Workshop upgrade - Paint Spray Booth

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georgegassaway

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Have been doing some workshop upgrades. There is a corner that has not been used too well. One reason is that there is a sliding door to the outside, that has 9.5 foot wide steps, and the top "deck" is sorta short to get good use of. So, one project was to add an extended deck on the left side, 5.5 feet wide, strong enough to walk on. So, the extra space allows adding some more shelving units and to store some pads and launch equipment right next to the door, for easy access. The extended deck is open at the end so that narrow items up to 5.5' long can be stored underneath (Top of an old tower is visible, but it may get moved elsewhere as it has not been used in years).

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A "Half Table" was added, to hold another shelving unit. It's not strong enough to walk on, but plenty for the shelving unit.

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I have made a new workshop addition, a paint spray booth. Seen here, it is mounted inside of the shelving unit and is behind the folded white panels in the photo below.

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There are fold-out panels to help to keep any paint mist from drifting to other places nearby. Panels for the top & bottom (white coroplast), and right side (black foamboard). Left side fold out panels are not needed as this is next to a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood (covered by a tarp) on the left side.

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It is made mostly out of pressed hardboard and blue foam for the sides, plus some reinforcements. The front is about 34" across inside, and 26" tall at the front opening. Uses furnace filters, there is room to stack two 20 x 25 filters as I was not sure of the best one to use so decided to allow stacking two (the blue one is pretty porous air-wise, the one behind it is a paper filter that is finer). I'll see how things go with how effective they are and how often they may need replacing.

Two hooks that pivot outwards allow laying a dowel into place to hold the rocket for painting.

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Has an under-cabinet type fluorescent light, covered over with clear package tape so if it gets paint over it the clear tape can be replaced.

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Filters removed, showing two bathroom vent fans, each rated 50 CFM, so in theory 100 CFM. Of course the filters reduce the airflow a bit.

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Here's a pic of the area with some pads and containers of various things. Moving portion of sliding door just to the right, out of view.

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Youtube video tour of Spray Booth, plus airflow test using candle smoke:

[video=youtube;4Oj0AmGaVws]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Oj0AmGaVws[/video]

- George Gassaway
 
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That is great! I've been wanting to build something like that, since painting outside is not as easy for me these days. Nice looking booth!
 
I would only use this style booth with acrylic paints and airbrush. Using spray can enamels or lacquers may result in an explosion from the motor sparks.
 
I would only use this style booth with acrylic paints and airbrush. Using spray can enamels or lacquers may result in an explosion from the motor sparks.

Depends on the motor used for the fan. Many exhaust fans use brushless motors that can be played ed in the exhaust flow. That being said, finding a squirrell cage fan is the best solution for exhausting any type of volitile fumes.
 
Also if using sprays with fumes, you may want to consider ducting (like the ones for dryers as well as dryer vents) to get the fumes out. I've set up part of my basement like this and it worked well in the winter; however I didn't have enough cover around the area and got a lot of fine paint dust all over...hence I was saying I may build similar for my basement. :wink:
 
Wow George. That's a pretty awesome setup. And how many tubes are in the background!!! Agree with Ken...what do the fans vent to? Really looks nice!
 
Wow George. That's a pretty awesome setup. And how many tubes are in the background!!! Agree with Ken...what do the fans vent to? Really looks nice!

I have seen a setup that was built where they could not access an outside wall for a vent. Their solution was to vent the fans to a plenum which had a water bath that the exhaust flow was directed over. They claimed that it was effective. If you are interested send me a PM and I can relate the details as best as I can remember...I have slept since then.
 
Looks good, George. I see some small issues, but if it works for you, then they're not really problems, are they? It really would be good to vent to the outside. They make a cover for dryer vent exits that have louvers held open by the air flow. When the flow stops, they close up, keeping cold (or hot) air and beasties from traveling back up the vent.
 
I have considered running a duct out thru the sliding door. Indeed I could run some of the duct under the hollow extended deck. But to keep the cold out (or heat and bugs out in summer), I'd need to make up an insert say a foot wide, the height of the sliding door, to fill the space and have a hole thru the insert for the duct to exhaust through. May do that eventually, but for now other slow spinning plates need to be re-spun.

The literal "dirty secret" about that corner of the workshop is that it has been used for painting in the past, when not practical to paint outside. Often by just using a BIG cardboard box to direct the excess spray towards. But still there was dust to deal with. And that dust made that corner impractical to store anything else important there. So, a paint booth has been needed for a long time. I will say that a lot of painting will still be done outdoors, when practical. But sometimes weather does not allow.

Last night and today, I did some spray testing to see how it worked out. Did not have a rocket ready to paint, so just wrapped a piece of paper around a toilet paper roll rather than waste a body tube or anything else.

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The filters work great. The random fiber blue filter catches a lot, but lets some through. And the paper filter catches just about everything else. I do see that I ought to add a couple of vertical spacers, maybe 1/2", to try to allow more airflow behind the paper filter so there is less concentrated in the middle where the fan openings are.

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BTW - that whole back plate of the box is attached by screws, and taped over along the edges to seal it. So in the future I could perhaps remove and revise the back plate, fans, etc. Most of the work was building the rest of the box and the hinged panels that are attached to the shelving unit.

Behind the unit, I have a narrow cardboard box with the top end open, which the exhausts blow down into. I placed some black paper, ad some white paper, into that box before the tests. Afterwards, I took them out and found no signs of paint dust, so the filters seem to be working well. If there had been paint dust found there, then I'd either add a third filter, past the fans, or use that as a reason to add a duct to run past the sliding door.

