DIY Spray booth requirements?

[Dissolve]

Hello,

I'd like to make a small DIY spray booth for my workshop/possibly outside my workshop, but I'm a bit lost at the moment!

The largest thing I'll be spraying will be guitars/bass guitars, and probably nitrocellulose lacquer and cellulose paints. I fear my workshop would be too small for a setup even if it was temporary, but I am considering making something for outside my workshop in the garden..

How dangerous is it to spray these sorts of things in a large garden using some form of "tent like" enclosure? I was considering making a framework then covering in polythene sheets, hopefully mounting a fan to the framework.. But how enclosed would it need to be to keep the dust down? and if I had an extraction fan hooked up, would the overspray be dangerous to my health/neighbours? (It would be at the end of a large garden, but I'm not keen on complaints!) :lol:

I doubt it's really possible, so I might just end up spraying in between wind breaks but if I could rig up something to yield better results I'd love to.

 

[acewoodturner]

Spraying outside means you are reliant on it not raining or even worse not starting to rain halfway through a spray job! If your garden is large you could always buy a small shed , say 6' x4' and make that into a dedicated spray booth. If you are using nitrocellulose lacquers you will need an Atex approved fan which are very expensive. If you were to use only water based lacquers you could get away with a normal extractor fan. It is easy enough to knock up a frame where you could insert a spray booth filter and have the fan at the back of it to draw the excess spray through. You will need some wire mesh to stop the filter being sucked through the booth into the fan.Have it venting through the wall at a slight downwards angle with a wee baffle of some sort to stop the rain from entering when the wind is blowing hard. You can get ideas from looking at the listings on Ebay. There is also an excellent (although American) book on spraying published by fine woodworking which I got through Axi power tools. I am in the process of building my own spray booth but have to get an Atex fan as I spray pre cat lacquer. The prices for these new fans easily hit a grand and I am currently trying to source a second hand one.

Mike

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

But obviously (though not mentioned) even when spraying outside you need the appropriate face mask (P1 is it) that filters volatile organic compounds. Point being that a fan isn't enough to warrant not wearing personal breathing protection.

I occasionally spray projects outside on weather friendly days and even then there is a huge amount of spray that makes it to your nose and mouth.

 

[rafezetter]

I agree with RandomOBob - P1 filters is a must must must have minimum (closed face airfed even better) - open outside or anywhere; well here's my take and plans for my own booth:

I lucked out bigtime a while back and snagged some large correx signs (almost 6 x 6ft) - they came on frames too! (lol I practically squealed! - yes really) I'm going to cut two down the middle ish and hinge them so I can bring the fronts in a bit closer, add more hinges to one for the back to attach the sides and another for the roof. I'll add wood offsets as needed so the whole thing will fold flat. I've bought an old cooker extractor from ebay (£20 delivered!), which I'll make a hole for at the bottom at the back, but put a couple of flat car engine intake filters in front of it.

Filter: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400204924530?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2648

I've been wondering about getting cheap material to roughly line the sides to "catch / absorb" overspray, so that old paint doesn't flake off the correx at just the wrong moment.

I really should crack on and get that finished.

re the super expensive fan (as they have insulated / sealed coils so they won't spark and explode the flammable vapor) - I've read more than a few sites re smaller airbrushing booths and many have done tests using cellulose based paints thru normal extractor fans / cooker fans, even spraying it neat in high vapour volume with no bad efffects.

They think this is largely because most if not all modern fan coil stator assemblies (the wound copper wires where the current flows) are dipped in epoxy resin giving them superb moisture resistance, - whether over a period of time this might break down with nitro vapours I don't know, but if it were I spraying nitro / 2pack - I would use the above engine paper filter, and maybe add a charcoal filter too before the fan motor part - after that there won't be a great deal of anything left to absorb and I'm not reckless by any means, I won't even hit light / socket switches with wet hands.

All in a well ventilated area of course - like outside; you could buy one of those marquee tent roof things to cover the makeshift spray booth (or make one out of that if you can leave it static) - so you can still do it outside if there was a threat of rain.

If you don't manage to be a lucky sod like me and get light correx - *glee* :mrgreen: - 4 sheets of light ply 6mm or so and cheap batten support frames would suffice - hinged as I laid out.

oh and stick a tarp on the ground.

 

[thick_mike]

Some commercial spray booths (car bumper painting industry) cover the walls of their spray booths with Vaseline. This catches overspray and stops it flaking off. It needs replacing every so often...you need to gloop it on though, not smear.