Okay guys, finally got some breathing room to start work on my new and greatly improved work area. As you know, I had a lot of tasks to catch up on that piled up while I was down with the sickness. One of the things I did was move into a new room (I board with my folks, which I'm totally cool with, and they are too - unless they are lying to me. Guess I won't know for sure until the will is read). I love my new room. The one I was in was the hot room of the house. It faced south and had windows on the south and west. It got beat up by the sun from just after sunrise all the way to sunset. The one I'm in now is along the eastern wall, and it has an awning. It gets gentle, indirect sunlight, and is much more suited for sleeping. My mom and dad are very accommodating, so I could probably talk them into letting me set up a workspace wherever I wanted - within reason - but I like to respect that it is their house, and my job is help keep things fixed and clean, be their sheepdog, and watch the place when they are away. I was in the military (army), and spent a lot of time living in dorm-like, spartan conditions, and I am not only used to it, but I actually kind of prefer it, I think...
Anyway, I digressed a little. I wanted to give a short context of what I'm up to here, so, without further ado...
I have a nice desk that will be my main workbench
I have a toolbox in a closet right next to the desk
I just got a small shop vac for cleaning up sanding dust and other carnage
Here's a transformer toy I rescued for my nephew. It had a wheel broke off, so I glued it back on
Too soon?
Exactly
I have good table that is perfectly positioned right in front of a window that I will use for airbrushing - but probably not rattle cans, I'll use the garage for them
Since I will be airbrushing in the same room where I lay me down to sleep, I will be using a vented spray booth. I did a TON of research on spray booths. I considered buying a ready-made one, but with the prices being what they are, I decided that I should at least try building my own first
After drawing a few designs for a box, I came to the conclusion that a plastic tote is ideal, both from a cost and structural perspective - they're cheap, dimensionally adequate, allow for excellent lighting (clear ones), and no joints to seal. Here's one I got from Walmart
I want to not only extract solid particles - which is relatively easy - but I also want to extract fumes - not as easy. I will be airbrushing acrylics almost exclusively, except for priming, clear coating, and metal finishes (MM Metalizer, Alclad II, etc). I would like to be able to do those without stinking up my pillow too bad. There's a 24hr Mexican food restaurant nearby if I want to do that. So here's the fan I researched and carefully chose
It's quiet and it sucks real good. If only it cooked and did laundry too
Hey look! A squirrel!
Here's what it'll kinda look like. I'm going to run a 90 angle into a 45 angle and right into an exhaust vent out of that bottom window pane
While at Lowe's, I also picked up a 7-gal air tank that I am going to use with my cheapie Chinese compressor. It'll take a while to fill from empty for sure, but I have a cutoff valve, and I expect I'll be able to do a typical spray session without the compressor kicking on. I might put a small fan on the unit while it fills to keep it cool. I removed the small tank you see in the pic
Well, that's where I'm at for now. I hope to be operational in a couple weeks. I can't wait to get a'modelin'
Cheers until then guys!