WHERE do you spray?

[mark mcfarlane]

I'm getting close to spraying my first project, a base and upper cabinet for the garage, using Enduro primer and White Poly. I'm not sure the temps are going to cooperate outside...

For those spraying indoors without a dedicated spray room, how are you setting up your spray area? How much overspray do you have? Anyone actually built Jeff Hewitt's example booth from foam board and a box fan?

I was originally thinking to build the cabinet in place, but I just repainted the garage and had the floor coated and don't want huge mess.

Thanks,

[John Lankers]

Mark, I spray waterbased finishes in below freezing weather as long as it is dry. I park my Earlex spray gun in a tub of warm water and carry the project to be sprayed outside immediately before applying the finish and then carry it back inside, you have to wipe the bottom of the spray can dry every time you lift it out of the tub. I have done this down to -5* Celsius, it is time consuming but it works. For larger projects or when it gets to cold I hang a sheet of 6 mil Poly on a clothes line inside the shop by the door from the ceiling and place a fan in a window on the opposite side of the shop which blows warm shop air through my "spray booth", the caveat with this setup is it cools the shop out in a matter of minutes even with the gas forced heater and the wood stove on.
However, I doubt you will ever run into a situation where you can't spray outside in Texas unless it gets to hot.
For smaller or 'one off' pieces I don't bother getting out the sprayer and just put the finish on by hand.

[mark mcfarlane]

Thanks John.

[John Lankers]

Mark, I forgot to mention that when using a tub with warm water that this will lower the viscosity of the spray and it did catch me of guard at times.

[Dennis Ford]

I rarely spray anything other than lacquer; with it humidity is more of an issue than temperature. If you are spraying indoors, be concerned about two things: fire/explosion safety and breathing fumes/mist.

[Bernie Kopfer]

I have usd the the foam board spray booth numerous times with fair results. I taped the boards together so that they readily stand upriht in use and fold flat and slide into a rack I built above the garage door. Using the biggest 20" fan I can find moves the air quite well as long as the spray is directed at the fan wall. With large items sometimes the spray must be shot sideways or worse and then you wish you had a fully enclosed booth. The booth is set up right inside the double door.
I open the garage door three feet and tape on clear plastic to keep the wind out and sorta seal the fan so it blows outside. And do it so that I can close the door while items are drying. Plug in a space heater and fan and the garage stays warm enough to spray.

[Andy Giddings]

I spray water based only in the garage using Jeff Jewitt's knock down booth design. I use a large fan to pull the air through the booth exactly as Jeff designed it. Before this, I just put up some drop cloth as a backdrop and to cover the floor. I got a reasonable amount of dried overspray throughout the garage when using this method which was why I built the booth. Am using a Fuji HVLP system so overspray is relatively light.

[Tim Brosnan]

As I have a basement workshop I only spray in the garage. My set up is similar to Bernie's although I open the door more.
But to be honest, I often put off spraying projects until spring arrives. Mid-winter I'm hunkered down in the shop with a cup of coffee and a radio!

[Jim Becker]

Mark, I only spray waterborne finishes and a little shellac and spray it in my shop. For the latter I insure a little extra fresh air is involved since shellac is less sensitive to lower temps. Where you are, that should never be an issue. For water borne finishes, it's best to meet the minimum temp requirements for the finish, so that means heat in the winter for me. With no explosive solvent concerns for water borne finishes, I just maintain personal protection (respirator, etc) and run my air cleaner to help get suspended fines out of the air. Overspray isn't an issue for these finishes since it's dry before it hits the floor...

[John TenEyck]

I spray WB finishes and shellac in my basement shop using a temporary spray booth that is nothing more than plastic sheeting hung from nails in the floor joists and construction paper on the floor. I use the fan form my DC to exhaust the back of the booth out a conveniently located window. That's only 1200 cfm but it's more than enough to carry away the overspray from the 8' square booth. My point is you don't have to go nuts building anything fancy. My booth puts up and folds up in 5 minutes and takes up little storage space. The paper on the floor gets tossed after every job.

WB finishes especially need to be applied and allowed to cure at temps. generally above 60F and some higher still. Bad things happen if you don't. I spray all year round in my shop. 1200 CFM of exhaust is low enough that the cold make up air coming in doesn't cool my shop more than a degree or two even if I spray for an hour. My advise is to use the least amount of exhaust you need to carry away the overspray in order to limit how much heat you lose from your shop and how much heat you need to add.

I've sprayed the GF White Enduro Poly. Really nice stuff. Note that the viscosity is about 100 seconds in a Ford #4 cup. It's best sprayed with a gun having a pressurized feed.

John

[Jacques Gagnon]

Mark,

I have had good results using both shellac and water-based products in colder temperature (this time of year) in my area (north of the 45th!) with my spray gun inside the garage shop, with the door opened a few inches to provide some air circulation. The room temperature goes down a few degrees, but nothing critical. At such times I use an approach similar to John's (plastic sheets over work surfaces and vacuuming area before starting). During warmer weather I have used a larger "shelter" : three walls made out of 2x2 and linked with door hinges (fold everything down until needed for the next project). Plastic film on the sides and top; opening in the "rear wall" in which a furnace filter was inserted helped to catch some of the overspray.

I am sure everything will work out fine for you!

Jacques

[John TenEyck]

I believe you need exhaust to keep overspray from settling on your freshly sprayed work, which will leave it with a rough feeling. But as far as filters go, if you use them at all put them on the make up air side. If you put them in front of your exhaust fan they just clog up, of course. Overspray from shellac and WB products is dry by the time it gets to the fan and won't hurt it. In my situation, I haven't found filters to be necessary at all. I clean up reasonably well before I spray and the make up air inlet is far enough away that any particles in the air that would cause a nib in the finish fall out before they get to my spray booth. Every situation is different, however.

John

[Prashun Patel]

I spray in my garage. Overspray has not been an issue for me with enduro clear poly or shellac. I do notice that the finishes dry slower at colder temps.

[Wayne Cannon]

Mark,
I use the foam-board spray booth in my garage -- 8 ft wide & 4 ft deep -- with Velcro-strap joinery. Instead of a box fan, I built a sheet metal exhaust cylinder with the belt driven fan inside the cylinder and the motor outside, with the belt slot on the low pressure side of the fan so fumes don't exit the slot to the motor.

The garage door closes on the wooden frame around the exhaust cylinder. I cover the floor with a drop cloth and have a foam board top. After spraying 8 interior doors, two coats, both sides, there was no noticeable dust or overspray when done.

I do have a coarse fiber filter in front of the exhaust cylinder, which had to be changed mid-way in the above project, but I had no paint on my driveway afterwards.

[Stan Calow]

I sprayed dye once in the garage. I made a three-sided enclosure out of cardboard, and left the overhead door up for ventilation. Garage was generally clean, but I did not account for the mist of dye rising up, and landing on the top (the front) of the door. Spent more time cleaning the cherry-pink door than the spraying took.