I did find some dust though. The lower front fold-out panel, has some dust on it that was not sucked into the booth (it's dry, can be wiped off). Well, it makes sense now since the rocket-holding rod is at the front of the booth and the can (or airbrush) too far in front for all the spray to get sucked in. So, I may make up a cradle or other simple assembly to hold the rocket farther inside of the booth. Or for larger rockets that won't fit inside of it, I could add an easily removable shelf extension to effectively extend the bottom part of the booth.

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Yesterday I organized the "big cans" of paint, which used to be sitting in a random pile on a long shelf I want to use for other purposes. Also, it make sense to have the paint closer to the booth (and outdoor access). Given the different kinds of paint, and categories to use three shelves, I decided on one for Primers, one for Black/White/Clear (non-primers), and one for Colors. I have not decided yet where to store the little Testors & Model Master type spray cans.

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Video of some spray testing and filters is below.

- George Gassaway

[video=youtube;q0ed5w9bBOA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0ed5w9bBOA[/video]
 
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I looks like the setup is working pretty well! Your filter system looks pretty effective for the paint solids but I second the suggestion for venting. I really need to build something similar but I would have to clean the shop first (I'm scared).
 
Wow, really nice and well thought out George! :)

Very funny too since I also have the same "dirty secret" as you; however in my case I made sure to vent out as much of the dust and fumes as I could. I figure eventually I'll make a booth (still deciding on how big). In the meantime, I used small exhaust fans along with dryer ducting to dryer vents. I mounted the vents into a piece of plywood which I sized to fit one of the basement windows (I used the hangar wire to hold the vents open wider when I want more flow):

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I do see that I ought to add a couple of vertical spacers, maybe 1/2", to try to allow more airflow behind the paper filter so there is less concentrated in the middle where the fan openings are.

Great setup! I'm in the middle of finishing my basement, which used to be a great place to paint but now can no longer be used, so I'll probably have to come up with something like this to use in the back corner that will remain unfinished.

The spacing you mentioned is the only thing I was going to comment on that you might want to change. A little more than 1/2" would be better, maybe a couple of inches between the fans and the paper filter, but nothing needed between the blue and paper.

Or, if you had filters that were even taller you could angle them so that the top is closer to you, you'll get slower airflow across the filters (which is always good) and being away from the fan will help keep the airflow from being concentrated in small areas and spread it out more evenly.

But great job on that! I'm curious how often you'll end up changing the filters. Also, is there a reason you're using them at all? I'd think it would be okay to collect the paint on the inside of the booth and let it dry there.
 
Or, if you had filters that were even taller you could angle them so that the top is closer to you, you'll get slower airflow across the filters (which is always good) and being away from the fan will help keep the airflow from being concentrated in small areas and spread it out more evenly.
Good idea. In my research I had seen some smaller booths with the filters at an angle like you describe. It did not occur to me how that could help for more evenly distributed airflow thru the filter(s). So, at some point I'll probably modify it for that. But perhaps not until later, another round of workshop improvements next fall (need to switch over from improving the workshop, to USING the workshop to build model stuff).

So here is an update of one more thing needed for painting. I previously showed the storage for the big spray cans like Krylon and such.

Finally worked out what to do for storing the small (3 oz) spray cans or Testor’s, Model Master, Pactra, Tamiya & similar paints. Made up a custom shelf assembly from 1 x 8 wood (3/4 x 7.25”). Left room at the bottom for an existing air cleaner that didn’t have a good place to be located. It's 60.75" tall, 36" wide (34.5" shelf width). Shelves 8" apart on centerlines (7.25" clearance space).

Placed the shelf assembly to the right of the 3-step stairs, next to the sliding door (to left of the assembly). So, it’s close enough to the paint spray booth. It is secured by a couple of decking screws through its base into the plywood deck, otherwise it was in danger of falling over too easily. I had expected to need to do more, such as a screw into the wall, or the railing, but once in place flush against the wall and railing, with those two screws added to its base, it is very secure.

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Here is a screenshot of the labels that are taped to the shelves, for organizing the paints:

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Yeah, I know, everything that is not clear is a "color", but.... let's not get silly. :)

I'm not the only one using the workshop, so the labels are in hopes that the cans get put back where they belong.

Still have some other paint cans to round up to add to the shelves. Also, Testor’s paint cans with the blue generic labels are stupidly NOT LABELED with the paint color on the can itself, the only ID is on the caps. Just…. ridiculous. So there are some Testor's cans not on the shelves yet, without the caps on, that I need to do some test sprays to find out what the heck they really are before I put a label on those cans as well as the proper cap, if I have it (most, but not all, of those un-capped cans were used by others).

- George Gassaway
 
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The main build table gets cluttered so easily, that I made a simple wood shelf assembly to hold the most-used things near the other end.

One problem has always been rolls of tape scattered, partly used, etc. There are a couple of drawers that the tape gets stored in, but they are not handy and the tape rolls takes up a lot of room. Finally realized one way to address some of the tape storage was to add some 12 x 24" pegboard to one end of that shelf assembly. Oh, the tape will still get scattered, but now there's a better place to try to keep them at more often.

And while I was at it, I added pegboard to the other end, which is near the active build area. Have a moto-tool, calipers, and some most-used glues there. Otherwise, a work in progress as to what other tools or items to store there.

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