Dust Dust Everywhere

Don Stauffer

I wonder if I can convert mine, making a hinged door for the front.

Hey Don--I am positive that you can. I built my entire booth from components readily available at local hardware stores. You have the hard part already done with having the booth.

Get a piece of clear acrylic for the door, some hinges, gloves, weathering strip, pipe clamps, and I used pipe flashing for where the hands go through, like below. I expanded the pipe flashing hole and trimmed back the exterior flange to a minimum. I cut holes in the door and epoxied the flash to the outside of the door. I used adjustable pipe clamps to secure the gloves from the backside. Basically, two clamps for each opening mounted one within the other, the gloves sandwiched between the two, and the outer clamp drawn tight to secure the gloves. Then--I epoxied the assembles into the holes from the back side of the pipe flash.

The pipe flash does two things. It gave me the means to secure the gloves from the back and it sort of prettied it up. I mounted the flash inverted from what the image below shows. I have the longer oblong side angle going up. That allows your hands freedom to move up and down more.

That is how I did it, you might have a better idea.

I built my booth so it updrafts the mist away. It isn't perfect of course but at least it's drawing up and not straight across the model to the back of the booth.

Most of the dust or specks we get in the finish is either on the model to begin with, crap blown through the brush onto the model or lint off our clothing drawn into the booth, in my experience. When I was shooting 1/1 we filtered the paint into the paint cup, that gets rid of most crud that might get shot through the gun ( you would be surprised at some of the chunks of stuff left in the paint strainer). We blew our clothing off before entering the spray area. Then you start painting and crap would blow up out of a door seam or air vent on the vehicle, so we learned to also blow off with air the subject being painted as well. Just sayin.

 Bakster said:

I built one exactly like this. The only issue I had was that the gloves I used were not long enough and the result is that it restricted my reach. In frustration, I cut the hands off the gloves and left the rest. Now, I put my hands through the sleeves of the gloves and they tighten up around my arms as the sleeves narrow. The result is the same in that dust can't get through from the outside, and now I have much more freedom of movement. The only contaminants are what I bring with me. I wear secondary gloves that limits what I bring in, as well as it protects my hands from the paint and chemicals. On one corner of the booth I made a small air intake so that the booth can breath a little. I filled that intake with foam that allows air to pass, but it restricts the dust coming in.

The system works very well. I just need to do a better job of cleaning it. The front face of the booth flips up for cleaning and to remove the model parts. Once the door is flipped up, dust can get in. Hence, I need to clean it from time to time.

Here is the real beauty of the system. It drastically reduces fuming. I have a lot of respiratory issues and if use the booth in the closed mode, I barely smell a thing. So much so, that I have no need to use a respirator. It also limits fine paint particulate from floating around the room. The booth contains it until vented out.

Anyway, my two cents.

 [/quote]

Hey, that sounds like a great idea!  I wonder if I can convert mine, making a hinged door for the front.  I guesss I need a vent somewhere to let air in so as to not stall the fan (which now sucks air out).  But maybe I can put a filtered vent into the door. 

They make sand blasting booths like this. Maybe a cheap one from HF could be adapted? 

I was going to suggest the same thing -spray the area with water. We do that when building computers in the winter. 

Don Stauffer

There are ones that are enclosed where you put your hands into rubber glove-like things that extend past your elbows, but I am not sure how well I could do airbrush work then.  Might work with spray cans, b

I built one exactly like this. The only issue I had was that the gloves I used were not long enough and the result is that it restricted my reach. In frustration, I cut the hands off the gloves and left the rest. Now, I put my hands through the sleeves of the gloves and they tighten up around my arms as the sleeves narrow. The result is the same in that dust can't get through from the outside, and now I have much more freedom of movement. The only contaminants are what I bring with me. I wear secondary gloves that limits what I bring in, as well as it protects my hands from the paint and chemicals. On one corner of the booth I made a small air intake so that the booth can breath a little. I filled that intake with foam that allows air to pass, but it restricts the dust coming in.

The system works very well. I just need to do a better job of cleaning it. The front face of the booth flips up for cleaning and to remove the model parts. Once the door is flipped up, dust can get in. Hence, I need to clean it from time to time.

