Thread: paint booth

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Before I blow my self up I want to see if the experts here approve of my planned paint booth. I will be building it in my garage. It will be 24 ft long and 16 wide. The frame will be 2x4's and covered with a thick plastic from home depot. the floor will also have plastic on it. A small door will be built in one side near the front of the car. Now for the important stuff....ventilation. I was planning on two large house a/c heater filters duct taped into the front plastic wall( they will be centered on a 2x4 for support). After the car is in the booth and the back wall is in place a third filter will be installed in this wall at the bottom and in the center. I will use cardboard to make a duct from around this filter to a 24 round fan. The cardboard ducting will then continue out the garage . Have I made a fire ball device or is this a good set up for a home made paint booth?......

I've done exactly what you describe, except:

- No plastic on the floor. It's a pain in the butt, and you don't need it if you thoroughly clean the floor.

- If you're using the fan to draw air out of the room, the fan motor better be explosion proof - or you'll be sucking fumes right through an electrical device. I moved air INTO the room, creating a positive pressure, and let it vent naturally

- All spark or flame generating devices in the room need to be shut off, or isolated. Your compressor, for instance. Water heater pilot light.

- You need plenty of light, and if you should slip and break a light bulb, bad things can happen. Light bulbs should be outside the poly, or have a protective screen.

- Use an HVLP gun to cut down overspray.

Even with all these precautions, any small spark can have serious consequences. Particulate explosions are not pretty.

I'm concerned about this myself, and am still trying to figure out what I'm going to do. I knew a guy who was painting an upstairs bedroom, and blew the whole front of the house out. He got seriously burned also.

humm so the fan could be placed at the front of the booth blowing air into the first filter then into the booth with the remaining two filters at the rear exiting out side.

Henry is giving you good advice regarding the danger....can you stand for your garage/house to be dismantled? Can you build the booth outdoors so it only blows up the plastic and studs?

I knew a guy who had his garage explode.....blew the garage door across the alley and it hit the house behind him. The garage wall moved about 6 inches sideways and the concrete floor cracked. The water heater pilot light lit off the charge.

Little box fans havent got much ooomph. Do some reseach regarding how many turns of air per minute that you need for a booth (how many times the entire volume is replaced). For a booth your size and 8 ft tall, you have 3072 cubic feet. A WalMart box fan probably moves 500 CFM so it takes six minutes to exchange the air!! That's not too good when you have a spray going...... also, the el cheapo fans are rated a some tiny back pressure....the filters add a bunch of back pressure.

Be careful.

I don't know the name of the fan but it is a round metal fan inside a round cage about 6 inches thich. It doesn't matter now because I have desided to either buy an industrial fan ( the type the fire department evacuates a house with) or rent it from the local rental store. I think this is the type that the motor is not in the path of the air current. That is the type of fan I am looking for correct.

If it has a propeller-type blade, it is an axial fan
If it has a squirrel cage, it is a centrifugal fan.....swamp coolers have centrifugal fans and the fire dept uses a centrifugal fan to clear the smoke......better for your application.

Renting one is a good idea since you save money but also can rent two if the fumes get too bad.

Can you make CHR your beneficiary on the insurance? (just in case)

By the way, we've all probably painted a car using less than perfect safety conditions.....I gave up the garage idea because I couldnt get enough light over the entire car surface. Before you go too far, you might want to set up your lights to see (!!) what it looks like.

Good advise. I have been looking for a reason to up grade the lighting in the garage for a while. Now that I am painting the wifes ride I have some leverage. Besides up grading the garage with light and renting the fan is much smarter , since I have a fan for the hot days, that is it's only use beside beer and taco night.

FYI, if you look for fluorescent tubes that are 5000 degrees K, they will be much closer to real outdoor light. I bought a case for our shop area and they cost less than about $10 a tube for a 48 incher....
but the extra price was well worth it. You should be able to run them in your standard fixtures.

Here is one source
http://www.fullspectrumsolutions.com...lbs_33_ctg.htm

Originally posted by robot
If it has a propeller-type blade, it is an axial fan

.....I gave up the garage idea because I couldnt get enough light over the entire car surface. Before you go too far, you might want to set up your lights to see (!!) what it looks like.

Man do you have it right on that comment. Never ever enough light, and never in the right place. I've sworn that the next time (if ever) I paint another car it will be outside. I was looking at one of those portable car tents from PepBoys and though it might work pretty well with the sides rolled up. If you don't use a $70,000 down draft paint booth you're going to have to color sand and buff it back out anyway.

Corvette.....

I painted a jeep one time at LBJ and Coit Road in Dallas. Did it real early in the morning and made it thru the entire job with no bugs.....lucky. We painted a jeep at a house near Lake Dallas one evening and it was a bug magnet.....looked like flypaper when we got done......

Originally posted by dozzer
Good advise. I have been looking for a reason to up grade the lighting in the garage for a while. Now that I am painting the wifes ride I have some leverage. Besides up grading the garage with light and renting the fan is much smarter , since I have a fan for the hot days, that is it's only use beside beer and taco night.

Light ,light and more light....... When your upgrading your lighting make sure you put some down low....
I put 6 fixtures with 6 bulbs each in my carport to make my booth Well there was plenty of light ( so I thought ) for everything except painting
Once I started painting I noticed that there wasn't enough down low.......

Good Luck
MM64

www.rgkustoms.com

Man, I really think for all the trouble you are going to go thru, Hire a spray booth! A lot of spray painting places, at least near where I am will hire them on weekends. Get a tilt tray load up your ride spray in the booth, cook it, get it out, load it up and take it home.
JOB DONE.

I have done this in the past and it really takes a considerable load off the pocket and the brain. There is also a real saving in time for construction and cleanup.

Andy.
(still smilin')

Never knew they would rent out the booth. what are the going rental prices in your area. I would emagine you rent just the booth. You bring your paint stuff. But a real bonus would be that the air system would be up to snuff for painting.

I started down the home made paint booth road too. Then I woke up one calm morning and shot the car outside with no paint booth. Worked Great! Not a single bug! It may be a seasonal solution for most.

I don't need no stinking paint booth!

I have a 30 ft drive way and a tan colored house , not to mention the neighbors house is 50 ft away. Didn't you worry about over spay on your house of the neighbors.