Paint Glove Box

[Miatatom]

Back in the late 60s I worked at one of the nuclear weapons plants in Oak Ridge, TN. Working in the lab, I spent my fair share of time working in a glove box. If you're not familiar with it, it's a closed environment where you can work on all sorts of nasty materials without contaminating the surrounding area or yourself. Your arms fit into rubber gloves that are attached and sealed. Here's something from Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glovebox

I'm thinking, why can't the same theory work for an enclosed spray booth. I've drawn up some plans and I've got a couple of questions. Should it be a down draft, up draft, side draft or back draft? I wonder how much flow I'll need to keep the paint overspray from building up and obscuring vision?

[Casey]

That is a good idea, if done on a small scale with an explosion proof fan/exhaust system. I think a downdraft exhaust system compliments gravity the best, but a lot will depend upon which filter(s) you use.

[Villain]

I had kicked around the idea of using one of the plastic Harbor Freight bead blasting cabinets with a shopvac attached but wasn't sure how it would work or if the shopvac would have enough suction or ignite the fumes.

[Guest G Holding]

Before you wet yourself with that thought...Pick up your A/B with a set of rubber gloves on. I suspect that will kill those ideas quickly.As those thick beadblast gloves are a bit stiff.....

Now if budget is no matter, Great Idea!

[Miatatom]

Actually, I wasn't going to use the rubber gloves normally found on a glove box. The ones I used in the nuke plants were very easy to use and dexterity was reduced very little. Naturally, they were expensive. The gloves used on things like sand blast cabinets are pretty thick and would definitely be impossible to air brush with any finesse at all.

I've thought about that and plan to test the use of a piece of tire inner tube, maybe off a big truck or something. What I have in mind is cutting out something like a 10" circle and attaching it to the cabinet with some sort of home made flange. Lids off 1 gallon paint cans might work. The center of each 10" cut out would have a small hole about the size of my forearm. I always wear rubber gloves when I'm fooling with paint so I'll also make sure to wear long sleeves too. The cabinet will be made from a single piece of plywood. As for budget, I'm going to see if I can do it all for less than $150. We'll see if that's realistic.

[Miatatom]

I had kicked around the idea of using one of the plastic Harbor Freight bead blasting cabinets with a shopvac attached but wasn't sure how it would work or if the shopvac would have enough suction or ignite the fumes.

That's a thought if you don't have a lot of fabrication equipment (saws, welders, grinders, electrical stuff, etc.) It would be read to go. The vacuum should be provided by something that won't ignite paint or solvent fumes.

[azers]

What about using compressed air to create a vacuum to pull air out of the cabinet. No mottor no sparks. Just locate the compressor out of the area and use a t to branch the air before the fitting for the airbrush. Use a watertrap on the air brush side, wouldnt need one on the evacuate side because no air is going into cabinet. Your most likely using a compressor for the airbrush anyway. Just a idea. The same principle is used in some bead blasting cabinets.