spray gun and or booth

[mikeyr]

I lost access to my friends spray booth, he had a shop and if the booth was not in use over the weekend, I could use it as long as I was out by Monday morning, he sold the shop and now I paint my cars in the garage. I had no idea how bad overspray could get, my S2000 got covered with overspray and it was about 15ft away, my fault...should clean up ok, but not tried buffing it out yet. My Lathe, Mill, table saw, workbench are all covered in overspray. I was not using any fans to move the stuff out, I am now using a explosion proof fan to move the air out. So I am looking around at spray booth, those inflatable ones seem great but a pain in the derriere just to paint a fender or like that. I am thinking of building one with PVC piping, easy to put up and take down and found a post here with plans to make it even easier. My cars are small, 1959 Mini Cooper (tiny) and 1934 Singer which will painted in pieces. The Mini body is already painted, just doors and front hood left, so I don't need a big booth. I was thinking about tracks on the ceiling but I have cathedral ceilings so the tracks would be angled unless I made up something and the curtains would have about 10ft tall.

I was poking around the net and it seems like a turbine system has very little overspray, on Youtube people talk about how little overspray these Turbine systems have, any one use them ? wondering if I got one, if I would even need a booth. Yeah, I am making the jump from $400 on materials to build a booth to $2,300 for a Turbine system, although there are less expensive ones like the Eastwood one and some of the Fuji ones. I also make a lot of sawdust in my shop so a sprayer would do double duty, paint cars and furniture.

Just looking around for ideas...

 

[craftsman creep]

You should get one of the plastic car garage is for like 100 bucks or something
-Preston

Robot or human?

 

[BTL-A4]

I painted my 914 in my suburban garage. I made a temporary booth out of 2x3's and plastic. I had 3 box fans moving the air out. I made sure to move the cars down the street and made sure there were no leaks in the plastic. I had a top as well. I still got a little overspray on everything. That **** gets everywhere! It was probably blow back from the exit fans. I cleaned the overspray on the garage floor off with Citrus Stripper. It worked really well, and this was catalyzed auto paint.

After I was done, I wanted to paint some smaller parts, so I made a much smaller booth out of 2x3's and plastic, about 4 ft on a side. I prop this on sawhorses in the backyard. I have one box fan moving the air. I find doing it outside in an open space helps.

I found out about the inflatable paint booths after I was done. There's a guy in my city that uses them and he likes them.

Maybe you could set something up outside if you have the space. It would help prevent overspray on cars and other equipment. If you don't have space and need to set this up in a garage, cover everything with plastic. It's a huge pain, but it's easier than rubbing paint off after you spray.

You could probably hire someone to paint your parts for the $2300 it would cost.

As you know, most of the time spent on "painting" is actually "prepping". The painting is the quick, easy part!

 

[dnschmidt]

Turbines can work but they never give the finish of a high quality normal gun. Fuji Spray makes some that aren't terrible (get at least a three stage unit) and be prepared to color sand and buff your *** off as the orange peel is unavoidable. I live in a warm and not very windy climate so outside isn't too bad especially since Phoenix has less than the average number of bugs. Outside is definitely better than inside.

 

[mikeyr]

Interesting I only used a turbine one time and it was a 5 stage but I had almost no orange peel. I was under the internet impression that turbine’s gave a better job

I bought a bunch of pvc pipe on the way home to build a booth

 

[dnschmidt]

Interesting I only used a turbine one time and it was a 5 stage but I had almost no orange peel. I was under the internet impression that turbine’s gave a better job

I bought a bunch of pvc pipe on the way home to build a booth

Think about it. If turbines were the way to go wouldn't professional body shops use them considering the saving in materials that turbines can provide? I've never seen a pro use a turbine. I've seen them use SATA, Iwata, DeVilbiss, Sagola and Walcom guns but I've never seen a pro use a turbine ever. That's can't be an accident.

 

[Sweetcorn]

I actually have an inflatable and it isn't a big deal to set up or take down. It really only takes a couple minutes. I figured it would be a lot more hassle than it is.

By the way, the filters on the sides do a shockingly good job of keeping the paint particles from escaping. I haven't been able to detect any paint escaping, and I've tried a number of things including putting pieces of bright white towels on the outside of the filter while painting inside with cherry red.

