I live in an apartment: I need a hobby paint booth with a window hose kit

[Hemlock]

My apartment manager says I'm not allowed to use one of those portable paint booth tents outside my unit. They are a hassle to set up and take down repeatedly anyway. Weather also doesn't always cooperate too. I figure having one of those nifty little folding electric fan booths will vent the nasty fumes out the window while I sit comfortably inside my living room all winter long with the television on. I plan to use both lacquers and enamel paints for the airbrush. I'm not an acrylic user. Aerosol paint cans aren't recommended for these tabletop hobby booths anyway. Fire/explosion hazards. I suspect the ventilation equipment can also vent model cement fumes out the window as well. Does any person here use such equipment and/or have to deal with doing this hobby as an apartment dweller? Are there any such hobby booths one can recommend? What's the best way to keep such equipment clean and maintained? I understand they use replaceable filters. 

Here is but one example of a hobby booth with window kit; there are so many of these booths out on the market, it's confusing to pick one. 

 

 

Edited November 15, 2021 by Hemlock

[Tom Geiger]

I don’t live in an apartment but I do paint in a spare bedroom, with a vent duct out a window. I cut a board to fit in the open window, with the duct through it.

Depending on the room you have for something fixed, I recommend the 24” wide Pace Super Mini that sells for $400 but is now on sale for $345 delivered. The box is HVAC quality metal and it uses a standard 12 x 24 furnace filter.

https://www.pacepaintbooth.com
 

[Rodent]

Are you going to have issues with neighbors that may be recipients of your paint fumes?

[Hemlock]

I have limited space and need to think portable to the max. I would like a wider booth since I will be painting an assembled airplane fuselage up to 13" in length. My idea is set it it up on a stiff steel wire through the paint booth to rotisserie it over and over while painting it longwise. The turntable wouldn't seem to work well for a long assembly like an aircraft fuselage or a ship or boat hull. 

For smaller parts, I like to hold them in my hands while painting them so they can be moved around easily. I wear an AIDS glove on my non-painting hand and use blue FunTack putty to hold parts to wooden hobby sticks as a handle. I have a shallow cardboard box with holes in it to use it as a rack to hold wet painted parts. I put the sticks with the parts stuck to them through the holes to use it as a stand. The improvised rack goes inside a big deep carboard box as a dust cover. That reusable blue FunTack putty is a real great tool for model buiding. 

I'm sure a cor body can be "rotiserried" while painting with a long wire too. 

 

Edited November 16, 2021 by Hemlock

[Dpate]

I had one of those folding paint booths until i upgraded by building my own using a dayton blower.  The folding booths are good for basic painting meaning nothing too strong.  Forget about 2K clear for example.  Pretty easy maintenance etc check out more youtube videos on them.  

[Dpate]

1 minute ago, Hemlock said:

I have limited space and need to think portable to the max. I would like a wider booth since I will be painting an assembled airplane fuselage up to 13" in length. My idea is set it it up on a stiff steel wire through the paint booth to rotisserie it over and over while painting it longwise. The turntable wouldn't seem to work well for a long assembly like an aircraft fuselage or a ship or boat hull. 

The foldable booths you can connect 2 up to each other. 

[Hemlock]

On 11/15/2021 at 6:03 PM, Rodent said:

Are you going to have issues with neighbors that may be recipients of your paint fumes?

No, the strong winds of Oklahoma blow that stuff far away in a heartbeat. Most neighbors around here keep windows shut and run the a/c. During the summertime, I was rattle-can spray painting some custom window sill boards as platforms to my put my animal figurines on for window dsiplay and a custom window panel for my portable air conditioner exhaust hoses outside my front door on my porch. I also sand and do small woodworking projects out there on a small folding table. No complaints from the landlord or neighbors about that. They just don't want me to put up a tent thing out on the back lawn of the complex even for just a half hour. People let their dogs kr@pp out there without picking the doo up but the landlord seems to do nothing about that. I could just spray my models out on my porch sans tent but they won't be very neat unless both wind velocity AND dust fallout is nil. Spraying low-value wooden objects out there is not such a sensitive issue with a minor breeze and a little dust and some fine sandpaper to neaten up informal painted wood projects painted in flat white. earth-tone or black paints. You just can't airbrush models out in any amount of wind or outside dust. Oklahoma is a wind-swept dust bowl. 

Edited November 18, 2021 by Hemlock

[Misha]

2 hours ago, Tom Geiger said:

I don’t live in an apartment but I do paint in a spare bedroom, with a vent duct out a window. I cut a board to fit in the open window, with the duct through it.

Depending on the room you have for something fixed, I recommend the 24” wide Pace Super Mini that sells for $400 but is now on sale for $345 delivered. The box is HVAC quality metal and it uses a standard 12 x 24 furnace filter.

https://www.pacepaintbooth.com
 

I heartily agree with Tom as I have found my Pace 24” to be very quiet, and efficient in moving air. Sturdily built and about the size of a small bar fridge, it is a worthwhile investment. Up here in Canada I had to pay the freight, yet in the US I believe Bob still has free delivery. Check it out, many forum members have a Pace as well.

Cheers Misha

[Hemlock]

I have to now try to sell that "paint booth tent" I have. It was over $60 with shipping and tax a year ago. Is there a good marketplace for second-hand hobby equipment? 

[Skip]

Another brand to consider- Paasche 
I have the 30” Paasche paint booth, they make a smaller 22” unit as well (check Coast Airbrush or Paasche).   I got my booth from Coast.  I always stop by Coast Airbrush when I’m near Anaheim, CA.  I was looking at the smaller 22” booth and talking to (Commercial Accounts rep. / Owner) David (Monnig) about it when he told me he had an unused, returned 30” booth, not in its original packaging. I ended up paying same price as the 22” booth I was looking at, less $50. Both of us were happy with that.  He even shipped it for us, so we didn’t have to pack it in the car while we were traveling, (it was waiting for me at the neighbors when we got home).  I’ve had the booth for 15+ years and I’ve been really happy with it, never had any problem either.   The Paasche is of the same type of quality construction and air evacuation properties as the similar sized Pace units, (I looked at both).

As far as 2K clear coats or any catylized, or epoxy type paints; pretty sure that there isn’t a hobby paint booth on the market that will scrub both odor and harmful inhalents enough that one could stand next to the discharge and not be affected by it’s fumes.  Spray booths are mainly to contain and evacuate the harmful components of the material being sprayed.  You still have to wear respiratory PPE when using a hobby spray booth.  

I vent mine out a side window with a vent kit from Micro-Mark.  My wife tells me she can smell the enamel, lacquer, acrylic lacquer… paint fumes in the nearby garden, it dissipates pretty quickly though, I’ve never had the next door neighbor complain about it.  (They did when I used to spray projects outside.)  After I get done painting, I keep the booth running and place the dehydrator right in front of it.  I used to get the “that stinks” comments when curing paint in the dehydrator, haven’t heard it since I started venting.  

 TIP:   No. 1.  Line the interior of the spray booth with freezer paper, it will catch the overspray keeping it off the booth itself.  Change out the freezer paper when you get too much build up, cuts down on the chance of paint particulate related “dust” which can drop in to haunt your perfect paint!  I line it right up to the filter opening and around the front of the booth.
            No. 2.  Vacuum the interior of the booth frequently, as in before you use it.  Vacuum the pre-filter as well, if something accidentally gets dropped, it could cause a shower of ultra fine paint dust to rain down on your project.  (Never happened to me but I know someone it has, it wasn’t pretty either.)

[chuckyr]

Interesting.