I live in the cold north (Canada) and I do much of my airbrushing in my garage. Since it is an uninsulated garage and winter gets cold outside, I was looking at getting a small space heater for warming up the area I spray in. Seeing as some paints, especially enamals, don’t mix well with sources of heat (ie. potentially explosive consequences!), I was wondering if anyone knows about what kinds of heaters work the best.
I heard somewhere that a space heater with ceramic element is good because there is no open element or spark. Can anyone verify this?
The best thing you could do is put the heater outside the area you paint and use fans of some sort to pull the warm air in. A paint booth or something to pull the fumes out will help to. You won’t blow yourself up, the fumes aren’t compressed enough for that, it will just be a big, quick fireball [:D]
I work in a little 10x10 ahed and have a 30 doller ceramic space heater and yes there is no open spark so you wont blow up ive sprayed lauqure thinner in my shed while my heater was going so iam proof that you wont blow up oil heaters work but they dont disperse the heat like a ceramic heater does ive had them be for and when its cold out side the oil is also cold takes longer to warm up the ceramic heaters have a fan in them so it warms up an area pretty good in my space if you have big garage you will have to get a little bit bigger heater but you cab find them at home depot.
yeah, I gotta go get me one too since I’m moving in with the girlfriend that means that I’ll be doing the modeling in her (COLD) basement. She’s already got one of those portable radiator looking jobs that I think will work fine, but it doesn’t put out much heat so I think I’ll have to get me another ceramic one most likely. Thankfully with the spray booth I’ll be working in I don’t think that they’ll be tons of fumes, at least hopefully not enough to combust. The fact that it wouldn’t be a full-on explosion and instead would be a “big, quick fireball” ain’t much comfort either. I need all the hair I have left [;)]
If spraying in a booth, keep the heat source close behind you as the heat will then be sucked through the booth. Which will in turn help keep the model, paint and air somewhat warm. As long as the volatile fumes don’t come in contact with a spark or flame you are ok.
You can even build a miniature automotive spray booth and incorporate a heat lamp (even a regular bulb might do). Something as simple as building a false floor and/or walls made of glass and silicone in place, with a bulb behind it. The heat permeate’s through the glass, but the fumes can not. Plus if you wipe down the glass when done painting everytime with paint thinner, you can see what you’re spraying… an added bonus. [:D]