Help - DIY Paint booth ideas/designs? (5000 posts, crap!)

[MossRoad]

Just caught my wife making some halloween decorations using wine bottles, spray paint and masking tape. Other than the overspray from her carefree spraying in my shop that had me cringing, I had to tell her to wear a filtration mask!

Wine and spray paint.... sounds like high school. :laughing:

 

[andy1981]

I've thought about using a 10 x 10 pop up canopy frame and covering it with clear poly

 

[dstig1]

That is a very good point. Even with a fan sucking air out of a spray booth, you need a mask on. This should be a rubber facepiece with a pair of general organic vapor cartridges and paint spray filters. The paint spray ones won't clog as quickly as regular P100 filters do which is a bigger issue when spraying finishes. Even with good booth airflow, you won't believe how much stuff those will catch. The gun is in your hand, and your face is only a foot or two away, so you will breathe some of it in before it all gets sucked away by the fan, no matter what.

 

[dragoneggs]

That is a very good point. Even with a fan sucking air out of a spray booth, you need a mask on. This should be a rubber facepiece with a pair of general organic vapor cartridges and paint spray filters. The paint spray ones won't clog as quickly as regular P100 filters do which is a bigger issue when spraying finishes. Even with good booth airflow, you won't believe how much stuff those will catch. The gun is in your hand, and your face is only a foot or two away, so you will breathe some of it in before it all gets sucked away by the fan, no matter what.

What I use... and it might be time to replace the filters. I don't paint a lot but I always use it... even for little jobs. When I was younger I was immortal... now I am thinking not so much. :duh:

 

[ultrarunner]

Too many auto painters I knew as a kid died from lung problems like emphysema...

 

[dstig1]

I didn't think of it since the topic was spray booths and not respirators, but ANY spraying operations need a respirator, frankly. Booth or not. When using a mask, you will not smell anything, if the mask fits properly. The filter in front of the carbon cartridge is what gets clogged up fast and needs changing often. The carbon cartridge can last a long time. All depends on concentrations and amount of use. Filters clog up quick, the cartridge typically lasts a long time. If you start smelling a little, then change the cartridge. This is not true of all paints. For example, isocynates are not detectable by smell in concentrations that can harm you. Ask the paint supplier for more details if you are getting into weird stuff.

 

[MossRoad]

Too many auto painters I knew as a kid died from lung problems like emphysema...

I only knew one auto painter and he died from lung problems.... but he smoked, too, as I recall. Anyhow, breathing that stuff can't be good.

 

[ultrarunner]

Smoking and auto refinishing is a double whammy...

All were on Oxygen tanks their last years... did some excellent work but it caught up to them... and yes, they smoked.

I did some painting for work at the machine shop... it was outside and I brought my own paint mask from home... some of the guys gave me a ribbing... told them I was not taking a chance.

Good Spray booth design will have airflow directing fumes away from you... just like good operating room air flow... fresh, HEPA filtered outside air comes down over the table and is exhausted at near floor level in the far corners of the room... I like 20 air exchanges per hour.