Wednesday 7 March 2012

SUB-PROJECT: Spray booth

DISCLAIMER: This project involves electricity and spinning blades of death. Please don't attempt, if you're not 100% sure of what you're doing!! (Young or old!)

A mini project that came out of necessity. I am nearing the painting part of the helmet build. It's wet and cold outside these days. I don't like to wait for mother nature to accommodate my needs. So, I needed to find a way to paint indoors.

But, it gets messy and really smelly. I needed a spray booth. But, they're too expensive to buy. They range from $250 - $5000! Can't justify the price for the amount I need to use it. So, I'm building one myself!

It's a very simple build. Only requires a few elements:

- To be a box large enough for projects
- Needs a fan in the back
- Needs a light
- Needs piping to vent out the bad air
- Needs to be able to be plugged into typical AC outlet
- Standard home air filter
- Optional: A Turntable
- Optional: Switches for the fan and light

Budget: Nothing. Zero dollars. That's my goal!

How am I going to accomplish this wizardry?!? Craigslist!!!! Specifically, the free section of Craigslist.

I went looking for a washroom vent, but found something 1000x better. A complete stove top hood range! The range includes a working fan, light, switches, AND a box that already houses all of them!!! This one item saved me from 80% of the build right there. Love repurposing old items.

A little oily from the previous owner. But, a few good wipes of the Magic Erasure... it was like new! Really, I can't believe that sponge works so well!

Power cable:
Have a few old computer power cables around the house. Perfect for this project. Repurposing again!
I just cut the outer black wire wrap to expose the 3 coloured wires. They're industry standard colour-coded: Black = Negative, White = Positive, and Green = Ground.

This would be connected either with electrical tape or wire connectors

 Turntable:
I have an old lazy susan I use for sculpting. It can definitely share duties here. I had drilled random holes everywhere. 2 sizes. They're for sticks with alligator clips at the end to hold my pieces I need to spray.

Venting:
The back was really oily... like really thick caked on grease. Cleaned it up with some degreaser. 
Leaving a rectangular exhaust port behind the fan. My hose is round, so I need to make an adaptor.
 Plastic again! Love the stuff.
Line a good bead of silicone around the hole. Glue my adaptor right on.

Hose:

I cut a 1" piece of old PVC pipe and silicone it to the hole. This will serve as the adaptor where the hose will just attach to.

The hose is a vent hose (insulated here. Not necessary for this project). I got it for free basically. 25' worth at a local hardware store that was closing up shop.  (That day, I picked up $1100 worth of stuff for only $50!!!)




Finished! Time to test it. Get the band-aids ready. Heck, get the fire extinguisher, chain mail, and get 911 pre-dialed. Turn it on and step back.

It works! Has great suction. 2 speeds too! Even at the lower speed, it can draw all the paint particulates through... even with my filter in front of it. Here I just grabbed whatever I could find around the house to use as walls. I'll try to find some (free) scrap wood somewhere and build a proper box. Thinking of building the box that can hinge as well. So, the entire unit can fold up to a smaller footprint. For storage when not in use.

I need to figure out a better place to place the light as well. It really should be in front of the workspace rather than behind. Either that or just get another light. More light the better anyways.

There ya have it. A free spray booth! Now, if i can integrate a small belt sander in this as well!! hehe


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