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Posted

Is it best to buy a spray booth or make it at home. (I’ve gone through a series of cardboard boxes one with a small bathroom fan wired into the back.) the ones you can buy seem to be very cramped, so I’d imagine a diy one is more cost effective (I tend to make 1/48 and 1/35 aircraft)

Any suggestions? 

Posted

If you have a saw and a place to cut wood go ahead and make your own. This is how I made mine:

https://modelrailroadforums.com/forum/index.php?threads/building-an-airbrush-paint-booth.30780/

 

It wasn't very hard and I got exactly what I wanted, not what someone else told me I should have. The type of paint you use will determine what type of fan to buy. I only spray water based acrylics, so I got by with a bathroom extraction fan. This type of fan would not be suitable for solvent based paints! :bomb:

Go for it! 👍

  • Like 1
Posted

@flyboy2610 is correct in what he says, the critical point being what you are spraying through your gun determines what type of fan you should buy/use.

I went the other way and purchased the best I could afford and have never looked back, it all depends on your situation and personal circumstances.

Posted

Thanks for that, does anyone know what to look for as far as a fan that will cope with mr self levelling thinner thinned paints (mostly Tamiya) and the odd enamel like AK Xtreme metal?

Posted

I've been spraying Mr Self Leveling Thinner through my upside-down kitchen extractor hood for years now.  I inverted it and ducted it to the outdoors via a hole in the wall, and built a housing around the back, top and sides, then mounted a daylight LED strip in the top, connecting compressor, hood, and light on a Smart Multi-Socket strip, which I toggle from a small battery-operated Smart Switch stuck to the side of my bench next to it.  Saves a lot of faffing, crawling about under tables etc.  My first version was a bathroom-type extractor fan, and it was worse than useless.  More suck from a baby's bottle.  V.2 was made with melamine board, and my most recent V.3 is MDF with a shelf at the rear, and a couple of soft-closing drawers below desk level.  It's quite a good storage facility if you include the top of the booth. :)

 

Some folks used to harp on about cooker hoods not being shrouded motors, but if they're OK to extract "natural" gas, it'll cope with some thinners.  To prove my point, I've once or twice squirted neat thinners right into the booth's intake to see if I blew up.  I'm typing this from a terminal in heaven :angel:

  • Haha 2
  • 4 weeks later...
Posted (edited)
On 12/30/2024 at 4:10 PM, YuckyJ said:

Is it best to buy a spray booth or make it at home. (I’ve gone through a series of cardboard boxes one with a small bathroom fan wired into the back.) the ones you can buy seem to be very cramped, so I’d imagine a diy one is more cost effective (I tend to make 1/48 and 1/35 aircraft)

 

Here's my 22 year old home-built spray booth. I had a blower from a kitchen furnace, and I wanted a storage area for the flexible hose. The booth consists of three main parts: a rectangular air box in which the blower is located, a small storage box for the exhaust hose on the right side, and a working desk with curved walls to the front. I built the booth from 10 mm MDF. Initially it was mounted on a wall-mounted TV stand, that explains the step in the bottom at the rear.

 

The booth has gained a good patina of all kinds of paints. A new filter is fitted, which explains why it looks so clean. On the right you can see the flexible air hose exiting; on the left you can see it running upwards towards the exhaust above the window. The detail photo shows the radial fan. The booth has four rubber feet, so I can move it around easily.

 

I have plans to build a new, more powerful spray booth. When I'm blasting away with (for example) the Paasche H, the spray booth cannot keep up. Also, the flow pattern at the filter face is awkward, in some areas the flow appears to be reversed. This is most likely due to vortices, that are caused by the bad aerodynamic layout of the blower sucking through a hole in a flate plate. My ex-kitchen hood blower is around 55 Watts power (I wrote 75 Watts earlier), but I have a 150 Watt blower waiting to be converted into a paint booth. It will also have a better aerodynamic shape.


Rob

 

desk-09.jpg

 

desk-10.jpg

 

desk-11.jpg

 

desk-05.gif

 

desk-01.jpg

 

desk-02.jpg

 

Edited by Rob de Bie
  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

Hello, I would like to continue this thread since I'm also interested in DIY spray booth.

What's your opinion about inline bathroom fans for DIY booths? I have seen that many people using those big fans like a turbine (first one from image below), but they are very expensive.

spacer.png

Why option number two isn't taken for DIY spray booths? This smaller one have 3,6 times smaller pressure in Pa, but amount of air in m³/h for this little one is 2,5 times bigger than from turbine version. (I compared fans with Ø100).

Heavy paint land on the model and light fumes fly away with the air, am I wrong?

Posted

Efeso, if the inline blower's specs are OK, I wouldn't see why you can't use it.

 

I wanted to keep it simple by just looking at the power, but you touched a better way: by looking at the fan's flow curve. It will show the actual flow as a function of the air resistance, usually expressed in Pa (Pascals). For example, the longer the duct, the more 90 degree bends, the rougher the duct itself (like those flexible spiral-wrap hoses), the more drag, and less flow..

 

Here's a random graph that I found. Problem for us is that we can't quantify the drag (although tools are available), so I find it easier to just look at the power. I would say 50 Watts is the minimum.


Rob

 

 

 

fig-1.png

 

 

Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Efeso said:

Heavy paint land on the model and light fumes fly away with the air, am I wrong?

 

Efeso (as in FSO Polonez??), that's definitely not the case. I've used my spray booth without a filter for a while, to decrease drag and increase flow (see previous post). The paint has accumulated on the fan, decreasing its aerodynamic performance in return. From time to time I brush off the paint, but it's a dirty job. It's one of the reasons why I want to upgrade to a 150 Watt blower, so I can use a filter again, combined with a good flow.

 

desk-11.jpg

 

Rob

Edited by Rob de Bie
Posted

I have one of these, its bigger and more powerful than the usual under 200 quid spray booths.

https://www.sparmaxair.com/accessory-tools/spray-booth-sb-88

Vast majority of my use is with acrylics, but occasional use with Revell Enamel which it copes with fine.

Comes with two extra spare filters,  one large rear and another for the fan.

Vent pipe can be attached vertically, left and right, pipe is made of strong grey plastic.

Posted

If flow rate doesn't mean but the pressure strong enough to work with filters, then even straight in-line Ø150 with reduction to Ø80 or even Ø60 will probably don't work well. Sadly if I need to buy parts to build DIY Spray Booth, when only engine cost +/- 250zł and whole chinese booth cost 420zł. Then DIY Booth sounds good for someone who have already spare parts to assembly it cheaper. Thanks for the answers.

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