Built myself a new spray booth.

[konp]

So I got tired of my tiny cramped black plastic container airbrush booth, as there was very little room in it and it was kinda messy. Decided it was time to upgrade and build one from scratch, with a better overall design.


Here's a wide shot of the booth with a small cat for scale:

It's 900mm across the front, 60mm tall and 60mm deep.


Most of my stuff fits on top. The models are going to be finding a new home, I just need to figure out where. The small drawers have electronics components and whatnot in them.

Lighting is provided by a flush-mount LED downlight - it's dimmable and has tuneable white colour temperature, and puts out 850 lm of light.

Exhaust fan is a 150mm AC fan capable of 230CFM. I plan on building a filter over the top of it at some point.

Exhaust goes down...

And out an unused pet door.

Here's a current WIP. Just needs a few more decals, some touchups here and there, and a satin coat and she's done! No lighting though sadly. At some point I'll build a 1/1000 refit with lights.

 

[opal1970]

Hi Konp,
nice setup you got there. I will be doing something similar in the future, I just need to find a proper route to get the fumes outside.

Nice touch with the light. You might want to go with multiple lights to reduce shadows, an LED strip might work really good for that (making sure that it is not mounted in a way that it shines into your eyes). LEDs also produce less heat which may or may not be benificial to your situation.

Is your fan big enough to pull all the fumes out of the chamber? I was thinking of buying a cheap kitchen fan for this purpose.

One more suggestion that I can think of off the top of my head is that it is nice to be able to have some type of rotating platform to set your model on so that you can turn it without needing to touch your model. It should have a bit of resistance so that it does not turn too easily though.

 

[rbeach84]

Best if you can get a fan that has a motor outside the airflow; of course, these days a lot of guys are using non (or less) flammable paints so less of a worry, but never know when you'd be using alcohol or lacquer thinners...

Also keep in mind whether the 'fumes' are heavier or lighter than air since your pipe isn't horizontal. Best practice is to run the hood fan a bit after finished painting to flush out the exhaust ducting.

R/ Robert

 

[Hunk a Junk]

Regardless of the set up, I recommend a high-quality paint mask. One good enough to filter out most, if not all, fumes. Even a strong fan won't get all the fumes and tiny droplets of paint that cloud up as you spray, and we all want to enjoy our hobby with healthy lungs for many, many years!

 

[konp]

Hi Konp,
nice setup you got there. I will be doing something similar in the future, I just need to find a proper route to get the fumes outside.

Nice touch with the light. You might want to go with multiple lights to reduce shadows, an LED strip might work really good for that (making sure that it is not mounted in a way that it shines into your eyes). LEDs also produce less heat which may or may not be benificial to your situation.

Is your fan big enough to pull all the fumes out of the chamber? I was thinking of buying a cheap kitchen fan for this purpose.

One more suggestion that I can think of off the top of my head is that it is nice to be able to have some type of rotating platform to set your model on so that you can turn it without needing to touch your model. It should have a bit of resistance so that it does not turn too easily though.

The downlight is actually made of a bunch of 3520 LEDs on a board without lenses, but with a white diffusion layer. The result is a downlight with 90° FROM CENTER angle of visibility, meaning even light and minimal-to-no shadowing. I was initially using an LED strip and it was terrible.

The fan is plenty big enough, yes. There's one more part to add and that's a clear acrylic front with 2 holes for my arms (possibly with "sleeves" attached to it inside) which will boost the fan's performance that much more.

Also I've got a glass lazy susan in there which is great for turning things while painting.

Best if you can get a fan that has a motor outside the airflow; of course, these days a lot of guys are using non (or less) flammable paints so less of a worry, but never know when you'd be using alcohol or lacquer thinners...

Also keep in mind whether the 'fumes' are heavier or lighter than air since your pipe isn't horizontal. Best practice is to run the hood fan a bit after finished painting to flush out the exhaust ducting.

R/ Robert

The fan is an AC fan, it's my understanding that it doesn't have the chance to throw sparks inside the motor the way DC fans do. With that said, the only case I've heard of a fan igniting vapors in this application was an extreme outlier with compounding circumstances. The fan pulls enough air through it to keep it below the ppb ignition point of thinner vapors.

Regardless of the set up, I recommend a high-quality paint mask. One good enough to filter out most, if not all, fumes. Even a strong fan won't get all the fumes and tiny droplets of paint that cloud up as you spray, and we all want to enjoy our hobby with healthy lungs for many, many years!

Yeah, I've got a respirator with 2 filters, both rated for organic vapors and dust - which is what's recommended for using while painting.

 

[opal1970]

Well, I guess you have thought about everything.... then there is nothing standing in your way of posting all your future masterpieces!

 

[konp]

Well, I guess you have thought about everything.... then there is nothing standing in your way of posting all your future masterpieces!

Pft, only my crappy airbrush skills.

 

[opal1970]

Pft, only my crappy airbrush skills.

Picasso probably thought the same and look how he came out. :lol