DIY paint booths...post what you are using!

[Alyn]

I'm perfectly capable of building a particle box for a spray boot, but I took the easy way out and built one similar to Hollywood Jim's. It even looks like it might be the same brand; shorter though. I bought a $60 give or take $5 bathroom vanity cabinet from Home Depot. I don't have pics, so I'll try to describe it as best I can and try to follow up with pics down the road. It's a cheap, white clad particle board cabinet that you assemble yourself. One large door and a single drawer on top. I set this on a table top for a working height booth.

During assembly, I modified the cabinet to mount the drawer on the bottom. I then built a shelf about six inches above the drawer with a plenum box underneath. The shelf has several large holes to down-draft into the plenum box. I ended up with working booth dimensions of 23" wide, 18" high and 14" deep; a very nice size. I set a lazy susan in the middle for a rotating platform.

For another $ 70 bucks, I looked through Granger's catalog and found a squirrel cage blower with a shaded pole (no contacts or brushes) motor. This is mounted on the side of the cabinet and draws air from the plenum box threw a hole in the side of the cabinet. This is then dryer vented to an outside window.

I would not change a thing. The box is a great size, cost around $150.00 or so to build, looks good and allows me to paint year round (in the Midwest) with minimal fumes or odor. It even has the drawer in the bottom for painting supplies, and recently I added some hooks on the inside of the door to hold two air brushes between coats. I have also purchased one of those round florescent light fixtures to mount in the top of the box. This will likely be partitioned off with a clear plastic or glass false roof.

[Aaronw]

I built my own from 1/2" plywood for just a hair over $200, the fan accounted for about 75% of the cost.

To answer Skip's question. Why did I build my own when Pace makes perfectly fine paint booths for $200? Because mine compares to Pace's large $495 booth, is designed to my preferences and has a more powerful fan (485 cfm vs the Peacekeepers 265cfm). If you want to buy a booth, Pace has a lot of happy customers, I almost bought one myself.

This is a good article on building a booth, I found it quite helpful.

http://modelpaint.tripod.com/booth2.htm


My booth, 1/2" plywood, standard $5 16x20" filter, and a Dayton 1TDR7 485 cfm shaded pole blower (I recommend Grainger for the blower, they have a large selection, decent prices and great service).








Behind the filter I built a plenum which is supposed to help distribute the suction across the whole filter instead of getting a "hot spot" of suction right at the point of the fan. I don't know if it is neccessary but the instructions I followed recommended it so I did it.



These photos were taken when I had it temporarily set up in my garage. In its current location it vents outside through about 3 feet of 6" duct. I didn't want to cut a hole in the house, so the vent is a piece of 1x12" pine set into a slightly open sliding window. I cut a hole in the board for the vent, and ran some soft weather strip along the edges of the board so I don't get drafts from outside.

Make sure you get ducting appropriate to your fan. If I had gone the cheap and easy route of using 4" plastic flex duct for a clothes dryer instead of 6" metal duct I would have reduced my fans efficiency to about 300 cfm (or lost more than 1/3 of the fan I paid for).

Edited February 6, 2013 by Aaronw

[zenrat]

Thanks for that link Aaron - it's exactly what I need.

[Rob McKee]

Is a kitchen range hood likely to have an explosion proof fan? I wouldn't have thought so.

I'm in the planning stages of building my own spray box (thinking of making it as big as I can from two 8' x 4' sheets of ply) but i'm wondering about the design. Where do we feel it is best to have the suction - floor, back or top?

Also, would there be any disadvantage in having the fan built into the shed so it can extract the shed when it's not extracting the spray box?

Thx

I'm not sure that they all have squirrel cage fans but the one I have has them.

Here is a shot showing the motor in between the 2 squirrel cage fans.

This is the finished paint booth. It works very well. I live in an apartment and this setup has got rid of all of the complaints of fumes in the house.

I also used additional filters I cut out from furnace filter.

Edited February 10, 2013 by Rob McKee

[zenrat]

Looks good Rob. Nice & big.

Thinking about range hoods, I suppose there is always a chance of one being used with the gas not lit in which case explosion proof would be a good thing.

Edited February 11, 2013 by zenrat

[mrknowetall]

This is my Pace booth. It's about five or six years old now, and it's the best tool related item I've ever purchased. To the left is my dehydrator, which is now twice as tall, with the addition of more rings. The booth vents directly outside.

[Rob McKee]

Looks good Rob. Nice & big.

Thinking about range hoods, I suppose there is always a chance of one being used with the gas not lit in which case explosion proof would be a good thing.

Thanks Fred,

I found the hood on Craigslist for $40. Just make sure it has a fan where the motor is not in the airflow. I would suspect that most range hoods are designed in such away to avoid grease fires.

I may shorten the booth a little. It works well but as you mention it is huge.

[lanesteele240]

I think the big thing with home made booths is making angles in the booth to help the air flow. Air flow does not like square areas. It will create eddie currents and lessen air flow.