A few of the guys helped me out selecting paints yesterday in the chat. While I was out picking them up I also got an inexpensive air brush and oil less compressor. Of course that led to me wanting a small paint booth. I started designing one today and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions I haven't included.

The design includes exhaust fans and a filter/charcoal box for soaking up some of the fumes. I am putting together a simple rectifier power supply to run the fans and some white LEDs or low voltage lights. It is 3' wide and 2' tall.











[ustream]http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2589106[/ustream] Attached files PaintBooth.skp (621.5 KB)Â PaintBooth1.cnc (21.1 KB)Â PaintBooth2.cnc (23.8 KB)Â PaintBooth3.cnc (3 KB)Â PaintBooth4.cnc (3 KB)Â PaintBooth5.cnc (3.9 KB)Â PaintBooth_LIVE_Version.skp (740.8 KB)Â

 

If you use the apple barrel paints from Wal-mart, they have no fumes )

 

Thanks Jeff, I'll pick some up next time I'm at wal-mart. I bet my wife already has some in her craft supplies.

That is perfect Randy. It's exactly what I would have if it was up to me. Unfortunately I was about 2.3 seconds into a test spray and my wife came down asking about the fumes.

 

I go to Lowes and have them mix up those little test cans for under $3. Latex paint samples. No fumes, no messy cleanup, no eating foam. Full range of color choices. Cheaper than Michaels. I find the apple barrel paints too dull looking.

You will have to thin the paint and use a higher pressure setting. I set mine to about 50psi. You want the consistency of the paint to be about that of milk.

The house paint has larger pigments, so it does not air brush as well as the more expensive craft brands but if you use the larger nozzle .5mm I think it is, and increase the pressure on your compressor, you can get good results.

I just lay two sheets of FFF, one on the table and one standing up to do my painting. Sort of like Randy the Gheto Monkey that way.

 

Tim I only use that apple barrel stuff, or very similar (I actually like Delta paints the best) but they are all the S1.29 special.

Cheap, easy to mix, easy to clean up...

But I do tend to develop a 'fog' in my basement when I paint...

 

Thanks for all the paint tips, I am going to try a few different brands. I know that a lot of them say no odor or fumes but any smell in the house sticks in my wife's nose for some reason. I'm still going to build the booth since it will also keep the over spray to a minimum and I already have everything needed to build the filter. Happy wife, happy something or another

 

hah, what made you choose windex as a solvent? Sounds scary to me too. I tried the Apple Barrel paints and you guys are right, it has very little odor.

I updated the SketchUp file for the booth. I shortened it by 2" to 22" to save on one sheet of foam. I am going to cut it tomorrow to see how it all fits but it consumes 5 sheets of foam. I may have to use Mark's cardboard method for prototyping on this one. Attached is the final SU file with cut tools applied. I'm not posting the gcode until I know it is OK. Attached files PaintBooth.skp (621.5 KB)Â

 

Windex is a solvent that a lot of guys use for water based paint. The drawback is that it does have a blueish tint that ruins yellow and a few other colors. I have used it and it does work, but again, it changes the color which is not desirable.

An alternative is to use water to thin your paint or alcohol. I have read that denatured alcohol and water mixed together provides a good thinner for water based paints.

50% water & 50% Pure Denatured Alcohol. Mix that with your paint at about a 3 to 2 paint to thinner ratio. The water keeps the paint form drying too fast and the alcohol allows it to spray evenly rather than in droplets. But I have not tried this method.

I usually just add water to thin or 91% isopropl alcohol.

 

Flash, that is pretty much what I used (without all that measuring). A dab of water and a dribble of rubbing alcohol. The spray pattern from the airbrush was even and dried quick enough.

The lip is for paint bottles. I may need to make it a little bigger since it is 1 3/4". I intended for it to be 2" but must have messed up on the rear support for the shelf. 1 3/4 is big enough to hold the mixing bottles, 2 oz Apple Barrel, and small Tamiya bottles but isn't enough for the 8oz Apple Barrel bottles.

 

I was planning to have a sheet of perforated foam resting on the angled areas as the backrest. I changed that to just be a row of 1/4" holes so that a few dowel rods can be slid in place. There are a pair of rectangle parts that match the rectangles on the side. These will be glued in place to reinforce the dowel and make sure a slightly short 3' dowel could still span the width.

The dowel rods will be more flexible than a backrest since parts can be hung from string or a piece of scrap foam or cardboard can be leaned against them for more support.

 

I might get some time to cut it while the kids are napping today. Unfortunately I have a lot of things to do around the house so it might have to wait until tomorrow.

 

I finally got around to cutting the parts late last night. It missed a step or two but I decided to go ahead and use the parts anyway. It was easy to patch up the slightly mismatched areas with some extra glue. There is a gallery with higher resolution versions of the pictures here http://www.simmonsclan.net/gallery2/v/T ... aintbooth/

Building the booth was pretty straightforward. I started by putting the two top cross sections together. This is the filter box and little shelf in the front. The uprights in the filter box are tabbed so they only fit one way.

Next lay out one of the sides and install the cross sections. They stand up pretty good on their own.

I don't have pics for the next steps but it is very simple. Set the remaining side piece on the table and insert loose ends of the cross sections. It should be stiff enough to handle without falling apart. Next install the back. This is the large part with 3 horizontal and 2 vertical slots in the middle. Finally the bottom can be installed. I found it easier to install the bottom and then the thin lip/support in the front.

I used a cut to fit furnace filter in the air box. It takes two pieces cut to 9" x 5".


The first is inserted over the air holes, then carbon pellets and covered by the second piece. It is a good idea to rinse the carbon to get rid of some of the dust before pouring it in.

I'll post some more pics when I start installing the fans and power supply.

 

I did install the fans and sprayed a little paint. It doesn't draw as much air as I expected but the air box isn't sealed very good right now. A line of tape across the top rear corner should fix that up.

I'll put some more pictures up this weekend. Be aware that the fan holes in the skp file are slightly too large. For some reason I goofed and used the distance between mounting holes as the radius for the cutout instead of the blade size. I'll post an updated skp file and gcode after I take the pictures.

 

I have a few more pics but I don't have action shots yet: