I am on a mission. The price of spray booths is outragious. I know they can be made for hundreds...even thousands of dollars less than the market sells them for. Has anyone ever made one. I'm talking about the table-top versiions. They are nothing more than a motor, filters and casing. The only thing that should have any major cost is the motor. Let's figure this out.
Spray Booths
- Thread starter airartist
- Start date
Got a picture of one you like?I'm sure we could come up with something!Maybe useing a cheap($30) over the stove exhaust vent for the top modified with a better filter system?The vent goes straight up and you could use multiple small filters so,it would be out of the way.It already has a light too. There about 30 inches wide and could be used as the top.The rest is probably just flat panels maybe masonite or something else light weight and smooth.The whole thing could break down when your not useing it.If you make a 1/8in. metal frame around the vent and one for the bottom,you could put it together without screws .I've never seen one before and don't know how large you want it but you did say "table top".That's my 2 cents worth and just an idea,I'm sure there are many other ways to make one.
Harley Cruiser
New member
Shop used to make paint booths all of the time, now with the EPA and licencing the booths have to be certified.
If I was going to make one I would use an old squirrel type fan from a furnace blower, these move a lot of air, and are cheap used. Find one at a junk yard cheap. Use this for the exhaust, and wherever you want the intake, cut holes in the plywood and use furnace filters. All you are doing is moving fresh clean air in, and dust/fumes out. I would put the intake at the opposite end from the exhaust.
Cruiser
If I was going to make one I would use an old squirrel type fan from a furnace blower, these move a lot of air, and are cheap used. Find one at a junk yard cheap. Use this for the exhaust, and wherever you want the intake, cut holes in the plywood and use furnace filters. All you are doing is moving fresh clean air in, and dust/fumes out. I would put the intake at the opposite end from the exhaust.
Cruiser
T
TWISTED
Guest
I have a bench setup in the basement of the house. Just a box with a blower moter going to the window. a single air filter covers the hole on the inside of the box. The moter is from an old furnace. The big blower was too powerful and caused too much airflow in the booth so I use a smaller one that can be found on most furnaces. It is used to vent the fumes or something like that in the furnace and works perfect for a small bench spray booth.
I sectioned off half of my two car garage. The work area has a mandoor to the outside and the wall between the two sides of the garage moves to allow big parts or bikes in. I have an old squirrel cage on the back wall with a duct running along the ceiling with three openings. Three filters are in the ductwork and freshair vent coming in at the base of the interior wall also have filters to keep dust from coming in. I have a curtain to keep most of the overspray away from the bench.
Total cost for everything was about twenty bucks for the ductwork and the time it took me to put it together. You can always find someone throwing out a furnace somewhere. Try the furnace repair shops. They keep some of the old blower moters around and can't sell them. My neighbor works for one and got me mine free.
I sectioned off half of my two car garage. The work area has a mandoor to the outside and the wall between the two sides of the garage moves to allow big parts or bikes in. I have an old squirrel cage on the back wall with a duct running along the ceiling with three openings. Three filters are in the ductwork and freshair vent coming in at the base of the interior wall also have filters to keep dust from coming in. I have a curtain to keep most of the overspray away from the bench.
Total cost for everything was about twenty bucks for the ductwork and the time it took me to put it together. You can always find someone throwing out a furnace somewhere. Try the furnace repair shops. They keep some of the old blower moters around and can't sell them. My neighbor works for one and got me mine free.
S
Scott M
Guest
If you need a small table top booth, you could buy a table top sandblaster cabinet from harbor freight for under $70 and add a small squirrel cage exhaust blower to it.
On a larger scale for the garage, here is a post I made for autobodystore.com discussion group:
Here is an old post of mine from the archives. It may not help you because I used 6mil plastic to cover 1/2" EMT conduit frames, so your insurance carrier probably will not cover it.
I have since found out that when I enlarge my booth to fit a full car in it, I ended up renting a second carpet blower, so that I have about 3000cfm air flow.
Sept 2002:
"I use a 1500cfm squirrel cage carpet blower/dryer fan only to create a positive pressure booth through two side by side 14"x24" furnace filters. I have a 15" flexible ducting attached low out the back of the booth for exhaust. I would not use the fan inside the booth to draw the air out though. This would dirty the fan up and also pull the plastic off the ceiling as negative pressure would be created in the booth.
