Show me your DIY Spray Booths!

[pete]

Firstly, apologies for not posting this in OT but I know there are plenty who don't frequent that area of the forums and I'm looking at maximum input here

Essentially I have a grand idea of relocating a fence down the side of our house and building a shed to store my bike bits which can double as a spray booth for when I need to do my occasional blasting and painting.

This may not even happen yet but before I decide I need to get an idea of how expensive/difficult this will be. Googling has shown me it's doable and there's a demolition mob not too far away who sell recycled building materials at pretty good prices.

The real issue will be things like an explosion proof fan...

I envisage a sealed up area with white paint and a long enclosed flouro light on all four sides and in the centre of the ceiling. A filtered air inlet just below ceiling height on one side, and a filtered exhaust fan just above ground level on the other side. Also a nitto style air fitting in the wall so my compressor can sit just outside.

I haven't measured the area yet but estimate it around 4m long and 1.5 - 2m wide.

So, what have you got like this? Can you show me what you've done? Do I really need an explosion proof exhaust fan? All input welcome

[Nessism]

Sounds like a fun project Pete. Only input I can offer is to remind you that if you are planning to use two part catalyzed paints then you will need a fresh air system. Painting outside reduces the risk of nasty chemical exposure, but if you contain the vapors inside such as you plan, you need to protect yourself fully.

[pete]

Sounds like a fun project Pete. Only input I can offer is to remind you that if you are planning to use two part catalyzed paints then you will need a fresh air system. Painting outside reduces the risk of nasty chemical exposure, but if you contain the vapors inside such as you plan, you need to protect yourself fully.

Aaah yes definitely Ed! I did give that some thought... was thinking a flexible hose with a little low speed fan attached to a mask should do the trick... maybe two small hoses, one filtered for an inlet and one with the exhaust fan for the outlet... should give me lots of fresh air to keep me breathing well.

[rustybronco]

Rip in half a 'few' wall studs, cover each panel with plastic sheeting - that has been stapled into place - and screw them all together with decking screws.

You can also make up a small frame work on the two opposite sides so you can insert a pair of these. http://www.filtrete.com/wps/portal/3...glM6195QZQ2Bbl Then all you'll need to do is set a box fan on the outside of the apparatus so it will blow into your new 'booth', let it run for a few minutes, spray, get out and after a few minutes turn the fan off - repeating as necessary

You get the idea... make a door... ect...

[twotimeGSr]

Explosion proof is good. Grainger has many rated items.

I would do an open air exterior booth if possible...

But if you are doing it in a garage, etc... then if you provide open (and unobstructed) exhaust ports on one side of the structure, then you can pressurize the other side with fresh air through fans and hoses (Fans mounted OUTSIDE) and via filters and then not worry about fumes being drawn into a fan motor.

Do some math and calculate the volume of your structure... I don't know a proper exchange rate, but I'd probably want no less than one air exchange per minute... just need to get a fan/blower with x CFM... Probably could use a turbo fan or two from a tool rental shop. They should get you started. As example: a 20 x 15 x 8 foot structure is 2400 Cubic feet... you would need a 2400+ cfm fan to give you 1 air exchange per minute.. assuming no loss of flow for filters, hoses, exhaust port restrictions etc.. You will want to build a filter box as a diffuser so your fans dont create turbluents in the booth so you will get some cfm loss there too.

And keep in mind if you do this pressurization method to a structure attached to a house... some of the fumes will make way into your house!

tp

[pete]

Thanks for the replies guys, good to see your thoughts and input

I had a quick measure yesterday and it looks like it'd be 1.5m x 3.5m and I'd probably make it 2m tall to give me room to move without my head blocking the lights. That makes 10.5 cubic metres or just over 370 cubic feet.

Just to clarify... part of the reason for thinking about doing this is I've just recently discovered it's illegal to spray any two part paint without a proper paint booth... doing my 450 paint job in the garage apparently was a big no-no... lucky no neighbours complained!

The shed would be separated from the house and be totally self contained.

I'm still mulling it over at the moment... any more thoughts/input definitely welcomed

[wally]

Mine is just plastic painters' drop sheets taped in one side of the garage.

[landshark]

Go 2.4 high Pete. More standard and should be easier to get materials.

[pete]

Mine is just plastic painters' drop sheets taped in one side of the garage.

Nice Wally... that's what I did the first time... can't risk doing that again though I don't think...

Go 2.4 high Pete. More standard and should be easier to get materials.

Yeah good point Tim. I wonder what the legalities of shed sizes are though? Will be between the neighbours and us and won't block any access or vision but will be right against the fence... although it's a reasonable size besser brick fence... I'll have to look into that as well.

[Woodsy]

i believe there are council laws on how far a building has to be off a shared fence line, i dont think you will have a problem sorting something out, i think your problem will be the pot heads knocking on your door thinking you have a hydro setup going on lol

[pete]

i believe there are council laws on how far a building has to be off a shared fence line, i dont think you will have a problem sorting something out, i think your problem will be the pot heads knocking on your door thinking you have a hydro setup going on lol

Hahahah nice... although around here I think the paint sniffing would probably be a better attraction

I had a quick look and I can't see anything obvious other than size restrictions. No more than 10 cubic metres, average height no more than 2.1 metres, no single side greater than 5 metres. There are more I haven't read yet which might say something about the fence line.

[pete]

Ok, just for completeness of the thread... I will be doing this!

It's going to take a while and have some other things to do around here first, but I hope to get a concrete slab down later on this year to work with.

I'm going to have to move the existing garden shed and the side fence first as well.

Outside dimensions will be limited to 1.4m wide but I'll be going 4.5m long so we can keep the mower and whipper snipper in one end.

I'll have the highest end at 2.2m which means the lowest will be 2m as the average mean height of the roof has to be no more than 2.1m

The slab will be dug into the ground a bit at the high end so hopefully I'll have about 2m internal ceiling height to move around in.

I'm also hoping to have about a 3m long section done in such a way I can fold it out to increase the width by about 1m or so while spraying.

I did a quick Google Sketchup drawing of what I'm envisioning so far, although this was done with a 2.4m high end and it will be a little lower.

While I'm going to this extreme I can potentially expand the usefullness a little more and put a collapsable blasting cabinet in there as well that's big enough to hold a frame.

Ambitious? You betcha!

When I eventually get this started I'll start a thread in OT where it belongs...

[Spyder]

Just made it this morning. And just came in from shooting the final coat of clear.
I know it's primitive but it worked great.

[pete]

Cool, that's pretty much what I did for my 450 too, and now I find out it's illegal to spray two part paint without a booth

Regardless of that though my biggest issue is that if you look closely at my white stripes you can see where little bits of dirt blew in because the garage is nowhere near sealed enough to keep the crud out...

[wally]

I do it like that as well. I just cover the floor with plastic too.

Plus I sweep the garage and hose it out quickly to trap all the loose dirt lying around. Works OK.