Spray Booth DIY
 

After spraying 20 plugs with my brush, I am deciding that I need some type of venilation even for the acrlyci paints. Has anyone crafted a spray booth that they like and would be willing to share pictures and recipes for?

Bill

here's mine.

What is than fan?

good question- it was given to me, i know it's for some type of pottery application( bailey pottery supplies is on tag). cage type fan with isolated/ insulated motor, works great.

Bill, build a box with a couple of furnace filters in the back and attach it to that dust collector you have. String the plugs up across the front of the box and paint away.

Dan

Ah, nice idea.

That will only help if your dust collector blows outside. The solvents are kinda nasty.

The venting is my primary concern, I want to vent outside, how has other people done this?

what bluefishercat said, if you use your dust collector it must blow outside(unless you use harmless vapor paints and don't mind breathing them). on my unit everything blows outside thru dryer duct- dust and fumes alike, sealed isolated electric motor will not ignite anything. i use dual particle filters, works like a charm:) .

I love the smell of water-based products in the morning!!
Not. I want to vent it outside specifically for painting.

Bill

I dont really agree with using your shop vac to collect paint particles. I think it would be ok if using latex paints, aside from getting paint accumulated inside the vac/filter. I would be very concerned about using a flamable paint with a vac. In my opinion your asking for an explosion/fire if the motor on the vac sparks. Just my 2cents.

You can get exhaust fans specifically for this purpose. Put one in the back of your spray booth, and vent this to the outside with hoses. Also use a fiber filter in the back of the box in front of the fan. If you are shooting flamable paints, use an explosion proof fan.

Jigman

Suggestions as to where to get one? cage type fan with isolated/ insulated motor?

http://www.supplydistributors.com/pages/4/index.htm

give George a call, he can hook you up.

Thank you Alipknot. I appreciate your input.

Do you need an explosion proof fan when using Kliz primer? Thanks

Robert-

If you look at the container and it says thin with water then its waterbased and its not necessary. If its shellac based then the thinner is alcohol and if its oil based the thinner is mineral spirits/paint thinner. You wouldnt want to spray alcohol or paint thinner near anything that can spark.

I'm not trying to be the DOOM sayer, just be careful. It takes a pretty good concentration of overspray particles floating around in the air to become combustable, just be careful and use common sense.

Venting outside is not important with water based paints. But if the smell bothers you then by all means vent outside. If you are using solvent based stuff, then you should vent outside. Most of the paints I use in the airbrush are water based.

Anything and everything to do with paint spraying:

www.norriswiener.com

I built a large box out of plywood and mounted a high volume bathroom ceiling fan on top. I then ran a dryer vent line out my basement window. I angled a filter in front of the fan to catch "the big stuff". Works pretty good, but not explosion proof!

Excellant point #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&. I guess I shouldn't have said NOT necessary. My point was to be VERY careful about motors, flames, piolet lights, etc. when spraying. Use common sense, and build more tomorrow:)

Water is also a solvent. We drink alcohol and glycols are used in the food we eat. Exposure to any material involves risk. We are exposed to risk in everything we do. Some risks are voluntary and others are involuntary. It is the involuntary risk that usually gets people upset. Risk is also cumulative, so eliminating a source of risk, no matter how small, is a good idea as long as its feasible.

Two of the most misused and misunderstood terms in my profession are “dangerous” and “toxic”. All materials are dangerous and toxic in the right concentrations and/or situations. The questions to ask are how toxic based on the exposure I am getting or what are factors that make this material dangerous. OSHA and NIOSH are the good sources for information on most materials. Also check the MSDS. When consulting an MSDS, try to review more than one; some are better than others for the same material.

It is important to read and understand the MSDS for all the materials you are using. By understand, I mean know what terms like flash point, LEL, TWA, and IDLH mean. I have no problem using my dust collector as a vacuum for a spray booth when I am spraying water based paints through an airbrush. My dust collector vents outside the house and there are no filters to clog and there is no chance that the overspray could ignite. I would NEVER put overspray from a “rattle can” through it; the LEL for the material in the rattle can is too low.

backcast;
In you experience, how many items available to the layman come with a MSDS?

What Saltie said, and the place you buy it is supposed to have a copy on hand. If not, check the internet.

I understand this.however, in most cases the MSDS is not supplied with the product. It's something that needs to be requested.

Live on the edge! Cavemen didn't have MSDS sheets.......:smash:

ohh yeah, good point!

methyl ethyl butyrated xylabenzamatics? Is that in cheerios?

