Is there any other thing to use besides a spray-booth to paint?? I don’t really want to spend $200+ on a spraybooth, as I don’t really have that much money to spend on a sprayboot.
Any ideas?
-Smoke
Temperature at least 70 degrees, wind speeds of 3 mph or less and humidity level above 40% but no more than 75% and some kind of drop cloth to protect the grass outside along with mostly sunny skies.
Late spring alot of painting gets done outside at my place.
Eventually there will be a trainroom/workshop added on where chemicals and paint will be kept away from the main house. Way more expensive than a simple paint booth.
A good sized cardboard box, some cloths dryer duct work, a 5or6" computer style cooling fan and some duct tape. Lot less than $200. Make sure the fan is a sealed motor type so it doesn’t spark.
I found a fan that almost fit in my basement window. I added some masonite panels to seal the remaining space. Open a window on the opposite wall & start spraying. Not much good in real cold weather, really cools off the space.
Wait for a warm calm day and paint outside. Other than that, do what i do and use waterbase paints. No need for a special booth to wisk fumes away.
I’ll be using Badger model flex paints. I think they are water based am i correct?
You are correct smoke, Model Flex paints are waterbased. I will caution you though, even though they are water based if you are doing a large job, you will be picking multi colored boogies out of your nose unless you wear a dust mask !
[(-D]
A five sided box of wood or card board with a hole in the back, enough 4" dryer ducting to reach a window and a cheap $15-20 bathroom or stove hood fan, (both types are brushless-no sparking). A furnace filter that covers the back of the box (cut it to fit if you have to) will cut down on the paint dust build up on the fan blades and the dryer hose.
A computer fan will not do - it doesn’t move enough air.
Thanks,
I’ll try that.
He’s Right You done want to have a flame flash on you
Carl.
What I do is I take the models to be painted to the garage and spray them there with the door or a window open. I also use a VOC mask I bought from an automotive supply store ages ago. They can also be found at your local Lowe’s or Home Depot along with replacement filter cartridges.
I’ve built 100’s of model cars using just an old cardboard box and a computer fan that vents outside.
Here at the beach it’s always good painting weather outside, so I toss my small parts into a large cardboard box and spray; mostly to keep the parts from flying away.
Sometimes when it’s a bit windier, I will tape a length of box tape to a board and stick my small parts on the stickum so they don’t blow away.
Okay, so when the weather isn’t so great, I’ll move my cardboard box into the bathtub where I can kinda control the overspray. There is the fartfan for ventilation, but I don’t depend on it; I’ll instead seek efficiency with a minimal use of paint.
This system works for me but it isn’t foolproof, so use good judgement.
-rrick
Yep — these guys summed it up perfect ! From a cardboard box to a home brew self constructed plywood box with a computer or low priced exhaust fan at home depot for $10.00 . With the plywood unit you can put a few hangers in it to hang items to get that all over paint job . It does’nt have to be pretty as it won’t anway after use … just work . Anyone who pays $200.00 for a mini spray booth is as the old saying goes " A FOOL AND HIS MONEY ARE SOON PARTETED " ! A pair of long rubber gloves from the dollar store also keeps that darn overspray off your fingers and hands . That way the girl at the cash register won’t flinch when you put that black-orange-red green embedded hand out for your change when you make that quick dash for something you need and did’nt want to rip skin from your hands with brillo pads or comet first … darn that dried paint’s hard to get off and from under the finger nails ! ---- [D)]
The Christmas of 2005 my staff bought me a airbrush kit (Testor’s starter kit with blue compressor and airbrush, included videotape instructions which was nice). For a year I hemmed and hawed about a proper spray booth. Where could I put it, how to build it, etc etc, see all above. Finally I just grabbed a sturdy cardboard box and started spraying.
I’m working with N scale so swish, swish, swish and the building is painted. I also found very quickly that acrylic (water based) paints are far less smelly than the solvent thinner types. So I’m using Polly S and other acrylic paints. I thin with alcohol so maybe my fumes are intoxicating? So far I can still walk a straight line after painting session.
