Breakdown Spray Booth

[David Ragan]

Not sure if this goes in the Workshop place, but here goes.

Anyone have a cool way to do spray stuff within a break down/containment area?

Maybe something with PVC/plastic sheeting floor walls, and cover and some type of exhaust fan to move the air out?

Big enough for an end table?

What I envision is a maybe 5 feet across, by 7 feet high, with walls coming out 4-5 feet, and the piece sitting on a lazy susan type apparatus, or if appropriate, suspended on a frame whilst being sprayed.

Maybe I can get a used furnace or A/C blower (?).

Seems like to really put a nice finish on something, after spending all that time building a piece, the easiest way, and best result (in the end) is to do a spray finish.

Only downside I see right now is $$$ and cleaning up all the spray equipment(?)

What type/brand of spray equipment is another meeting

[John TenEyck]

Now you're talking. If you want to put down a high end finish spraying is the best way to do it. I'm not saying you can't get great results by hand, only that it's a lot easier to do with a spray gun, and definitely a lot faster, too. I spray shellac and waterborne finishes in my basement shop in a temporary spray booth that is nothing more than 6 mil plastic hung from nails in the floor joists.

IMG_8931.JPG

It's about 7' wide and 10' deep. I use my 1200 CFM dust collector fan as the exhaust fan. I just bypass the bags and run a hose from the back of the booth, about 4 ft high, to the fan inlet and another hose from the outlet to a convenient window behind the spray booth. No filters required; in fact, they are a bad idea. Shellac and waterbornes dry before they hit the fan and are blown outdoors as a dry powder. A filter would just plug up and reduce air flow. As long as I spray towards the exhaust hose I don't have any over spray on my work or in the shop. In the photo I had old bed sheets on the floor, now I use brown kraft paper that I buy in big rolls and throw away after each spray project is complete. Most work pieces are placed on a turn table, as shown in the photo. You'll notice the light directly above the work piece. Lighting is critical; if you can't see the wet line you won't get good results. For cabinets I add halogen lights from the front so I can see the vertical surfaces as I'm spraying them.

There are lots of options for spray guns. If you already have a good sized compressor, one capable of producing at least 6 CFM at 40 psi, the low cost HVLP conversion guns work very well, even the $10 on sale Harbor Freight purple gun with a 1.4 mm orifice. I have one and it sprays shellac beautifully, but for the higher viscosity waterborne finishes I use I have a gun with a 1.8 mm orifice which costs a princely $40. If you don't have a compressor an Earlex, Fuji, Apollo, etc. turbine units might make more sense for you.

John

[Jamie Buxton]

Maybe you don't need a spray booth. I spray a lot of waterborne finish with an HVLP sprayer, and don't use a booth. Here's a thread about my setup --- http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...ighlight=spray

[John TenEyck]

I would not spray in an indoor shop without exhaust. There are chemicals in waterborne finishes that you do not want to make a habit of breathing. You can wear a respirator while spraying, but if you don't have any exhaust those chemicals will still be in the air afterwards. Might be OK in a separate or garage shop because you can leave afterwards, but not in my basement shop. It takes so little effort to hook up your DC fan to exhaust the over spray that I don't get why one wouldn't do it.

John

[Jamie Buxton]

I would not spray in an indoor shop without exhaust. There are chemicals in waterborne finishes that you do not want to make a habit of breathing. You can wear a respirator while spraying, but if you don't have any exhaust those chemicals will still be in the air afterwards. Might be OK in a separate or garage shop because you can leave afterwards, but not in my basement shop. It takes so little effort to hook up your DC fan to exhaust the over spray that I don't get why one wouldn't do it.

John

Yeah, shops vary. Mine has a garage door facing the prevailing breeze, and a back door on the downwind side. Air flows through quite well. In your basement shop, I'd be actively ventilating too.

[Bernie Kopfer]

I made a three sided spray booth out of 2 inch thick 4' x 8' sheets of Styrofoam. Placed a fourth sheet on top to hold it in position. Cut a hole for a box fan and put it in the garage with the door halfway up. Works very well unless I am spraying very large pieces and if I am then I extend the sides with some cardboard or plastic. I do wish that I could find a more powerful box fan.
The three sheets are taped together in such a manner that I can fold them up flat and then I store them above the garage door on a simple special rack I made just for that purpose. These have served me well for several years and numerous projects and if the tape and Styrofoam breakdown too badly I will simply buy new and start over. Stored above the garage door keeps them visually out of sight as well as not taking up any other space or interfering with the cars.

[David Ragan]

I made a three sided spray booth out of 2 inch thick 4' x 8' sheets of Styrofoam. Placed a fourth sheet on top to hold it in position. Cut a hole for a box fan and put it in the garage with the door halfway up. Works very well unless I am spraying very large pieces and if I am then I extend the sides with some cardboard or plastic. I do wish that I could find a more powerful box fan.
The three sheets are taped together in such a manner that I can fold them up flat and then I store them above the garage door on a simple special rack I made just for that purpose. These have served me well for several years and numerous projects and if the tape and Styrofoam breakdown too badly I will simply buy new and start over. Stored above the garage door keeps them visually out of sight as well as not taking up any other space or interfering with the cars.

I'm not sure the bulk of that Styrofoam would work for me, but I have to ask, where do you get such large sheets, and how expensive is it?

[Douglas Williams]

I have made this one. Works great.

http://youtu.be/Qqsb7bCSRHQ

[Mark W Pugh]

If you don't have a compressor an Earlex, Fuji, Apollo, etc. turbine units might make more sense for you.

John

I have an Earlex 5500. It does everything you mentioned. Not costly, as compared to others, and works for me.

[Alan Lightstone]

I have built exactly what you are looking for, and use it all the time with great success. It's posted on another woodworking web site. I'm not sure if I can cross post it here, so I won't unless told by a moderator it's OK. But you can PM me, and I'll lead you in the right direction.

Just to whet your appetite - I use it to spray lacquer all the time - it has an explosion proof exhaust fan. It all knocks down to become an assembly table.

[Art Mann]

I'm not sure the bulk of that Styrofoam would work for me, but I have to ask, where do you get such large sheets, and how expensive is it?

You can buy 1 inch expanded foam insulation sheets at almost any building supply center. It is very light and is fairly stiff. I think it would work very well for your purposes. You just need to figure a way to fasten the walls temorarily and then break them down when not in use. The kind I have used is blue in color and I think it is better than the pink material. I can't remember how much it cost but it wasn't terribly expensive. I glued it to the inside surface of a couple of aluminum garage doors in my shop to provide extra insulation.