My garage paint booth panels are made from 1/2" EMT conduit. They are 4 1/2'x8' with two horizontal braces. If you put only one center brace then the brace can cause a shadow with my attached light fixtures. The panels are bolted together end-to-end. I use the ceiling plastic at the top to wrap over the frames to secure the top. However, you could use 2"x2" wood firring strips or even angle shapled drywall cornerbead molding strips screwed to the ceiling for attaching points. I covered the frames with 6mil plastic and duct tape. The corners of the EMT are tack welded with my little Lincoln MIG welder and I used four picture frame clamps to keep it square. The floor of the garage is covered with 15# roofing felt and taped with duct tape on the seams and the EMT booth frames sit on top. I've also used telephone wire staples through a small piece of duct tape to secure the plastic to the ceiling.
I don't have a great picture of the booth but if you look toward the bottom of this photo you can see part of it behind the convertible (small booth in the backround): http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/rolling.jpg
This shows the door in the backround: http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/roto.jpg
And to the left on this one you can see how I mount the sliding light fixtures: http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/coupeups.jpg
I have put four 4" stubs of EMT (two on top and two on bottom) to attach standoff conduit for sliding fluorescent light fixtures. I can move the light fixtures to any panel I feel like. The light fixture mounting idea also is the reason I made the panels 4 1/2' wide instead of 4'.
20" box fans just won't give enough circulation. Right now the booth reduced in size to 9'x 9' for small jobs and bead blasting. I have two box fans on this reduced booth and they struggle to evacuate the haze of clearcoat. They definitely won't work for a bigger booth. Especially when you make you booth air tight and the box fan has to push air in through a filter. Hence, I've been using a 1500cfm squirrel cage carpet dryer fan when the booth is enlarged to 18'x13.5' for my body on the sled. When the booth is enlarged I take down the garage door opener and partially disasseble the horizontal part of the obstructing rollup door frame. My panels form two freestanding walls and I use two walls of the garage. So, I have one door panel and 3 sealed panels in the long direction and 3 sealed panels in the short direction. One of the sealed panels has the filter frame welded again with 1/2" EMT into its structure.
Since I am using a 7hp compressor in the corner of my garage for spray air that will pickup some trace fumes. So, for breathing air I use a small 2hp oil-less compressor remotely located for my breathing air and a 3M breathing station filter, through a demand Mine Safety Appliance mask.
The biggest temptation is to leave the booth after shooting a coat. But, with the breathing air, I'm staying in the booth an extra 3+ minutes to allow the paint to setup before jarring open the door and allowing contaminants in the booth."
On a larger scale for the garage, here is a post I made for autobodystore.com discussion group:
Here is an old post of mine from the archives. It may not help you because I used 6mil plastic to cover 1/2" EMT conduit frames, so your insurance carrier probably will not cover it.
I have since found out that when I enlarge my booth to fit a full car in it, I ended up renting a second carpet blower, so that I have about 3000cfm air flow.
Sept 2002:
"I use a 1500cfm squirrel cage carpet blower/dryer fan only to create a positive pressure booth through two side by side 14"x24" furnace filters. I have a 15" flexible ducting attached low out the back of the booth for exhaust. I would not use the fan inside the booth to draw the air out though. This would dirty the fan up and also pull the plastic off the ceiling as negative pressure would be created in the booth.
My garage paint booth panels are made from 1/2" EMT conduit. They are 4 1/2'x8' with two horizontal braces. If you put only one center brace then the brace can cause a shadow with my attached light fixtures. The panels are bolted together end-to-end. I use the ceiling plastic at the top to wrap over the frames to secure the top. However, you could use 2"x2" wood firring strips or even angle shapled drywall cornerbead molding strips screwed to the ceiling for attaching points. I covered the frames with 6mil plastic and duct tape. The corners of the EMT are tack welded with my little Lincoln MIG welder and I used four picture frame clamps to keep it square. The floor of the garage is covered with 15# roofing felt and taped with duct tape on the seams and the EMT booth frames sit on top. I've also used telephone wire staples through a small piece of duct tape to secure the plastic to the ceiling.
I don't have a great picture of the booth but if you look toward the bottom of this photo you can see part of it behind the convertible (small booth in the backround): http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/rolling.jpg
This shows the door in the backround: http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/roto.jpg
And to the left on this one you can see how I mount the sliding light fixtures: http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/coupeups.jpg
I have put four 4" stubs of EMT (two on top and two on bottom) to attach standoff conduit for sliding fluorescent light fixtures. I can move the light fixtures to any panel I feel like. The light fixture mounting idea also is the reason I made the panels 4 1/2' wide instead of 4'.
