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Expedient paint booth ideas wanted

Falcon67

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Merkel, TX
>A booth is not like a dust free room, you **** fumes out not blow them.
This requires an explosion proof fan, which negates the "cheap" part of a DIY paint job real quick.
 
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hh76

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House wrap works nice instead of tarps or plastic. I built a small (8ft cube) room out of 2x2's and used some house wrap to cover, and to put on the ground. I set up my shop vac to **** air out (no idea how bad it was for the vac), and punched a couple of holes for intake. Worked like a charm for the few parts I needed to paint.
 

sberry

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Thing I love about this scheme is it takes about 5 minutes to put up/down and is totally out of the way. I can make it down draft for major jobs and the air movement is along the floor, I don't particularly clean up well and the dirt level is remarkably low, not big time restro show quality but common work, equipment, pickup trucks etc works great. Original plastic on it most of the same duct tape, 18 yrs.

Have done this in a small garage on occasion, divide the room in to a booth, toss everything we care about over spray in the one half along with heating equipment, hung tarp with 4 or 5 box fans under a door, cardboard and duct tape, wood stove blazing in other side with entry door open for make up air.
 

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roblouvasz

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Hey guys. I've been using accordian style room dividers. The kind you would see in a reception hall. I've got two of them on tracks that basically divide my garage in two creating a 18x24 spray booth. I'll have to post some pics of it soon. They were both used. I got one for 25.00 from a place I used to work and another for 75.00 at a surplus builder's supply store. They work really well for spraying and also for garage sales! Keeps any prying eyes off my tools!
 

Al Bundy

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Upstate NY
>A booth is not like a dust free room, you **** fumes out not blow them.
This requires an explosion proof fan, which negates the "cheap" part of a DIY paint job real quick.

I'm generally not one to skirt safety issues, but an explosion proof fan is way overkill for this application. As long as you aren't allowing fumes to build up before you start trying to vent them you won't have any issues. I know a guy that's been painting in his garage for 25 years and he uses a wood burning stove and a 40 year old window fan. Not only hasn't he blown himself up but the work he turns out is show quality.
 

sberry

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I also have seen all kinds of makeshift booths including some paint upwind specials. My fan has an enclosed motor but belt drive and I duct the motor ventilation from outside the air stream, from outdoor actually. I don't have explosion proof anything but the place clears well in orderly fashion and I have plugs and switches in the exhaust end near the fan outside the curtain, cord runs to fan and any recepts, lights upstream out of the way of the plume, I never get over spray on walls or even benches along side the job. Lights a couple feet down in ceiling and the major plume is drawn down along the floor and out. For a makeshift booth mine works really really well, being able to make it big enough as needed really lets one center project right in this downdraft situation, you can be painting up a storm and walk in to rest of building and never smell it.

When I do a major job put the end wall down and the air intakes from the ceiling, warmest part of the building and is drawn thru the booth. If I was going to be a regular winter painter (I can usually choose ambient friendly days) I would put in fared tube thru the booth, heat project, spray, heat.

I was doing some cleaning and remod work to it, dont think all the flashing was on in last pic but the whole thing is a "plug" that fits in my loading dock door, similar size to garage door, can be removed and stored elsewhere but I rarely use that part of the dock so thats its home, 6 wood screws hold it in.

I have screen and intake filter over it, can close the overhead on it in winter. A lot of peices I put on skids or boxes, can spin around into light and work from upwind.
 

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roblouvasz

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I took some photos of the accordian style room dividers. I haven't finished the entire installation as of yet. I still need to build a filter section for in between the two.
 

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BARN ONE

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I took some photos of the accordian style room dividers. I haven't finished the entire installation as of yet. I still need to build a filter section for in between the two.

Where did you purchase the dividers? How expensive are they?
 

djd99

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Owosso,Michigan
>A booth is not like a dust free room, you **** fumes out not blow them.
This requires an explosion proof fan, which negates the "cheap" part of a DIY paint job real quick.

This is simply not true, if it was I would of blown my garage up several moons ago I paint in the same room with my natural gas furnace and always kick it on between each coat for proper flash time mainly in the winter.

I've painted everything from enamels to base/clear and never worried at all. Like I said in my first post been doing this for 25 years at least a dozen cars a year. Just don't throw a match in your thinner can that might explode.

Does anybody actually read the whole threads anymore.:lol_hitti
 

Mush07071

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Great paint booth Ideas.. Is there a way to save a post to find later rather than posting a reply to find it..
 
