Spray Booth Advice

I purchased the large Pace Peacekeeper about 3 years ago. I would NOT recommend it to others for the following reasons, and with the caveat that the re-design may have solved some of the issues:

1. Light bulb fixture poorly constructed: Mine was poorly put in place, the whole things has to be held down when changing light bulbs, which is a must because:

2. The sheet metal is so thin that the top part (over the bulbs) gets extremely hot to the touch. How hot? enough to melt plastic, burn your hand, or start a fire if you leave a piece of cloth/paper containing thinner. I changed the bulbs to low energy/temp types to avoid a fire.

3. The design of the large booth (light in front, deep working area)  results in the back of the booth being dark. Which is also the sweet spot for the venting! Therefore, you have to either rig more light into the booth, or spray in the front, completely defeating the point of getting the large booth in the first place.

The design of the Mini (pictured above) is very different; probably does not have the issues that my large booth has. Unfortunatelly, I went for the largest booth in order to get my 350 scale ships inside and the move backfired. The large booth would not even pass basic fire-prevention regulations; if the product was a high volume item, it would have been recalled a long time ago for being a fire hazard.

You could save quite a bit of cash by just making your own. I built my own with scrap wood I had in the garage, only had to buy a bathroom exhaust fan (works GREAT!!!), the tubing, and the flange/vent to go through the wall. Total cost was about $25. It aint real cute, but it gets the job done! (plus, it's over in the unseen part of the basement)

I own a Pace Peacekeeper and it has been great.  Worth every penny I have paid for this booth especially that I am not as handy as others who can make their own spray booths.  I had a friend help me install dryer duct and he replaced a glass panel  of basement window with a plywood connected to the duct. 

I even use it as photo studio to take pictures...

You won't be disappointed if you get one from Pace. 

The shorter the ducting the better. Fans do a better job of sucking air than blowing when you mix them with duct work. You can compensate for this by increasing the CFM the fan moves.

If you're considering a Pace Peacemaker you can give your specs to the owner and he'll design and equip your booth with the appropriate rated fan. Just provide him with run length and diameter of the ducting you plan to use.

I vent my booth out through a dryer vent about three feet above my booth.

Do you have a sash-type window in the shop?  The easiest way, if you do, is to cut a board of 3/4 inch plywood the width of the sash and about 7 inches high.  Buy a flange for use with running a dryer vent to the outside. Put that flange on the plywood board after cutting a hole the diameter of the inside of the flange.  Now run a dryer hose between the spray booth and that flange.  Some spray booths have a flange for a dryer hose.

If no window in the shop, visit a hardware store and look at the hardware they have for running a dryer vent through an exterior wall.  They have these things that are a tube of aluminum that will go through even a six inch stud wall, with a nice looking grill on the outside, and a dryer hose will slip over the aluminum tube.  You do need to cut a hole through any drywall, the exterior sheathing, and siding.