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Home Built paint booth..EXTREME

36K views 58 replies 19 participants last post by  Nathon#1 
#1 ·
I’m in the process of building my own place to learn and perform auto restoration.

The back story is so long........ where do I start.... obsessed with automobiles..... that about covers it.

I need my own place to do body work and paint. I am against doing it in the same building I fab, so another building had to be built.

The flow though the building will be like a down side draft paint booth.


16x34


Framed up
 
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#4 ·
The left and right side of the booth will be the same (except the entry door, of course).

Fans are in place. 12,000 CFM each.

I have marked all the locations where lights will be placed.

I think I will use that pink insulation on the walls. It goes on easy, it's water proof, it's cheap, and I think I can paint it white.

 
#7 ·
I spent the last week "sealing" up the building.
I am going away for the next month..... My brother in law will work on the booth when he can. I promised some people it will be DONE in 2 months :(.

I have not got around to cutting out the gable vents. This is where all the air will be pulled in.





 
#8 ·
Looks like a nice building, what are you using for intake air filtration because the inside of the booth will be negative pressure and all the air coming in will be outside air? How are you controlling your exhaust fan speed...you don't want to take out too much air movement or your paint could have problems with popping? One last Question, did you allow for a floor drain in the concrete, not a deal breaker but they are always handy?

The building looks great and I'm sure your paint work will be much cleaner than if you had build this booth in the metal and body work area. That was real good thinking on your part and will only help in minimizing any contamination.

Ray
 
#9 · (Edited)


The black area is where I will be placing gable vents/filters. One on each side. The air will go into the attic and pass a second set of filters before it enters the booth.

I have no way of controling fan speed. These fans are not suited for a speed controler. I am afraid of having too much air flow. I have been thinking of ways to reduce air flow. Is too much air flow a bad thing?

I really ball parked the fans CFM. I reviewed paint booths that are a similar size. They move about the same amount of air.

And I do not have a drain. I will be pushing the water out with a broom.
 
#12 ·
The black area is where I will be placing gable vents/filters. One on each side. The air will go into the attic and pass a second set of filters before it enters the booth.

I have no way of controling fan speed. These fans are not suited for a speed controler. I am afraid of having too much air flow. I have been thinking of ways to reduce air flow. Is too much air flow a bad thing?

I really ball parked the fans CFM. I reviewed paint booths that are a similar size. They move about the same amount of air.

And I do not have a drain. I will be pushing the water out with a broom.
Learn something from how turbochargers are designed. Too much airflow can be dealt with by ducting the intake for the fan and having a gate that either pulls air from inside, or from outside. (i.e. bypass the booth if you have too much airflow, then you can adjust how much bybass is used until you get the right airflow) Kind of like a waste gate in a turbocharger.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Do your exhaust fans have sealed motors... that is, are they approved for use in areas where they will exhaust FLAMMABLE air? If not, you may be asking for trouble. Also, what means will you have to dry the compressed air?
Well…. The sales pitch on this fan says it is “completely sealed with thermo protection.” Does it have a stamp on it that says “safe for dangerous atmospheres,” no it does not. I believe it is because of the blades. They are galvanized. Not aluminum or plastic. Yet the loovers are plastic.

As for the drier, I always ASSumed I would have to buy one of those expensive water separator and drier combo things.

And on a side note: I got home Friday but my dad killed my weekend with a C10 454 swap…. We swapped out the 305/th350 and dropped in a 454/th305 (2nd th350 was “rebuilt”). Turns out the 2nd th350 is $H(T and did not move the truck forward:drunk:. So today we put the original th350 back in the truck….. So, nothing was done on the booth……:(
 
#17 ·
Very nice job. I highly recommend a refrigerated air dryer if your budget can swing it. Before i got mine I put an old external engine oil cooler in line just after the compressor followed by one of the cheap water seperators from harbor freight and then had a box fan blowing air over it. It was ghetto but I was suprised how much moisture it condensed.
 
