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What kind of fan for a home built spray booth?

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  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: The flat lands of the Southeast
Posted by styrene on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 11:27 AM
Typically, squirrel-cage fans work really well, since the fan does not exhaust through the motor. Stay away from range hoods and bathroom exhaust fans. Get a fan big enough to pull the vapors into the booth and then push them out your exhaust ducting. Capture velocity at the booth face should be about 80-100 feet per minute (fpm). Example: If your face area is 4 square feet (2'L X 2' W), then the MINIMUM airflow you need for a fan will be 80 fpm X 4 sq.ft. = 320 cfm. Depending on the length of your exhaust ducting, you should probably bump that 320 up by about 20% or so. That will also account for filter resistance (which is slight, but it's there). By the way, stay away from plastic or vinyl clothes drier hose. Get at least 4" aluminum flex duct, and avoid long vertical runs and right angle turns, as that increases friction loss on the system and decreases duct transport velocities. The shorter your ducting runs, the better.

The idea behind filters is that they are there to keep paint pigment residue from depositing on the fan and along the exhaust ducting, and decreasing your overall airflow (as well as increasing fire risk). Once again, I would avoid most furnace filters, since they will catch a lot of the big stuff, but allow most of the finer pigments to migrate where you don't want them. You might consider checking with your local auto body paint shops, or paint suppliers, and seeing what kind of filters they use or have available.

Just my opinion. Hope this helps a little.
Gip Winecoff

1882: "God is dead"--F. Nietzsche

1900: "Nietzsche is dead"--God

  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 11:15 AM
mine as a 2 fans 6" in dia...... they look like Muffin fans. except they're 110v AC as opposed to 12v DC (like computer take outs)
  • Member since
    January 2003
  • From: Woodstock, GA
Posted by miker42 on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 10:50 AM
I understand that brushless would be the way to go, but what kind of fan? I've heard of people using Bathroom fans or using range hoods or something like that. Also, what kind of filter would work best?
  • Member since
    August 2003
  • From: Alice Springs Australia
Posted by tweety1 on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 9:41 AM
When matt says 'Brushless' it means that is made to rotate via emf.
'Brush'type fans make a mechanical and elctrical contact onto the rotating section, armature, which in turn is connected to the yoke (bunch of wires).
These types of motors generally create sparks during operation, not something you want when filling an enclosed duct with fumes!

(hope all of that made sense)
--Sean-- If you are driving at the speed of light and you turn on the headlights, what happens???
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 9:08 AM
Brushless motor on the fan.... Bearings are the best!!
  • Member since
    January 2003
  • From: Woodstock, GA
What kind of fan for a home built spray booth?
Posted by miker42 on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 8:54 AM
Hey all. I have some scrap wood laying around from some projects I've done in the past. I'm thinking of building a spray booth. What kind of fan would work best to properly move the air flow with out sucking the paint off the model? If it helps, the size of the booth will be big enough to accomodate most 1/48 scale aircraft (not the Revell B-1 though) and 1/35 armor.

Thanks,
Mike
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