Inexpensive and easy home paint booth....

[Jim Holtz]

I thought maybe some folks would find it of interest how to create an inexpensive home paint booth. I shoot water based materials on my speakers so I can apply them inside my house in my basement work shop. However, even with a HVLP spray gun, over spray is still an issue.

I had some ideas and Todd Premo sent me some links of how others had built spray booths similar to what I had in mind. The pictures show what I ended up with. The frame work is 3/4" x 5' PVC attached together with shower curtain liners as the walls. I have 9' ceilings in my basement so I had to splice them by adding 2' sections of shower curtain liner attached to the bottom of the curtains with packing tape.

The framework is suspended with plain old baling wire from nails in the floor joice. It is working very well. Total cost was under $50 for a 10' x 12' booth.

Jim

[dawg1161]

What are you building in the pic Jim ? A great idea for a basement by the way, shower curtains have many uses.

[Jim Holtz]

What are you building in the pic Jim ? A great idea for a basement by the way, shower curtains have many uses.

Those are the Monitor Statements that I'm now scrambling to get finished before the DIY event. I've had so many things going on this summer, I've just not had time.

The paint booth worked nicely and contained the over spray really well. Yep, the shower curtain liners served their purpose and will be used another day.

I might add, I just finished shooting them with gloss black Crystalac and I'm really impressed with it. It went on so much nicer than lacquer. I'll buff it later in the week. Then I'll see for sure how good it is. Right now it looks much better than lacquer did at this stage.

Jim

[mikela]

Great idea! ...and one I'll probably use. :T

[shame302]

awesome! great idea.....i cant cut mdf in the basement, maybe something like that would help out a little. maybe set up a fan with a dryer vent. then i could work on stuff over the winter without freezing.

[impala454]

Hey Jim, what did you do to prep the cabinets? Can't wait to see them finished!

[Jim Holtz]

Hey Jim, what did you do to prep the cabinets? Can't wait to see them finished!

Hi Chuck,

I first sealed all of the edges with bondo. I then sealed the cabinets with Bullseye sealer (shellac) and began the never ending prime and sand routine. Gloss black is a real pain to do. I don't care how much time I spend sanding I can always find lots of problems after the cabinets are painted. I only did these gloss black to match the rest of the speakers in my system. These will end up as surrounds.

In the future, if I choose to do gloss black again, I'll veneer with very inexpensive veneer, dye them black with analyne dye, seal the pores and shoot clear gloss Crystalac as the top coat. That will be much easier.

Here's a picture of the monitors after painting and waiting for the finish to cure enough to buff. Crystalac goes on very smoothly so there'll be very little sanding with 1000/2000 grit sand paper to prepare for the final buffing. MUCH easier than lacquer and almost zero odor. Crystalac is very cool stuff. :T

Jim

[Undefinition]

However, even with a HVLP spray gun, over spray is still an issue.

Tell me about it! Overspray has gotten me into so much trouble! Then one time I found out my shoes were sticking to the paint on the dropcloth on the floor, and causing it to rip... now THAT made a mess! I have since learned to line the floor with large, flattened cardboard boxes. But I still struggle with keeping "the mist" from wandering outsite a corralled area. Any tiny gap it can find, it will invisibly sneak out and plant itself on objects around the room. Gaah! Any good spray painters in Chicago? I just don't know if I'm cut out for this part of the job!

[bluewizard]

The only thing I see missing from this paint booth is ventilation. Perhaps the paint your using is not as toxic as auto paint, but shouldn't you really have some filtered air moving through there? Air both force in and drawn out? Maybe not specifically in and out of the paint booth, but certainly in and out of the basement itself?

Still an excellent idea. Shower curtain liners are dirt cheap and re-usable. I like the idea of cardboard on the floor too.

Steve/bluewizard

[impala454]

Hi Chuck,

I first sealed all of the edges with bondo. I then sealed the cabinets with Bullseye sealer (shellac) and began the never ending prime and sand routine. Gloss black is a real pain to do. I don't care how much time I spend sanding I can always find lots of problems after the cabinets are painted. I only did these gloss black to match the rest of the speakers in my system. These will end up as surrounds.

