Do I need a filter?

[Sharkfat]

Hey guys, hope I'm posting this in the right section.

I've recently had a studio/mancave built and with my backwards DIY skills I built a spray booth in the corner. Got sick of overspray covering everything in the room before.

I have an 8" extractor fan in the ceiling which is ducted to the outside of the building via a vent. My question is, do I need to place some kind of filter over the extractor fan?

I wear a respirator and if the air is being removed it's not really bothering me, but I don't want to cause problems for the environment etc.

 

[Brian Tooker]

first off, what kind of paint? water based or urethane. also, is the fan motor in the air flow? if it is and the paint is flammable, this could be a large problem. i used a couple of squirrel cage fans, motor is separate from the air flow, to remove over spray from my shop and it seems to work well.
zonker

 

[JonasCalhoun]

A lot of it is going to depend on the fan. Is it strong enough to pull particulate from across the shop? If you notice paint particles on the blades, the yeah, get a filter in front of it. Even if it's non toxic, the loading in the motor and blades isn't good. On the other hand, if there's just particulate spreading around the area and falling as dust, that fan isn't helping much. Better to have one in the booth itself.


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[Vladimir]

You must put the filter there. If you will not, the fan is going to get overspray sticking to it.

Do not be afraid of the paint you use, if it's even solvent based you will never get explosive concentrations of the solvent in the air, especially when you use fan to extract the air.
I know guys using open fire gas burners in their garages in the winter time while they're painting cars. It's crazy thing to do, but they're still alive Such an idea wouldn't ever come into my mind. And I do not advise to anyone to do this. The main thing here is not to be afraid of fans when extracting the air with the overspray