Looking for an inexpensive paint booth? Not facilitated to do major construction? No problem! Scour the rummage sales in your community to look for a television/VCR stand such as this one. Its an ideal starting point to make a nice paint booth. You can set it on your workbench or on top of a cheap dresser also found at yard sales. Add in a light source and ducting for an exhaust. You might even find a unwanted bathroom exhaust fan in your search. Add in some dryer venting and you’ve got a good start at building your own paint booth.
This unit features a fiberboard backside which is easily cut with a utility knife, simply cut a circle shaped hole to accept the exhaust ducting. Not into installing lights and wiring? That’s easily overcome too. Just purchase some clamp style utility lights and clamp them to the open doors. When done, store them inside, set them inside and close the doors. Keeps them protected and the shop nice and tidy.
Having doors is a plus as this allows you to close them to keep unwanted dust off the model while it dries. I currently use this one for storage of larger supply items, but I’m pondering the idea of making it into a paint booth. Ideal size for 1:72 and 1:48 scale fighters…1:32 would be a tight squeeze but doable too.
Lights designed for installation under kitchen cabinets would be ideal for this paint booth. They could be installed top and on the sides for a total light source.
Gerald,
Another resource for an inexpensive paint booth is a large Rubbermaid tub. I made one by laying it on it’s side on top of a workbench. I cut a hole in the top for dryer vent hose and installed a small fan from Radioshack. I built a filter box around the fan out of cardboard and aquarium filter material. I also installed a small florescent light fixture in the top. When you’re done painting, just snap the lid on to keep out dust.
Kevin has a great idea in using a large Rubbermaid storage tub, but I have to take exception to his design. You NEVER want to vent from the top of a paint booth. As soon as turn off the exhaust fan, you have a possibility of some of the still-wet paint caught in the filter dripping back down onto whatever you’ve just painted.
A better idea is to vent out the BACK of the spray booth, preferably near the bottom. The next basic thing you need is to use some scrap lumber to hold the largest standard size pleated-paper a/c-furnace filter that will fit against the back wall of your booth about 1-1/2 inches in front of the back wall of your booth (I used cheap 1×2 firring strips, held them by screwing through the plastic tub into the wood from the outside). This lets the vent fan suck air through the entire face of the filter, instead of just the 4-inch round hole where the vent fan is attached to the back wall of the booth. To get a good seal, once I had the filter in place, I sealed it around the edges with 2-inch masking tape. Mine is vented with dryer hose. I decide when to replace the filter by disconnecting the dryer hose and holding my hand over the vent fan exhaust port. As soon as I can detect any reduction flow this way, it’s time for a new filter.
Also, keep in mind that the filter only catches the paint particles, you MUST vent the fumes outside! They’re not safe to breathe AND they are a significant fire hazard if you’re using solvent based paints. Also, if you’re using a bathroom or kitchen exhaust fan that you scrounged, make sure it’s a “squirrel cage” fan and not a “propeller” fan, because the “propeller” fan has the motor right in the middle of the exhaust stream and the sparks inside the motor could also ignite the fumes. A “squirrel cage” fan has the motor mounted outside of the exhaust stream, so it’s MUCH safer (we won’t be talking about how I know this……(LOL).