In the future, if I choose to do gloss black again, I'll veneer with very inexpensive veneer, dye them black with analyne dye, seal the pores and shoot clear gloss Crystalac as the top coat. That will be much easier.

Here's a picture of the monitors after painting and waiting for the finish to cure enough to buff. Crystalac goes on very smoothly so there'll be very little sanding with 1000/2000 grit sand paper to prepare for the final buffing. MUCH easier than lacquer and almost zero odor. Crystalac is very cool stuff. :T

Jim

Thanks Jim I'll keep this bookmarked for next decade when I get around to finishing mine!

[Blktre]

You better get them done in time. Im excited to hear them in Iowa....

Good idea on your booth. I will be picking your head on water based materials sometime.

[LING GOWA]

What a great idea. Thanks Jim.

[Jim Holtz]

The only thing I see missing from this paint booth is ventilation. Perhaps the paint your using is not as toxic as auto paint, but shouldn't you really have some filtered air moving through there? Air both force in and drawn out? Maybe not specifically in and out of the paint booth, but certainly in and out of the basement itself?

Still an excellent idea. Shower curtain liners are dirt cheap and re-usable. I like the idea of cardboard on the floor too.

Steve/bluewizard

Hi Steve,

Actually, the floor is covered with super cheap diposable drop cloths that are thrown away after a single usage. Total cost, about $2.00.

If I were shooting solvent based ventilation would be critical for many health reason. Water based materials have super low VOC's so the odor and toxicity are almost none existent. I do wear a mask for obvious reasons while painting but I'm in and out of the area in about 5 minutes and then don't return until the over spray has settled and the paint/top coating is dry to the touch. You can't smell a thing in the room next to my shop.

I wouldn't recommend shooting water based with out a mask but the dangers are very low with a little common sense. Much better than the fumes from rattle cans, IMHO.

Jim

[Jim Holtz]

You better get them done in time. Im excited to hear them in Iowa....

Good idea on your booth. I will be picking your head on water based materials sometime.

They'll be there for sure. I won't guarantee how they look though. They are at the "promising" stage right now based on what I see. If I don't like how the black buffs, I'll recoat them with clear gloss Crystalac which I know will turn out very well.

Crystalac is my number one recommendation for water based top coating materials. It's VERY GOOD, IMHO. :T

Jim

[---k---]

Any good spray painters in Chicago? I just don't know if I'm cut out for this part of the job!

If you find one, let me know. I can't spray paint to save my life.

[Brian Walter]

Jim I usually spray in my garage and put a fan in the side garage door (blowing out) and open one of the big doors about 2". This removes most of the spray dust before it can land on anything. I agree the HVLP sprayers are much better than the HP sprayers, but it still doesn't eliminate enough overspray as I would like. I've thought about building a spray booth very similar to what you have built, but I would probably put a top on it as well.

Poly or vinyl for the spray booth walls may work fairly well, but I would caution anyone against using poly or similar materials for masking. The reason being that paint/varnish doesn't stick very well to poly and if you don't re mask between coats you run the risk of blowing flecks of dried finish off of the masking and onto the fresh finish. Don't ask how I know this, it brings back bad memories. :cry:

I have found that I prefer to place my projects on a turntable for spraying so that I can simply turn the item around to spray all sides rather than having to run around dragging the hose all over. But this doesn't work quite as well if you need to finish the bottom too.

Brian Walter

[mike93lx]

looks great, but a brief word of advice for anyone contemplating this...

when first taken from their packaging, shower curtains let off very high levels of some nasty chamicals. i would strongly recommend letting them air out a bit outside before hanging them in your house.

[JonP]

Well, I can tell you from direct test experience, that building a self standing cube support out of 1/2" PVC pipe is hardly worth the price saving. :B Go with the 3/4"!

We don't have them holes in the ground under our houses in Californiee, ya see...

Brilliant idea to use the shower curtains. Hanging the plastic is the major pain. I bought a large amount of plastic dropcloth... cheap, but I never did come up with a happy solution to hanging/attaching it to the frame.