Improvising a paint booth - need ideas.

[sargentrs]

God has truly blessed me today. I was talking to a friend about what I wanted to do and he said he had an exhaust fan he bought, new, for his wood burning heater a couple of years ago but it was too big. He brought it in today to see if it would work. When I asked him how much he wanted for it he said nothing and gave it to me. Never been used .... http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/DAYTON ... ower-4C831 Time to build a paint booth!

[forrestbump]

...couldn't happen to a more deserving guy...

[sargentrs]

Awww, shucks. Thanks, Larry!

[sargentrs]

Just spent the last 3 hours sketching this up. Booth is 6' wide x 8' high x 6' deep, three walls and a top. Frame work is 2x2's with 1x2 bracing, covered in clear heavy gauge plastic. 12" from the back frame is an inner frame to house (20) 14"x20" a/c filters, top and bottom few inches closed off. 1200 cfm exhaust fan is mounted on plenum on rear frame with 6" flexible duct run up to the rafters and over to an exterior wall vent. I'll build a part hanger with a swivel and drop a chain through the top, fastened to the rafters. There'll be a rolled up plastic door on the front that can be lowered to close it off. 2 halogen work lights placed on stands on either side, far enough away not to melt the plastic, will provide lighting. The plan is to hang the parts, place a heater in the booth to warm things up, drop the front door, and let the interior warm up to around 75*. Remove the heater, turn on the fan, spray the parts, let the fumes clear, turn off the fan, let the parts dry. I'll probably use an oil filled radiator type electric heater from Wally World. The fan plenum will be removable and the top and sides will be hinged so I can remove the fan, fold the sides, drop the top, and move it whenever I want to. Should be fairly light. Opinions? Suggestions?

[Doug F]

Stick the outlet down at the bottom and possibly build it long and flat... Then take a couple central heating filters and put them in the top and you'll have a true RedNeck down-draft booth! Yeeee Haaaa!

[70 ranger]

It sounds pretty good so far. One time I painted a truck in a barn for a buddy and the biggest problem we had was the bugs! So what we did was installed a bug zapper in the barn the night before, then we turned on a sprinkler in front of the air intake (barn door) , then we turned of the zapper before we started painting (no sparks). The truck turned out pretty good. With not to many bugs Just a thought incase you have lots of bugs in your area.

[sargentrs]

Hopefully I'll find out soon! My big concern, with such a powerful fan, is that I'm going to be sucking up dust and debris from the surrounding dirt floor. The booth will be sitting on a wood deck but the deck sits on a dirt floor.

[70 ranger]

I spray in a clean down draft booth 40 hrs a week. I still spray a light mist of water on the floor before I spray. just in case, to keep the dust down. Dirt can fly around, mud cant. Just spray a mist on the floor where the air is coming from and cross your fingers!

[Joe_68_F100]

I also found that opening the basement door and windows, and putting a box fan blowing outside in each while I was shooting helped keep the smell down. The furnace ran non-stop, but I didn't get any more complaints from the wife and kids.

[tsherry]

My booth is my daily use garage. There are a couple things that I've done to make it work quite well for an amateur.

I use a 2 car garage for painting. The back half is also a 2 car garage that houses the compressor. No fume/explosion issues with the compressor as it's back in clean air. The plumbing is flexible hoses running up to the ceiling, down a wall to a drier/regulator (harbor freight) and out to my gun.

The two halves of the space are separated with a clear, roll down plastic sheet (roped and pullied, heavy gauge).

Lighting in the front half is four 8' long dual tube fluorescents on the ceiling and a couple small four footers on the sides of the project.

Exhaust air is handled with two old furnace blowers, built into portable cases with the exhaust air filtered through normal furnace filters (keeps paint dust down on the blowers and motors. There is a risk that there could be fire/explosion sucking the fumes from the booth through powered motors. Hasn't happened in 30 years, not worried about it now). The exhaust fans suck air out through two windows with block-outs fitted to the fan exhaust pipes. Intake (make up) air into the spray area comes in through a ceiling hatch that's filtered before it comes into the booth area. Not perfect but good enough. The benefit of bringing the air into the space from the attic is that the attic is uninsulated between the ceiling and the roof--it warms up quickly and can get quite hot....which means that spraying can be quite nice with fast dry times or result in really nasty orange peel if the mix is wrong for the temps....

[sargentrs]

Thanks to all for their set ups and tips. I started building my booth last week. Unfortunately, "life" has intervened and I only got the frames built and haven't been able to get back to it. Busy week. Got grandkids this weekend and my daughter's coming into town friday so that's put everything off till next week. I'm anxious now to get it finished! I'm suffering from bump withdrawal.

[67mann]

Thanks to all for their set ups and tips. I started building my booth last week. Unfortunately, "life" has intervened and I only got the frames built and haven't been able to get back to it. Busy week. Got grandkids this weekend and my daughter's coming into town friday so that's put everything off till next week. I'm anxious now to get it finished! I'm suffering from bump withdrawal.

That damn "Life".......always in the way...slowin every thing down

[sargentrs]

I know, right?! Between work, wife, kids, house, yard, pets, I can't get anything done.

[sargentrs]

Taking shape! 5' wide x 4' deep x 6'-6" high. Filter frame holds (6) 20x25 filters. 12" plenum behind filters, 1200 cfm exhaust fan ducted out to that vent at the top of the basement wall on the left. Still gotta skin the plenum with plywood, sides and top with poly and add gaskets. Frames/top will be joined to plenum and each other with wood nuts and wing bolts for easy disassembly and storage. Fan will also be mounted with wing bolts and wood nuts. Probably going to take me another couple of weeks to finish.

[67mann]

Randy....now get upstairs and eat some turkey