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Idea thread: Planning my semi-permanent paint booth, hoping for your input

50K views 48 replies 18 participants last post by  reddogracing 
#1 ·
As I plan to finally paint my Mustang this summer, I'd like to build a semi-permanent paint booth/paint area in my shop. I have a space already partially set up for it that's a good place to start. I'd really appreciate input from others who have done this as DIY, as well as you pro's with the good paint booths.

I'm looking for ideas and discussion ranging from everything to air handling, power, lighting, exhaust and ventilation, space, filtering, maintenance of cleanliness, etc. Seen lots of great tips in past threads about this topic, such as spraying adhesive on filters. Things like that are good to know. The point of this then isn't necessarily to re-hash info but more to custom tailor ideas to my specific space and really for me to share my ideas to see if they're any good or not. They will probably change as I hear better ideas.

Now a few images....the space is 13 feet wide, and 20-something feet long. Floor drain in the center. I am planning on finishing the ceiling by putting some painted sheeting up there, and will prob have to build a mock wall that goes to the right edge of the checkered walk, which means the air compressor will be in the booth. Any issues with this? Mainly concerned as to where I should locate my 220 outlet for the compressor. The white wall with black strips at the end is actually a sliding door. On the other side of the wall of the compressor is an enclosed lean-to shed.

Thanks in advance and looking forward to the discussion and insight! :thumbup:
 

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#2 ·
For ventilation, past threads have talked about it's best to have fans supplying fresh air (clean shop air?) and the paint air exiting through external filters but without fans. Would the air supply fans be best if they were mounted on the ceiling providing a down draft or in a side wall blowing across? To exhaust air, I'd probably crack the door the width of a filter, build a 2x4 frame and run filters all the way up.

For lighting I was wondering if 4 of those cheapie $10 4' fluorescent light fixtures you can get from Lowes on the ceiling are sufficient, or if I should have lights on the side walls too?

Also concerned about how I should run power to minimize explosion hazards.
 
#6 ·
If you can't place the compressor outside or in another room, at least place it as far from the painting area as possible.

1. As Milo said, you don't want airborne oil droplets floating around.
2. The pressure switch contacts arc when turning on and especially off.
3. The compressor cooling pulley stirs up dust.

4. Lights on the walls are great, especially when trying to paint down along the rockers.
5. Have a dedicated compressed air outlet just for painting, no air tools. Get a good water separator and use all 3/8 ID hose and fittings.

I've made about every mistake possible so what I know, I learned the hard way.

The pros will have more and better ideas.

regards

ron
 
#8 ·
If you plan to insulate I would do that first.. Then either Sheetrock and tape ceiling or go paint tin.I sheet rocked mine and now wish I had went with the tin. May try to tape and paint my ceiling and do the walls with ceramic tile some day.Thought I had plenty of lights and still wish I had more. Made it a semi cross flow. Fan in front at filters pulling down from filters in ceiling at the rear. If anyway possible I would try to move the compressor. Not only because of the oil concerns which dosen't seem to be that big of a problem if compressor is in good shape. But when it comes on it does strange things to the air flow in the booth.I posted a picture of mine. It's just used to paint in and if I dont have anything a paint I will sometimes just park a car in it.
 

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#9 · (Edited)
gto_ron said:
If you can't place the compressor outside or in another room, at least place it as far from the painting area as possible.

1. As Milo said, you don't want airborne oil droplets floating around.
2. The pressure switch contacts arc when turning on and especially off.
3. The compressor cooling pulley stirs up dust.

4. Lights on the walls are great, especially when trying to paint down along the rockers.
5. Have a dedicated compressed air outlet just for painting, no air tools. Get a good water separator and use all 3/8 ID hose and fittings.

I've made about every mistake possible so what I know, I learned the hard way.

The pros will have more and better ideas.

regards

ron
what exactly are you referring to by compressed air outlet? Hard plumbing? Hadn't considered that for the plan but may look into it to see how easily and economically I could work it in. The way my current set up is (and you can kind of see it in the picture) is a whip going to the regulator/filter, and then it goes down to my hose reel. I don't run oil through my lines for my air tools (I oil them at the tool) but I do run air tools off this as well.
 
