Homebuilt fume hood for airbrushing indoors: CHEAP!

HemiAdda2d Nov 13, 2001

  1. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I have it built, the bugs run out of it, and running smoothly now! See it at my link for projects and trains... I'll follow up on this later with the ingredients to making an airbrush station that saves big bucks!
     
  2. rmathos

    rmathos TrainBoard Member

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    It sounds like a great idea, but i can't find any pictures of a paint booth on your Yahoo site. Are you going to tell us how to make one? I've heard about making a paintbooth with an old TV box, but never have seen actual directions. Thanks, Curt
     
  3. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Well, I clicked the link, and then click the projects & trains icon, then click to see the last page. The hood pics are last 2 in the 2nd page.
    ANYhow....
    To make good on a promise to spill the beans on making a cheap airbrush hood, I'll hook everyone here up with the way I did mine, and the way it turned out.
    First, I went to the local home improveent store,a nd picked out a bathroom fan, one that you install into the ceiling/walls. The one I got cost me a whopping 9 bucks! It pulls 50 CFM, and runs on reg house current; 110-120V. One note to watch out for; ensure the cord you buy to connect the fan to the outlet is rated for the amps that the fan pulls! I made this mistake, not knoing that the fan I bought pulls 15 amps!!!!
    I spent a lot of cussing, kicking the cat,a nd hollering at the top of my lungs for not realizing my 16-3 cord I had wired (correctly, the first time even!!) was not letting enough juice to flow to the motor, kicking the breaker, even though the thing ran well. I went back to the store, and got a 14-3 cord, altho it works fine, for 15 amps, a 12-3 cord should be used. Anyways, I used liquid electrical tape to seal all my soldered connections, and taped with reg. el. tape to ensure no shorting will occur.
    I then built a box, one to fit the smallest size furnace filter I got, a 16x20". I built the box slightly undersize, but the box friction-fits the filter w/o too much crushing the element. That holds the filter in, but allows quick replacement when the time comes,a nd they are only 99 cents.
    The fan was mounted into the box, by cutting a hole about the size of the outer dimensions of the fan case, and using wire staples to secure the tabs to the plywood.
    I used OSB/waferboard, but any plywood product will do fine. The wiring completed, I used wire/cable staples to secure the cord to the box, to ensure nothing short of a hard yank will pull the connections out of the fan.
    At this point, I added an 18" flourescent light, for extra light.
    The last thing was to fabricate an outlet for the fumes, via the normal dryer hose. The cheap stuff that you get to hook a new dryer up to the vent will work fine.
    This is the cool part. I got cheapo window weatherstripping to line the long 2 sides of a plywood piece cut 12" wide, and about 1/4" shorter than the total window height *I have side-sliding windows* to allow for easy installation. I added 2 cheapo handle to help grab the wood when finished with the paint job. I used a 3-4" reducer, the 4" side outside, and secured with CA, and the hose connected to the 3" side indoors. I cut all the holes with a jigsaw. If you need more pics in detail, lemme know, and I'll post them. Yahoo won't let thir web pics I post be posted elsewhere, giving me a stupid 'x' box icon when I try to post one here. :mad:
    'N' Joy!
     
  4. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Ingenious :D
     
  5. raysaron

    raysaron TrainBoard Supporter

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    Two additional suggestions:

    cover the light fixture with flexible
    plastic wrap (Saran brand, etc) to keep
    the light free of over spray (easy to then
    remove and replace)

    for homeowners, use the same filter size as
    your furnace and then you only have to buy
    and store one size
     
  6. watash

    watash Passed away March 7, 2010 TrainBoard Supporter In Memoriam

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    I wont tell who it was, but I "heard of" a dumb nut who experimented with a cardboard box rigged similarly to your hood.

    He forgot one thing though. His exhaust outlet went straight out through the house wall, into the car port where his wife usually parked her (Black) car. One morning a reefer yellow spot appeared on her car door.

    The box and rigging was imediately moved to the storage shed.

    You know, we never did figure out how that spot got on her car door. It had to be polished off with buffing compound.

    The point being:
    Always keep a can of polishing compound and a flashlight handy, and check her car before going to bed after painting!

    Oh, and do use a filter, it would have helped a lot! :D
     
  7. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I have it vented directly to the outside air, thru an upstairs window. I also have a light with a diffuser,a nd I am using only water-base paints now, too. so cleanup is quicker.

    Thanks, Watash, that was hilarious!
    Ray, I live in an Air Force base, in military housing, and they replace the filter for me, so that isn't a big concern. Yet it is a great idea for saving more dough. Isn't that what this whole thread was about?! [​IMG]
     
  8. SteveB

    SteveB TrainBoard Member

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    Would enamel or any type of flammable fume paint be a problem? Someone once said to watch out for the fumes igniting as they passed through the fan and it's motor. Were they talking about an open frame motor? Sorry, I'm new to this, do my painting on a garbage can lid outside.
     
