Spray Booth
I have wanted to build a spray booth for quite some time, and I recently decided to actually make it happen. I have a handful of projects coming up that will require me to paint and I want to get more proficient with the airbrush.
After searching around on-line and consulting an old article from MR, I decided to basically build my own design. Since I do not have a place where this can be permanently installed, it has to be portable. I started by determining a spot where I can set it up as needed, and ensuring there was room under the layout for it to be stored. That space helped determine the dimensions of the booth. I then looked at common furnace filter sizes to determine the size of the back of the booth- I settled on 25″ x 16″. From here I determined how deep I wanted the booth to be based on my research and decided to make it 16″ deep, but I would “notch” or angle the front of it to make it easier to paint from overhead.
I built the booth out of 1/2″ plywood for ease of construction. I was going to make the top out of plexiglass or lexan. I ended up buying a piece of clear acrylic from the home supply store as it is much easier to work with. The piece I bought was only 24″ wide, rather than buying a much larger piece and having a bunch of waste, I effectively built a “window” on the top of the booth. It turned out decent other than the fact that where the filter sits, there is a gap between the top of the filter and the acrylic; I will have to seal that off with tape to ensure proper air flow through the filter.
For the fan, there are a lot of schools of thought out there. Some folks use range hoods or computer fans, but it seems the “squirrel cage” type fans from Dayton are the most preferred, so I decided to use one of them. I didn’t spend a ton of time trying to calculate out the CFM and the static pressure as I will rarely paint with solvent based paints. I am prett confident based on what I have read that I will have plenty of airflow for my needs. I wired it up with a switch as well as a GFCI outlet on the side of the booth to plug in the compressor and a light. I thought about mounting a light in the booth, but it was suggested to me that direct overhead light is not best due to shadows, and light coming from the front of the booth would be best. So I am looking for something I can clip on to the side of the booth on a gooseneck or something along those lines.
Venting the booth was fun! I had to take down part of my facia to get at a window in the basement and then build and attach a board to the window to feed the duct to. The duct runs behind the layout and comes out underneath. I will attach it to the booth with a short section of flexible dryer hose. I am looking into getting some sort of cheap folding workbench to set the booth on when in use. I’ll also need to probably build some sort of table for a work surface that I can mix paint on, etc… I hope to be using the booth very shortly!
Front of booth:
Side of booth with switch wired in for motor and outlet:
Top of booth showing “window”:
Back of booth showing the Dayton fan:
Venting:
