This is a scaled down version of a very large Semi truck paint booth I built at Northwest Trading Co. in Kalispell years ago.
Assume the room is 12'W x 8'H and 12' long. This is a rather small booth, but more realisic for a small shop. Sheetrock the walls with the green sheetrock meant for rooms with moisture, like a spa room. If you can afford 2mm Dibond, use it. Make sure that everything in the room is painted bright white with an oil based enamel. The floor will need to be sealed concrete with a drain in the center. The lights must be flourescent lights, recessed in the ceiling with a sealed acrylic cover, one you can replace from time to time. I've used sheets of Saran (Cling) Wrap on the surface of the acrylic and just stripped it off and replaced it periodically when the paint fog built up on the surface dimming the light.
The entry door(s) should have cutouts for filters, heater type, maybe 18"x18". One in each door or a larger one if its a single door.
On the opposite end of the room, there should be an outside wall. Make sure you allow for a filter in this wall as well. On the outside, closer to one side that the other, down low maybe 2' off the ground, make a sheet metal "L", facing downward. Your evacuation fan will be inside the bottom of the "L". This also keeps rain and strong winds from blowing into your booth. IF....if you are able to, use a fan that is belt driven by a motor rather than one that has the motor in the center. You'll never worry about an explosion. If you use the filter and an "L" setup, you shouldn't have a problem anyway. A variable speed fan is a very cool and useable type to have. If you can't find one, buy a Variopt and put it in line with the fan plug-in. That will allow from 0 to 100% on your fan speed.
Finally, buy some 1/2" diameter copper tubing that will be laid on the floor, next to the wall, all the way around the booth. Fold one end shut so as not to pass any water. Put a standard water hose connector on the other end. Now drill 1/32" holes every 6" on the bottom side of the tube, all the way around. This will actually attract and carry particles in the air to the drain. This is also the reason to have the evacuation fan and filter down low on the wall. In other words, all the while you're painting, there is a thin sheet of water flowing on the concrete to the drain. Oil or water based, you'll get the finest possible surface finish on your work with this type of booth.
k31
One further note. Use the intake air that's inside your shop, not from the outside. Heated air will make your paint flow out much better. Once the job is shot, slow down the fan to a very mild evacuation.
k31
[ June 22, 2003, 02:21 PM: Message edited by: pierre ]
Posted by Robert Beverly (Member # 1907) on :
Pierre Is that all there is to it?...why don't you come down and show me how to biuld it?...LOL...better yet, It sounds pretty easy...I'll take one!...did you say you would do it for 300.00?
OH...my earlier comment about filter...not you...just my "How do I make a post topic with out it soundin different than intended!...LOL
Posted by pierre (Member # 1462) on :
I'll visit you someday for sure, Robert. You and I seem to be a lot alike. Perceptive, intelligent, good looking, (Although ONE of us has the edge! heh.....)
I would estimate the interior cost of the one I described around $3,000 complete. It can be built in one day.
k31
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
Pierre...You basically described my spray booth. The only thing that I did different was to mount 4' flourescent fixtures vertically on the walls so that the bottom was 4' off the floor and the top was 8' up. That was for painting vehicles, makes the sides more brightly lit than from ceiling fixtures.
Posted by pierre (Member # 1462) on :
Exactly right, Davey. That's also how my original Semi booth was built with vertical lights on 30" centers. Other than that, the filters were in the ceiling and were mounted vertically in a housing that kept a water mist flowing across the face into a drain. That kept most of the airbourne debris from even getting to the filters. I had two aircraft carrier vent fans in opposing corners. The air was drawn down and around the vehicles, trapping anything else in the water flow on the floor.
k31
Posted by Bob Stephens (Member # 858) on :
My version is a little bigger but along the same lines.
I have outside my shop a 12'x60' single wide house trailer I gutted and in the process of converting to 2/3 spray booth 1/3 storage.
New 3/4 in plywood floor is down and the interior walls and ceilings are going to be covered in cheap white 3mil coroplast, $5.00 a sheet and no paint needed. Will have supply side filtered air and exhaust side down low.
Most important is the exterior side of the trailer that has my 8'h. X 60'w. banner facing the highway with the name of our company and website listed. Once had a blind guy with a seeing eye dog come in to order a sign.
Posted by pierre (Member # 1462) on :
Smart dog. What did the dog want?
k31
Posted by Chris Elliott (Member # 1262) on :
awww Pierre, that's an easy one..........he probably just wanted a nce sign for his doghouse (I'll bet he even had the blnd guy pay for it).
Posted by Robert Beverly (Member # 1907) on :
Pierre
Yes...there is an edge...some where!...as long as it is sharp!
and I think the deciding factor as to our likenesses would be...Do you just use veiners or do you also use that magical v tool in your work?
Posted by Joey Madden (Member # 1192) on :
$3000. is an awful lot of money for a spray booth, when the milk crate I got to carry my sign tools in was free along with a shopping cart I found in the parking lot of Price Chopper. Can ya design me a portable unit, maybe something out of cardboard and visqueen using 2x2 pieces of wood? I have to save my money right now for a sign program I have on Lay-a-way down at Wal-Mart. Thanks for any help in advance, email me, we'll do lunch Posted by pierre (Member # 1462) on :
Ha! I was just waiting for that one! heh................
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