Painting in Winter

Ok, it is starting to get a little chilly outside which means one thing, painting outside will be short lived. I have no garage or warm barn, I build in my basement. I have two questions!

1.) Can I build some sort of spray booth (small) in my basement to facilitate painting in the winter?
2.) Would going to an airbrush system be better in keeping the amount of overspray down? (If so, what are my choices of paints)

I've been planning on building a combination spray and fiberglassing booth in my basement this winter so I can catch up on my rocket building. I've played around with several designs and this is what I intend to build as soon as the snow flies here in Ohio.

I'm taking a 10' X 8' corner of my basement and turning it into a spray booth by first anchoring 2X4's to the floor of the basement directly under one of the rafters and about 8' out from, and parallel to the basement wall. Then I'll run a 2X4 perpendicular to the first one at the far end connecting it to the wall. Next I'll nail a set of 2X4's to the rafters directly over the two on the floor. Finally I'll run two 2X4's from the floor to the rafters on the three corners created by the original 2X4's on the floor. This will give me a 10' X 8' "frame" around the corner of my basement.

I'll cover the frame with heavy duty 20 mil plastic that I use for covering seed beds. I'll use staples and furring strips to attach the plastic to the tops and sides of the framework. I'll overlap the plastic in the center of the long 10' run and only attach it at the bottom for about three feet on either end. This will leave me with a 4' overlaped section in the center to act as a door.

For ventilation I have a 4" 120VAC "pancake" fan that I bought at Radio Shack. It's normally used for ventilating electronic equipment but should work AOK for what I want it to do. I'll drill a 3" diameter hole through the outside wall of my house and mount the fan over it. I'll wire it to a wall switch so that when it's turned on it will act as an exhaust fan for the spray booth. I'll cover the outside of the through wall hole with one of those vented louvers used on the exhaust from a clothes dryer.

For heat I'll install one of those small ceramic cube heaters with a thermostat. That way I can raise the temperature in the spray booth to around 100 degrees in order to cure the epoxy when I'm laying up fiberglass. OBTW I forgot to mention that the corner of the basement I'm planning to use is already well lit with two 4' flourescent fixtures.

As for what types of paint I'll use it will be a "try it and see" situation. I have small and medium spray guns with an air compressor and I intend to get an airbtush this fall. I'll start out with my regular paint/primer, KILZ and Krylon, and go from there. One item that I'm itching to try is a water based version of Krylon that comes in pint and quart cans.

If everything works out AOK I should be able to work all winter on my models and have a nice "fleet" come launching time.

Ken

If you have a furnace in your basement be cautious as spray paint contains flammables as propellants especially in rattle cans. An open flame on a furnace can cause catastrophic results when paint fumes are present Also, the negative pressure created by an exhaust fan running in an closed environment could cause flue gasses to be introduced into your home from your furnace and water heater by drawing back through your flue. You could get a dangerous buildup of carbon monoxide. Be sure to introduce the same amount of supply air into your basement that you are removing. Piping an outside air supply into the return air side of your furnace should suffice. Be very careful, or better yet wait until warmer weather.

Swimmer

Swimmer,

Those are very good points that I'd already considered but had failed to bring up in my earlier post. I do not have a water heater or a furnace. Both hot water and heat in my house are supplied by a gas fired Hydronic heating unit that uses a sealed combustion chamber.

Outside air is drawn into the combustion chamber by a forced draft fan through the outer of two concentric stainless steel pipes. The inner pipe is the exhaust from the combustion chamber and the arrangement allows the external air to be preheated before it's mixed with the natural gas for increased thermal efficiency. The combusion chamber is of the "pulse" type that uses an electrical resistance element to ignite the fuel/air mixture. Consequently there is no open flame in my basement to cause a problem with propellant gasses from spray cans.

As for ventilation I decided to wait and see if the exhaust fan causes too high a negative pressure in the spray booth before I installed any additional air inlets in my basement. If everything works as I hope there should be enough air leakage around the cracks in the doors leading into and out of the house to replace the air exhausted from the spray booth.

