Im Thinking of building a paint booth in my shop. I have a part of the shop already framed off and was thinking of installing some explosion proof lights and fans. Is this a good way to go? Anybody done it?
My "paint booth" is very simple. I hung a 10mil thick clear pastic dropcloth from some wire rope that I ran down one side of the both. This way the curtain is tucked away when the both is not in use and I have a full floor again. It also directs the aitflow and keeps any overspray in the booth. I used regular HO 8 footers. One on the wall longways, 3 widthwise overhead, and 2 4 footers dropped on a 45* angle from the ceiling. There's nothing I can't see and you could probably get a sun tan. I use 2 20" box fans with filters for intake and the same for exhaust. It keeps the air clean and moving and removes 75% off the overspray while it pushes it out. I can clear the booth of a full coat in 5-10 minutes. I know most people will say explosion proof this and that, but thats mainly for code. The amount of coin you'd spend on explosion proof stuff is way too much for a homemade booth. JMO.
You can see one I built in the background of this pic. cost about $150 to build. Besides containing the overspray, It was pretty worthless. I had a 30" fan venting it out, but the airflow wasn't enough. It has been taken down, I'm going to build a new one, but drywall it in and install lots of lights. And get way more filter area in the end not the side.
I am thinking about this right now also. I purchased a Dayton 24" explosion proof fan on Craigslist a year ago. Brand new...literally stole it. Box fans can create sparks that can cause explosions so DO NOT use them for outflow suction. You are probably okay using them to pressurize your booth however. Make sure that your exhaust is directed straight outdoors and that there is no chance for recirculation. You should consider filtering incoming air. You can probably find furnace filters about the size of your box fans if you use that method. You do not need explosion proof lighting if you can isolate it from the booth and spray fumes. Most booths have sealed tempered glass on inside with the light assembly mounted and accessed from the outside. This keeps the bulb contacts (typically the arc/spark source) out of the vapor stream. I would not recommend the use of plastics if you can avoid it. They are more inclined to generate static charges as the air flows past the surface. Static is your enemy if you have flammable vapors. You will have flammable vapors. I am thinking now of building a light wood frame assembly and using a hard board product for the wall surface. Cheap and rigid. It will need to be painted white to help internal illumination. You can buy "tile board" with a nice white finish. Unfortunately it is pretty expensive. I am thinking that this could be something that could be taken apart and moved. Safety is the key here. I plan to put fire sprinklers in mine. I bought two residential quick response heads on eBay. They have a 12' spray pattern which will work for me. I have good water pressure and a BIG garden hose. It calcs okay hydraulically for a two head activation. This is very simple and cheap...and good insurance in my mind for a potentially dangerous activity. When I am not painting, I will simply disconnect the hose and drain the system. Keep the ideas coming. I am curious to see what everyone else is doing.
Sounds similar to what I do in my little garage......I also put a fan type sprinkler outside at the outlet to "knockdown" any fumes, etc..... The main reason I hang the clear plastic is to keep overspray off all the doodads and art hanging in my shop
I cleaned my garage out really good, painted it all bright white, hung lights on all the walls and let it rip. Filtrete A/C filters taped over the windows, and a box fan for exhaust was the best I could do at the time. Taping a couple cheap A/C filters over the fan to trap overspray worked okay. Got fogged in pretty quick if I sprayed too much in one shot. At least I didn't blow myself up. I've seen plenty of people rig up booths with 2x4's and plastic and made it work. Put it together so you've got plenty of light and ventilation. Wouldn't recommend it if you spray cars full-time or even semi-frequently but to paint one car, one time it'll get the job done.
I think the lights were $50 each compared to $30 each for regular 8 footers. The 4 footers were $30 I think. So $260 for lights. The fans I had and the rest was minimal in the cost department. Say I'm around $300ish. I don't have pics of the booth itself, but if you check my site you can see pics of cars in the booth.
