I was doing some searching around, but found no postings; so I thought that I would ask this question.
What does everybody else do for a “paint booth” while airbrushing? I have thought about building one for my table in the basement. I have the perfect window to vent out of and it is out of a high traffic area. Has anybody else built anything for their basement workbench? I am getting ready to start putting more practice time on my airbrush…but I want to make sure that I am not getting a bunch of fumes in the upstairs of the house. Thanks, and I hope this is not too dumb of a question to start posting with[:D].
I’ve seen some really good ones using a range hood from an stove exhausted outdoors…but mine is quite low tech…a large cardboard box siting on a table in my storage room.
I built a paint booth many years ago from a plan in Fine Scale Modeler. It’s works great for me. The key component is a squirrel cage blower made by Dayton. The blower you use should not produce any spark so that you avoid a possible explosion. I also included a small light fixture on the inside so that I had plenty of light. There is a filter in the rear of the paint area made from a furnace filter cut in half. I just refinished my basement and included ducting to take fumes outside the house. If you are going through a basement window make a cut out the size of the opening, run insulation around the edge to seal, and insert an exhaust port. That way the fumes will go outside and not return. Finally I have a small bracket inside the booth for holding my airbrush. It works great, was cheap to build, and superior to any of the hobby booths I’ve seen commercially.
It seems to me that FSM had an article on this not too long ago. You might drop them a line and ask which issue.
Here’s a linek to one that Paasche produces. It’s similar to mine in shape and almost the same size. I 'aid over a hundred bucks for the fan when I built mine some 15 years ago. That’s where most of your cost will be. Good luck!
You also need to be sure that your light fixture won’t ignite paint vapors or overheat or short out from metallic overspray. All electrical contact points need to be sealed off tightly from any paint spray or solvent spray clouds.
ooooohhhh…jelllo! (In my best Homer Simpson voice)[:D] I used the airbrush downstairs in the basement…with the windows open, of course…and the smell still traveled through the house. I am building a small “shop” area with a workbench and I have access to two windows in the one room, I figured I could use that space to build and paint and leave my big toys for the garage…that makes my wife happy too! Slowly, she is getting back her portion of the house[:D]. I really appreciate all of the ideas and tips…they should really help.
Jerry,
My marriage has been MUCH better since I built a small paint booth. I do agree with davidwaples too, get a good respirator for when you’re working with laquer thinners, ca glue, etc. That stuff can be really nasty on the brain and body over time.
I built a paint hood for myself and I am very satisfied with the results. I suggest that you purchase a fan from grainger.com with an airflow of 500 cfm. The measurements are 20" w. X 12" d. X 14" h. with a front access openning of 18.5" w. X 9" h. This works for 1/48 scale aircraft and 1/35 scale armor quite well.
Thank you everybody for all of your ideas. I will let you all know how my “adventure” goes. I appreciate all of the dimensions and plans too! I think that it will be started this weekend. Wish me luck.
I recently finished building a paint booth and it was quite an experience. Being unable to find for less that a small fortune a Grainger fan, I built a simple tapered box out of masonite, with a front opening of 16x22 (approx). I installed a basic bathroom ventilator unit (50 cfm and $18) in the rear and put a 14x20 paper furnace filter in front of it. My biggest problem was the ducting. My window is about 14 ft and across the room from the booth. Also, the 50 cfm blower needed a boost because it wasn’t powerful enough by itself over that distance. Half-way to the window, inside the duct work, I istalled a 6 inch booster fan (ace hardware $20). The combination works great! My family no longer gags a chokes when they come down into the basement after I’ve been painting. My point is that you can build a simple paint booth easily using commonly available hardware from you local home depot, etc. My biggest expense was the duct work because I had to start with 3 in, go to 4 in, then to 6 in, then back down to 4 in and out the window via the existing dryer vent. The whole thing cost me about a hundred bucks and I had a great time building it.
The concern here would be combustion. Depending on what you’re shooting, flamable vapors around a shopvac (they spark like hell) could result in an explosion.
Good info guys…my son & I are beginner airbrushers (brushes just can’t get the surface we want…perfectionists [:D]).
I wonder, concerning the ShopVac idea…there are bags (just like the household vacuum cleaner) for the ShopVac, and additional filters before anything hits the motor/fan. I wonder if that’d help.
Thanks for the link Naplak…I stumbled across your site in a search, and liked the setup you have…I’d thought of the bathroom fan idea too…simple and efficient (and CHEAP to replace).
I started out with a high volume bathroom fan (around 70cfm) but after it tried to suck through 2 furnace filters it didn’t have much pull so I opted for a Dayton blower (around 350 cfm) and what a difference. I have a plywood box that measures 24 wide by 20 high by 18 deep. The top has a piece of Lexan on it so that the light will shine through or if I need more I can mount anything temporarily on top. I work in the basement so I run flexible 4" aluminum dryer vent tube up between the floor joists to a dryer fitting that I have installed in the plate which vents outside. When I’m done painting I disconect the tubing and store everything away. I put a rag in the dryer vent tube and put a cap on it. This keeps any drafts from filtering through in the winter time. IMHO don’t spend the money on a low volume blower unless you just plan on sucking through a furnace filter and then venting right into the room. If you spend the money initially you’ll be much happier in the end.
Booths should be constructed out of non-combustible materials. Cardboard boxes and thin plywood won’t cut it. Sheetmetal, plexiglas, and fire-resistant plywood (1/2" or better) are good materials.
Any fans used should be of the non-sparking, brushless variety.
The fan chosen really needs to meet the airflow requirements for the booth size.
Let’s say your booth is 2’ X 2’. The face area of your booth is 4 square feet. The minimum airflow needed at the face to adequately capture organic solvent vapors is about 80-100 fpm (feet per minute). Therefore the fan you need should have a minimum airflow of 80 X 4 = 320 cfm. If you are going to use filters and the duct work is going to be fairly long with lot of turns and twists, then consider bumping up the minimum required cfm by 10-25% to account for the airflow fall-off due to resistance. Remember that once the airflow is out of the booth, the fan still has to push it through the ductwork to the outside. Long runs of ductwork, right angle turns, etc. add additional resistance and help decrease duct transport velocities.
Use 4" aluminum flex duct. STAY AWAY from vinyl plastic dryer hose.
Airflow should be as linear as possible. Try mounting the exhaust fan in the back of the booth. If mounted in the top, you might consider a baffle between the fan and your work surface to keep turbulence and booth dead spots to a minimum.
6 Remember that solvent vapors are heavier than air. A rear mounted fan with as much horizontal ducting as possible aids in more efficient vapor evacuation.
Keep a fire extinguisher close by for those just-in-case moments.
Keep windows and doors open. You still need a good supply of make-up air.
There’s an old saying, “You get what you pay for”. This is very true in the spray booth world.
Hope this helps.
Gip Winecoff