The concept is feaseable as far as I can tell. The proof will be in how well I can make it work.

Ken

Ken,

Bet you will not have any problem making it work. You've obviously planned well. A basement paint booth will be very handy. Let us know how it works.

Swimmer

Swimmer,

Rodger, Wilco! I'll even post pictures if I can find a site to host them.

Ken

Originally posted by Swimmer
Ken,

Bet you will not have any problem making it work. You've obviously planned well. A basement paint booth will be very handy. Let us know how it works.

Click to expand...

...And don't forget to invite us all over for "coffee", either. I'd guess that just about everyone here would be willing to bring their rockets over for "coffee" in the middle of winter.

Not sure about Coffee, but also being originally from NE Ohio, I can tell you a nip would probably do the trick better, especially with the winters that are had there.

Hmmm...Conneaut, bout 4 hrs...I just may have found a place to paint my HARM!

Carl

Carl,

Here’s my recipe for NE Ohio winter coffee:

To a 12-oz mug add the following:

1 to 2 teaspoons sugar

2 oz light cream

2 oz Christian Brothers Brandy

Fill to brim with fresh brewed Colombian coffee.

Enjoy!


Ken

I wish I had a little room in the basement so I could spraypaint in the winter. I like my coffee black, nothing in it, I can remember I started drinking it when I was 8. But I would drink it occasionally. You guys are probably thinking whats a 19 yr. old doing drinking coffee. I was told many times, I'm to young to drink coffee, If there was just a corner of the basement I could build just a little room for spraypainting in the winter.

Do you have an area about the size of a closet in your basement? I've seen designs for a small spray booth in one of the rocketry magazines that was about that size.

As I recall it was a frame of 2X2's about 6' tall and about 2' on a side. Three of the sides were covered by heavy duty plastic sheeting and there was an exhaust fan and filter on the 1/2" plywood top of the booth. The bottom of the booth was also 1/2" plywood and a moveable false bottom was installed that could be positioned every 6" from the true bottom to about 3' up the booth. There was also an old phonograph turntable mounted to the false bottom with an extra reduction pulley added to the drive train so that it turned at about 3 to 5 RPM. The booth was also mounted on casters so it could be rolled away into a corner when not in use.

OBTW I started drinking coffe at age 12 so you 're not alone.

Ken Holloway

putting the booth on casters is a good idea, but I don't have any place in the basement to put a booth. I wish I did though. I guess the painting will have to wait till the warmer months.

cool, This is my 100th post

gerbs:
Congrats on 100 posts, I think I hit 100 yesterday maybe the day before.

There is no shame in drinking coffee at an early age, when i was 12 I went through a phase when i bought myself a little cafetiere and used to buy freshly ground coffee from a shop down the road. Even made my own frothed milk too. Nowadays I can't be bothered to do it 'properly' and just use that instant stuff (tastes better too.)

Originally posted by kgholloway
For ventilation I have a 4" 120VAC "pancake" fan that I bought at Radio Shack. It's normally used for ventilating electronic equipment but should work AOK for what I want it to do. I'll drill a 3" diameter hole through the outside wall of my house and mount the fan over it. I'll wire it to a wall switch so that when it's turned on it will act as an exhaust fan for the spray booth. I'll cover the outside of the through wall hole with one of those vented louvers used on the exhaust from a clothes dryer.

Ken

Click to expand...

Ken...
I'm just finishing up a small spray booth for my basement. This one consists of double thick corrugated cardboard I picked up for free at our local hardware store.
It's approx. 48"H x 36"W x 28"D. 8" in from the back of this box is another wall of cardboard that has a hole cutout to fit 25" x 16" furnace filters, (2) of them, placed over the top of each other. Another wall of cardboard seals the back of the unit and has a 4" "muffin" fan (also used for electronic equipment that I got from a DC3 airplane) attached to it. From the fan is an 8' length of 3" flexible hose that connects to the existing vent pipe that exits the basement. I just disconnect the dryer hookup and attach this hose when I use the booth. Very little if any paint particals reach the fan going through the filters.
Which brings us to another safety issue...
The "muffin" fan I have is considered an "explosion proof" device. Which means there is no electrical spark, during fan operation that could touch off the paint fumes. Just something to think about.

