Lighting for Spray Booth

Check out those hi intensity LED under cabinet lights used in kitchens. Easy to install and wire. No heat to worry about and no chance of breaking a bulb.

genj53john

I've been struggling with getting good lighting in my desk top spray booth which measures 24" wide x 24" deep x 18" high.  I currently have a 18" fluorescent light attached to the inside top.  It creates to many shadows so sometimes I stick a small desk lamp inside to improve things a bit.  I was thinking about getting some type of LED lights but before I spend the money I thought I'd ask what other solutions folks are using.

The LED lights sound like a very good idea.  (You certainly wouldn't want to use a propane torch in there...)

I use one of those halogen strip lamps you can buy at Home depot. It's about a foot long and has two bulbs. Plenty bright.

I use linkable flourescent lights. You can connect as many as 9 (I use 4) and the jumper/connector cord is included. My current booth is a little smaller and I use the 13" ones. You connect the cord that goes to the outlet at one end and then daisy chain the rest of the lights with the shorter jumpers provided. You can turn them all on or off with the switch on the one connected to the outlet or turn each on or off individually. They used to be $8 at WalMart but they're right at $10 now. The bulbs are covered and you can pop the cover off to clean it. Whenever I get around to building a larger booth I plan to use the 24" ones.

Tony

I cut a slot in the top of my latest spray booth the size of one of those under-cabinet fluorescent fixtures. I wanted to keep the light out of any spray, for reliabililty.  So I covered the slot with a piece of clear plastic.  To protect the plastic from getting fogged up and needing replacement frequently, I took a tip from racing drivers who use tear-offs on dirt tracks.

I took some of that clear packaging tape and made a lamination of five layers.  Each layer had one end folded back to make a tab that allows grabbing top layer easily to tear it off.  That "pack" was then turned upside down and stuck onto the bottom of the window.  Now, when the topmost layer (actually, on the bottom, since we turned it upside down) I grab the tab and pull it off.  Did this over a year ago and still on the first pack, but have only one or two left so will have to make up a new tab soon.

I then mounted that light fixture on the top of the cabinet, aimed to beam down through the slot.  Bulb and fixture stay clean and out of spray.

BTW, booth is homemade, so cutting slot was part of original design.

When I built my booth, I used three of those round, under-cabinet lights that someone has already mentioned.

Unfortunatley, I mounted them all to the top of my booth so still have some problems with them throwing wierd shadows. I'm thinking of moving them (one on top, one on each side) to see if that helps...

just wondering about this,do you guys need to make sure the flameable fumes from the paint not come in contact with electricity,in other words,are sealed lights used or are any lights okay in the combustible atmosphere of a paint booth.

thought it was worth asking out of safety concerns

My spray booth is about the same size as yours.

I used something like these Xenon puck lights from Lowes. Mine doesn't have the dimmer. They can  all combine into one plug.

You do not have to use all 6. Also come in smaller packs.

I used one in each of the top four corners and one on the left and right side. The bulbs are covered by a piece of glass. Plenty bright. No shadows.  I painted the inside of my spray booth bright white.

http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=240423-61448-35806BLK120D&langId=-1&storeId=10151&productId=3093197&catalogId=10051&cmRelshp=req&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1

About the safety concerns, all I can say is I haven't had any problems. Can't say it's 100% safe or foolproof. I've seen full size booths with exposed lighting and they're moving more paint than I am so I decided to give it a try. The fan moves a good bit of air so everything goes straight out the back pretty quickly. And flourescents stay fairly cool. But I've never found any daylight balanced tubes in this size so you can't really go by the color balance you see in the booth.

The top of my booth is a piece of Lexan and there's a 4' flourescent fixture just above and slightly behind the booth so that helps with shadows and having a light in the corners takes care of anything else.

Tony

I have a spray booth I made from a storage container. I was thinking about lighting today and purchased a battery powered LED light that can velcro to the inside. I'll let you know how this works out.

Tojo72

just wondering about this,do you guys need to make sure the flameable fumes from the paint not come in contact with electricity,in other words,are sealed lights used or are any lights okay in the combustible atmosphere of a paint booth.

thought it was worth asking out of safety concerns

Yes! that is why I mounted a plastic window over a slot in the top, and mounted the light I mentioned above on the outside (top) of the booth, above the window.