I am getting ready to start my spray booth and have a slight concern over putting lights in the booth with regards to a fire hazard. After looking at many  designs I am going to build a booth that is 24 wide X 18 tall, I have a Dayton brushless fan with 275 cfm for the exhaust which will be piped through a nearby window. I still have a question about what is best for a light inside the booth. I am looking at a two bulb fluorescent set that is 24" long from Lowes, these lights have no cover over them. Any thoughts ??????????

My booth has a plexiglass window in its top panel; I mounted fluorescent tubes on its outside surface so they shine in through the plex but are out of the airflow. When the plex gets too much overspray on it it's easy and inexpensive to replace.

Matt

After the discussion a few weeks ago I decided to build my own booth. I got a Dayton 485 cfm squirrel cage blower for the fan, and I'm just going to go with a clear plastic panel on top with a clamp on reflector light with one of those curly flourescent light bulbs that go into a conventional socket. It won't be in the air stream so fire isn't a problem, and the screw in flourescent bulbs are much cheaper than the tube bulbs and associated hardware. 

Aaronw wrote:

It won't be in the air stream so fire isn't a problem

The only ones that are 100% completely safe are the ones that are labeled as "Explosion proof" which I doubt yours is. 

As I said earlier unless you have a build up of fumes in the booth the chance of a flame or explosion is almost zero. I have a friend that has been airbrushing cars/motorcycles since the 60's and he used a large box fan for years to exhaust lacquer and other paints and never once had a mishap. Dumb luck? I don't think so. Nothing wrong with erring on the side of caution but I think people take this way too far.