Found out yesterday I can graduate this semester and I dont have to go back to school - so being all gung-ho about being able to finish my car probably 6 months earlier than expected I went home and squirted some paint on my steering column (HOK shimrin metallic blue) in a very make shift paint booth- fumes every where- I have a paint booth at work but it is only 4 x 3 so painting most stuff is a paint in it is a pain. Got any suggestions on a non perminate booth for the house that could be used every couple of weeks- Ventilation suggestions? Lights? If all else fails I will just rebuild the shed and put a room in it
Gears - this will work for a temp booth Build a lightweight frame out of 2x4 spruce (its lighter and cheaper than pine) cover the outside with clear visqueen. At one end where put a couple of box fans in drawing the air out at the other side use some a/c filters stapled to the framing. You can use 2x4's accross the top and staple visqueen to it. When you staple the visqueen roll the edge and duct tape so the staples wont pull thru. wash the floor and wet it before painting to keep dust down. If the fumes are a problem then build a big box and use charcoal filters past the exhaust side but be sure to use 4 times the area of the intake filters. You can build this in panels that will break down and be easily stored.
I always thought a CONEX or shipping container would make a nice paint booth. They have very tight rubber seals around the doors, enough room inside to paint body parts, and can be easily evacuated with a fan of some type. Around here you can buy them outright or rent them fairly cheap by the month...and are very portable. You can take them were ever you may decide to go as long as you have room to put one.....
Well, I made a makeshift for my garage and it worked very well. Took a stall and a half and covered and stapled heavy plastic on the ceiling,floor and sides. ran two large box fans out of an opening into the other 1/2 stall. This allowed me to heat and vent at the same time. I would open or crack the other garage door to allow the fumes out. An enclosed breathing system is needed on alot of the new paint systems. They will kill and this setup would not work for these paints. heres a pic of my garage last year.
Don't do any type of painting if your garage is attached to your house. With todays two part products, the health risk is too high....if this is the case, find a bodyshop that will let you rent a booth to do your own spraying. If you want to paint at home(with catalyzed materials), just remember you need constant heat for 24 hours after it's painted. You also need airflow to properly crosslink the chemicals. Protect yourself with a full air make up system if possible....If none is available, use a disposable paper "shoot suit"....rubber gloves, head covering, and eye protection to keep the chemicals out of your eyes. Isocyanates can get in your blood in all of these areas. IF you breathe a catalyzed paint, you can give yourself chemical pneumonia, also make yourself allergic to these chemicals .....which means no more painting....be careful...hatch
... Paint on the other side of the yard away from your neighbors... coat hanger in a tree or something... Course this is coming from a guy that does semi-gloss black on most anything
Dixiedog, I know several guys around the country that use your paint booth. It works like a champ. I'm using a tent for my primer/body work. But when it comes time for the finished job I'm gonna set up like you described. Spades friend.
[ QUOTE ] ... At one end where put a couple of box fans in drawing the air out at the other side.... [/ QUOTE ] Do you REALLY want to draw explosive fumes through an electric motor? You can get air-powered blowers or if you have to use fans use them to push air in through AC filters.
thanks for all the tips- I will probibly do dixiedogs suggestions with a little spin of my own on the venting system- I will post pix when I get there- thanks again
The garage at my previous house (where I did alot of painting, one car a week on average) was previously converted into a family room with a free-standing fireplace. When I bought the house the garage was immediately "UN-converted" and I used the hole in the roof, where the chimney used to go through, to run an exhaust vent. The opening was about 18x18 so I built the exhaust shaft to match the opening and used furnace filters to trap the overspray as the air vented out. I used an old furnace blower, squirrel cage setup, to suck the air out of the garage and left the garage door opened just a few inches to let the clean air in. It worked well and it put the fumes up into the air high enough that there was no noticeable smell at the neighbors and no overspray on their house/cars. Of course the paints then were lacquers and acrylic enamels and were not as toxic as those used today. I'm sure the EPA folks would be around to visit if I used that setup today here in SoCal...
[ QUOTE ] Do you REALLY want to draw explosive fumes through an electric motor? You can get air-powered blowers or if you have to use fans use them to push air in through AC filters. [/ QUOTE ] Good point and suggestion well taken. thanks for the tip
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] ... At one end where put a couple of box fans in drawing the air out at the other side.... [/ QUOTE ] Do you REALLY want to draw explosive fumes through an electric motor? You can get air-powered blowers or if you have to use fans use them to push air in through AC filters. [/ QUOTE ] Very Very Good point - thanks for pointing that out. You can by explosion proof fans with a sealed motor from folks like Grainger or rent them from a contractor rental store they are called ventilation fans used in manhole work to vent methanes and explosive gases. They are a little expensive but its still cheap compared to a burn unit!