Good point on the AC fan operation. I'll have to check out that fan I bought and see if it's "brushless". Normally AC motors don't use a "live" connection to the rotor, depending instead on induced "circulating currents" in a "squirl cage rotor" to produce the required internal magnetic field. However small AC motors can use brushes just like a DC motor and would therefore be at risk of sparking.

I've just started my basement modification program by beginning to sort out the junk that's accumulated over the years. I'll be donating or trashing the majority of the material over the next couple of weeks.

Once that's done I'll start the modification process by re-wiring the basement to eliminate all switches and other sources of sparks in the area that will contain the spray booth. At that time I'll start documenting and posting my progress here.

Ken Holloway, NAR #78336, L-1

Just thought I'd throw up my pics of a simple paintbooth for those cold times of the year when painting outside is not proficient.

top right - the box which measures 48"h x 36"w x 28"d.
top left - the fan compartment which uses two(2) 16 x 25 x 1 furnace filters. one placed over the top of the other.
bottom left - showing the flexable hose and wire connection for the fan.
bottom right - connection to the dryer outlet

It works well enough that if you leave the fan on for just a few minutes after painting, there's almost no odor left in the house at all. Believe me, my other half has a very keen sense of smell and wouldn't allow it to be used if it wasn't up to par.

Great job on the booth. I think I'll have to see if I can fabricate something similar. Are you ever worried about the boiler or anything like that causing a flash, or is it not in the same area?

Originally posted by flying_silverad
...Are you ever worried about the boiler or anything like that causing a flash, or is it not in the same area?

Click to expand...

The water heater (which is gas fired and does have a pilot light) is in another part of the basement, as is the furnace. Regardless, there is always the possibility of combustion from a spark or open flame source. Keep as much of the rocket inside of the paintbooth as possible so the fan can draw out the fumes is the key to safety. Also, it is probably (essentially) a good idea to make sure your furnace (especially if gas fired) is not operating when painting.
Personally, I don't advocate painting inside the home but, ya gotta do whatchya gotta do.

Hi from upstate NY!!

I successfully spray painted a rocket out in my garage yesterday.... it was 28 degrees!! The rocket now has a great gloss red finish!! I made sure of several things that I belive made this actually happen:

1) The rocket was stored indoors, and I only brought it out to the garage at the time just before spraying, so was 'room temp' when painted.

2) I brought the rocket right down in the basement to dry.

3) I ran the spray can under hot tap water in the sink for a full minute, shook the paint and ran another minute. This heated the paint, plus provided some extra pressure for propelling the paint. Again, I only brought the paint outside when it was time to paint.

This is a BT-60 scratchbuilt rocket designed by my 5 yr old nephew. We need to paint the fins black, and add decals to finish it off...

Here is a pic:

I've been spray and airbrush painting in my basement, in a booth for the last 25years. I have never had a single problem with spraying any type of paint, I wrote a Tech-Tip article on Spray paint booths that was pubished in Sport Rocketry a year or so Back. If memory serves me, I have that complete article, drawings and parts list in the Library section of Narhams.org club web site, Look for Tech-Tip 011 Paint Booths. The article should answer most of your questions. If you don't want to go to the trouble of putting in a booth, the most important thing to remember is to keep the ambient air and surfaces to be painted at or above 50 degrees F. Heating the Spary Cans can be done by sitting the can in Hot tap water for no more than 1 minute at the time. This process doesn't help the paint as atomization brings the stream to ambient air temp before the particles ever reaches the surface to be painted, but does raise the propellant pressure giving a better "pattern". This Trick works with all size and types of Spary Paints.
Hope this helps