#10 ·
swvalcon said:
If you plan to insulate I would do that first.. Then either Sheetrock and tape ceiling or go paint tin.I sheet rocked mine and now wish I had went with the tin. May try to tape and paint my ceiling and do the walls with ceramic tile some day.Thought I had plenty of lights and still wish I had more. Made it a semi cross flow. Fan in front at filters pulling down from filters in ceiling at the rear. If anyway possible I would try to move the compressor. Not only because of the oil concerns which dosen't seem to be that big of a problem if compressor is in good shape. But when it comes on it does strange things to the air flow in the booth.I posted a picture of mine. It's just used to paint in and if I dont have anything a paint I will sometimes just park a car in it.
It looks great so far!

A lot of comments about moving the air compressor. Right now the compressor is just sitting on the pallet (and that's how I've always left it) so it can easily be moved. It's a newer compressor--I've had it two years. I'm starting this thread now because I'm going to be running the power to the compressor and am debating on where I put the 220 outlet. The fact that I'll probably be moving my compressor when I paint will affect this decision.

I'm not ambitious enough for drywall, my current plan was to take some particle board, prime it and paint it, and put it up there? I want all the surfaces at least painted so I can hose it down to clean it. I should have prefaced this with we just bought the place and are putting money into it in lots of places (you know, those things called priorities :mwink: ). Needless to say this ranks low on the priorities (or at least I have to make it seem like it does :thumbup: ) so likewise, I have to make it seem like I'm doing it as budget as possible! :pimp:

Can you go into more detail on your flow? I'm a little confused.
 
#11 ·
Know all about that budget thing. Talked the wife into us taking a loan to build my shop and went way over budget. She was not a happy camper. I've got about $65,000 into it and its still not completely done. It's only 30x60 and I did all the inside work myself. As to the flow in my booth the intake filters are at the back of the booth in the ceiling. The white filter in the pictures. The outlet is at the floor in the very front. The green filters in the pictures. I have a 24" old binks paint booth fan mounted outside pulling air in and across the car and out. Iam still working on closing off the lights and sealing everything up. Not as nice as a bought paint booth but should do the job just fine when complete. I've included a shot of the fan.I'am going to try to get the exhust stack covered this summer with steel to match the building.I had to slow the fan down from where binks had it because it tryed to turn the building insideout.
 

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#13 ·
I assumed you were plumbing in your compressed air outlets. I have my compressor in the opposite corner of my garage with 1/2" copper pipe around the top of my walls. I have 5 drops and the one in my painting corner is for painting only. My compressor is about 10 years old and passes a little oil when I run it hard. I have to have a water/oil separator to avoid fish-eyes.

I mentioned the 3/8 fittings because I was amazed how big a pressure drop you get with the HVLP guns.

We all have to fight the budget battle, especially those of us who are married,

regards

Ron
 
#15 ·
Is it pretty critical if the lights are sealed, mainly for the sake of not blowing up or is it really one of those Chicken Little scenarios? The fluorescent lights I was originally considering getting are just your standard cheap open bulb shop light. Want to be smart but practical.
 
#16 ·
The cheapie lights are not a hazard. I think if you have any air circulation at all the chances of getting blown up are nil. I've only been painting for about 15 years but I've never heard of any explosions due to paint fumes around my area. Your standard AC motors are brushless so there are no arcing there.

ron
 
#17 ·
Thanks for the info. The second question I have then is orientation of the lights on the wall. I noticed swvalcon has his wall lights running vertically (which makes sense, I guess). The cheapie lights I'm planning on going with are 4', 2 bulbs per fixture. My plan now was to mount to on each wall so that one will provide illumination for the front half of the side of the car, and the other the rear half of the side.

My question is will these things be blinding me from the wall opposite me as they're shining right in my face, like my fluorescent shop treble light does? Or is that a phenomenon that's only occurring (such as in the latter instance) from the stark contrast from a bright light in an otherwise dark room? In other words, when the entire room is bright are these side lights not as blinding?
 
#18 ·
What I have found with my lighting, it is not brightness that helps with my painting, (my shop is very bright with lots of lights from above), but I need reflections of the lighting so I can determine how smooth the paint is going onto the surface. I needed to put up more vertical lighting on the sides and the ends of the car so I can look down a panel and see a light source that I can see a reflection and that helps me see if I need more paint on the surface.

