The title explains what I’m looking for, I need one for the spray booth I’m building. Would you find one at a hardware store or a place like Lowe’s?
If not, where can you get them?
Thanks,
Christopher
Radio Shack has some
Replacement bathroom ceiling vent fans and range hood fans. Should be available at any Lowes or Home Depot.
BOB H Clarion, PA
I got mine from Grainger. Look in your local phone book for one of their locations.
Roger
Chris,
You’re looking for a squirrel cage fan, NOT a bathroom or range fan, which are usually NOT brushless. The point is to have the fan OUTSIDE of the paint airflow, and you’ll only find that with a squirrel cage fan. Anyone who uses a household utility fan for a spray both fan is asking for a messy death by paint fume explosion/fire.
You also need to get as big a fan as you can afford. All fans push a certain amount of air (the term is CFM). You need a pretty big CFM rating to pull the chemical fumes and particulate matter from the paint out of the house completely, and the CFM rating has to be for the FACE of the spray booth, not just for the fan inlet. I have no idea what the formula for this is, but I decided to scrap the math and head straight for a commercial spray booth. You can find them for about $200, and a quality squirrel cage fan is going to run you $80 anyway.
Remember, if you build your own spray booth, and you smell paint fumes after using it, you don’t have enough air flow pulling paint. You’ve just defeated the whole purpose of the spray booth. I’d suggest not messing around and buy a real booth.
Christopher;
Here is one: http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=220300&item=CF-171&type=store.
You will need four or more of these to do it right.
I am definitely in agreement with Ray on this. A spray booth is something that must be engineered correctly, not designed and built properly, it can kill you.
Chris,
I just did a search for spray booths online, and it looks like the least expensive one was one of the Badger booths for $178, available from Airbrush City:
www.airbrushcity.com/accessories/
I also looked at decent squirrel cage fans from Grainger. You’re looking at about $100. You can pick up a range hood for around $40, but they don’t have the fan power to pull out anything of significance.
If you can’t afford to go the route of a quality booth (either bought or built) just spray paint outside. I’ve been using spray paint on models for over 20 years now, and I just bought my first spray booth this year!
Ray-I’ll follow your advice and buy a spray booth (later, maybe this winter, so I can just spray paint outside fro the time being.) After looking at what I’m planning on using to build a booth, it will still probably be just as expensive (and not as well-working) as a Badger booth.
The only thing I’m going to use my airbrush for anyway for the moment is painting a few details and hand grabs for a few projects I need to get done!
I guess I’ll just have to re-route that $200 from hoping to get a Life-Like Heritage 0-6-0 to getting a spray booth…
“As big as you can afford”…
A surplus furnace blower fan might be over-doing it a little bit. However, they can be had quite cheap. Not to mention that the ducting potential is endless!
Good idea. I forgot about this. Contact local heating places and see if they might have one laying around or if they could save you one after the next replacement or new furnace installation job.
I used to have one years ago and gave it away to my brother in law. D’oh!
DON’T !!!
Furnance fans are not “explosion proof” Using one will creat an EXTREMELY hazardous situation.