I'm flirting with the idea of a paint booth in my detached garage. I'm not sure how to ventilate it. I was thinking something like a bathroom fan on steroids but not sure. What is a good size compressor for a paint gun?
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bathroom fan will not work. You need to get an explosion proof fan . The compressor you can go to home depot and buy the 499.00 with the 60 gal tank. The guns today are a lot less dependant on pressure. Just get you a good dryer and water seperator
I use a 'temporary' booth, made from 3M plastic sheeting and PVC pipe.
I have a regular box fan blowing IN to the booth, and filters allow air to exit ("positive pressure" booth). It works well for me. If you're pulling dirty air through the fan to make vapors exit, then yes, you need to be concerned with vapors. If you're pulling clean air through the fan as an inlet, not as much. I also have a filter on the inlet fan as well.
My makeshift booth works fine for me, for panel painting (it's 8 x 10 x 7 ft tall). The 3M overspray sheeting that I use is 15' wide and comes in a 450' roll for about $35. I just wrap the booth like a big present with a single sheet, floor, walls, and ceiling.
I also use a fresh air respirator system with a full hood. Don't want to breathe that junk, that's for sure.
camarohoilc:
So you have a booth built and then wrap that with the sheeting? Is that for contamination reasons? Do you use box fans for the exhaust? I would think a fan blowing IN would affect the spray coming out of the gun. Glad to hear I don't need an expensive compressor!! If this sounds like obvious stuff keep in mind I have never picked up a paint gun before...just want to get started.
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Oh, I didn't say you don't need an expensive compressor. But plan on spending at least $400 on one (probably more like $500). You really need a 60 gallon upright, at least 3 hp. The more CFM the better.
I make a PVC frame box. I wrap that in plastic sheet.
Here's a picture. You can see (a) the box fan I use as an inlet, on the opposite wall (b) the filters that let air "out" (but overspray is captured), and (c) my fresh air pumps. If you look at the wall behind the air filters, you'll see a doggie door. I put my air pumps through the doggie door, and seal off the door area with towels. So the air I breathe is from outside the garage.
This works well for keeping contaminants out of paint, and from keeping overspray from getting all over my 'stuff' in the shop. The fan isn't blowing hard enough to cause problems, but it is blowing hard enough to 'inflate' the booth a little, and blow overspray towards the filters. The filters you see on the back wall were originally white, I was painting blue in the booth.
One thing to keep in mind, you WILL get junk in your paint (it's inevitable). How you handle it is how the job turns out. Me, I like to sand my clear down a day or two after spraying, and then re-clear it. I cut and buff the second spraying of clear, and it's nib free.
If you want something semi-permanent, what I've done in the past, is use 2x4 and frame up a room (just like you would do for a house). I got some of those sheets of insulation (silver stuff about 1/2" thick in sheets like sheet rock) and nailed them to the framework. Sealed all the seams with duct tape and painted it all white. Got some good fans and used regular home air filters, and installed LOTS of lights. Worked great for me.
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you can go to a heating and cooling place and buy one of there old furnace fans. they usually just throw them away. they move ALOT of air. the one i use i got for free and it has 3 speeds. just build a box to filter the air and run some duct outside. they are build to suck air threw a filter, so they wont burnout very fast.
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You only want positive pressure if your adjoining space(area your pulling air from) is extremely clean. having someone kicking up dust outside the booth is very bad. also you have more of a tendancy to blow dust around the booth with a positive system. the best way is to take those box fans and turn them around and make the booth negative with filters on the incoming air. locate the supply air openings on the opposite end of the booth. this will pull out the fumes but leave settled dust particles on the floor alone (for the most part).
My opposition to a negative pressure booth is two fold.
1. You're pulling volatile fumes through a fan. This means you need an explosion proof motor, or you need to be running via a belt/pulley with the motor mounted outside of the fan area. Either way, it's more expensive than a box fan setup.
2. You're pulling overspray through a fan. So if you're using a filter in front of the fan inlet, it will clog up VERY quickly (we're talking home booth here), unless you build a large duct for the fan. Adds complication.
I have a filter on the output side of the inlet fan, which seems to do OK catching any debris from the outside environment. The outbound filters do fill up with overspray, but I run 2 or 3 of them at a time (for more surface area).
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My opposition to a negative pressure booth is two fold.
1. You're pulling volatile fumes through a fan. This means you need an explosion proof motor, or you need to be running via a belt/pulley with the motor mounted outside of the fan area. Either way, it's more expensive than a box fan setup.
More than one way to skin a cat. Not saying my way is right, I'm just saying what I do, and why I do it.
Oh ya theres def more than two ways to do it. I did it the way I mentioned for my first "DIY" booth about 6 years ago. painted 3 cars in there and never had an explosion.... I know it "COULD" depending on the consentration but I dont know anyone that has had a problem.
My house that i bought has a paint booth in the shop and it uses a non xproof motor with a belt/squirel cage mounted in the booth with floor mounted plenum and the original own has painted over 200 cars in it (started his body shop there) and never had a problem...
I guess what Im saying is if you have the choice you probably would happier with the air being slowly pulled acrross and outa the booth rather than forced in. the area near the fan will be very turbulent and if the booth isnt really clean you might end up pushing around alot of dust..
Now If you do pressureize it, pull the car in crank the fans up and leave the booth closed up with the fans on for a couple hours, then go in tack is off a couple times with about 15 mins between tackings. this will get the majority of the particles floating around off the car and pushed either through the fans or into a part of the booth that you wont really disturb while your painting.
you could also drop a chain or something metal from the frame of the car to the floor. this grounds the car and keeps it from getting all staticy (sometimes a problem in a plastic booth with ppl/air moving around..
Someone can correct me if I am wrong : When making a homemade booth make sure you give consideration to lighting. More is better. Low light levels or dark spots on your project will not allow you to see how wet/dry your spray is going on. With a plastic sheet booth, like mentioned, the light could easily shine through the plastic. A permanant/semi-permanant booth would require a plan for lighting before construction.
i used a roll of clear plastic and wraped the inside of the garage floor, ceiling, and walls. then i took out a panel in the door and used a piece of plywood to mount a funace fan in it. i left an opening in the plastic around the window and put a couple furnace filters in the window and also on the outlet of the fan. i mounted cheap florecent lights from home depot on the walls behind the plastic for extra light. it worked pretty well and the car turned out really nice.
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What we did was hose out the entire garage from anything that could possibly float in the air and into your paint.
Next we put up plastic and borrowed some box fans. Then we put some air conditioning return filters on the downstream side so paint doesn't blow everywhere by your house or your neighbors cars. Just cracked the garage door high enough for the fans and blocked the rest.
Once we were getting started we watered down the floor so overspray would not stick. Then we turned off the gas water heater for safety.
Make sure you have a table and rags plus all of your supplies there with you inside. Once inside wear a resperator!! very important!!
Go slow and take your time, I had some really nice paint jobs come out of my garage and learned as I went along.
Hope this helps.
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My brother is a painter and im a firm believer in a good size compressor and a good drier. Yes a booth is nice but I have seen things my brother painted in our driveway that have come out better than things someone else painted in a cross flow booth. The garage with plastic sheets would be the best thing with a pull fan with a filter and a push fan.
Any tips on a homemade paint booth? 
But plan on spending at least $400 on one (probably more like $500). You really need a 60 gallon upright, at least 3 hp. The more CFM the better.
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