I’ve only done a few buildings so far so I am a very fresh novice at this air brush thing and maybe In time I will find something to convert to a proper spray booth, … or not.
In the summer I suppose I could work in the garage. But at 30 below zero I prefer the warmth of the house. I don’t even want to vent outside at that time as the cold will just whistle in the pipe.
Space is also an issue for me, but again with small subjects in N maybe I could use an old CPU box with its fans intact? Old CPU’s litter the landfill as it is. A light in the box, now that is a good idea. [:D]
I have four same-sized cookie sheets duct-taped together. Since the cookie sheets are rectangular and not square, the rear is taller than the two sides, but that’s okay because most over spray tends to go back there. I use rare-earth magnets epoxied to a variety of metal clips to hold my pieces in place for spraying. The cookie sheets have a nonstick surface, and though acrylic paint will eventually dry on the surface, it’s very easy to clean off. I also use a couple of clipboard style clips on magnets to secure several layers of paper towel to one side of the booth. This has been handy for checking spray patterns etc. without shooting outside the booth. I do my spraying in a spare bathroom in my apartment; and since I use only acrylics, the bathroom exhaust fan is adequate. I like it in there because it’s close to the sink for quick cleanups and the light in there is the best in the apartment.
Lynda
I use Polyscale for the same reason.
On contrary to most belief, spray booth is not only to exhaust the fumes but most imortantly to prevent the contaimination of the paint vapour. I have been spray painting for what seems like a good 20 years now and apart from investing a good airbrush and a compressor, I just can’t part the kind of money for a proper spray booth.
The problem is if you spray paint enough, especially indoors, there is no place for those paint vapour/droplets to go and it will just land on everywhere as it pleases and hence causing either colour contaimination or unknowly re-coloured or texturised your TV remote. And hence the need to exhaust to somehwere you don’t want it to go. I think my lung is probably full of paint already anyway but yes, I am working exclusively with acrylics so hopefully it’s not as toxic which is a wishful thinking anyway.
I used to do it inside a bathroom under the exhaust fan with the heating lights on but then the wife asks why the fans are discoloured so I am about to build one using a carboard box as well with dual hard disk colling fan which is quieter.
I think the $200 ones doesn’t have a ducting system. Proper ones with ducting etc made by Paasche is about $1700!!! *** Correction! Starting from $1700 and upto $2800 and that;'s not including ducts! Check it out on Paasche website under spray both!
In the vein of inexpensive paint booths, allow me to add a couple of thoughts which should kill two birds with one stone. To both control the paint boogers and to not have to look for a sealed motor to not have an explosion, use a readily available A/C filter on the inside of the paint booth. The air flow would go through the filter first, and then through the fan or blower, and then to the exhaust. That way you don’t have to worry about most downstream effects of the exhaust (i.e. misting the TV remote or the cats or your layout and rolling stock).
A thought just occurred to me: would you get explosive fumes from acrylic (water-based) paints? That’s all I use and that’s what I based my above thoughts on. If I’m in error, would someone please enlighen me? Tnx.
A filter now that’s a great idea! Just some sort of pre-filter should do it I think because otherwise it may affect the airflow too much.
I think any type of fumes, paint, gas vapour or even fart (methane gas) in enough concentrations and lighted could cause some type of exlosion in an enclosed environment. So would farting in a tent and light a gas stove cause an explosion? The answer is no because it’s not concentrated enough. I would say unless you intentionally pressurise the spray paint vapour in an enclosed container to dangerous levels, it should be quite safe and I think those computer fans are incandescent (brushless) as well so shouldn’t cause sparks or anything like that. That been said, you still don’t want to introduce any flame in a flammable environment because although it won’t explode but it can cause a flammable situation…i.e. flame in your face but unless it’s in an enclosed and pressurised container, it won’t explode but those air cans will!