#18 ·
Home built paint booth

Nathon, did you use explosion proof fixtures and wiring methods. In my 50+ years in the electrical trade I have seen several home built spray booths go BOOM. The scariest was a guy that had cordoned off half his garage with plastic sheeting. One evening after he had just laid the base coat he went in to get something to drink. The explosion knocked him and his wife down and the house off of its foundation and totally destroyed their son's bedroom (it had a common wall with the garage). By His grace the son was out riding his bike with friends at the time it blew. Just curious.

I'm just finishing up a 40' x 60' shop with a two post lift, a bathroom, a craft room for my wife, lots of overhead storage and a lockable tool crib. I am going to build a metal framework that I can use outside and cover it tightly with plastic. I helped a friend years ago build one and it worked great. It was 12' wide, 10' tall and 24' long. He used a former heater squirrel cage fan that was cleaned up then boxed up with filters sealed to the box. He bought a ceiling fan speed control to regulate the speed.

Good luck on your project. I hope to do my own painting too, once I get the shop completed.
 
#35 ·
Nathon, did you use explosion proof fixtures and wiring methods. In my 50+ years in the electrical trade I have seen several home built spray booths go BOOM. The scariest was a guy that had cordoned off half his garage with plastic sheeting. One evening after he had just laid the base coat he went in to get something to drink. The explosion knocked him and his wife down and the house off of its foundation and totally destroyed their son's bedroom (it had a common wall with the garage). By His grace the son was out riding his bike with friends at the time it blew. Just curious.
Good luck on your project. I hope to do my own painting too, once I get the shop completed.
I'm also concerned that this was brought up, but no reply to his concerns! As a retired electrician, I also have wired numerous paint booths, and these are extremely valid concerns! It's not a case of if the lights or fans can cause an explosion, but rather when it will happen!
You could get by with fans remotely mounted outside the booth as pusher fans, instead of pullers, so the paint fumes don't move across the fan motors, but it's not the blade material that's a concern; it's the motors. The junction boxes, and type of motors used can create sparks or arcing, and if paint fumes are moving across the motors when this happens it will not just ignite, it will explode.
The same thing applies to the lights. They need to be explosion proof, and have sealed lenses, plus sealed tubes over the lamps to contain arcs. If the lights were mounted remotely, with sealed covers to keep them isolated from the fumes, they might work and not cause an explosion if wires or ballast shorted.
I hope you reconsider your electrical fans and lighting design, and we don't hear about you on the news later!
 
#20 ·
Sucks I have to bring this up nopw. but if you are going to be spraying water around, you should have have a concrete or concrete block knee wall installed at the bottom about 6-12 inches tall before the bottom plate, as it in now the water will rot out the bottom plate being as how its sitting right on the concrete. other than that it looks nice , you should post this up over at
The Garage Gazette - Index lots of tips and tricks for garages over there.
 
#26 ·
Ok. Many people have asked me how the heck I plan to filter the air as it comes into the booth.

I will have 10 like this (the filters are unside down):


mounted in the ceiling, like this:


So, there will be 40, 20"x20" filters letting in air.
This is after they pass a "pre-filter" in the attic vents.
 
#31 ·
I think you are going to get into trouble with your fans on the side. They will pull your air in, but you are also going to have a hell of a pull on your air at the sides of a vehicle. If you have both fans per chance running at the same time, you may get a more even flow of air at the top coming down because it is essentially one big open area. Now you are throttling that air to a 3'x3' hole.

It's too late to do it now and you'll just have to see how your design works, but if you do have problems, what you may need to do is cover your side fans with a 3' plenum, then run ductwork along the wall towards the bottom so you pull your overspray down and away from the complete vehicle. You could test out your design with a small BBQ grille or Hibachi, some charcoal, and some wet wood. Get your coals hot and put the wet pine wood on it. Set the grill at one end, in the center, then at the other end to see where all of your air flow happens.

I'm interested to see how your design works out. :thumbup:
 
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