Paint booths

This is the place for information on various types of permanent and temporary boat shops and other project shelters.
Post Reply
bcooke
Master of the Arcane
Posts: 2272
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2003 10:55 pm
Boat Name: Jenny
Boat Type: 1966 Pearson Triton
Location: Rowley, MA
Contact:

Paint booths

Post by bcooke »

For those of us working outdoors winter is a challenging season.

If I could find a way to paint some small items I could get some projects done but so far I haven't been successful with paint. Never mind the big stuff, I am having very little luck on the small stuff as well.

The problem is that I don't have a good place for painting. My basement is the only place warm enough but I can't seem to get it clean enough. Even with a decent air filtration system, the 100 year old basement seems to have an endless supply of falling dust.

I was thinking I could cordone off a corner with plastic and figure out a filtration system on the cheap that would allow me to paint some small items like instrument panels and small bits of interior wood.

Has anyone had any luck with this?

And no, the living areas are off limits. I have a roomate so paint fumes in the living room are not acceptable. Otherwise I would have converted the living area into a full shop a long time ago.

-Britton
-Britton
Work is overrated.

Most everything you read on the Internet is wrong.

The Website
The Blog
CharlieJ
Wood Whisperer
Posts: 649
Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2005 7:42 pm
Location: South coast of Texas, Matagorda Bay

Post by CharlieJ »

You can get a large cardboard box, put an air conditioner filter or two in the back with a fan to pull air through the box, and the filters. The outlet COULD go to the outside, but for small stuff I'd not bother. Then set up your stuff to be sprayed inside the box and spray away. The box should be easy to keep clean, and you could drape a chunk of plastic over the front once done to keep dust out- turn the fan off then or the plastic will suck in- not good for fresh paint.
Tony
Skilled Systems Installer
Posts: 223
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2003 8:14 pm
Boat Name: S/V Bonnie Blue
Boat Type: Catalina 22
Location: Portland, Oregon
Contact:

Post by Tony »

Britton,
I work in a fab environment for Intel. When we need to move tools into the factory through the "dirty" passageways, we take rolls of plastic (tink visqueen) and cover all the walls, using a white poly tape (duct tape would work too) exclusively for attaching the plastic. Sometimes this stuff is left for months and, aside from minor maintenance, it works very well. Once it's all put up, our cleaning folks then go through and essentially mop the whole thing to make sure it's clean. I would think a similar solution would work grand in your basement. I like the previous idea about a box, but I would use a small box and several filters and a fan vented outside taped to an opening in the plastic to prevent the paint vapors from escaping into the rest of the house.
Tony
bcooke
Master of the Arcane
Posts: 2272
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2003 10:55 pm
Boat Name: Jenny
Boat Type: 1966 Pearson Triton
Location: Rowley, MA
Contact:

Post by bcooke »

Curiously, for the past year I have been working for Varian Semiconductors assembling ion implanters for the Intel fab in Oregon...

Thanks for the tips. I have some hope now that I could make something work. I have plastic. I have cardboard boxes. I have a fan. And at least I am not all alone in this crazy idea of painting in my basement this winter!

-Britton
-Britton
Work is overrated.

Most everything you read on the Internet is wrong.

The Website
The Blog
Figment
Damned Because It's All Connected
Posts: 2845
Joined: Tue Apr 08, 2003 9:32 am
Boat Name: Triton
Boat Type: Grand Banks 42
Location: L.I. Sound

Post by Figment »

I think we've discussed this in the past, but once again bear in mind that the air you're exhausting from the basement has to come from somewhere. In a hundred-year-old house, it's probably going to be (cold) outside air infiltrating the envelope at a hundred different locations.
Don't go overboard.
bcooke
Master of the Arcane
Posts: 2272
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2003 10:55 pm
Boat Name: Jenny
Boat Type: 1966 Pearson Triton
Location: Rowley, MA
Contact:

Post by bcooke »

Yeah, no shortage of cold drafts in my house. (I really need to move out and find a shop with a bunk and a hotplate in the corner)

I think I could get by with using the fan just while spraying to catch the big stuff. As long as the projects were small maybe the fumes upstairs wouldn't be too noticable. I am probably delusional about this.

