Spray Booth WIP

Hey guys here are some tutorials that inspired me to make my own spray booth.

Link 1

Link 2

The first link (the cheapest) is how i chose to make my booth because it was easier and very cheap! Some things that differ are how the air is sucked in, this is mainly because my fan differs from that tutorial's. I chose to place the fan gamera's way because of the design of the fan itself.

These are the list of items that are needed or that i needed.

• Large/Medium plastic container box
• 70 cfm+ Bathroom Fan
• 2 L shape Brackets, 4 small 3/8" screws #6, and fitting lugnuts.
• Packing Tape
  
• Heavy Duty Box Cutter
• Drill or Pin Vise (Or any tool that can drill about a 1/8" hole in the container)
• Phillips Screwdriver
• Extention Cord, Power Strip (or any other preffered switch on/off method)
• Air Conditioner Filter
• Aluminum Duct Tube, make sure it fits the fan output
• Time: About 3-5 hours labor + ? hours getting the supplies.
  

Step 1:

• Get a cheap plastic container, and get a cheap 70 cfm + bathroom fan, i got my NuTone around 20 somethin' bux at home depot, they have a cheaper 50cfm one but .. come on its only 50 cfm!

Step 2:

• Measure where you want the fan to be and trace with a marker around the fan on the box so you know where to cut. My box coincidentally has grid lines which made it 100 times easier.. 'ahem nm. Anyways, if you want the fan to be outside the box and not slightly inside the box, then cut the square a little smaller than the dimension of the fan box, this is for the taping that you will be doing later. My box was pretty darn hard, i cut myself with the box cutter cause i was pressing too hard, don't do that, just have patience and slowly slice away at it, it will eventually cut through, but put SOME elbow grease in it for goodness sakes.
  

test fit: great job!


Step 3:

• Buy or get about 4 small screw's / lugnuts. The size i used i think was a #6 3/8 from home depot, phillips fit. And get 2 L shape panels. Screw the panels on the top left and bottom right areas using those little slots that i have no idea are for, maybe screwing maybe not.

Step 4:

• Place the bracketed fan in position on top of the container and measure where the screws will go and use a hand drill, or ... if your ghetto like me and dont have one... use a pin vise, that's right.. pin vise same one you use on your models/ resin kits. Use a 1/8" drill bit if you have one, i used a 1/16th and kept drilling multiple times to make a 1/8" hole for the screw.

Step: 5

• After screwing the two brackets in (1 screw each is enough more is better), tape all around the air fan to make sure no air/space can get out, there might be holes for screws also you can tape up but its not necessary, just make sure you get the big gaps surrounding the fan. This step imo is very important as sealing the air in will produce a better suction from the intake area.

Step: 6

• While your at your local hardware store, pick up one of these. Air conditioner filter, they are pretty big and you get a lot for about 4 bux. Don't bother looking at the price of a spray booth filter, its rediculous. This big arse sheet alone will cut into a dozen sheets.

Step 7:

• Take off the cardboard glued to the paper, this gets really messy *sigh. Then cut off a peice, dont worry the metal thing is easy to cut with regular scissors. Take off that darn'ed metal thing then cut the filter to the size of your bathroom fan grille cover thingy, a little smaller so it wont popout but make sure it fills the grille end to end.
  

After cutting the filter to size, put the filter in the grille , dont tape it in yet, then place the grille with the filter in it over the hole in your booth where its supposed to go, you can take off the grille springs if there are any. And tape that sucker all around, I used packaging tape but you can use whatever works for you, packaging tape is nice and sticky so thats probably your best choice, duct tape would work but its not clear like packaging tape.

Note: Its your choice to put the grille over the hole, i think its a better idea because spraying directly into the motor would not be good.


Step 8:

• Thats it your done! now test the fan, my fan came with a power cord which was very short but long enough to fit through one of the slits on top of the casing where it sticks out. I connected a extension cord to it which leads to a power strip. I just flip it on and voi'la it works. As for 70 cfm, its strong enough to hold paper on the grille and a small peice of cardboard, strong enough for organic vapors it is!

Just connect your aluminum duct tube thingy to the output of the fan and thats it! If the hose aint long enough like i dont think mine is, you need those elbow connecters and another hose ;/, very expensive. Hope you enjoyed this WIP tutorial, this booth is very simple and very budgeted and imo works just as good as those 3-400 dollar booths. This booth does need support under the fan as there is no way the container can hold the fan up, i used an old gwing box ;/, and since these containers DO sit at an angle, the fan cannot sit straight on the ground without compromising a big gap between the bottom of the fan and the container, wood is a different story, it also looks nicer with the grille in the middle :P. Enjoy!

Oh yah, if your room is dusty like mine, just blast that thing on, remember its using an air conditioner filter which filters bacteria and dust particles!!

Also when your not using your booth you can put whatever in it and close the lid on it, or slide it under the bed or in the closet, its very compact and versatile.

*sigh now to clean up the mess i made.