DIY spray booth

[Biskup]

Makes perfect sense and sorry for the stupid question but we have metric system here and we deal in cm an meters. That's why I didn't know about that. Thanks for the help.
Regards

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

Go figure: If its 16x20, the math for a downdraft config calls for 111cfm, and by the time you subtract the frame of the filter your 100cfm is probably right on the money.

HAHA, math never figured into the equation when I did mine. I just looked at what fans were available, and the price for each, figured the 100cfm was a nice compromise between price and power. There wasn't much difference in price from the 50 and 80 cfm fans, about a $10 jump between each of them up to the 100cfm, but about a $30 jump up to the 130cfm from the 100cfm....so it won out, best price/cfm sort of thing.

If I had to build another booth, it would be larger, build in the lights, and likely either use 2 bathroom fans, or a bunch of computer fans. Bathroom fans are easier, because you just cut a hole for the exhaust duct, and the duct tubing is already the right size (although I am using dryer ducting, which is slightly larger), as well a couple of doors on the front of the booth which I could close and leave the lights on, making what would be a makeshift drying booth at the same time.

But....mine will do me for many years to come!

 

[Grendels]

Here is my next update:

DIY Spray booth part 5

I don't think I will have a hard time modifying this for a new fan. I just wish I had come across all of this before I built the booth, but this again is how you learn!!

sunsanvil: I will have to post your equation in my design videos.....

 

[Grendels]

Here is part 6 where I start in on the electrical. I should have only one more part to this, where I finish up the electrical and modify her for the new fan. I might have some time to look for the fan today.

DIY Spray booth part 6

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

Looking good!

Couple of things you might want to consider. I know you got the 3 bright lights, but painting the inside of the airbooth white will brighten it up considerably. I made mine out of plain MDF, and while the lighting I had was sufficient, it still looked dark because of the plain nature of the MDF. I just took and old can of flat white spray paint and sprayed the inside surfaces, and it brightened up considerably.

Something else you may consider, because your lights are halogen, once you are finished building it, take a thermometer and stick it in the booth with the lights on. Take a sheet of plastic, or something to cover the opening and see what kind of temps you are getting inside with the lights. You could end up with a makeshift drying booth, which will speed up your cure times. Not such a big deal with acrylics, but if you ever use enamels it could cut your cure time substantually. You could then design a couple of Plexiglas doors (or wood, just thought plexi would be good as you can see through it) for the front of the box that you could close. This would keep dust off of your kits while the paint drys, and create a drying box out of the spray booth. Of course if the temps are too high inside with a cover on it, you could melt plastic....but I think your lights are far enough from the surface you won't have to worry about it.

BTW, your extension cord, White is hot or positive, black is usually your negative, and in this case the green would be ground, however the green and black may be reversed as I have seen some that the black is the ground. However with AC, it doesn't really matter as long as you keep it the same throughout.

Your plug receptacle....that is actually standard now, no center screw for the face plate, screws have been relocated to the outside. Considered the "new" standard apparently.

I don't recall what I used for wire in mine...not quite that heavy, but heavy enough for 110V to the fan. I also soldered and shrink tubed mine. I pulled a plug from an old computer and mounted it to the back, so I could just use a computer power cable to plug it in, ran it through a switch on the front. If I had to do mine again, I would integrate lights into it....I may do it eventually, as I can just pop the top of the booth off and mount lights in it. I do like the idea of pegboard on the back wall of the booth though, too late to add that to mine with out changing alot of things like being able to access the filter and the fan...could mount a small one on the top half I suppose.

 

[Grendels]

ECH: I put the peg board in the booth white side out. I remember reading your post about this in another thread, so I took your advice to heart. (I have you to blame for this anyway, your posting about the booth you made got me thinking about building one instead of buying one.) I didn't stain the birch plywood, so it is a very light yellow in color. Which helps to channel the lights down onto the subject, but it does give everything a yellowish cast....

I know about the color conventions, but with things being made all over the world, you never know what color someone else is using, or even if the accidentally flipped the colors....So I thought I would check and make sure it was done right.

Right now I put a cloth over the booth to keep the cats out of it. I don't want cat hair showing up on the finish of my model. I could build a wooden insert for it, but I live in Texas, in the summer my garage is near 130F to 140F (54 c to 61C) I don't need a drying booth with those temps just a short walk away. Just place the drying parts there for a couple of hours and it is done. But the halogens do get hot, so I will have to check it out for the winter months. Maybe a blanket would suffice.

I wish I had thought about the plug from an old computer. I have plenty of those around. I gave away two this last weekend.

I did buy a new blower and motor. 273 CFM. That should work, and maybe a little bit of overkill, if so I can put a rheostat on it and cut down the fan speed a bit. I now have to figure out how to put duct work together for this new fan. Mounting it will be easy, no worries there. I don't know if standard dryer hose will be able to handle the pressure this thing puts out. We will see......

 

[Grendels]

Part 7 is up, this is where I start taking out the old motor and putting in the new one. I got that done on Saturday and the new motor works very well. As long as I am not spraying too close to the top of the cabinet, I smell nothing at all......

DIY Spray booth part 7

I got the new fan at:

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/start.shtml?cm_guid=1-_-100000000000001053399-_-4624274543&cm_mmc=PPC:+Google-_-TPN+-+Brand-_-Grainger-_-grainger

It is a dayton shaded pole blower. The cost is actually less than a bathroom fan for the same CFM

 

[Grendels]

Only one more part after this and I am done with it:

DIY spray booth part 8