Small Part Paint Booth

[Wheel]

Thought I would share pictures of my “custom” paint booth for small parts. It is too cold outside to paint outdoors, so I have moved into the basement. I needed to control both the overspray and the paint fumes. The box is constructed of cardboard with clear poly used for the windows and the front curtain. I am using a bathroom exhaust fan (70 cfm) and exhaust through a 4 inch diameter dryer vent. The dryer vent is mounted into a temporary piece of plywood that is screwed to the exterior of the basement window. I added some insulation to the inside of the window to keep the Canadian winter outside.

You might notice that there is an extra fan in the picture. It is an in-line duct fan that I used in the first version of the spray booth. It is rated at 80 cfm, but it didn’t even push enough air to open the flaps on the dryer vent. I couldn’t return it to the store, so I left it hooked up and added the bathroom exhaust fan.

I also researched another version that used a kitchen range hood as the top of the booth. I couldn’t find a used one at the time, so the bathroom exhaust fan seemed like a reasonable solution.

It is pretty crude and it could be refined many different ways, but I am really happy with it and more importantly no one in the household is complaining about the paint fumes or overspray.

[124JOE]

nice job on the paint box

[azruss]

I hope that is an explosion proof fan motor. Looks like a home depot bathroom fan. BE CAREFUL....you are dissing lady luck here.

[So Cal Mark]

I did something similar with an old drier, using the shell as a 3 sided booth. When the fire dept showed up for their annual inspection they told me the pressence of that booth proved I was a production painter and a permit was required from the AQMD to the tune of a few thousand bucks. Needless to say the booth was dismantled. It seems they don't care if you paint out in the open, letting the overspray drift into the atmosphere. Go figure

[katsi]

How do you get a paint buzz going with that set up?

[Wheel]

Thanks for the comments.
This what I really enjoy about this forum. It is a great bunch of people with comments that range from humor to positive feedback and genuine concerns about safety.

In regards to the explosion proof fan; I forgot to mention this in my original post and Azruss picked up on it. He is correct that it is just a bathroom fan similar to ones sold at Home Depot and it is not explosion proof. I am trying to be very careful and did consider this. I decided that for the little amount that I am painting the risk would be low. I am only painting one small part at a time and in very very short bursts so there will not be a build up of gas. I have to wait for the part to dry before I can move it around to paint the other sides. It takes longer to paint this way, but it beats waiting for spring.

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