Paint Booths

[Crazy8]

Hello everyone. I would liek to say this looks like a great forum and I am looking forward to spending much time here. Im not exactly new to scale models. My dad got me going many years ago (im 32 years old) and had built some small simple battle ships but most of what I had done was fighter jets and cars. Recently my step son has expressed some interest in wanting to build a model. He has done some in the past but has not done anything really other than pull the parts out of the box and glue them together. His dad never bought paint for them so all his cars he does have are white...lol

Anyway when I heard he wanted to do a model my ears perked up and I thought "I could teach him a few things and its been ages since I have done a model." In addition to using the time as some much needed bonding time for us. Hes kind of our "problem child" like most teenagers. Well its been going great. I hava Ferarri California and he got some kind of 80's muscle car, I dont recall what though. This is also the first model I have done any kind of real detail on and its looking pretty good for being the first one in so many years.

I have been watching MANY videos by "Doctor Cranky" and have been learning a lot and cant wait to give my first try at a real nice paint job on the Ferarri. That kind of leads me to my question as per my topic tytle. I want a paint booth that I can do models in, will do what its supposed to do but not runn me a fortune. Do any of you have suggestions to a good but affordable paint booth?

A little off topic but I have already decided that my next project will be to take a 32' Ford 5 window and turn it into a complete custom Rat Rod. Also off topic, my wifes store is being closed and we have purchased a couple nice desks and some shelves and I am using the two desks and shelves to build a nice big hobby bench. Maybe ill post up some pics in a future post when its complete.

Thank you all and keep up the great work in this forum.

[Harry P.]

"Affordable" can mean different thing to different people. Not sure what your price range is, but I've heard very good things about Pace booths. They come in four different sizes/prices:

http://www.pacepaintbooths.com/pace/

[stulee11]

hi there and welcome ... as for the paint booth question. first ov all i would type in the serch bar "paint booth" and there you will find loads of topics about exactly what your looking for . hope that helps you a little bit.

stu

[Dr. Cranky]

Welcome to the forum, Wayne. Harry is right, there are lots of choices depending on what your budget is . . . my advice is to do all the research, including looking into a few start up models. I got my first book from Micro Mark. Look around and have fun, and continue to share your eye candy with us. Happy Styrene Journeys.

[Danny Lectro]

Hi Wayne. Welcome aboard.

I found plans for a homemade spray booth on another site. I plan to build my own as soon as I have the space for it.

http://www.starshipm...ch/pa_booth.htm

Please read the whole page, as they discuss possible explosion hazards from using a bathroom fan. You may want to use a squirrel cage or HVAC exhaust fan instead.

Edited February 13, 2012 by Danny Lectro

[mikemodeler]

Wayne,

As Harry said, "affordable" means different things to different people. Building your own spray booth to save a few dollars is admirable but only if you do it correctly. There have been many posts here about how members have built there own as well as members who have purchased ready built ones.

Whichever route you choose to go, make sure it is vented outside properly and you are wearing a respirator when painting as the fumes are pretty nasty, booth or no booth.

I am saving my lunch money to buy a Pace booth, it just looks a whole lot better than what I could create.

[steve7119]

Welcome to the Forum! I have build several spray booths with different plans. The expensive part is the fan. with the solvents in paints you will want to get a fan that is designed for the use. they may be called an explosion proof fan, can't remember the name for sure. The fan and motor are separated so the air the fan is moving doesn't go through the motor. The blower motors I got for the ones I built came from Grainger. They were Dayton I think. When I made the second one, I gave the blower motor from the old one to my brother so he could build one. Price depends on the CFM you need. Brians Model Cars site had a tutorial that I used the last time. If I remember correctly it had a formula that helped figure out the size of the fan needed for the size of the booth you wanted to build.

Good luck and welcome back to the hobby!