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roblouvasz

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I got one from a place I used to work for 25.00. The other near the front of the garage came from a surplus/used building supply store that I found through craigslist and payed 75.00 for it. Check craigslist under "materials" and type in either "room divider" or "accordian room divider".
 

64dragnwagon

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Sep 3, 2006
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Northeastern Tennessee
Thing I love about this scheme is it takes about 5 minutes to put up/down and is totally out of the way. I can make it down draft for major jobs and the air movement is along the floor, I don't particularly clean up well and the dirt level is remarkably low, not big time restro show quality but common work, equipment, pickup trucks etc works great. Original plastic on it most of the same duct tape, 18 yrs.

Have done this in a small garage on occasion, divide the room in to a booth, toss everything we care about over spray in the one half along with heating equipment, hung tarp with 4 or 5 box fans under a door, cardboard and duct tape, wood stove blazing in other side with entry door open for make up air.

I like this setup, do you have any pics of the way you rig up the fans?
 

BARN ONE

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missouri
I got one from a place I used to work for 25.00. The other near the front of the garage came from a surplus/used building supply store that I found through craigslist and payed 75.00 for it. Check craigslist under "materials" and type in either "room divider" or "accordian room divider".

Thanks. I had a chance to get one last year for free at work. It was taken out of a confrence room, and only a couple years old. The problem was it weighed about 600lbs. I think it had glass panels inside the material for sound proofing, and it was to tall. I did not see any good way to cut it down, and figured it was not worth the trouble. :headscrat
 

MP&C

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Leonardtown, MD
>A booth is not like a dust free room, you **** fumes out not blow them.
This requires an explosion proof fan, which negates the "cheap" part of a DIY paint job real quick.


Industrial type belt driven fans, while likely don't meet the non-ferrous (non-sparking) material requirement of explosion proof fans, would be cheaper than explosion proof and a yet a better choice than having solvent fumes pass over the electric motor of a cheap window fan.


I'm generally not one to skirt safety issues, but an explosion proof fan is way overkill for this application. As long as you aren't allowing fumes to build up before you start trying to vent them you won't have any issues. I know a guy that's been painting in his garage for 25 years and he uses a wood burning stove and a 40 year old window fan. Not only hasn't he blown himself up but the work he turns out is show quality.

This is simply not true, if it was I would of blown my garage up several moons ago I paint in the same room with my natural gas furnace and always kick it on between each coat for proper flash time mainly in the winter.

I've painted everything from enamels to base/clear and never worried at all. Like I said in my first post been doing this for 25 years at least a dozen cars a year. Just don't throw a match in your thinner can that might explode.

Does anybody actually read the whole threads anymore.:lol_hitti


While many folks will use PVC pipe for air lines, and do so for many years without issue, there are reasons why (and actual accidents from it's use) it is illegal to use PVC for air lines in a commercial setting. By the same token, there are reasons for using explosion proof fans. One person's string of luck using something else should not validate the practice as a blanket rule for others. Explosion proof fans are required for a reason. If the purchase of one is out of someones financial reach, I would suggest a belt driven fan. Other than that, good luck with rolling the dice.
 
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alberto

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May 28, 2007
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756
I'm thinking of buying one of these greenhouses from Harbor Freight: http://www.harborfreight.com/6-ft-x-8-ft-greenhouse-47712.html Then modifying it to use the sort of arrangement shown here http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/721.cfm that someone posted before. Since I only need to primer and paint small parts, the 6x8 ft size should work nicely for what I need. The advantage is that the walls are a bit more solid than the plastic sheeting. I intend to tape the seams of the greenhouse in order to direct the positive exhaust air only though the exhaust fans. If you need bigger, you can do the same thing with the bigger 10 x12 HF greenhouse.
 
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Vegaman_Dan

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Jun 1, 2012
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Pacific, WA
With HVLP tech these days, you have very little material in the air anyways. That's part of the entire point of HVLP- limit excess material floating about.

Plus we're not spraying all those highly flammable lacquers either.
 
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toyotadriver

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Dec 30, 2010
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Thanks for all the input. I did make up a paint booth with tarps and bungee cords. Worked well. I did use two 20 inch box fans and they did help reduce the amount of paint in the air....and the filters were coated with paint when I was done. Something that moves more air would be better but it worked ok.

I wasn't able to take pics because my wife had the camera so no pics. Sorry about that!
 
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