One of the things that hasn't been brought up before is make up air for the spray booth. This is very important if you have other things like a boiler, water heater, clothes dryer, fire place, even fart fans in the bathroom drawing air from the same space without dedicated combustion air being fed to them. What can happen is the area will develop a negative pressure and start pulling air in from the chimney or flue piping. If you are firing propane or natural gas, you may not realize you have a problem until it's too late. Gas fires tend to make a lot of carbon monoxide when they are being starved of air, and under those conditions may be dumping it directly into your house. Oil fired appliances usually give off some warning signs before you get into real trouble (oil smoke odor), but will you notice it while you're spraying?
Most of the carbon monoxide deaths are caused by situations where the appliances were starved of air and the chimney / vent pipe became the path of least resistance for the make up / combustion air causing the appliance to dump the flue gasses directly into the house. Lots of times gas appliances have a roll out switch or an oxygen depletion switch that should cut the appliance out if it happens, but don't bet your life on it, and older units may not have it.
You've got to have as much or more air coming into the house as you have going out. This can be a problem with a new house or a remodeled one. All the insulation, weather strip, new windows etc. are made to prevent air flow.
Please
1. If you don't have a CO detector, get one. Today.
2. Have your appliances serviced. Make sure everything that can draw air from the house is running, exhaust fans in the bath and kitchen, whole house fan, all fuel burning appliances - stove, oven, fire place, water heater, furnace or boiler, space heaters and your exhaust from the spray booth. Then make sure the service guy checks the draft on the chimney or flue and the appliances, as well as checking the flame for appearance and combustion gas. You may be OK, or you may need to add some fresh air ducts, but have it checked.
It takes surprising little CO to cause problems. Don't mess around with it!
Hope this helps out. I don't want to scare anyone, but I don't want to read about any of you guys in the obituary section of the paper either. Almost all of the accidental CO deaths were preventable if someone had checked the systems under a worst case situation (everything running).
Adam

They didn't have a bunch of lawyers in a highly letigic [sp?] society either.

I a residential application, it could be done with just some duct work. Shouldn't run more than a few hundred installed unless you start looking at automatic dampers (opens before burner starts) which will bring it up a bit. Much better than taking a dirt nap.

I had to deal with this exact issue with gas and a/c installs. You do have to be careful when you do any inside/outside venting. With analysis that was done with my A/C unit I should be fine if I open a window in another part of shop, however the volume for my use is not sigificant, 120 cfm, it isn't going to hurt to do it.

Striperman; excellent point!

Salty; If the volume of your building offset the need for make up air with you using many more CFM in your booth!!
The volume of most shops will offset the CFM's from a small exhaust fan.
That was exactly my point re; MSDS! The buisiness gets them the private guy does not!

AdamR.very good post!

Chances are, if everything in the house is NOT running you'll be OK, just be aware of the potential for problems. Do get a CO detector...they're cheap.
I just read about a case that happened a while ago where a family bought a house with a fire place and gas appliances. They never used the fireplace and all was fine. Parents go away for the weekend, teenage daughter stays home and has a few friends over for a sleep over. They light off the fireplace, fall asleep in front of it, parents find them all dead when they get home. The chimney draft was enough to cause a down draft on the gas appliance vent(s). When the system called for heat, it vented directly into the house. Carbon monoxide poisoning was the cause of death.
On a really tight house, 100 cubic feet per minute exhaust might do it. Better safe than sorry.

I agree, that's why I have a externally feed gas fireplace.

I also had to do venting for my make air unit for my gas dryer, so I am aware of the issue. I also had an energy survey done by Baystate Gas and my house isn't that tight.
My stove fan is vented externally and the vent is stuck open, I never fixed it.

It is amazing tho, people with wood stoves, etc. never have this stuff checked. A CO detector is real cheap.

Adam;
In that particular case the fireplace flue or the gas appliance vents were not built to code!! What a shame.

Sea, if the business sells you the product, they are supposed to have a MSDS and should show it to you upon request. If they dont, search the internet. I will check on who to notify if the business does not have the MSDS.

Here's my booth for "water base only" that I use in the basement. Its a computer monitor box with a filter of batting material doubled up to catch the over spray (I keep stealing this stuff from my wife's quilting supplies).

In the back to draw air is a cheap window exhaust fan that I had lying around. Once the box and batting gets caked up in paint, I toss it to the curb and slap another once together. These boxes are always lying around the office.

Here's a pic of the back.

That is definitely, A WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT!!! SOLUTION
I have tons of those boxes at work!!
Nice Idea!

I have tried the box idea, but find that there is one hell of a lot of overspray outside the box, especially if you are hand holding the plugs for effects such as scales and blending colors. My fan was a weak one, and it didn't pull enough air to catch all the overspray. My entire shop ( office ) area was covered with acrilic dust and when I tried to clean it with simple green, it activated the colors and caused one heck of a mess to clean up.