what is important in a makeshift paint booth?

[rossn]

what is important in a makeshift paint booth/curtain?

I have some upcoming projects that require spraying with various sprayers (air gravity sprayer, airless sprayer, etc), where I'd like to be able to manage over spray, etc. This is less about creating a perfect finish on something like an automobile, and more about managing any over spray/airborne spray concerns (I don't want to have a layer of paint on my tools, etc) and possibly keeping dust/sawdust/etc that is present in the garage from ending up on the project if I leave the garage door open for ventilation and a gust of wind comes along.

The project could be something like the cedar siding I'm about to pre-spray, some metal working project, etc.

For these types of needs, is a makeshift spray curtain or 'booth' appropriate or needed? It seems like it could be a big help to have something that would loosely partition off a section of the garage.

What are the important aspects of setting up something like this?

Are there some good ways to go about this for a few hundred bucks or less?

 

[bri_man57]

Re: what is important in a makeshift paint booth/curtain?

A guy I used to work with made one with pvc pipe, tarps, and used a box fan with I believe furnace filters for venting. He said it worked good. My end goal would be to have something similar I could put up and take down as neccesary.

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[930dreamer]

To keep the dust out and if possible remove the over spray.

 

[sberry]

You need to have some air flow with negative draw on the booth. Get a little box,,, twin window fan and put it in a bedroom window,,, open the door to the house so there is no restriction and play with the room door and this will give an idea about the properties of the whole thing. Another reason for a divider is to allow heating equipment to run in the rest of the building. You can draft a whole garage in some cases but its really more tunable so to speak with a divider and some stuff can go on while thats in progress.
There used to be a good tutorial but think it might have been removed as once guys understand it there wasnt much use for the school in this respect.
I st pic,,, air running, note the difference in it and pic 2 with no air, the air has pulled the curtain corner together and the booth intake is over the endwall, brings the heated air from the ceiling over the top making for downdraft.

 

[sberry]

https://finishingacademy.com/automotive-refinish-training/spray-booth-basics/how-paint-booths-work/ They removed some great simple drawings from this site, it was too good.

 

[sberry]

I am going to mention this BEFORE the all in that seems inevitable. A painf booth is NOT,,,,,,,,,, NOT,,, a clean room that is pressurized,,,, it is a room with a draw or negative pressure as its normally called on it, it ***** fumes out rather than pushing. Even so called pressure booths do this,,, the pressure is simply make up to tune the draw and bring the air from a specific source.
Hence the word draft being used.

 

[Slednut]

This is what I use to paint my cars, I made a pvc frame which I reuse over and over but I always put new 6 mill plastic each time I put it up. I use a 8000 cfm fan and 12 filters. If I have less filters it pulls the sides of the booth in.

The fan blows through a vent made of OSB. The fan was around $140, plastic is $50 and I received the pvc for free. I added $100 worth of 5k LED lights on the side.

My shop is sealed up so I have to have outside air coming in or the fan will only run at half speed.

 

[niget2002]

Re: what is important in a makeshift paint booth/curtain?

This could not have come at a better time. I'm looking at doing something similar to paint some motorcycle parts this winter.

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[nadogail]

For a "Rattle Can" spray job we made a frame from 2X4 and covered it with the cheapest painters plastic.

 

[rossn]

Thanks for the information, everyone. It's actually pretty in-line with what I was thinking (which was not expected).

I think I'm hearing that the key components of an affordable spray booth are:
- Plastic sheeting for walls
- Ventilation with negative pressurization, and possibly filtration
- Good lighting

Below is the area I'm looking at using within the garage. Since usually cars would be parked in the double bay, it is an easy situation to remove them and use that area to double as a spray booth (or at least 1/2 the area). I am thinking of something like you have, sberry, where I could roll up the plastic for the 99% of the time it's not in use, then move out the cars and roll them down when needed. Red lines in the picture show where the 2 pieces of plastic sheeting would go. This would give me a 9x18 area. I could use some zip wall zipper doors within the plastic (or to join the corners).

sberry - is that just 4" pvc pipe as your roller? It looks like you may have it motorized (I might be OK just doing it by hand. Any tips on attachment, rolling, or otherwise?

For lighting - what temperature lights are ideal? Am I understanding that 5500K temp lights are ideal?

As to ventilation, what are the 'rules' in terms of needing special fans that won't risk ignition, or is that not a practical issue? For my remodel indoor air quality, I have the Amaircare Airwash Pro (shown below). It peaks out around 800 CFM under ideal conditions. I think that for that space, it would be enough airflow... but is it safe to use? Note that this unit has a monster HEPA filter (certified for asbestos, mold, etc), and also a pre-filter + foamy media in front of that. They actually make a carbon filter you can add to eliminate VOCs, but it is spendy. If this can work, I'm actually thinking I might have to remove the HEPA filter, just to ensure I don't clog it up?

 

[Marctrees]

Why does this type of "rough" spray work need to be done inside ?

Cedar siding... roll it on sawhorses outside.

Metal working project ?... outside, under canopy if needed... or spray outside, 5 minutes later roll in shop to dry.



Marc

 

[bczygan]

Small items.........a cardboard box.

Medium items.........a refrigerator cardboard box.

Put small and medium items on a turntable.

Large items.............temporary plastic on floor and hung from ceiling.

No fans and use a respirator.

Bill

 

[rossn]

It doesn't need to be done inside, but it does have to be done out of direct sun and don't want to risk having a wind situation turn to overspray hitting a neighbor's car or my new windows. Why not do it in the garage with the garage door open?

Additionally, by the time I get to some of it, it may not be above 50 degrees during the day.

We're talking about 4400 linear feet of cedar, both sides, btw. Then, there will be things like doors and cabinet doors when it is cold out.