20" box fans just won't give enough circulation. Right now the booth reduced in size to 9'x 9' for small jobs and bead blasting. I have two box fans on this reduced booth and they struggle to evacuate the haze of clearcoat. They definitely won't work for a bigger booth. Especially when you make you booth air tight and the box fan has to push air in through a filter. Hence, I've been using a 1500cfm squirrel cage carpet dryer fan when the booth is enlarged to 18'x13.5' for my body on the sled. When the booth is enlarged I take down the garage door opener and partially disasseble the horizontal part of the obstructing rollup door frame. My panels form two freestanding walls and I use two walls of the garage. So, I have one door panel and 3 sealed panels in the long direction and 3 sealed panels in the short direction. One of the sealed panels has the filter frame welded again with 1/2" EMT into its structure.
Since I am using a 7hp compressor in the corner of my garage for spray air that will pickup some trace fumes. So, for breathing air I use a small 2hp oil-less compressor remotely located for my breathing air and a 3M breathing station filter, through a demand Mine Safety Appliance mask.
The biggest temptation is to leave the booth after shooting a coat. But, with the breathing air, I'm staying in the booth an extra 3+ minutes to allow the paint to setup before jarring open the door and allowing contaminants in the booth."
trikypaint
New member
Talk about a cheap bench top booths, I ran across this site where this guy can make one for under $5.00!!! Using some items around the house and some common sense, I could see where it could work quit well. The site: http://www.theshootersspot.com/
Just click on "Projects", then "Paint Booth", and he gives instructions with pics.
Thought I'd share since it's the cheapest I've seen yet
.
Just click on "Projects", then "Paint Booth", and he gives instructions with pics.
Thought I'd share since it's the cheapest I've seen yet
S
sanddan
Guest
How important is it to use color balanced light bulbs? I know the standard cool white bulbs throw off the color but they are 1/4 the price. I am currently building a 12 x 14 foot paint booth in my shop and plan on using five 8 foot fixtures for lighting.
P
Paco
Guest
I gotta say.. That $5.00 paint booth is pretty cool, and cheap!!
So I finally got around to taking some shots of my budget paint booth. I've only got a 2 car garage and didn't want to permanently dedicate half the garage to a paint booth for painting helmets and motorcycles. I'm probably not going to be painting any cars so I didn't need anything big.
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I simply bought a collapsable tent from a sporting goods store. It's about 8" square at the base. I'm 6'4" and can easily stand inside it. I used some painter's plastic and sewed some walls that attach to the frame with velcro. I pull up the bottom of one of the walls to allow 4 fans to ventilate the air out. The opposite wall has overlapping sections that I can slide through to get inside. I've got to add some pockets for some incoming air filters. I bought the cheapest lights that WalMart had and hung them at each corner. It lights it all up really well. Now it's not air tight by any means but it keeps the dust off the parts. I'm still going to add some finishing touches, but this gives you an idea. Just another option for those on a budget. Not $5 but I spent just over $100 and it's been working great thus far. I can take it completely down in minutes.
-Stretch
Picture #1
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Picture #6
I simply bought a collapsable tent from a sporting goods store. It's about 8" square at the base. I'm 6'4" and can easily stand inside it. I used some painter's plastic and sewed some walls that attach to the frame with velcro. I pull up the bottom of one of the walls to allow 4 fans to ventilate the air out. The opposite wall has overlapping sections that I can slide through to get inside. I've got to add some pockets for some incoming air filters. I bought the cheapest lights that WalMart had and hung them at each corner. It lights it all up really well. Now it's not air tight by any means but it keeps the dust off the parts. I'm still going to add some finishing touches, but this gives you an idea. Just another option for those on a budget. Not $5 but I spent just over $100 and it's been working great thus far. I can take it completely down in minutes.
-Stretch
S
Sprayhappy
Guest
I'd be cautious...the lighting you have isn't explosion-proof, and the fan probably isn't either. Also, furnace filters don't filter nearly as well as a booth filter...ours (I work for a paint booth manufacturer) filter to 10 microns. If you notice any contamination problems, this will likely solve it. If you have any spraybooth questions, shoot me an email and I'll try to help.
I'll keep that all in mind. I've only sprayed a helmet and some small household items. With all 4 fans going it sucks the exhaust right out. If I start making money I'll be sure to look into advanced filters, fans and lights but for a budget garage booth this work fine for me now.
-Stretch
-Stretch