Home built spraybooths

just a note..

Most Fans run by useing an electric motor and brushing's to drive the fan.. the brushing inside create electrial sparks as they work.. IF you use flamable thinners and such there is a slight chance that if you get a enough of a buildup of the fumes in the fan it could cause ignition. If for some reason your exhaust got blocked and you were spraying a lot of flamable type paints and thinners this could be serious... for this reason regular fans are not recommended for spraybooths..

Brushless Fans operate on another principal and are used in areas where sparks could be hazardus.. the main use of them around the house are range hoods. esp for gas stoves.

other uses are computer fans. which are too small.. and the Telecom industry uses them to cool their substation equipment. If you have a salvage yard near you that reclaims old equipment from a local telephone/ electric. / cable / internet service type electronic equipment you might be able to find some..

I use a 5 inch brushless fan i got from some old Telecom eqipmentment and it really moves the air even through the filters.. only prob was i had to find a 24 volt adaptor for it.. lucky i found one in the same junkyard....

why not a 1/2" plywood box of your choosen dimensions........on top of which is an evacuation chamber......2/3's the size of the box.....on top of which is a XXX CFM exhaust fan..........(on the ceiling of the box is a A/C filter thru which all over spray is filtered)

if u did it that way u wouldnt have to worry about the laquer fumes attacking the fan right????

thanks for the idea cirikili + TCBlonski.... i might get around to building one one day when i get a bit iof cash

Hi all, i've just completed my own spraybooth. Due to the size of my workshop (see 'shed'!) or lack thereof i made it from 6mm MDF and hinged the sides so that it folds flat onto itself (it's a back draft type so this helps on that front). for light i'm currently using an anglepoise lamp, mounted to the wall. not ideal but it solves the problem for now.

From what i've been able to work out, bathroom fans are unsuitable because of the thinners used in spraying. There is a danger that they can get into the motor windings and cause a short and potentially a fire / explosion. Explosion proof motors seem to be freely available in the U.S (i'm in London, England so this is purely speculation based on internet searches) but a good alternative is co-axial fans from home computer or electronics supply stores. These generally have epoxy impregnated windings and mains operated versions are available. Mine cost £15 each so they're not prohibitively expensive either.

If you're serious about the construction as i wasn't, then modelersite has an informative article about design (www.modelersite.com/Abr2003/english/Spray-booth-design_Eng)

My booth doesn't seem to have quite enough suction so i'm going to be adding a top fan too, linked to the back via some trunking or somesuch. Home computer shops can also provide fan guards with built-in filter retainers. I've found these helpful whilst my search for a large piece of suitable foam continues.

Rob

I recently just completed my own home made spray booth because of the fumes and toxics when sparying enamels. I made mine out of plywood lined with replaceable white contact paper in the inside. It also has a 16" flourescent light and an exhaust fan which happens to be a bathroom fan. I'll try to post some pics when I get home, cause I'm at work right now. But I'm wondering why don't people recommend bathroom fans? Mine works great, I can actually see the darker plumes being drawn to the filter by the fan that's exhausted outside by 3" correggated drainage tubing. I don't know how much I spent but it was less than then $100 for all the materials and it's big and decent. Oh and by the way I do use a hepa mask while spraying. The dimensions are roughly 2' width by 18" height by 2' length. Oh by the way how do you post pics here, I'm a newbie.

QUOTE: Originally posted by styrene Gentlemen, This topic has been aired many times on this forum. I would encourage you to do a search and see if any of the topics help answer your questions. After doing your research, come back here and ask your questions. We'll be glad to help. Just one thought, though: Stay away from bathroom fans and cardboard boxes. If you are going to construct a spray booth, do it the right way. Gip Winecoff

......... couldn't agree more Gip...
why not a 1/2" plywood box of your choosen dimensions........on top of which is an evacuation chamber......2/3's the size of the box.....on top of which is a XXX CFM exhaust fan..........(on the ceiling of the box is a A/C filter thru which all over spray is filtered)
a light can be wired to the upper opening of the spray chamber & an on / off switch can be inserted into the fan wall plug........
no complex angles and no fume to fan contamination.......
works great & lasts a long time.......
best 'o luck to yas..........

hehehehe
well there go all my ideas....

Gentlemen,
This topic has been aired many times on this forum. I would encourage you to do a search and see if any of the topics help answer your questions. After doing your research, come back here and ask your questions. We'll be glad to help.

Just one thought, though: Stay away from bathroom fans and cardboard boxes. If you are going to construct a spray booth, do it the right way.

Gip Winecoff

I would buy a cheap bathroom exhaust fan. they work pretty well

dude ive been thinking of doing the samethng, and have a few ideas floating around my head.... im wanna make the walls outta cardboard (the easy part, using boxes and duct tape to make a booth the same shape as the bought ones), but the part where im stuck is the exhaust fans.... i dunno how to go about it.... i was thinking using just a house fan with a cloth as the filter, but i dunno if itll work... another idea i have is to use a range hood from a kitchen stove, but again i dunno how they would work ( ithink better than a house fan) and thats getting a bit expensive (my mum wont let me have the kitchen one! ;))....
i was gonna post the same topic, but u beat me to it so ill keep my eyes glued to this one :)