 

[sberry]

My long pipe is 5 inch aluminum and the endwall is 4 inch. I pull the end with a couple ropes but the long is done 3 lines and a small boat winch. Pics in the morning.

 

[Busted Knucles]

Box fans? No. Must have explosion proof motors or fans.

 

[sberry]

I painted 25 cars with box fans, my own doesn't have explosion proof but the blade is belt drive and do have the motor out of the stream.

 

[Busted Knucles]

I painted 25 cars with box fans, my own doesn't have explosion proof but the blade is belt drive and do have the motor out of the stream.

That qualifies.

 

[sberry]

It kind of does. In some cases today's paint is water. A lot of it like epoxy really only has a bit of thinner, don't know if you could blow it up if you worked at it. I am sure someone somewhere has done it but it's pretty rare.
The design basics I elude to here are part of it. Get the booth to clear quick and move the air and it's not a problem. Something to remember,,, to some extent the published data is aimed at commercial concerns. I have heard of a couple fires, wet paint on rags and filters and the only one I know personal was Rudy and Bill were painting in a makeshift deal and got drunk and set a can of pint on a wood stove they had ripping and spilled it somehow.

 

[sberry]

One of the other guys mention a dozen filters on the intake and less and it **** the walls in. Probably a bit too much can especially if you are making up heat. If it's sucking in more than about 8 for a car booth it's probably more than needed, it needs some ****, being able to adjust and can often do it with a man door is the key and experienced men can tune it by feel.

 

[sberry]

One reason I am willing to elaborate with this is that I have done it a lot,, not the same as,,, that's the way I painted a fender for my mustang one time but a lot. As I mention, maybe 25 cars,, that's just cars, did double bottom tankers, couple tankers, several dump trucks, pickups, tractors, did a small airplane once. I have a good understanding of the principles involved. This is what I am working on here. What makes air move to clear the fumes before it's a problem, both explosion and exposure.

 

[isb cornbinder]

I often use a large appliance cardboard box for a spray booth. It is important to have a down-draft. For the down draft I use a three speed range hood mounted in the lower back of the box. I double filter the air and then bent it to outside.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Other than ventilation like sberry alludes to, your biggest problem is probably going to be your neighbors.

I hope you can along with all of them on a great basis. Neighbors that don't get along make the worst people to have living next to you. They will be calling the police and fire guys on you when you start painting. They smell fumes or anything, people freak out, think the neighbor is going to explode or the sky is going to fall.

Cover those bases by covering your ***.

 

[sberry]

I was doing a little remod and moved out a bunch of stuff had grown perches and hadnt used and didnt need. The bench is pretty much as it is today in pic one.
Pic 2 is curtains on the way up, this is super nice before and after and I can move stuff, do setup from any direction and then let it down. I could be spraying in about 10 minutes setup and its out of the way as I can go long stretches between jobs, it goes in spurts. I got one going in the morning.
Pic 3,,, the long roll is a 40 ft 5 inch alum irrigation tube I came up with and the curtain simply rolls up in it. 3 lines, 3/16 nylon. Attached to the ceiling, down under the roll, back up to the ceiling and thru pullys to a simple boat winch.
Stores really secure in the ceiling, only thing I 4ever had to do was replace a little duct tape at the top. I bought plastic figuring I would have to replace it on occasion, only damage was some dipstick burned a small hole in it with a light and sprayed a shot of red on it. Been there going on 25 years.
I really dont even have to sweep the floor all that digelently, it downdrafts so well, any leaks go along the floor, the dirt factor is really really good especially fall/winter no bugs.

 

[rossn]

Thanks for the thoughts and ideas for the smaller spraying. Some of this cedar is 16-18' long, so definitely need a larger space.

Not worried about neighbors, I guess I'm lucky to have the type of neighbors that look out for each other.

Thanks for the pics, sberry. Definitely like that old CRT TV! I certainly don't have any serious work planned, but having an area that can be partitioned off, vented, could come in useful not just for painting, but other uses too. In my case, the only real drawback I'm seeing is that one side would be the garage door, which is not great for winter spraying or filtering, but I'm not doing any fine finishes and could try and improve the air sealing over time.

I'm thinking about the mechanics of the roll-up plastic on the tube. So... just looping cord with one end fixed at the ceiling, causes the pipe to roll the plastic reasonably well as the cord is pulled? I'm a bit surprised, but it seems like a great simple solution. To be honest, I only have to raise mine 8', and could probably just do it by hand... breaking the 20' side into two 10' pieces, and using a zip wall zipper to join the two once they are both down. Now, the corner is another challenge I haven't figured out, as the plastic would have to extend 6-8" beyond the end of the roll-up tube.

Sounds like some weight on the tube is also a good thing for rolling and holding the bottom, so going heavier PVC, instead of thin wall DWV would be good.

6 mil plastic?

In my head, I also think... oh, it would be great to have a non-flammable curtain such that I could do grinding, welding, etc without making a mess of the whole garage, but don't have any ideas about what material could serve double-purpose. I wouldn't want to do this if I was doing a real paint finish, but not likely an issue having some extra dirt for my types of projects.

 

[sberry]

Dont slit the plastic, make it all one piece. Mine is 20 ft tall, 40 long, yes the tube just rolls and a light plastic could work for a tube. I had alum irrigation tubing, I had a few 5 inch 40 ft so I found a nice straight one.

 

[Marctrees]

In most cases a paint booths purpose is to keep is to keep a high grade finish "outside" airborne particles off of the finished surface.

All of the OP's examples can be sprayed or finished w other ways outdoors.

The cedar siding should be rolled for best adhesion and not to waste material by atomizing.

Two people - One pouring METERED fluid on the board, and second rolling, and finished by brush in the crevice edges.

Marc