Spray Booth Question

[Angus89]

Well after having many headaches from having to smell laquer all day I am gonna build my own spray booth I got a perfect spot for one with a small window about ceiling height for fumes but I have a question I would have to have the window open for the fumes to escape but here in missouri we have prety bad winters so that woul in turn make my booth freezing cold and inpossible to spray in so what should I do? I would assume a heater but what kind would be safe with al the paint particles and fumes?

Edited January 20, 2008 by Angus89

[Drak]

The option I use:

Don't shoot in the winter.

For amateur guitar builders, the expense related to having a professional (properly heated) spray booth is simply a lot of times not worth the money and trouble, and you just adapt your building system around your shooting weather schedule.

It's called adaptation.

The answer is not outside yourself, it is within yourself, to change the way you look at building guitars as a hobbyist builder, and fit your building schedule around the parameters that are not flexible (the weather).

Many amateur builders (Drak included, many times over ) have ruined their guitars at the last stage of the game by not accepting the fact that there are conditions you simply cannot change, and spraying their finishes under less-than-acceptable weather conditions, hoping for the best, and the finish goes south on them, then they have to restrip (what a pain in the ass) and start over.

I know what months generally I can shoot in, and I (usually) have the guitars ready by that time frame.

Then I let them hang and cure after the shooting season is over (November thru January usually) and buff out/assemble around February-ish. This is just a general rule of thumb and something I have learned to accept over the years, it doesn't always come out that perfect, but that is the general outline of time schedule I work under.

This gives the guitar 3 months to cure, which is really what you want anyway for lacquer.

[syxxstring]

Key to curing paint are two factors, time and airflow. Air caries away the solvents and allows more to escape. Time allows the process to happen. Spray a guitar keep it in a vaum the paint will never cure.

For heat.

One option I use lights not pointed at the body to heat the air and raise the ambient temperature. I do this so that I don't heat the paint directly and cause it to skin over and trap the solvents beneath the skin and never cure. I just leave them on all the time, but my cold weather is 50 or so in the garage. The lights keep my booth between 70 and 80.

The other option is to use less toxic paints, if you can get over the marketing, internet, and cool guy hype about nitro. Many woodworking finishes can be brushed on well, so the fumes are even more reduced.

About your idea.

The window up top has 2 issues as I see them. One is your dragging fresh air over your paint, unfiltered your gonna get junk in it. I have a great flake job that has a piece of lint in it because my filtration sucked at the time. The other is that air is going to be cold.

If your going to go forward with a booth I would build a stand alone box with intake and output filtration. Use piping to vent the booth out your window. I bought my filters off ebay they are mad for pro booths, I use an intake, overspray and carbon filter.

I'm still reworking my design and will totally rebuild after my electrician rewires the garage.

Take some time and think about safety, grounding, overspray control etc...

I'm trying to switch to entirely water based paints but will keep a booth to control my painting enviorment clean and surrounding areas overspray free.

[Twoods196]

Not sure if there is a big diffrence but I paint cars etc...and our booth has two squrrell cages in it. One is hooked into pipes that go around the upper ceiling with holes in it...and one is hooked up to pipes that go around the base of the floor. The fan would be constantly blowing so you wouldnt have to worry about the cold are coming in, only your hot air going out. You could use a fairly large propane heater to get the room hot enough to spray then turn it off an take it out and begin to paint. Havent did much as far wood painting myself but will be soon...fixing to begin on a custom guitar.

[ToneMonkey]

I use an intake, overspray and carbon filter.

The chances are that you know this already, but I'm going to say it anyway. When the carbon in your filter needs to be replaced, you could either take it back and have a shop do it for a silly price or on most filters you can drill out the rivets, empty the old carbon and refill it with stuff you can get for the filters in fish tanks. It's the same stuff (activated carbon) and usually works out much cheaper.

[syxxstring]

Its a mesh/fiber filter that I just toss they were pretty cheap for a big pack. In the future I may go to a canister, thanks for the tip.

[rooster]

Pretty simple. Build the booth next to the window, but not against it. Put a fan between the booth and against the window. Build an exhaust vent from your booth to the fan and seal it really well. Heat the air inside AND outside the booth with preferred method. Spray paint, when through, turn on the fan after you open the window and exhaust the fumes out. It will pull air thru and the outside air will still be warm so it shouldn't "shock" the paint with a drastic temp change. After the fog has cleared turn off the fan and allow the outside room to heat up again before the next coat. Don't let the temp drop below 60 degrees until the paint is cured.

[syxxstring]

Rooster the only problem is you need to keep air flowing for paint to cure well. Otherwise as the solvents escape your guitar is sitting in cloud of solvents, which can lead to solvent pop and other issues.

You really want to keep the air flowing for 24-48 hours depending on the tech sheets for your paint.

My main concern here might be how much am I going to spend heating the room to do this, posibly making Drak smarter than the average bear. I live in the desert so its much less of an issue for me.