Art... It seems we share

Art...

It seems we share the same thoughts, I just built one of these spray booths myself.

Here is a few tips for you if your interested.

I noticed the bottles of paint on top, you may want to add a block of wood, a 2 X 4 or 2 X 3 glued on top of the unit with holes bored to secure the bottles from being tipped over accidentally.

You may also want to add and airbrush holder either on the inside or the outside, depending on space availability.

And lastly you may want to add a turntable/lazy susan to minimize handling as your painting.

I hope you can use these tips to make your painting experience smoother.

Ralph

Vacuum ?

Design

Specs? How is the lighting installed? What type? Air drawing (as above) or are you just spraying against the filters? Great looking and I'd love to do something like that. How about a few more pictures from different angles? some many good ideas here.

Nice paint booth

Nice design. I like it.

One question though. I noticed carpets in both the MRH picture and the one in your blog. Ever spill any paint on the carpet?

Bernd

Got all three covered. I've

Got all three covered. I've found very little vibration with the booth and air compressor running, so the bottle on the top should be safe. My airbrush holder and lazy susan are in a box somewhere! I love moving. For those interested,, 

The venting is handled with a Sloan bathroom vent exhaust fan. It's ducted to a second filter with packing material to catch further overspray which is on the ground behind the booth. The total materials for the booth is around $150 or so. The fan is quiet and works well. The dimentions of the booth at 15" x 18" x 18". For N scale up to On30, it should work fine. Works for 1/25th as well. 

Oh yeah, as for spilling paint... I treat it like haz-mat! If I spill any, I will get hit to the mat... So far, I've been good. That's why the booth is so deep. 

More on Airbrush Booths

We were just recently talking about airbrush booths, and I posted this on my blog.

http://modelrailroadersnotebook.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2012-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=50

Lots of photos, plans and details.

Art's Paint Spray Booth

Art:

I'm inspired by your creativity and will use your design to profer my

own version of the Paint booth. I have a 10 year old portable- metal

monster which is difficult t otransport and use. I will sell it and use the

cash to acquire materials to replicate your creation. The only thing

I will add are 3" diameter wheels with locks. Inveitably my wife will ask me

to move it somewhere else. Thanks for my late Xmas present. Keep up 

the great work- enjoy your hobby !!

Sincerely,

Railfan08 (Tony)   1/9/2012

I like!

Scott, your friends booth is great! I like some of the ideas he put on his. I'm thinking drawers now for mine. 

Tony, your welcome. I'm going to get the info together this weekend and put it up for those interested. 

Very Nice Looking

I built a spray booth about  25 years ago.  I modified an already made plywood box from one of my suppliers of business machines. (I still have one of those boxes - looks like I need a new spray booth, again)  The plywood is 1/2" thick, measures 16" x 16" x 14" with a hinged top.  I used an old "fluid photo copier squirrel cage fan" for exhaust through a home-made filter system out a basement window.  The exhaust was quite effective.  Of course, I was using the old "set you high and make you fly" spray paint in those days.  

My next spray booth (of similar design) will have a variable speed exhaust fan.  I will be able to close the hinged front with (installed) internal flapped vents and filters so as not to allow dust in, but to facilitate the drying process.

I'll upload a photo and let you know how it works, once it is finished.

(Free-Modeling of I.C.R., C.N.R., C.P.R. and a few rogues is great fun)

I had thought...

I had given the thought of doors as well and may go back and do that. There's so many good ideas out there. I just wanted to get back into painting so I can clear up some model projects. 

Height and leg room

I was looking at your paint booth, very nice by the way, and wondered how tall it was? I assume you stand and paint? Personally, when it comes to airbrushing, I like to sit and paint. The old legs aren't what they used to be. And for a sit and paint booth, you need to be able to put your legs under the table to some extent. So looking at your fine example, I might make one like the top of it, and just let it set on top of my regular hobby desk, so I can sit and paint.

I would like to have some kind of positive flow exhaust system, because while I do paint almost exclusively with acrylics, occasionally I want to use some lacquer paint for some special purpose, such as Dulcoat. There is a window directly behind my desk, so it wouldn't be too hard, but I just need to figure how much air flow I need to keep the smell moving out of the room, without sucking all the heat out of the house!

So thanks for the pictures and info, you've fed my thought process on making my own paint booth, which I've had brewing in the background for a while now, but didn't know exactly what i wanted it to look like. Very nice proportions, looks like it will be very useful for just about anything I would want to paint. Great work, thanks for sharing!

Not that tall

Russell, 

The main surface is 32" above the floor. It's not that tall. I sit at the booth when painting and haven't noticed an issue with leg placement. But just the top itself would be good for a table. I'll have more info on it this weekend.. 

An update..

< bump>

Just an update. I upgrading the lighting in my new booth to add much more light. For around $20, I've got 150 watts of light for painting.

Here's a photo of the new light installed...

More info on the install on my blog. It's an easy upgrade to do and adds alot to your booth.

Protect It

Put something around the bulb to protect it from accidental bumping. If the bulb were to break while your booth is full of overspray it could be a very bad day for you.

The exposed connections are dangerous also. Put a dab of silicone or caulk or something to keep you from accidently touching them.

Got it covered...

The bulbs are high enough that I really have to work at it to hit them. But the silicon is a good idea that I hadn't thought of. Thanks!

Little Guy

Saw your site...either you are one little guy or that is a BIG driver. Speaking of the photo along side the steam eng.

Good Timing

As I just got a exhaust fan. Luckily, I purchased a Dayton squirrel cage fan, off a local online auction, with a rate of 273 CFM and is suitable for water and solvent based paint. Badly, it is unsuited for a speed control. Luckily, with $ 5.00 shipping my total outlay was just under $12.00. I have enough wood laying around for a booth. I will be exhausting it out a self closing wall vent.

What are the dimensions of your booth? Hope mine looks as good when I'm done. Thanks for the jab to get me going on it. Like I said: Good Timing!

P.S. Just looked back at your post and saw the dimensions. Doh!  Again, THANKS!

God's best to you!

$12??

That's a great price for one of those!

I've got dimentions for my older booth on my blog. It's larger than my current one, but works well.

Thanks for looking!

Spray booth (Old)

Hi Art,

Looked at your older spray booth on the blog. That might be a better size for me given all the "suck" my fan will have. Some where around my mess I have the formula as to how many CFM you need for the size of of the booth.

Yeah, $12.00 was a steal. $5.00 for shipping to a location near me was less than  the gas would have been for the round trip. The new fan that replaced this model, basically the same, is $86.00! This one runs smooth and it looks like it was used for sawdust collection. Thanks again.

God's best to you.

air brush booths

I built mine from my scrap wood pile over twenty years ago and it still works like a dream.  Back then I was using Floquil paints and vented it with a squirrel cage upset.  The draft is awesome, so I've left it in place.  I use about one can of white spray paint a year to "lighten" the interior for better color rendition.

Hint and suggestion for those about to build one . . . take into account your dominate hand.  I hold and use my air brush with my right hand, so don't place a vertical light source on the right side of the booth . . . you'll get shadows across your work.  Besides placing lights across the top of the booth, I placed four Halogen lights on the vertical left hand corner/side of the booth.  A simple switch allows just 2 or all 4 lights to illuminate. 

Venting

Art:

Do you just stick the vent hose out the door then?  That design looks perfect for the basement.  I have two windows that open up at ground level to it would be super easy to vent to the outside.

Other question:  How often do you change the filters?  Is based on how much you paint?

Thanks!

V/R

Rob