Ducted Range Hood / Spray Booth

ausf...that set up is freakin genius. It's versitile, inexpensive, and very cleverly put together. I still ab with a filtered mask but i'm starting to think a little booth project may be in order.

I spent a lot of time here months ago trying to figure out the best way and this has worked out great. Had the same concerns about flammables ,et al. The 'art' spray booths use shaded pole motors, not explosion proof, so I aimed for that. What it means is the motor is outside of the airstream (they're also called squirrel cage motors). I ended up on the website everyone here recommended giving all the airflow and fan specifications and compared them to the commercially available booths. I decided on a 350 CFM from Grainger that was less expensive than the bath fan I had picked up from Home Depot. The whole set up was around $120.

I mounted it in the table so I can use it for general ventilation as well as spraying. When spraying I drop the clear tote on top and I'm good to go. When not using it, I drop the mat cutter over the screen.

Here's the bottom of the fan from underneath. It's ducted straight out the wall. It was a bit of work, but a lot cheaper than premade and stronger as well. I'll provide more details if anyone is interested in putting it together.

I would prefer something like PVC pipe or other material over the dryer hose as it will exhaust better because of the smoother interior. The corrugated interior of dryer hoses tend to collect particles because of the shape.

Mike

I'm building mine out sheet styrofoam, a medium cardboard box, a Radioshack fan and some dryer ducting. seems to be working ok so far!

I actually had a couple of 3 speed box fans in my garage and thought I'd try a very informal test. Filled an airbrush bottle with water, plugged in the fan on the floor, then angled an overhead light to better see the water mist.

I think I'm sold!

At high speed, and pointing the brush off center 90 degrees, that mist was making a hard right hand turn into the blades! Even at 50 lbs of air pressure, which I'd never use.

At 20 lbs through the brush, it was too much suction... knocked the fan speed down to low, and it was just about perfect.

Now all I'd need is a 20" x 20" filter for the front, and some sort of tapered venting system for the exhaust side. I saw where someone had used a dry cleaner's bag taped around the rear of the fan, then taped to a length of dryer duct. I imagine I could make it a bit fancier if I wanted.

The specs for this fan are 2140 (high), 1740 (medium), 1300 (low) CFM. That's almost exponentially more air draw than a commercial booth.

build it yourself: cheaper, satisfaction of diy, and you can make it as small/big as you want, you can put airbrush holders, and you can make it out of metal, aluminum, wood, etc.

Here's a shot of the Paasche booth:

http://www.dickblick.com/zz269/08/products.asp?param=0&ig_id=1541

The top / angled portion of this really does resemble a range hood. I had thought about the box fan, the extra air pull would be nice, but this range hood would make for a quicker project. I don't really have a sense of how much 200 CFM is, how much paint mist it would pull. The nice thing about the rangle hood is that I can duct is easily out a window when using clear coat, or an adhesion promoter... both nasty smelling sprays.

I imagine the only way to tell is to build it, and see if the motor is strong enough to really draw in a lacquer overspray.

You could even buy a box fan, put a furnace filter in front of it and build a box around it for a spray booth. Of course this will not remove the vapors from the room but it will catch the majority of paint particles.
The one you mentioned should work fine but I would put it at the back of the booth instead of the top as it is more efficient and particles will not fall back down onto what you are painting as they can with a top exhaust.

I need to build something myself.

Mike