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Is my pipe big enough for air flow?

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  • Member since
    July 2019
Is my pipe big enough for air flow?
Posted by Robotism on Friday, August 30, 2019 12:16 AM

I'm reshuffling my desk and wondering if I could fit a permanent airbrush set up on one of the lower shelves. I want to use a portable air booth but the pipe I have wouldn't reach the window and I'm looking to replace it with a longer thinner pipe. If I used a funnel to go from the large attachment on the back down to say a hoover pipe would it still work as air flow? Using a full size pipe would likely be impossible with my set up unfortunately.

  • Member since
    November 2018
Posted by oldermodelguy on Friday, August 30, 2019 9:57 AM

A 3" dryer vent hose might work but I wouldn't go smaller than that. Really over a longer run you should have the full sized hose. You can get it in there, if you can get the hoover in there, it's only another 2" wide or so. You might not like the look but if you want this thing to work you gotta do what makes it work.

That said I used to paint in a room with an exhaust fan in the window right behind the spray station. Worked fine.

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Friday, August 30, 2019 10:05 AM

A 2" hose has 1/4 the area of a 4" dryer vent pipe. That's just too much resistance to work well. No doubt the HVAC guys will have better advice, but look at getting 4" flex duct and mashing it flat.

 

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    March 2013
Posted by patrick206 on Friday, August 30, 2019 4:18 PM

GMorrison

A 2" hose has 1/4 the area of a 4" dryer vent pipe. That's just too much resistance to work well. No doubt the HVAC guys will have better advice, but look at getting 4" flex duct and mashing it flat.

 

 

Agreed, 4 inch hose will provide far less restriction to air flow. At first attempt with small diameter I still had strong fume presence, changing to 4 inch exhaust vented to outside made dramatic improvement. No sense of fumes now.

Patrick

 

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Friday, August 30, 2019 6:58 PM

Back in the day when my house was built, the carpenters used the stud space as a plenum for heat, roughly 3 1/2" x 14 1/2". Sometimes they lined it with sheet metal, sometimes they didn't...

Not a great idea where volatile fumes are concerned, but the idea is sound. While a circular duct is an efficient shape, you can squash it with only some loss of efficiency, or gang up two or three of your Hoover hoses in parellel. 

 

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

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