if the fumes ignite bcuz of the fan, you wont b going to the burn unit. They tell me the explosion knocks the painter unconscious then he burns to death. GET THE EXPLOSION PROOF FAN FEOM GRAINGER
[ QUOTE ] Found out yesterday I can graduate this semester ...so being all gung-ho about being able to finish my car ...I went home... [/ QUOTE ] Is this your parent's home? If so, are they cool with you painting there? Is painting there (by a non-profesional) illegal? There are quite often different laws and restrictions for professional and home owner occasional use of paints. It might be in your interest to check them out. If you're in the legal you might just be able to tell the neighbor to go to the beach till you get done painting. But if it's illegal and the complaining neighbor is down wind they are going to know when you're painting from the fumes, whether you build a temporary spray booth or not. If that's the case, rent time in a real spray booth. I just got a new next door neighbor I haven't even met yet, but I heard he's a Deputy Sheriff, so this dillema might get interesting here too.
It is my house- I finished college yesterday- I havent had anyone ever complain because my house backs up to 60+ acres of woods but I would like to keep it that way- I want to stay in the neighborhood for a long time and probably buy 5 acres or so in the woods to build a shop and another house- from what I understand, unless you are completely irresponsable about how you do stuff like this you can pretty much do what ever you want. thanks for looking out DR.J
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] ... At one end where put a couple of box fans in drawing the air out at the other side.... [/ QUOTE ] Do you REALLY want to draw explosive fumes through an electric motor? You can get air-powered blowers or if you have to use fans use them to push air in through AC filters. [/ QUOTE ] i thought about that too, but i wonder, maybe many fans now are brushless? or a lot of people have been really lucky? i think back to the many projects i painted where there was a fan blowing exhaust out a door, and the fan ends up the color of whatever i was painting, but it was usually in a wide open doorway, not all exhuast going right thru the fan.
I don't know what kinda gun you're spraying with, but an HVLP considerably cuts down on overspray and fumes. I've been using mine in my garage a lot recently to paint small parts, and the fumes are no worse than a spray can. Ed
Gears, Try Clean Air Filter in Defiance, Iowa (712)-748-3642 and ask for Doc, he owns the company and makes filters for agriculture(farm tractors and such) he can filter out fumes and particulates and when I talked to him about making filters for my paint booth he said no problem. If he can filter out anhydrous ammonia and crop insecicides he can filter out paint fumes. Just a thought. Bill
I gotta believe that ANY commercial type spraying in Cal is illegal. It's the first state to ban lacquer...toughest laws in the nation.
[ QUOTE ] Hey DrJ How do I find out about the illegality o painting in So Cal besides having the EPA show up? [/ QUOTE ] I doubt you want to go to "them" and say "Hey, I was wondering what I can get away with in my back yard at such and such address...They'll be over tomorrow to see what you're doing. Find your local Auto paint supplier who sells over the counter to "Civilians" and ask him. He's most likely to know this weeks list of restrictions. at least it's a start... Also, a retired motor cop friend of mine told me when I was harrassing him about the broken speedo and windshield on his Goldwing "The only thing that's illegal is getting caught" One thing I've noticed here is most of the restrictions are car specific, they don't seem to care about you spraying your refrigerator or jet ski. In fact you can still buy lacquer here in CA, if you can find someone who still sells it. and you can paint your kitchen cabinets with it, or your bicycle, just not a "complete" car. At least that's the way it read last time I read anything on it. (something like this fantasy) "No officer I wasn't painting a car, just this refrigerator and those doors and trunk lid, and those 1/4 panels and that gas tank, but I wasn't painting a "car" so I'm legal!"
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] ... At one end where put a couple of box fans in drawing the air out at the other side.... [/ QUOTE ] Do you REALLY want to draw explosive fumes through an electric motor? You can get air-powered blowers or if you have to use fans use them to push air in through AC filters. [/ QUOTE ] For what it's worth... In one website i ran across on this subjuect (sorry, I forgot to bookmark it) that recomended using box fans not on the exhaust side, but rather by using them to blow clean air into the paint booth. The forced air will naturally exhaust through all the little seams in your "booth" or through a purpose built vent on especially well sealed constructions. By placing a large filter over the fan (like one you get for you cenral heater) you have a relatively dust free booth and no fumes go through the fan, since it is actually slightly pressurizing the room with clean air. Hope that made some sense
A couple observations from when i was looking at the paint booth issues. First the recomendation is a positive preassue booth... but you need a dedicated filtered outlet. you should be running more volume in blown in from filtered fans. and have the exhaust side be on the floor side so that it will help draw the paint spray and such out. but this does not mean you want to blow too much air past so it could affect your finish. If you google you will find many ideas of how to setup a paint booth. also look at the professional ones because they can give you some good ideas. When i set up my paint booth.. when i have a shop i am thinking i will try to build a down draft booth using a frame and one of those bend-pax low rise lifts and drawing the paint and fumes out down through filters and some jersey cloth. then into a charcol filter to take care of the nastiness... and all of this in a seperate shop... still figuring out how to do the heat in a paint booth because that scares me. hope my rambling helped Garth
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