I did some searching and most of the paint booth discussion in this forum is 10 years old.
I am looking at redesigning my paint booth so I thought I would start a discussion about this topic. Brainstorm with people. Find out what other people are using. Share what I am using. Things like that.
I have an industrial fan design background for a career, I have designed extremely large paint booth ventillation systems for factories, so I am trying to scale down that knowledge into something we might see on our workbenches.
My current scratchbuilt paintbooth is just something I slapped together quick so I had something that just worked. I used 1/2" thick foam board to construct the “housing” and held it all together with E6000 glue because that glue is thick, and strong. The housing is 24" wide x 24" tall x 18" deep. Here is probably where I am going to make some changes.
For exhaust I have a 24" x 16" furnace filter at the bottom of the back wall of the housing. So the 18" height basically slopes down to the top of the filter. Behing the filter I have a 24" wide x 16" tall x 6" deep chamber, or manifold. Then I have a 4" round outlet centered on the top of that chamber.
Like I said earlier, I think the size of my housing is where I need to improve things. I think my housing is too tall. I spray kind of down at the area where the back wall / filter meets the bottom. The exhaust is pulled out through the back wall. But I think since the filter is vertical, I think that somehow paint fumes are allowed to somehow circle back out at me at the top of the housing.
To prevent this circulation I am going to make a 45 degree ceiling and put the filter and exhaust on that panel. And them I am goint to bring the height down. I think I am going to make the booth 24" wide x 18" Tall. With the 45 degree filter / ceiling this would make the depth 18".
If you are interested I can post pictures of the build.
I built this one about 3 years ago now and, it works great.
3/4" white melamine, Dayton blower, 6"exhaust pipe, egg-crate filter holders, 5000K LED shop light. Booth measures 59" wide x 35 3/4" high x 29 3/4" deep. Total cost for the booth and rolling bench was @ $611.00.
I designed the booth and had help from a guy, who use to design full size spray booths for the industry, with all the specifics.
Steve
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@USAF_462_2W1
Thats actually a pretty creative design. Downdraft is considered the best spray booth design, and you accomplished that even though you still have an updraft fan layout. Doing it this way allows it to sit on a workbench. YES!
Back to the drawing board. Thanks for the pics.
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Steve, that booth is absolutely stellar!
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Thanks guys but, without the other person’s expertise this would just be a lighted box. I had no idea how to figure out the specifics to get it to work properly.
Steve
@USAF_462_2W1 I know enough to know what is going on there.
It just never occured to me that I could make a bottom vent but still exhaust through the top like that.
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The best one I’ve ever had came from Pace Spray Booth.
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I can’t compete with Steve, but this thread has a photo of my small work area with a booth I built myself. There should be a little discussion in the thread about it. Basically, I built a booth using foam-core board and muffin fans:
It’s much larger than the cheap ones I could find online, and it has a higher air flow. I’ve got most of the stuff to duct the fans out the window to the left, so soon it will be suitable for more enamels and lacquers.
I have the plans that I hand-sketched somewhere, if there’s interest I’m sure I could find them. It’s pretty straightforward, everything was cut “flat” and then where support was needed, I folded a triangle (look at the “face frame” and notice it’s integral to the sides) to provide strength. Pieces are all duct-taped together. All-up cost with fans and lights was probably around $100, with 75% of that being the fans and the lights!
A standard sized air filter slips into place, and the fan plenum in the back has a divider to split the space for the two fans, so each fan draws from one 12"x12" opening. Self-adhesive LED light strips provide plenty of lighting for any work I’m doing in there.
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a very well organized build area. I like the convenience of having your spray booth right there. No need to even get out of your chair. I’m still spraying in my garage. (it’s not far from my build area.) Thanks for posting the picture.
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As long as it works for you that’s all that matters.
Steve
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I have seen those. I would buy one, but I can build one for a lot less.
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Yeah, I wish I could have my paint booth in my hobby area, but my wife has the worlds most sensitive nose. So I have to run air purifiers in my hobby room (3rd bedroom), and I have to keep my paint booth in the garage.
Not only is my paint booth in the garage, the fumes can’t stay in the garage because she can smell them in our bedroom which is above the garage. I have to open the window on the back of the garage and run in exhaust fan i have mounted in the door to literally pull all the through the garage and exhaust it in the driveway.
AND have a paint booth that exhausts by the exhaust fan in the garage to exhaust the exhaust out into the driveway.
Like 10 years ago I got a plastic tote, cut a hole in the back and mounted a ventilation fan with a hose, long led shop light on the top and I use the furnace filters we use at hope. I have a full-size 40 gal air compressor I run my air brush off. Cheap, simple, fits my needs.
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I have cheap and simple like you are talking about. But cheap and simple will not allow me to paint inside. Cheap and simple does not evacuate the fumes well enough.
I would like to move my paint booth into my hobby room, or at least into the house. This way I don’t have to warm the garage up just to do some painting. I have a garage heater so warming up the garag is not hard, but I would like to avoid wasting all that energy.
Because of this my next paint booth has to be designed well and work great. It can’t just be adequate.
Very likely, but I sure couldn’t. In fact my wife ASKED me to abandon my home-built booth for a Pace. Not only is it better constructed than mine, it’ll probably outlast me!
Gotcha, yeah like you mine is in the garage. It would be nice to move it inside but just not practical right now. Good luck getting it all figured out bud.