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Post by trailbound on Feb 26, 2010 21:43:41 GMT -5
I have finally completed my second paint booth to replace the first one I built. The first utilized a bathroom ventillation fan which I tested with lacquer outside (as I knew of the risk of fans and paint causing flash fires). It worked well for 2 or 3 years. The conversation of paint booths and fans came up again about a month or two ago on a short track forum that I moderate. The thought of my fan failing and blowing up scared the crap out of me all over again, so I dove into hours and hours of research to find something that would be safe. After about 10 hours I came up with two options, neither of which I liked...a brushless computer fan or a squirel cage fan. They both were considered "explosion proof", but had other downfalls I didn't care about. One night after talking to my Grandfather (who is thinking of buying a new boat), I began thinking about the bilge fans that we had to use on his present inboard/outboard boat. I did some looking into them and found their cfm (170), size, and price (under $30) to be just perfect. I figured if the CoastGuard approves them to suck gas fumes and vapors through the fan, then paint should be safe too. The fan is DC, so I am running it through a manual battery charger, and using cable RCAs as the "posts" for the charger. I have been running a furnace/AC style filter in my first booth and liked the results. I never had a secure system to keep it in place though other than tape. I decided to use 2 light switch plates in the new booth. One is mounted to the booth and has the 3 slats still in place to keep the filter from being sucked in. The second is cut open and mounted with 2 bolts and 2 wing nuts. I just completed it tonight and have not yet done any painting in it. It has the same down draft set up as the previous, so I expect it to work quite well. In no means am guaranteeing the fan set up or any other set up to be safe...just sharing what I am comfortable using.
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Post by coopdad on Feb 26, 2010 21:55:47 GMT -5
Very interesting info... I have been seriously thinking I a paint booth soon and here is your post. Karma. I will hit the local boat store and see if they have the pump.
Tell us more about the charger.
Another thought/question. After you have painted a body, do you pull down a cover so dust stays out or move it to another location (or even worry about dust)? Thanks MUCH! John
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Post by trailbound on Feb 26, 2010 22:17:48 GMT -5
I found the bilge fan on ebay (the brand name is DetMar...pretty respected in the boating world). The charger was a nightmare all of its own. I originally tried to use an AC adapter for an LCD TV. I quickly learned that 12volts did not automatically mean it was 12 volts DC. A few guys said a car battery charger would work...so I went and bought one of those smart chargers. That wouldn't do it as it could tell there was not battery on the other end. I returned that and bought one of the old school style 2/10 amp "manual" battery charger. It works great, just hook the alligator clips to the two posts in the picture (the two wires are soldered to the backside of the RCAs), turn on the charger and it is good to go. The fan requires 12volts and 3.5 amps, and is designed to have a 6amp fuse...I wired one in on the positive wire. In terms of keeping dust out of the booth I have a plexiglass door that I close and have two little velcro strips to keep shut. I also used a large piece of plexiglass to mount over a large opening in the ceiling of the booth for a light to shine down through.
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Post by trailbound on Feb 26, 2010 22:18:46 GMT -5
One other note, I plan to use wax paper on the bottom and sides of the paint booth when painting. I heard of others doing this...allows for easy clean up and not overspray build up over time.
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Post by jeffs396 on Feb 27, 2010 12:20:27 GMT -5
Nice setup Mike!
Need to build a booth myself, some good ideas here! I wonder if one of these blowers would move enough air to sufficiently vent 8 feet or so high up the basement wall & out thru to the outside? Since they're reasonably priced, maybe two inline would do the job?
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