I pick up a used stove hood thought about using it for a homemade paint booth. It has a high and a low speed fan just your standard hood. My question is how safe is it for painting I hear different ideas so what is your take on this.
On the safety side I’ve not heard any issues. On the paint results? Well i keep hearing conflicting stories. You might want to take a look at this article see if it helps (I am in the process of rebuilding mine due to this article).
http://modelpaint.tripod.com/booth2.htm
Good luck.
Just make sure it has enough CFM’s for the size of the booth. I found when I built mine it takes quite a bit of CFM’s to suck out the air even in a moderatly sized booth. Attached are pictures of my booth.
My take on it is that if you have to ask in on-line Forum how safe it is, then it probably isn’t a good idea…Sorta like it you hear someone say, “Watch this!” after they’ve been drinking, run…
That is too funny, I used the same article to design mine. I used a dayton blower however went larger due to the size but mine works great. Cost me about $200 total including wood for table, MDF for box, blower, ductwork, etc… I bought a Pace originally but it didn’t work all that great and was small. Now the fumes are non existent even with laquer paint. Building your own is the way to go.
Take a look at the blower I am using. I posted a pic in nother thread.
/forums/t/41855.aspx?PageIndex=1
So far this blower ROCKS! Plus it was free! [sort of]
There was a story going around some of the automotive modeling forums 2 or 3 months ago about someone that had used a range hood to build a booth and had an explosion and fire. I don’t know how it happened but my guess would be a short and a spark. That could happen with just about anything.
I thought about using a range hood but decided it probably wouldn’t move enough air. If you do use that hood then check it out and make sure all the connections are tight and that the fan blade doesn’t wobble. Maybe take the switch out of the hood and mount it somewhere on the outside of the booth. If you’re using water based acrylics then the only real concern is will it move enough air. If you’re using alcohol or solvent based paints then you have to be sure there’s no sparks.
When I built my booth a range hood or large bathroom exhaust fan was actually more expensive than the Dayton blower I ended up using. At Grainger it was $65 - 70 about 7 years ago. Worth every penny…
Tony
I have given it much thought and decided not to use the range hood. To risky so I put it in the trash. The weather here in ca.is decent enough where I can go out side and do my spraying most of the time. Thanks for the advice.
This weekend I built a spray booth. I used a 6" in line fan from Home Depot. It pulls 250 CFM, and was less than 30 bucks. I made the box from 5/8 particle board, with a false bottom, then the blower pluuing air up from the bottom behind a false back wall. I thought a down draft would be better. I put clear plexiglass on the top for light, and am debating a front cover of clear as well.