Cool paint booth!

[mattb]

I'll try to me a little more in depth info on how I made my spray booth. I got a plastic storage box at Walmart. They have an aisle with 50 different sizes. I got one about 14 inches wide by 24 inches long. It is about 16 inches tall. It has a snap on lid. Anything close to this size is fine. I went back to the housewares dept, not towels, but bath organizers and stuff like that, it is in the back of the store by the paint dept. I found a 3 spd fan there for $11. It is in a square plastic frame, it is white plastic.


I next placed to the fan against the back, one of the 12 inch wide sides. I set it toward the bottom of that panel. I traced appx the diameter of the fan on the back of the box. This is not critical. I got out a pair of curved tin snips and cut out the area where the fan would blow out. The edges of the fan cage are all plastic and there is nothing inside that is critical except where the control switch is.

I also cut out the panel at the other end to allow access to the painting area.

I held the fan inside the box and with my cordless drill, I ran some self tapping screws thru the box and into the corners of the fan fan cage. They don't need to be in an exact area, only thru the box and into the fan edge. In the lower corner where the fan switch is you either need to be careful you don't run a screw into the switch or wire or just don't put a screw in that corner. At this point you have your box with the fan installed so it will blow out the back. You also want to run the plug out the rear opening.

All of this is not critical. If the fan can even blow at 30-50% capacity out the back it will easily pull all the overspray out. The fan can just set in the box in front of the rear opening and not even be fastened down. You can use a glue gun to do all of this just as easy.

Next up you want to cut the top of the box in appx half or at least to cover the fan space and a few extra inches for filter. Use a 12 inch or 14 inch wide furnace filter to fit in front of the fan and to catch the exhaust. You can hot glue or screw a piece of wood on the box sides to line up with the half top you have. This wood can be screwed or hot glued to the box sides. Your filter will lay against this wood. Size the wood to be sure it lays against the side and also lays behind the filter. It doesn't have to be wood, it can be a piece of cardboard bent at 90 degrees and taped to the box and to the filter. anything that works. I duct taped all seams of the wood and the filter to the box to make it draw thru the filter 100%.

All that is left is to place a disposable filter in front of the permanent filter. You now have 2 filters and the first stage filter can just lay in place and be replaced or inverted ( I get a 24 inch long filter) to get fresh filter face. You now have a booth.

I will try to draw up an illustration that is clear and post it next. Bear in mind there are many ways to do this and a simple cardboard box and any kind of small fan will work. Even just a small fan behind your work area with a fan in front of it. A fan like this will pull all the overspray you create if it is anywhere near your paint area.

[mattb]

Here's some pix and poor drawings to maybe help explain it. This is pretty simple, don't try to over think it. there are lots of ways to take a furnace filter and small fan to catch all your overspray.
P1010004.JPGP1010002.JPG

[mattb]

P1010005.JPGP1010006.JPGP1010007.JPGpix

The pics will show that I also put a strip of wood up the front side of the filter edge. I doubled up the permanent filters and cna just slide them in and out if they need changing. The thorawawy filter is the long one and I swap ends on it when I need a clean filter. The fan draw will hold it in place and I remove it before I turn the fan off. I remove the front half of the lid when I am painting

This is really simple and I hope I haven't over explained it. I tend to do that.

[gascarnut]

On the basis of Bob's initial post, I bought one of these booths, it arrived yesterday.

I am impressed by the quality of the parts and how it all fits together, it's really very nice. The LEDs are a plus, although they have a bit of a blue hue to them, perhaps they are intended to replicate sunlight. I have not used it yet, still need to work out a way to route the exhaust trunking to the ventilation hole in my garage.

Thanks for the heads-up about these, so far I'm glad I got one.

[Slot GT]

mattb

Thank you for the pictures. That was a great help. I couldn't visualize how you did the filters. Now I get it. Keep it simple right. :handgestures-thumbup:

Thanks again.

[gascarnut]

I got my spray booth set up at the weekend.

It has its own spot on the part of my work surfaces that has access to the rear of it. All the rest is hard up against a wall, which restricts the space for the exhaust trunking.



I cut a hole in the pegboard and routed the trunking out the back, down and toward the wall where the garage has a vent already.



So it's all ready to use, just unfold it all and switch the lights on. I will be interested in hearing from others about their opinion of how blue the LED lighting is. Perhaps it was jnust that the rest of the garage was quite dark when I took the shot:

[btaylor]

Mine has seen a lot of use since I got it. I am very happy with it so far. I have a rather small room where my bench is, so fumes and overspray was a problem. Not any more! I can hardly tell I sprayed anything if I leave the fan running for a few minutes after painting. I could have built one easy enough, but sometimes being able to just hookup and go is the right thing to do. for me, it was.
Glad someone else got some use out of this post.


Bob

[SpeedyNH]

I still want to know how one sprays on the numbers and logos.

[btaylor]

special paint! very hard to get, and even harder to apply! :lol:

Bob

[SpeedyNH]

i'll bet it is! lol
Uncle Bob, I love seeing your stuff.
Speed man
(I can't tell where you live, and your track link doesn't seem to be clickable. just curious.)

[mattb]

Applying paint, decals and chrome from a single spray can is a trick only a few of us older guys know. Maybe we'll pass it on before we check out!

Anybody that models can build a spray booth. Like a lot of projects it might be a trial and error process. Some times it is easier and a lot less time to just buy a proven item. I have a large window that is in front of the house over the basement garage entrance. It is about 12-18 feet above the driveway and hard to clean. I got one of those hose attachment bottles that sprays cleaner and would spray, rinse and using an old piece of conduit with a squeegee attached to the end I would try to dry it and stop water spots. It never worked real good.

Last summer I went to Home Depot and bought one of those telescoping poles with a scrubber on one side and a squeegee on the other. Man it works good. I probably could have kept working with the conduit and finally got something that worked good. The store bought pole worked great the first time!!1

[TuscoTodd]

Thank you for the info and reporting on this - I caved and ordered one up myself that should be here next week!
:D