spray booth

[masterKamera]

WQhat has everyone been doing for a spray booth? Im not keen at all on buying a factory booth that costs 600$..

[Edo]

I really don’t use any...
sprying acrilics isn’t that smelly and I am lucky enough to work in a basement where no one else goes (almost...).
So my advice is: save your money and go ahead happily!
ciao
edo

[masterKamera]

Im not actually worried about smells. Im more on the "oh crap, i just sprayed a nice coat of paint on my model  and the wall.."

[Stuart Malone]

If you're doing 1/72nd scale like me, I put a paper towel on my cutting mat and spray acrylics right there in my main work area.  This works quite well for fighters and two seaters.  It teaches you control very quickly so you're not doing as you say, painting everything else on the bench too.  But if you're doing larger scale, yes, build a booth.  Basically a 5 sided box with filters and a fan in the back.  I'm sure there's plans out there on the interwebs.  It should be easily constructed for under $100.

Stuart

[DaddyO]

Just started spraying and am a bit tight for space, but I've squeezed one of these on the end of the bench which seems to work okay. (I'm spaying acrylics and the usual Tamiya spray primer)
It is foldable if you don't fancy leaving it set up, but I decided it wasn't worth the effort to keep putting it away. Fine for 72nd models and figures which is what I work on and would be okay for 48th I reckon.

https://www.carbuilder.com/uk/portable-spray-booth-extractor?gclid=Cj0KCQjwxveXBhDDARIsAI0Q0x33533L8h6-xrc0oacp7EFV11h4hhp5TE5g-28yLlYi03z0T07jb3QaAsjBEALw_wcB

Hope that helps
Paul

[Monty]

Interesting thread... and yes, airbrushing can be a messy business, as Stuart says, especially in larger scales! I used to open the garage door and spray hopefully into the open air... if the wind was blowing the wrong way... well, what a mess... I got really lucky when my good friend Albert emigrated to Australia (a frequent past time here on the Southern tip of Africa) and left me his hand-made spray booth, that he put together with Doug, my other really good friend, who helped me install it in my model-filled garage... No cost to me, and I don't know exactly how much it all cost to put tother, much less than 50 US dollars, I'm sure... Based on a wooden box with a double floor, a bathroom extractor fan and three (!!) internal lights with extractor pipe... it even has a door that you can lock... note the switches upper left on the top for fan and lights...



Then it has a perforated aluminium floor on the inside that leads to the extractor fan, and three lights protected by glare shields...



Here is a closer view inside with a 1/32 Polikarpov I-16, so there is plenty room, the air is extracted through the multiple holes in the floor, so the dust is dragged downwards with no turbulence with the airflow, and no discernable wind to upset the spraying...



And here is a view of the back, I had to turn the box a bit to show where the extraction fan is housed in the silver foil area and the ducting going up into the roof, a really big area in the roof so no problem... It's actually all relatively quiet, just a hum from the fan... No-one has complained yet...



The first design had the fan suck from the upper right corner of the box, that "hole" is now covered in perspex and the "Floor sucker" works so much better... I have my friends to thank, I could never have done all this on my own... but just to show it's possible...

Regards,
Marc

[masterKamera]

At least it can be done. Im sticking with the tamiya acrylics as well, cleanup is nice so far.

[macsporran]

Hey  Marc,  nice set-up  -  especially the bicycle-powered aspect of it all. Very green.
Must be tricky to master pedalling while you spray the finest details.
Respect.
Sandy

[Monty]

Yes, I also use mostly Tamiya acrylics, and that works fine, but I use more laquer thinners with it these days and that does worry a bit from the health point of view. Sandy, you have no idea how close you are to the truth with bicycle power! We have totally inadequate electrical power here and the powers that be won't deregulate, so we have continuous power failures and outages... ( I refuse to call it load shedding...) and I may soon need to go down the solar/inverter/battery route... My son has a very good setup in his house and hardly notices the outages... but the cost is steep... We battle on! Regards, Marc

[Borsos]

When my wife came into my hobby room in the basement too often without seeing me and cried into the fog „You need to get out of here! Now! I don’t mind if you‘re wearing a mask, this is chemical warfare!“, I was pushed to buy a spray booth via Amazon. I think I paid around 120€. It works completely fine for me and actually reduces overspraying. But the sound annoys me a little as i love to listen to audio books while working.
Now my wife is in a better mood however 
Andreas

[masterKamera]

Been pricing components.. the fan wont be a pain, but is 200 CFM enough?     the lighting will be my pain and the perforated floor panel.

[kensar]

My paint booth is the cardboard box in the background.  I have a small desk fan in the back of the box with dryer hose taped to the exhaust side.  When painting, I put the other end of the hose in the window.  I have a house air conditioning filter in front of the fan to catch most of the paint particles and a cutout space in the top for a flourescent light to shine into the painting area.  I have a whole US$20 invested there!  I use a compressed air tank to power the air brush and refill it from my compressor when needed.  Avoids having to run an air compressor every time I paint.  I have the whole thing on a roll around rack along with some paints.

[masterKamera]

What is the best material to use to cover up the LED lights form paint spray?