surface when I'm painting/airbrushing. I don't have tha space for a spray booth.

Lancer

[Aircav]

A large cardboard box makes a good spray booth.

:zz

[Gary]

I reciently lost my office to my son (new bedroom) and am now in a much smaller space. But the biggest problem I am finding is the loss of my vent fan for airbrushing. (My son now has a closet with 6 outlets a wicked sucking fan and lotsa lights)

So now I am back on an itty bitty desk top and need to build a spray booth so that I don't kill the family. What do you all who have smaller spaces use?

Bear in mind, I need to be able to move this thing about, tuck it away out of sight incase the neighbours show up and so on. I have parked me tiny desk in front of a window so I can access a screen, but it's clunky, at best.

Gary

[Sisko]

I use an old large format Dot Matrix Printer enclosure. picked it up at a second hand dealer.

Comes with a clear perspex lid and fans. All I did was turn the fans around so they suck not blow. Reminds me of a joke.

They are however as rare as rocking horse sh...

probably a bit large for what you require

I have seen plans floating around for a few booths maybe someone here has some.

[viper29_ca]

Hey there Gary,

Basically what I have is a plastic storage box, about 2' tall X 2' wide x 2 1/2' length.

What I did is took a fan out of an old range hood, cut a hole in the bottom of the storage box, drilled some holes to hold the fan with some bolts. Then out of heavy cardboard, built a box around the fan, to which I cut a hole in the back of the box, to house a dryer vent, to which I attached a dryer vent hose....stick the hose out the window, and you are in business.  I then took a powerbar and plugged in the 2 lights, the fan, and the compressor, so when I turn on the powerbar, its ready to go.

Its not the prettiest thing around, but it works!!!!

[Hobbes]

Mine's similar. I used a cardbard box (from a 17" monitor). The fan is a bathroom fan. I've taped a filter from a range hood onto the fan intake (means less paint dust going into the fan). Lighting is done with a low-voltage fluorescent work light (no heat, so less risk of igniting the fumes).

[John Howling Mouse]

Mine's similar. I used a cardbard box (from a 17" monitor). The fan is a bathroom fan. I've taped a filter from a range hood onto the fan intake (means less paint dust going into the fan). Lighting is done with a low-voltage fluorescent work light (no heat, so less risk of igniting the fumes).

If you use any form of flammable paints, what's keeping the sparking fan motor from igniting the fumes that go through the filter?

     

[Hobbes]

Yes, that's the one thing I'm still worried about. Ideally, you'd need a fan that has the motor outside the airflow. I've tried to find one, but the only ones I found cost $300.

OTOH, it hasn't gone wrong yet. I'm using an air brush instead of rattle cans so the volume of paint and thinner is quite small.  

[Leigh]

I remember reading an article about this somewhere and apparently most bathroom fart fans are brushless which removes the spark risk, and supposedly cheap at the hardware store. Gary check ARC I'm sure I saw a great article there on building a cheap portable booth.
Me I just paint outside, the beauty of California    

Yeah here it is

[viper29_ca]

That article is essentially what I have, other than my fan is at the airbooth and not at the other end of the hose, and I am using a range hood fan and motor instead of a bathroom fan. And I have had no problems spraying either acrylic, enamel, or lacquer from airbrush or spray can.

No it doesn't pull 100% of the fumes, but if you leave it on for 5-10mins after your are done spraying, it does a good job of pulling the fumes out of the air. I just think that the fan isn't fast enough to keep up with the paint particles in the air, so it needs to run a few minutes after you are done spraying to catch up, and extract the particles, I have mine vented directly outside, I just have the hose attached to a board that fits across the window, so even in the winter, I just have the board across, and the window down on top of it, and it keeps most of the cold out.  

[Jeffry Fontaine]

A large cardboard box makes a good spray booth.

Just found something that may be of interest to those that are looking for a cheap spraybooth.  There is a spray booth discussion on ARC and one of the comments includes a couple of pictures of a home made spray booth constructed from a cardboard box, some air filters, and a large house fan.  While this is not a good design for those that are using enamels it would work for acrylic and other water based paints. 

Links to the images:

Front of spray booth

Back of spray booth

[beowulf]

i made my own spray booth using a large plastic storage box, a couple of large pc 12v fans, a tumble dryer vent hose, a couple of ac/dc adapters and some scrap mdf/timber








the lid becomes a front cover to stop dust entering

the whole thing cost about £35..................its been going strong for 18 months, given it a clean every 6 months, had one fan die but was cheap to replace..........i didnt bother with any filters since i only use water based acrylics......no fumes to vent to the outside

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Pat Amaral has submitted an article to Starship Modeler on how to make a spraybooth and filter

From the description and the list of components this appears to be ideal for spraying acrylics as described in the article.  Pat goes into more detail at the end of the article on the hazards of using this design with volatile compounds such as lacquer paints and thinners and recommends that if you are intending to use it for this purpose that it would be best to use a fan equipped with a non-sparking motor feature to prevent a fire and explosion hazard.

[bluedonkey99]

There are also these portable & stowable spraybooths appearing on the market over the last 6 months.

http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=4680

they appear to be available from various UK/USA suppliers, and therefore I expect other territories?

a bit of tubing may help?