Spray booth venting

[SrsBidness28]

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for venting a spray booth in a really cold climate. I live in Minnesota, and the temps lately have been 10 degrees or lower. Opening a window is not the wisest option, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

In my air booth I have a bathroom fan to extract the fumes, out the back of it I have basically a dryer hose that goes outside. This last week it has been snapping cold (-36C with the windchill, think that is about -31F), and noticed quite a bit of cold air coming into the booth through the hose. I just stuck a piece of 2" styrofoam insulation I had left over from insulating the window that the hose goes out through. Seemed to stop the cold from coming back into the room. When I need to use the booth, it moves enough air through it to keep the cold out.

 

[WebbyNZ]

i guess it depends where ya booth is and how much ducting you want round the house
ya local hardware place might have some airconditioning window mount that could be fitted , depending on ya style of windows you should be able to get it pretty flush and draught free.
depending on the booth the filters should catch a lot of the nastites but ive seen people run their ducting into a sealed box with mesh vents in that to try and filter more air, but you do run the risk of impeding your airflow when the filters clog with dust etc

 

[Ian]

Here's what I did for my setup in Vermont, which has a similar outside temp in the winter.



Exterior vent in outside wall.





Standard dryer ductwork.








That leads into the model room and is capped with a dust collection blast gate from Rockler (http://bit.ly/WnH2SC).








I open when spraying and keep it shut the rest of the time.

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

That is pretty much what I have, except mine goes out through a window. The room is odd, I think when the house was built, it was all one room, and somewhere along the lines before we bought the house, someone in their infinite wisdom decided to put a wall up to create 2 rooms, and to separate off the water heater, water tank, etc, etc. Only problem is, the wall they put up they had it right in the middle of an existing window.

So basically what I did was took a piece of plywood the size of the window opening, dryer vent on the outside, hose on the inside going to the booth. Then put in a piece of 2" insulating Styrofoam, and then one of those window seals...you know the kind you put up with 2 sided tape, and shrink it to fit with a hair dryer to seal it off.

Still get cold air coming in through the hose when the booth isn't running. Again, piece of 2" insulating Styrofoam to the rescue keeps most of the cold at bay from coming back in the house when not in use.

 

[dkev]

Really the only time I vent is when I'm shooting clear coat . The rest of the time I just use my booth to control over spray. And when I do have to open the window, it's only for a few minutes and my fan does a good job keeping the cold out.

 

[marc2109]

I have a question about this too. I just started building models I work in my basement which only has a tiny 4x6 inch windows 7 feet above the floor. Is venting absolutely necessary? How about if you use mostly acrylics and enamels only occasionally?

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

I have a question about this too. I just started building models I work in my basement which only has a tiny 4x6 inch windows 7 feet above the floor. Is venting absolutely necessary? How about if you use mostly acrylics and enamels only occasionally?

Necessary? Probably not, but does help. All the extra paint in the air has to come down at some point, and Murphy's Law states that it must fall back on your freshly painted model. Draw the air outside and the paint dust is someone else's problem, IE: not on your model.

 

[Ziz]

You could also build a filter from a 5 gallon paint bucket and some HVAC parts.

http://www.starshipmodeler.com/tech/pa_booth.htm

Bottom half of the page.

 

[Cave_Dweller]

Nice plans, I really need one of these, getting tired of the dust and fumes.