Paint Booth, Or Not

[dmshanks]

I've been thinking about building a larger paint booth. The one for my model painting works great, and exhausts all fumes to the outside of the house, but is too small for any other use. With that said, it appears from what I've been reading that some people simply use a good quality paper type particulate mask for acrylic paints and don't exhaust the fumes, mist, what have you, to the outside. I'm wondering how many do this, and if there is an issue with suspended paint droplets drifting away from the painting area and landing on desks, lamps, sofas, carpet, etc.. It would be easier to simply use a mask, and forgo the booth build, but is seems that the paint overspray (any paint droplets that don't stick to the work and keep traveling in any direction) might be a problem for and office, den, kitchen or wherever. What are your thoughts?

 

[HellBird]

I've been on the fence over paint booths myself. Was planning on picking up a small one for my immediate needs (model painting), but I want more flexibility. Am half tempted to use a box fan with a large furnace filter (or several filters) to pull the overspray onto the filters.
Several people have posted their paint booth set ups here.

 

[Jonathon]

I've been on the fence over paint booths myself. Was planning on picking up a small one for my immediate needs (model painting), but I want more flexibility. Am half tempted to use a box fan with a large furnace filter (or several filters) to pull the overspray onto the filters.
Several people have posted their paint booth set ups here.

That would work great, but in for non flammable paints though. The solvent paints could start a fire even passing through the filter because the motor for the box fan will be right there in contact with all those lovely flammable fumes

 

[jord001]

I havent got the room for one but if you have then go for it. Much better than having to mess around in a spare bedroom or garage.

 

[HellBird]

That would work great, but in for non flammable paints though. The solvent paints could start a fire even passing through the filter because the motor for the box fan will be right there in contact with all those lovely flammable fumes

Jonathon, I agree on this being a bad (as in very VERY bad) idea to use something like a box fan around any solvent based paints. Have plenty of experience with fuel / air ratios and LEL (lower explosive limit) of various solvents, both personally and professionally. The personal part was mostly as a child in various experiments where I somehow managed to NOT blow up my parents' house. Professionally, I did some product safety testing that involved some rather safe products, but less than attentive test technician coworkers.
I'd be venting any solvent based paint spray outside for sure and using a blower with the motor not being in the exhaust air path. No plans for this just yet.

 

[dmshanks]

Here's my current setup. I want more room to give me better access to the paper. For little models, this booth is stellar. It has a quite inline exhaust fan with a variable speed control. The fan at 0" water column can move 300 CFM. I usually have it turning pretty slow, but if I'm painting a large area, I turn up the fan to pull harder. Works good, but I have no room to move around in that small box for comfortably painting on paper or what have you. I use it for acrylic paints only, to keep things from blowing up.