I'm curious about this, because for every comment like this, there are 4 or 5 guys who have done it without blowing up. I want to build a similar arrangement because I painted a car outside a couple of weeks ago and ended up with a pissed off neighbor. So for the next time (which will be a long ways off) I want to set my garage up like that, with the filters for exhaust. I think that, plus timing it to when he's not around, will let me get away with it. So anyone actually experienced a fire from one of these fans or lights?
There is an element of risk in everything we do. There are lots of guys who get stupid drunk and drive around without seatbelts and are still alive. That doesn't necessarily make it smart, however. Auto painting involves the vaoprizing of flammable fluids. This increases modifies the aspect ratio of the fluid, making more volatile when subject to an ignition source. Your goal is to reduce the ignition sources as much as possible. Fluorescent lights typically don't spark. But is you lean into a bulb (or worse break) a two prong bulb, you are going to get a spark. If you have loose wiring that is arcing, you will get a spark. Best to keep it isolated from air stream containing the vaporized flammables. Same thing with static. It is damn dry here in Colorado and static is easy to build up. If you are wearing cloth (especially wool) and constantly rubbing the sides of your plastic booth walls, you will develop lots of static. You will note that the professional booths have metal walls that can be bonded and grounded to reduce the static risk. Drywall and to a lesser degree, wood, is less likely to build up a charge. I get damn near electrocuted by static everytime I use my blast cabinet with my shop vac to clear the dust. I can easily see the arc coming off the vac hose and usually grounding on my body. That is caused by the air flow friction occurring in the plastic vac tube. Same thing in a paint booth with good flow. If the flow is not so good, less friction and less risk. BTW - Most booths are designed to flow around 100 fpm. I understand that the new water based paints may demand faster flow. So...just be smart about the whole thing. Lots of cars get painted in garages and barns every day. Usually nothing goes wrong. But why invite trouble by not thinking this through before you do it? If you at least can assess your sources of ignition and reduce the likelihood that they will spark, you are 90% on your way to a safe painting environment. My 2 cents... Tom
I got started in painting by sandblasting and repainting heavy, construction equipment years ago, in a giant tent with roll up "wings" on each end.... During the winter, I painted with a diesel, 350,000 BTU Master heater blasting away, to keep the metal warm and paint warm enough to paint. I painted with it running on and off, as it had a "thermostat".....it would kick out a flame or two when kicking back on...... Never was there ever a fire or any issue..... Same goes for the 8' lights strung all over the tent....
This is the kind of thing I'm talking about. I realize there are risks, and the hamb is full of posts about how you should do this or that because it's safer... ...but I think folks have wildly different levels of risk tolerance, and so I'm trying to figure out if the folks on here that claim your paint booth is a backyard Hindenberg are just super risk-averse. I happen to not wear safety glasses sometimes when cutting something but know guys who practically won't eat popcorn without them _and_ a hard hat. I'll consider the risks more valid if someone chimes in on here and says "yeah I don't have eyebrows anymore because once..."
Josh's story helped me overcome my slight fear of painting in the winter. Normally I wouldn't, but it ended up that way. Two 125,000 BTU heaters running exactly like Josh mentioned. And I'm still here. There is a very, very thick line between safe and stupid and I feel I tiptoe right on it. BTW, sometimes I run with scissors.
If you don't want to buy explosion proof lights you can put them out side of the room through a plexiglass panel. If you can get in the attic just mount them in the attic with a plexi glass "window" for them to shine through. Thats actually how they are required to do it in the electrical code for some types of spray applications
I am in the building safety industry, so hear a lot about people being injured by fire. Don't get me started on the new code requirements for residential fire sprinklers... Anyway, I am sure that makes me more sensitive to the issue than most. Bottom line, think about what you do before you do it. It is the stupid ones that usually get hurt in these cases...not the smart ones. BYW - I only occassionally wear safety glasses. More so now that my wife is looking over my shoulder and reminding me. Tom
i have seen a couple of pressure booths, one was inside a heated shop and it just drew it's air from the shop, the other had a heat exchanger inside the pipe blowing air into the booth, the nice thing about pressure booths is if someone open the door while your painting it blows out the door insted of sucking dust and dirt into the booth, i'm have never painted a vehicle i just hung out with people who did.