  9. Mark_Athay

    Mark_Athay TrainBoard Member

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    As long as the amount of air passing through the fan is high, and the volume of flamable stuff is low, the concentration should not get high enough to ignite unless raw liquied is sprayed directly into the fan. Where only an air brush is used, you should be just fine, assuming the wife isn't complaining of the fumes or the time you're spending on the trains instead of doing something else "important"...... [​IMG]

    Mark
     
  10. rmathos

    rmathos TrainBoard Member

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    OK hemi, i missed the second page before-very, very clever, practical and simple, but that's not surprising coming from a a proud member of our US Air Force [ok, ok, i'm Navy, but i did do a hitch in the Air Force in my younger days]! Your method is a lot better than trying to find an old TV box, patch up all the extra holes, etc., etc. Looking at the pictures of your painted rolling stock, i'm thinking you could give some of us lessons an how to airbrush as well. Thenks for the project. Curt
     
  11. watash

    watash Passed away March 7, 2010 TrainBoard Supporter In Memoriam

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    Yeah Hemi, How much thinner do you have to add to water based paint, to make it come through an air brush? I have a Pashe that wont even spray water! "Splaine to weun's about visisacositie an' such! We aint all smarted!" :rolleyes:
     
  12. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Folks,
    'You have got to be hozin' me!!!' I have a POS testor's 'detail' airbrush, running it with propellant cans... yet I have a 33 Gal air compressor... Hmmm... m Any ideas to hook compressor power to the airbrush? The threads on the propellant can and adapters to 1/4" hose are different.....
    I used the airbrush outside to do those cars I posted before, and the paint I used was thinned as per manuf. instructions. I used filtered water for Polly Scle paint, and Testor's airbrush thinner for Floquil. I have to have the pressure cranked up to get a good spray pattern.
    I have been busier than a one-arm-wallpaper-hanger at work this week, thus the minimal replies... I would LOVE to get a Badger, or a Paache. Funds are diverted toward getting CC autoracks in BNSF, BN cylindricals from Bowser, *that's the one I patterned mine from, loosely* and Red Caboose hoppers in BN/BNSF.... Not to mention M-T's new releases....
     
  13. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Sorry to double.... The fan I chose works to the tune of 50 CFM (cubic feet/minute). If you are painting and you have back draft of fumes and overspray into the room with that much airflo, you have way too much pressure to the 'brush.....
    Also, the paint is caught before entering the fan, via the ordinary furnace filter. Only fumes go thru. I understand concern abotu volatile fumes, and electrical motors, but I have had no problems. I use testor's propellant, and it's volatile,a nd had no problems. Yet.. *knocks on wood* :cool:
     
  14. watash

    watash Passed away March 7, 2010 TrainBoard Supporter In Memoriam

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    Hemi, email me your mailing address if you still want a Pasche air brush. It is easily adaptable to a compressor.
     
  15. JosephFerris

    JosephFerris TrainBoard Member

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    For those concerned when using flammable paint, ask your local hardware store for a "brushless motor" type exhaust system. The brushes are completely contained and eliminate the chance of sparking any flammable material...
     
  16. Wilbert Vossen

    Wilbert Vossen TrainBoard Member

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    The fan used is a bathroom fan. I should think that these somehow have the motor protected because any water that would get into the motor would cause a short...
     
  17. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    If you use a good filter, you should avoid all those problems, unless spraying directly into the motor.. That's asking for it! [​IMG]

    I also found a Cascade Green patch of color on the screen where the outlet vent is..... OOps.. :eek:
     
  18. Ratcals

    Ratcals TrainBoard Member

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    What an awesome idea. I’d often thought about it myself wondering if it would work or not and now I know. I’ve got all the stuff and I plan on making one this weekend. You only used a 50CFM fan and that was enough? I have a spare 9” 250CFM fan I can spare to make one with. Did you also put a filter on the output of the fan to help cut down on the “paint dust” accumulating in the exhaust hose? I very rarely use solvent-based paints. I prefer water based simply for the ease of cleaning. I figure I don’t really need an external exhaust, as there are not any noxious fumes. So I figured I’d put a filter on both sides of the fan to catch any over spray. You guys have any input?

    Mark
     
  19. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    50 CFM is enough, but 250 may be slight overkill. I should add another finer filter behind the coase filter to curtail that problem with paint getting on the screen.... I really love that extra light I added, and I suggest you add it also. It lights the whole workbench!!!
     
  20. Ratcals

    Ratcals TrainBoard Member

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    Yes, I know 250CFM is overkill. However, I found one at a good price at DRMO (being Air Force you'll know what that is) so I couldn't pass it up. I already have a swing-arm lamp that I can use to light up the booth.

    Mark
     

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