bigmackloud
Member
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2013
- Messages
- 11
Read through lots of discussions on paint booths before I built mine. Just thought I'd take a moment to share what I ended up building.
My goal was a fairly large paint booth that I could disassemble and store. Granted, this isn't a throw it together in 10 mins type of design.
I built a pressurized booth. #1, there are some concerns about pulling fumes across an exit fan (spark, boom) in a negative pressure booth. Plus, in a negative pressure booth, any leaks are drawing unfiltered air in. In a positive pressure booth, any leaks are letting filtered air out.
It's built in 4'x8' sections from 2x4s. I was hard pressed to come up with anything cheaper per linear foot, as strong, and as easy to work with.
Each panel is simply 3 2x4's, one of which is cut in half to make the top and bottom. I bought one 4'x8' sheet of OSB and cut it into triangles to brace the corners of each panel. And then I wrapped each panel with the clear plastic like you would use under your house. I think I used 4mil. It held up fine, but 6mil would be more durable.
I used bunt caps (like you use for roofing, nail goes through a orange plastic cap) to attach the plastic. Be sure to wrap the plastic around the edges and not just on the face of the panel. Seals much better.
Each panel is bolted to the panel beside it with 2 bolts. The top panels are also bolted to the side panels. Once it was all put together, it was super sturdy.
Each panel is numbered so that when it gets reassemblied in the future, all the bolt holes line up.
I used a box fan at the top at one end to push air through a filter into the booth. And I used another filter at the bottom at the opposite end as the exit. My goal was to create a bit of down draft.
My booth was 8' wide, 16' long, 8' tall. Which makes it 1024 cu. ft. The box fan is rated for 2000 cfm. So in theory, it exchanges the air every 30 seconds. In practice, since it's pushing air through a filter, it's probably not that efficient, but it worked very well.
I wasn't sure how well my 2x4 panels would seal together. Thought I might have to tape the seams up. Not needed. The booth pressurized VERY VERY well.
I laid down a sheet of plastic on the floor, and let it run up the walls maybe 6". Sealed very well and protected the floor.
Initially I wasn't sure how much light would penetrate through the plastic, so I bought two of the $15 fluorescent lights at Lowes and hung them in the booth. They added light, but a lot of light also penetrates the plastic too.
You'll notice I failed to engineer a doorway. I literally just pulled a corner back from one of the panels as my entry. It worked fine but in the future I'll rig up a better doorway. I also built the booth around the project I was going to paint. A better door way would be helpful for other types of painting projects.
I think that covers the jist of it. Feel free to ask questions. By no means the "only" way to build a booth, or even the "best" way. But it worked very well. Overall I think I spent $300-350 on materials.
My goal was a fairly large paint booth that I could disassemble and store. Granted, this isn't a throw it together in 10 mins type of design.
I built a pressurized booth. #1, there are some concerns about pulling fumes across an exit fan (spark, boom) in a negative pressure booth. Plus, in a negative pressure booth, any leaks are drawing unfiltered air in. In a positive pressure booth, any leaks are letting filtered air out.
It's built in 4'x8' sections from 2x4s. I was hard pressed to come up with anything cheaper per linear foot, as strong, and as easy to work with.
Each panel is simply 3 2x4's, one of which is cut in half to make the top and bottom. I bought one 4'x8' sheet of OSB and cut it into triangles to brace the corners of each panel. And then I wrapped each panel with the clear plastic like you would use under your house. I think I used 4mil. It held up fine, but 6mil would be more durable.
I used bunt caps (like you use for roofing, nail goes through a orange plastic cap) to attach the plastic. Be sure to wrap the plastic around the edges and not just on the face of the panel. Seals much better.
Each panel is bolted to the panel beside it with 2 bolts. The top panels are also bolted to the side panels. Once it was all put together, it was super sturdy.
Each panel is numbered so that when it gets reassemblied in the future, all the bolt holes line up.
I used a box fan at the top at one end to push air through a filter into the booth. And I used another filter at the bottom at the opposite end as the exit. My goal was to create a bit of down draft.
My booth was 8' wide, 16' long, 8' tall. Which makes it 1024 cu. ft. The box fan is rated for 2000 cfm. So in theory, it exchanges the air every 30 seconds. In practice, since it's pushing air through a filter, it's probably not that efficient, but it worked very well.
I wasn't sure how well my 2x4 panels would seal together. Thought I might have to tape the seams up. Not needed. The booth pressurized VERY VERY well.
I laid down a sheet of plastic on the floor, and let it run up the walls maybe 6". Sealed very well and protected the floor.
Initially I wasn't sure how much light would penetrate through the plastic, so I bought two of the $15 fluorescent lights at Lowes and hung them in the booth. They added light, but a lot of light also penetrates the plastic too.
You'll notice I failed to engineer a doorway. I literally just pulled a corner back from one of the panels as my entry. It worked fine but in the future I'll rig up a better doorway. I also built the booth around the project I was going to paint. A better door way would be helpful for other types of painting projects.
I think that covers the jist of it. Feel free to ask questions. By no means the "only" way to build a booth, or even the "best" way. But it worked very well. Overall I think I spent $300-350 on materials.