Here is the real beauty of the system. It drastically reduces fuming. I have a lot of respiratory issues and if use the booth in the closed mode, I barely smell a thing. So much so, that I have no need to use a respirator. It also limits fine paint particulate from floating around the room. The booth contains it until vented out.

Anyway, my two cents.

It is interesting to consider the purpose of ordinary paint booths.  The purpose of them is to reduce odor and deposit of paint fog on nearby surfaces.  But it does suck in surrounding air- and dust if it is in the air.

At work a few times I had to use a laminar flow clean bench.  This draws in and filters ambient air, blows it gently over the working surface and exhausts it into the air.  I have sometimes wondered if it would be possible to build a booth that does both.  Maybe impossible.  I suppose you could do that with a small room or closet.  My brain has not been able to think up a practical design for just a bench.

There are ones that are enclosed where you put your hands into rubber glove-like things that extend past your elbows, but I am not sure how well I could do airbrush work then.  Might work with spray cans, but have never built and tried one.  Should reduce dust though.

One thing I have done to reduce dust is to make up a tack rag and use it before each coat.

SMH, We all feel your pain. I've given up on having a perfect flawless paint job. I'm really happy if it happens but I've come to expect some dust. Even a spray booth doesn't guarantee you won't get some dust. A spray booth will certainly help, but it's no guarantee. If you are working with an inexpensive spray booth, especially, it's very possible the booth itself is creating some of your problems. The exhaust fan in your booth is drawing air from the room as it draws the air from the booth. So, if you have some dust in the air just outside of the booth opening, the exhaust fan is going to draw that in toward your model. I liked the suggestion someone made of using a misting bottle with water just before he paints. That would help to knock some of the dust out of the air. I came across this thread about spray booths. A few entries down in the string, someone talks about the challenges of making a spray booth. I think it will answer some of your questions about how your spray booth might be causing some of your problems. Good luck. Barrett

https://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/13-modeling-forum/229661-paint-booths.html

This page might be of interest to you.

Don

Thanks for all the replies.

I think I'm going to focus on static that seems to make sense to me. Dry air blowing across plastic making static electricity attracting dust.

Quick google search:

https://www.wikihow.com/Remove-Static-Electricity

keavdog

 Btw, is there a measure of static-ness?  Might be helpful.  

Yep, relative humidity.  When it gets about 40 percent or lower, static is a bigger problem.  I wipe my models with a damp paper towel to remove any charge and it seems to help.

Don

keavdog

I find that static is the killer.  I'll do 10 models in my spray booth with no problems and then boom... one of those dry windy staticky days screws up a model.  

 

Rambo

I keep a spray bottle with just plain water in it, before I start painting I give the air around the spray booth a few mists from the bottle and that knocks the dust out of the air.

 

Interesting idea!  I find that static is the killer.  I'll do 10 models in my spray booth with no problems and then boom... one of those dry windy staticky days screws up a model.  I did a Brewster Buffalo recently (it's on this forum if you want to find it).  4 color cammo over a couple weeks and no problems.  Gloss coat no problems. A week later... the last step of putting the dull coat down and every bit of muck in the air was clinging to my Buffalo.  Btw, is there a measure of static-ness?  Might be helpful. 

SMH

Whats your approach?

From my experience, dust is unavoidable. In most cases it’s not that big a deal because it can be fixed. I simply remove the dust by giving the model a light wet sand, and then spray another coat of paint to bring the model to its final finish. If it happens again, follow the same process again.

I have salvaged many a paint job by doing this. But, it depends on what you are working on. If you have decals applied and the dust was in the top coat, that can get trickier. 

All that said, it is improtant to have a clean area. When I am about to spray a critical layer I will use a vacuum cleaner to suck any dust that may be clinging to the spray booth. I try to NOT wipe a booth clean because I find that the act of wiping creates a static charge, and that causes dust to attract and cling to the booth. Once I start spraying, the charge weakens, and the dust starts to rain down. It took me a while to figure that one out. It always seemed dust was worse just after wiping the booth down. Bingo. 

That is my two cents.