I haven't read the posts on ventilation yet, but what I was thinking was use a window opening with filters for the shop makeup air and then use one of the round turbine fans that connect to 12" hoses. I was going to run the suction inlet hose underneath the car with lots of holes and run the outlet out of the shop. My thinking is, this may make it more like a downdraft booth, move the paint fumes from top of the car to the bottom and then out the fan. The window and filter for the makeup air is toward one end of the booth and the outlet is at the other end.

I have used one of these fans with an outlet just to blow paint fumes out of the shop and it works very well, I haven't used one yet with an inlet hose connected.
 
#19 ·
Home made paint booth

Be sure to put the exhaust fan switch on the outside of the booth with a control on the inside. That way you won't blow up the booth from a spark at the switch and you can shut down the exhaust vacuum before opening the door to the booth. A lot of dust will pour in through the open door and swirl around if you open the door with the fan running.
 
#21 ·
Explosion proof your booth

I think the given here is that you will have a booth to paint your car and parts in so here are my thoughts on the matter. Standard air circulating fans have electrical current running through them and even if there is no spark they can produce a static charge that will ignite a volatile vapor. The fans that are normally used in paint booths, have blades that are aluminum so that no spark will be created if they strike the side of the shroud. Also they are powered by an electric motor from outside the booth. The drive pulley of the motor protrudes into a pipe large enough for the fan belt. Usually the fan belt is 2 or 3 feet long and drives a pulley, on a shaft. That shaft goes out of the tube where it is connected to the fan blade. Perhaps your local major paint rep (PPG ?) knows a source for good used proper fans. Many of us have taken the chance and not had any problem. I personally have and got away with it. One must consider that the inside of a paint booth full of ignitable vapors could become a fire box. My understanding is that the booth would not explode but rather have a hot flame that radiates around the entire booth, like a cloud on fire. Minimizing the risk would be to have a massive air flow to minimize the ignitable vapors in the air. Most booths have a fire retardant system in them and it would not be very costly for you to put one in your booth. Just requires hooking up to a good water supply, plumbing the ceiling with copper tubing and installing 2 or 3 temperature sensitive shower heads (the kind they use in all commercial buildings). Even though you are in a booth with some air flow you must wear a fresh air respirator or you will suffer brain and nervous system damage. In the paint industry the saying is, if you can smell it it is hurting you. And today some very toxic and poisonous chemicals have no smell at all.
 
#23 ·
Spray booth

An inexpensive fan is a used furnace fan (sometimes you can get them for free). The average furnace fan will create 1000-1500 cfm on high speed.
Build a plywood box for it to create a framed rectangular outlet. Put it on a wooden frame with casters of proper height to roll it in place then store it out of place later. Use it to suckout the air (not blow fresh air in) , sucking creates less turbulence for stirring up dust. I made a removable plywood adapter so that I blow out of a window.
On other end I open a window that has a screen on outside and then tape cheap throwaway filters on the inside of the window.
You will get some paint buildup on the fan, but for occasional use that won't matter. Always let your fan continue to run for several hours to exhaust fumes b4 unplugging.

The cheapest, best air filter for water removal is is motorgaurd toilet paper air filter. Place it before you regulator with some 3/8" or 1/2" ball valves so it can be bypassed when not painting
http://www.kolorhouse.com/mtg-m-30.html

You do not have to use their filter element, just buy a pack of cheap toilet paper (the ones where the rolls are slightly smaller diameter than the deluxe units). You will be able to paint the whole car with one roll. ALLWAYS take the filter element out for non painting jobs because the wet paper will eventually corrode the aluminum housing (ask me how I know). You can let the roll dry for a week and reuse it over and over.

I have painted ~ 15 cars using this method. :D
 
#24 ·
hello,

if you go to the following link, you will see all of the pictures i have been taking for my project.

take a look at the "paint_booth", "exhaust_fan" and "garage_work" albums. everything is operational and in use now.

let me know if you have any questions.

take care and good luck,
mark
 
#26 ·
I tell you what guys, it's going to take me a good weekend just to sit down and process all this info and look into it some more, so many great suggestions, tips, and recommendations. Keep em coming if you got them, I sure appreciate all the help, and I will have some more questions for you as well, especially if you've commented.
 
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