Ideas for a spray booth?

MIke, I can't seem to find the link, but somewhere in my travels I saw instructions to build a 'filter' for the fumes so that the booth didn't have to be exhausted. I have no idea whether or not it would work or was safe, but the concept stuck in my mind. It basically involved blowing the air into the bottom of a bucket of water that was filled with charcoal or some similar filtering material.

I'll keep looking for a link, but maybe that will be enough to joggle a few other people's memories.

Murray

Over here we use an adapter that narrows the round hose into an oblong narrow wedge that is put between window and window frame, leaves the window just a tad open

Works great, had to jury-rig mine as my hose was wider than the adapter.

Other options is to make a jam that fits into the window with a hole just big enough to lead the hose to the outside, usually made from thick cardboard or thin wood sheet.

Mike,
That Artograph downdraft booth that you showed in a couple of your previous posts looks to be one of the best bets going. Even acrylics contain organic solvents such as alcohols, glycols or glycol ethers that can be trapped by the same charcoal filter used to trap solvent vapors from enamels. In addition, remember that alcohols can burn, too, so proper fan selection should be considered if you are considering a homemade booth.
Of course, one other thing you can consider (a cheaper alternative) if you are switching exclusively to acrylics, is to open a window, put a small pedestal or room-type fan behind you, and maybe throw on a respirator. Same results, less money.

Gip Winecoff

Mike,
Heres the post i was thinking of. The link (in the post below) is broken now, but scale auto used to have a nice collection of hints/tips that they've now removed since going to the new site format. I'll take a look in some of my older issues to see if I can come up with the article...

http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1510

Murray

Mike

The first time I had this problem, a friend of mine came up with the following idea:
I was using the back bedroom in the trailer we were renting for a modeling room (the last kid had fled the nest) and couldn't cut a hole in the wall to the outside - So Bill came up with the idea of taking a 1 x 8 board, cutting it to the width of the window, opening the window and inserting board. We closed the window on the board and sealed the perimeter with duct tape.
Prior to installing the board, we got a 4" dryer exhaust vent and installed it in the center of the board. Worked great year round and when we moved, just opened the window and removed the board.
Hope this will help.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

Gip,

That Artograph booth is nice but my budget is about on par with a third world country right now and that isn't even conceivable.
The 10" Rotron fan I mentioned is a brushless fan but I don't know if that means it cannot ignite any vapor going through it.
I would imagine the box fan is a standard electric induction motor that sparks like a drill motor.


Murray,

Thanks for looking up that info for me, I appreciate it.

Qmeister,

I thought of that same idea but there is no dedicated window in the garage so I would either have to remove the permanent window that is in the door on the side of the house that exits the garage, or make something to fit the entire door opening and leave the door open.

Mike

I have successfully made a spray booth from one of the collapsable legal file storage boxes. Worked up a negative pressure exhaust system with a small fan and a plenum box drawing fumes through a container of charcoal filter made from filtering medium bought from a chemical supply house SImple and cost about $30.

Randy

Mike that is one of the reasons I am switching over to Acrylics, Im sick of having to spray in the garage and wait on the weather to cooperate. Hobby booths while very nice,well are very pricey.....
over at Scale auto a few members have displayed thier home made solutions, some nice looking contraptions which I have thought about making or modifying....as far as "actual plans" online I havent found any good ones yet......but here's the link to the SA thread which can be found here:http://www.scaleautomag.com/sca/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1054
Hope this helps some

Chris,

Thanks for the link buddy.

Mike

Some pretty good home made stuff there and from the prices posted they all seem very affordable.....Hope it helps, now the trouble Im having is figuring out which one to build!