Poor man's spray booth

[sodaworks]

I am getting ready to build a paint booth in the corner of my shop. I plan on using canvas tarps (2) on a overhead rail (electrical unistrut) system that will allow the tarp to be retracted and fastened to the wall when not in use. I am installing a 2600cfm fan that will create an induced draft through a 4'x6' filter bank. The fan exhaust will exit into a swamp cooler that will only use the water pump to wet the pads to "scrub" the air. Terry

[Jim]

I know the biggest problem you'll face with a garage booth is removing over-spray. If you don't, the over-spray will settle onto the machine and create a dull finish or worse yet, a dry finish.

Glen was very close to what I eventually utilized which I'll explain in a minute. Box fans do not remove/circulate air fast enough, so be careful... Remember, you're introducing air pressure into the area by just spray painting; this pressure, if you will, creates back pressure against the box fans.

What I actually found gave me excellent results but I had the right conditions. I'll try to paint, no pun intended, a good picture...
Behind my garage, I had a utility shed on a 15' x 20' concrete slab that backed up to the side of my house on the east side of the property. There was a gap between the back of the garage and the shed along the house that had three sides and allowed me approx. 10' x 8' area to work with that caught the rising sun. The day before, I would get everything wet sanded and thoroughly dried. At this point, I would handle the pieces with lint-free rags so no oils from my hands would get on the surfaces. The next morning, I would get up early and begin paint preparations by spraying everything, walls and concrete, down with water, set up portable saw horses for items that will need to be relocated after the finish coats have been sprayed and then setup the cabinet to be sprayed since it will stay there until curred... Which didn't take long since the sun usually aided in this process. I found my window of opportunity to spray was between 8am - 10am; meaning I would be done spraying by 10am. The conditions I worked with provided me with some of the best work I ever did and that included spraying in a booth!
Please don't think this will work for everyone!
I live in an enviroment that has ideal conditions most of the year and have no trees near by to cause problems, wind and bugs are non-existant in the early hours as Glen has mentioned. Lighting is excellent since it's sunlight. Ventilation and over-spray weren't any concern(although it's now illegal to conduct such activities). After moving outside, I never moved back into the garage to spray paint again...

[BryanH]

So I think what I'm hearing is that this may be a little more complicated that throwing some plastic wrap over 2x4 or PVC frames...  '>

Thanks for the great feedback...  Love to hear more from anyone else that's tried or thought about it?

[BryanH]

Got impatient and threw caution into the wind (literally).  Here's my paint booth... I was only priming for hammerite so wasn't too concerned.  Will need to figure something out before I paint the exterior.  Anyway, thought you might you might get a kick out of the high tech setup...

[BryanH]

Would have been more funny if I had actually posted the pic.

[joesquid]

HAAHA!!  And I thought I had the original "paint-on-a-box" idea....there goes that patent:D
Brian, too bad we can't get away painting automotive paint like that!

Bryan,
great high tech booth. Do you think it will work with the table-box too? :'>

[Eric]

Hey! That's what I do with my gumball machines! When I'm done I throw
all the newspapers and tape I used to tape off areas in the box then set
it out for the trash!

Eric

[BryanH]

Thought you men and women might like to see my new paint booth in action.   I upgraded a bit from the cardboard boxes.

[BryanH]

Ok - granted it's not quite a poor man's booth.  A buddy of mine manages an autobody shop.  Saw me painting one of my machines in the side yard, on boxes, etc, etc.  Saw my VMC77 at the our memorial day party and is thinking that he'd like one... Anyway offered to help me paint the 56 in his shop.  

PS - you're not seeing things.  The color is unique - that's the DuPont #95605 as cross referenced to the Sherwin-Williams fleet colors.  It's much lighter than I expected.  Hopefully it'll dry darker.  Don't know if that's the real color or the cross reference didn't work right.