Homemade Spraybooth On The Cheap

[67gto]

Hello, I have a 40' Wide X 30' deep garage, under my house. On one side I have my mechanic bay with lift, tool boxes, etc. On the opposite side I have my body & paint stuff. The problem is doing bodywork & painting, I don't want any fumes going into the basement & upstairs into the house. In my old house I had a detached garage that I used to do bodywork in. I had an exhaust fan on the back wall that I had ducted into a 55 gallon drum filled with water. The problem with this house is the majority of the garage is underground, so nowhere to permanently install an exhaust fan. So, I went to home depot & bought a 36" drum fan. I made a flat panel to mount into the garage door opening. Then I needed a way to separate the spray area from my mechanic bay, cause I don't want any over spray on my lift, toolboxes, etc. My first idea was to go to home depot & get some steel cable, string it up & hang some tarps. the problem is that the weight of the tarps sagged the steel cable. So I started looking online for spraybooth curtains like the ones they use in bodyshops. I found several online sites that had what I was looking for, but the curtains were way to expensive. I went to Sam's club and found a 2 pack of 12' X 16' tarps for $26.00. I bought the track hardware, roller hooks, etc for around $387.00. Plus the fan, tarps, etc, I figure I have about $500 into the whole project. A cheap alternative. When I'm painting I plan on running a lawn sprinkler in the driveway to help control the dust.

 

[67gto]

More Pictures

 

[Vintage Veloce]

Very cool.

 

[ADSR]

Man, I like the idea. Do you have any fresh air breathing supply in there? They're only about 300 bucks on ebay for a half mask. And 500 for a full mask.

 

[John in OH]

Looks like a pretty neat idea!! One question and one comment .....

Question - can you please provide more detail on the track hardware (name, brand, source, etc.)

Comment - DEFINITELY get a fresh air breathing system!! I bought one a few years ago (probably cost about $400 with full hood) but it's great! The air hose can sometimes be a PITA, but I no longer breath those toxic fumes. My cousin nearly killed himself breathing that ****.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Looks really good except your exhaust fan should be explosion proof...

Tommy

 

[redneckcharlie]

That fan will never be an issue and will move plenty of air for what hes doing. Cracks me up every time someone has to bring up the explosion proof fan.

Looks really good except your exhaust fan should be explosion proof...

Tommy

 

[LS6 Tommy]

That fan will never be an issue and will move plenty of air for what hes doing. Cracks me up every time someone has to bring up the explosion proof fan.

OOOKAAYyy....

Tommy

 

[larry4406]

let's see the goat!

 

[Woffski]

Looks good! You paint anything in there yet?

 

[dynahoe]

would it be to much hassle to add spray booth filters to the fan..blowing that trash outside will possibly affect upstairs air quality... looks like a nice shop..

 

[apollo11]

Nice!

 

[Bert_]

That fan will never be an issue and will move plenty of air for what hes doing. Cracks me up every time someone has to bring up the explosion proof fan.

Sure the fan will most likely never be an issue. But it's pretty bold for you to say it as if it's a guarantee. A room full of concentrated paint fumes isn't really something I would want to mess around with.

Besides I can't imagine it would be that hard to find a fan that places the motor outside of the airflow and fumes.

 

[matt_i]

Where do you get the makeup air to balance the outbound flow from the booth thru the fan?

It would seem like you could open another garage door...but most of the airflow would want to short-circuit and run right down the back side of the exterior wall, just inside of the garage doors. However it would have to jump over top of the curtains depending on how heavy they are.

If you did open another garage door, you could place an equivalent area as the fan (or more) but fill those panels with the filter elements to clean the intake air and trap incoming dirt, leaves, bugs, etc.

 

[1969]

Question...... would pressurizing the booth be a better idea, having an open widow with a filter there at the opposite end?

 

[sberry]

Question...... would pressurizing the booth be a better idea, having an open widow with a filter there at the opposite end?

http://finishingacademy.com/training/aero/aero_mod3/aero_mod3_intro.html
A pressurized booth is a clean room not a booth. I need some more filter, it was a problem at one point but I found roll of furnace filter at a box store. I ran outthough and taped 4 furnace filters on the other day.
I have used box fans under a garage door too. But mine has the warm air coming over the endwall. Makes for a good downdraft.

 

[BADSIX]

pressurized booths work good but would need to be sealed. in his case it would blow everything over the curtains or any other hole there might be.
I have a booth in my shop, so how close is are your neighbors ? the filters at the fan are a good thing they keep the solids from getting on your door and siding. you won't see it the first time but after a few jobs you'll see the overspray. most paints dry quite fast but epoxy will travel over to the neighbors and stick on his car.
Jay D.

 

[67gto]

I had the same setup at my old house. I would open the garage door about a foot, hose down the driveway, & never really had any issues. I plan on opening the garage door of my lift bay a foot. The only place for the painting area to draw the air in will be over the top of the curtains. I am using lengths of black pipe zip tied to the bottoms of the tarps to keep them on the floor. I haven't painted anything yet. I ran the fan with all of the doors closed & you can hear the fan motor bog down. when I opened the garage door you could feel the air rushing in, so I know I have good suction. I would never think of pressurizing the garage, as fumes would be pushed into the house. Outside where the fan discharges, I am going to run a lawn sprinkler to pull the overspray/solids down to the driveway. I am on an acre lot, & there is wooded land between me and my neighbor below me on the driveway side, probably 900 -1,000 feet away. I am also going to velcro the ends of the tarps together and to the front wall of the garage, as I'm sure the air will take the path of least resistance.

Sorry there is no GTO. I had three of them at one time, two 67 convertibles & a 66. but once I got married & kids came into the picture, I sold them. Now I'm looking for a 60's muscle car to restore, but thanks to all these gearhead TV shows, the prices for even the crappiest rustbuckets are sky high.

 

[67gto]

Oh, forgot the name of where I got the track hardware. It's strip-curtains.com. I posted a picture of the website. The major one for the bodyshops is Goff's curtainwalls, all of them are very expensive for the actual hanging curtains, that's way I went with cheap tarps.

 

[vwtom]

but thanks to all these gearhead TV shows, the prices for even the crappiest rustbuckets are sky high.

Ha, no kidding. So spot on.

 

[Dragfluid]

http://finishingacademy.com/training/aero/aero_mod3/aero_mod3_intro.html
A pressurized booth is a clean room not a booth. I need some more filter, it was a problem at one point but I found roll of furnace filter at a box store. I ran outthough and taped 4 furnace filters on the other day.
I have used box fans under a garage door too. But mine has the warm air coming over the endwall. Makes for a good downdraft.

Strawberry, I've been meaning to ask you about your system, after seeing parts of it in another thread some time ago. What do you use for plastic and how do you raise/lower? I need to do something similar.

 

[txvwnut]

Are you going to have any sort of side lighting or just rely on overhead and reflections off the curtain.

 

[JazzBlueRT]

That fan will never be an issue and will move plenty of air for what hes doing. Cracks me up every time someone has to bring up the explosion proof fan.

Nothing like atomized solvents and a little spark to make a party.

 

[redneckcharlie]

Any idea how much it takes to flash? I do. With just slight movement its almost impossible to cause a flash. I painted literally hundreds of cars when I started doing collision work with fans very similar to what the op ismusing before I could afford a proper booth setup. I did have a friend have an epsiode, but his dumbarse was using a wood burning stove for heat and zero air ventilation.

Nothing like atomized solvents and a little spark to make a party.

 

[redneckcharlie]

Have you priced a true explosion proof fan? Itll take alot more then a spark from an electrical motor to cause it to flash not to mention a spray area so thick u can barely see through it. This doesnt even take in to account the transfer rate of modern spray equipment.

Sure the fan will most likely never be an issue. But it's pretty bold for you to say it as if it's a guarantee. A room full of concentrated paint fumes isn't really something I would want to mess around with.

Besides I can't imagine it would be that hard to find a fan that places the motor outside of the airflow and fumes.

 

[sberry]

Ok, there is a small boat winch, winds 3 ropes up, 3/16 nylon up. The endwall I just pull and tie off.