Official Luthiers Forum!

Disclaimer: This booth is for non-flammable finishes only (KTM-9, Target EM-6000).

I used 2 sheets of 3/4" melamine, about half a sheet of 3/4" plywood, an 18" fan made by Patton, and a 20"x20"x2" merv-13 air filter. I've got the fan speed set to medium. There just isn't a need for full chat. I quickly batched up a radius jig for a plunge router using a scrap piece about 6"x52"x1/4". I think I used a 47" radius for the top and bottom of the booth. The working opening of the finished booth is about 52" wide by 47" high. I plan to add lights inside next.

This thing works really well!

I hope this spark some ideas toward better shop safety. No pun intended.. Ok, I'm lying.

Michael

Very nice Michael.

On my list of tools to make, I intend to make a fold up spray booth for my home shop. I have a 14'x20' booth at work, but that's a bit of overkill for one-at-a-time guitars, and definitely won't fit in the garage.

I have looked at a few of the small Grizzly shop booths for inspiration.
I don't have drawings to share, but I'll verbally try to describe my thoughts, in the hopes that someone else steals the idea, builds one, and then lets me know how to do it better when I actually get around to building mine!

I am thinking about building a 4' wide by 7' tall cabinet, about 2' deep (so that it can roll through my garage door, and/or through a regular door).
The cabinet will be in two halves, with the top half being 3.5' to 4' tall. This section will have two sets of doors. The first set will be a standard set of 2' wide doors. When those are swung out to the side, they will reveal another set of doors. The second set will swing up and down, creating a roof and floor extension to the paint booth.
Opening both sets of doors will reveal a filter wall, containing four 20"x20" course filters in a square pattern. This filter wall will be somewhat sloping, approximately 8" away from the back wall at the top, and maybe 16-20" away at the bottom (the slope at the top is to allow a fluorescent light fixture to be installed inside). Directly below this wall (not visible from the outside) in a horizontal position will be another filter wall, with two 20"x20" fine filters, all the way to one side of the cabinet.
If the main cabinet is 48" wide, this will mean that there is 8" of the horizontal wall that is not filled with filters. Let's say this 8" section is on the far left side of the main cabinet, and will be sealed off from the rest of the cabinet by a vertical panel. Inside this section will be a spark proof motor. If more room is needed to accommodate the motor, the vertical panel can also be sloped (8" at the top, up to 16" at the bottom). This motor will be connected to a 30" fan by a pulley going through the vertical panel. the fan will be centered in the area directly beneath the two fine filters. The fan will be oriented to blow out through another coarse filter (either 30" in diameter, or a square of 30"x30"). This filter is primarily to diffuse the air, and not necessarily to trap particulates.

The entire cabinet can be mounted on casters to roll around when/where needed. In this way, a fairly small footprint of 2'x4' will give a portable spray booth with an internal dimension of around 48" wide by 48" tall by 30" deep.
As in Michael's design, the first filter wall could be foregone in order to have a simple downdraft booth using only the two 20"x20" filters, but with the added benefit of being a full 48" deep.

Well, the above verbal description makes sense to me, but may not be easy to visualize. But hopefully it is enough for someone to grasp the concept... and hopefully build something like it! I can do a sketch if anyone is interested.

Michael, thanks again for the extra motivation!

Very professional looking setup Michael.
As another approach, I also don't have room for a fixed booth, so I used a couple of bi-fold closet doors (always seem to be a couple available on garbage day) to anchor a knock-down booth that vents into my dust collector. Pin a shelf & back in place (I used 2" finishing nails), add filter media & it's ready. Not nearly as pretty, but functional.

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Dave
Milton, ON

Dave Stewart,
I know you have been spraying water based for years, and by the looks of your guitars, with great success.

Is this the booth you always use?
Where does the dust collector vent to?
If it recirculates within the shop, do you also use respiration equipment?
Have you ever gotten sick from it?

I've always been under the impression that just because the finish is water-based does not mean it is non-toxic. Many people don't catch that part.
Of all the instruments I've sprayed, the only time I got sick was when using water based finish.

I'm curious about your experience with that aspect.


Personally, because of my experience, spray booths like the ones pictured above would be out of the question. I wouldn't want to have ANY of the chemicals or overspray blowing around my house around my kids that the booth didn't catch.

But if you're having success and no negative effects, then it would be good to note that as well.

Thanks,


Dave

Dave

Aside from the continual twitching, I'm fine.

Joking aside... I always wear a respirator when spraying anything. At one point in my career I was a cabinetmaker. I sprayed a lot of nitro over that 10 year span. I had to switch to something far less toxic, especially because my shop is in my basement (the entrance is from outside which is a bonus). The filters I'm using are merv13 rated and handle the particulate material really well. My Oneida filter is merv16. Merv16 is rated at 99% @ .3 microns. I'd have to look up the efficiency rating of the merv13, but its much better than a standard bag style dust collector. As for the off-gassing... It would interesting to call the folks that make the stuff.

Dave, yes all have been sprayed in this booth and I always wear a respirator. Never exhibited any physical effects. It's a basic two bag dust collector so filtration could be improved (I empty & wash the bags before spraying) but it seems to draw off the overspray (fine white dust) reasonably well, though the room is a bit foggy for a while. If I had my 'druthers, I'd vent to the outside, with makeup air and proper electrics (so more volatile finishes would be possible), but you work with what you got as they say, and FWIW, no other residents to worry about.

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Dave
Milton, ON

Thanks for the responses guys.