Paint Booth Lighting

Instead of a light, I built the top out of acrylic from Home Depot.  Then, I get the flourescent light from my garage to shine through without having to add another light.  If I do want one, I can simply perch a desk lamp on top of the acrylic and shine it down.

George: I used a 24"fluorescent fixture when I built my booth I found a cool white tube works best.   Aceses5               

Thanks fellows, I will go with the fluorescent.

George

When I built my current booth, I cut a slot in the top and have a 12 inch flourescent bulb shining down through the slot. I have a piece of acrylic covering the slot on the inside surface. I made a bunch of "tear-offs" from a roll of that clear packaging tape.  Every so often when the topmost layer of tape gets too full of paint, I tear it off for a fresh surface.

Tear-offs (dirt track auto and cycle racers use them over their visors).  They are clear sections with adhesive backs and laid on several thick over the visor.  Cut each piece a bit longer than the slot, double back a half inch or so to get a tab to grasp, and apply about six of these over the clear acrylic. Tear off the outer one as it gets paint covered.

I just use a regular bulb in the florescent fixture- no fancy sunlight types.

I use flourescent lights. You can get some flourescent fixtures at Walmart that you can daisy chain (plug one into another) that are self-contained. A built in switch and cover over the bulb. They have a plug-in in each end and come with two cords, one to go to a receptacle and one to connect to another light. Then you can turn them all on or off with the switch on the first in line or an external switch or receptacle. I think the one's I have are 12" and they have other sizes but I'm not sure if there's anything between 12" and 24". They were $7 - 8 apiece and I use 3. Was gonna install a couple more but never got around to it. I'm sure other stores sell them too. You can get daylight balance bulbs for them if you like.

Tony

I'd go with a good 18" flourescent, and a full spectrum bulb.  You'll spend a bit more for a good bulb, but the quality of light is really worth it.  Besides, incandescent bulbs build up heat.  Not a very good thing when painting.

Chris

I use fluorescent, but that is me....