My main problem, at the moment, is the large amount of dust that settles on the work immediatelly after applying the paint. I am not sure if it is just that dusty downstairs or whether there is a lot of fine particles dropping from the rafters/ceiling/whateveryoucallit. I just don't want to spend too much time chasing an impossible dream. If a cover works, I am good. If I have to provide, clean, warm air into and out of the 'booth' then I think I am in over my head. This is only a temporary residence after all.

I have used a pretty effective air purifier with good results elsewhere in the house. but even a couple of days of filtering action in the basement, while smelling and feeling better, still leaves an instant coating of dust on the fresh paint job.

I may be pissing in the wind here but if a quick fix will do it then I am all for trying.

-Britton
-Britton
Work is overrated.

Most everything you read on the Internet is wrong.

The Website
The Blog
CharlieJ
Wood Whisperer
Posts: 649
Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2005 7:42 pm
Location: South coast of Texas, Matagorda Bay

Post by CharlieJ »

For just small projects I wouldn't worry over much about the fumes. You aren't gonna put that much in the air at any one time- not like spraying a piece of furniture or a boat.

I know a gal who does Intarisa, named Judy Gale Roberts. They use boxes as spray booths in the woodshop, WHILE she's cutting other stuff. Her husband does the spraying while she designs and cuts the parts.

They don't seem to have a dust problem, even in a rather dusty wood shop- Give it a try- hey - a cardboard box is cheap- grin
bcooke
Master of the Arcane
Posts: 2272
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2003 10:55 pm
Boat Name: Jenny
Boat Type: 1966 Pearson Triton
Location: Rowley, MA
Contact:

Post by bcooke »

Exactly.

I am just talking, instrument and electrical panels, small brackets and such.

-Britton
-Britton
Work is overrated.

Most everything you read on the Internet is wrong.

The Website
The Blog
LazyGuy
Candidate for Boat-Obsession Medal
Posts: 349
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2007 9:31 pm
Boat Name: Paper Moon
Boat Type: Luders 33 (Allied Boat Co.)
Location: Mystic CT

Post by LazyGuy »

Britton,

A few years ago I was having bad luck varnishing the name board for my Sea Sprite. After applying about 6 coats of amber non-skid I varnished it one final time and left the house. It came out looking very professional.

The problem was not with dust in the air like I thought. It was a problem with dust falling from the overhead while walking around above the bench in my 1880's house. Try a cardboard tent just to keep the chunks off. It would be a whole lot easier than setting up a spray booth with fans and filters.

The name board did two years duty on the transom of the Sea Sprite and now it hangs in my back room over the TV.
Cheers

Dennis
Luders 33 "Paper Moon" Hull No 16

Life is too short to own an ugly boat.
bcooke
Master of the Arcane
Posts: 2272
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2003 10:55 pm
Boat Name: Jenny
Boat Type: 1966 Pearson Triton
Location: Rowley, MA
Contact:

Post by bcooke »

Thanks. I will try that.

-Britton
-Britton
Work is overrated.

Most everything you read on the Internet is wrong.

The Website
The Blog
User avatar
Tim
Shipwright Extraordinaire
Posts: 5708
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2003 6:39 pm
Boat Name: Glissando
Boat Type: Pearson Triton
Location: Whitefield, ME
Contact:

Post by Tim »

I agree: try the simplest solution first. Just rigging a plastic ceiling (and maybe walls) over your work area may (probably will) take care of the problem. You'll never have a perfectly dust-free environment unless the paint space is specifically designed and engineered for that, like a downdraft booth, so keep your expectations in line with reality.

Maybe you could take your parts into the clean areas at your work. I'm sure they wouldn't mind at all...
---------------------------------------------------
Forum Founder--No Longer Participating
Summersdawn
Skilled Systems Installer
Posts: 279
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2005 6:34 pm

Post by Summersdawn »

Give your roomate a $20, send them to the pub, and spray in the kitchen. The fumes should be clear by the time the 20 is gone...
Rick
Summer's Dawn
24 San Juan #380
Post Reply