 

[will335i]

Think about it. If turbines were the way to go wouldn't professional body shops use them considering the saving in materials that turbines can provide? I've never seen a pro use a turbine. I've seen them use SATA, Iwata, DeVilbiss, Sagola and Walcom guns but I've never seen a pro use a turbine ever. That's can't be an accident.

They are still using HVLP guns whether they are attached to a compressor or a turbine. The big thing I was seeing with the turbines is the nozzle size does not translate from a compressor HVLP gun to a turbine HVLP gun so that might be a factor. I can remember if they needed to go up or down in size but Paint Society has some good videos on turbines. The other reason pros aren't using turbines is duty cycle. You can't run the turbine all day every day without starting to run into issues.

The Fuji Q4/mini-mite 4 would be the minimum I would consider for automotive work.

 

[mikeyr]

well, I was thinking of more or less top of the line, Apollo Precision 5 for the turbine. What I saw on the net was minimal overspray and I could paint in my garage. More reading on the net and some people say it's the best for car parts but for the body you should use a proper compressor driven spray gun. I had not seen comments like that until yesterday, but no way am I spending that kind of cash for parts painting. That is why yesterday I purchased a bunch of PVC piping and will be building a small booth and stay with my gun. I do remember however, building a small booth when I first started powder coating and what a pain it was to set up, but this one will be easier to put up and down with PVC instead of wood. I have decided against the inflatable ones because (only one example) I want to paint today and it's raining, so building something in the garage will work better. My wife last night, even suggested a semi-permanent booth, I have a 4-post lift and she said just cover that with plastic and stand under the lift when a car is not on the lift so I can raise it higher than I am tall. I am going to figure out the exhaust today with my fan (it's an explosion exhaust fan).

 

[will335i]

Yea something to consider is if you already have a compressor set up that can handle painting then yes comparing a turbine system to a traditional gun is apples to oranges. If you don't already have a compressor/space for the compressor then it is a much closer comparison in cost.

 

[mikeyr]

Well still undecided on booth. I saw one poster here mention he has an inflatable and it's not that big a deal, so likely will go with that. I do one other option that I only thought of a few days ago, I have a 4-post lift, if there is nothing on it, I could put the rails to the top and cover it with plastic and make myself a 18'x7' booth under the rails. I could go a little wider but as I mentioned my car is tiny, main body tub is only 4' wide so the lift might work. I have an explosion proof fan to **** the fumes out, some intake filters and could be done quickly. The real advantage of the inflatable is more space and ability to do all the fenders at once instead of 2 one day and 2 next day for example. I still have not cut the PVC I bought the other day so could return that.

As far as gun goes, I changed my mind yet again and went with the turbine. Really happy with the primer coat, it went down well, no orange peel, only one "sag" inside the wheel well and it was only primer so that was ok with me. Lots less overspray than my compressor gun, so far happy but color coat will the real test. The turbine will be great for woodworking finishes when the car is done and I get back to that hobby.

 

[dnschmidt]

Well still undecided on booth. I saw one poster here mention he has an inflatable and it's not that big a deal, so likely will go with that. I do one other option that I only thought of a few days ago, I have a 4-post lift, if there is nothing on it, I could put the rails to the top and cover it with plastic and make myself a 18'x7' booth under the rails. I could go a little wider but as I mentioned my car is tiny, main body tub is only 4' wide so the lift might work. I have an explosion proof fan to **** the fumes out, some intake filters and could be done quickly. The real advantage of the inflatable is more space and ability to do all the fenders at once instead of 2 one day and 2 next day for example. I still have not cut the PVC I bought the other day so could return that.

As far as gun goes, I changed my mind yet again and went with the turbine. Really happy with the primer coat, it went down well, no orange peel, only one "sag" inside the wheel well and it was only primer so that was ok with me. Lots less overspray than my compressor gun, so far happy but color coat will the real test. The turbine will be great for woodworking finishes when the car is done and I get back to that hobby.

The only place you're really see the difference is in Clearcoat. The big boy spray guns intentionally lower the atomization of their guns for base as it helps with metallics to have a larger particle size. That's why pros use HVLP for base and RP (Reduced Pressure) guns for clear. Examples: Iwata LS400 (base) and WS400 (Clear).

 

[toolenthusiast]

Iwata LS400 (base) and WS400 (Clear).

That’s exactly what one of the super-consolidators decided on after extensively testing several spray guns head-to-head. They give a great finish and use waaay less material.