Paint booth sucking debris onto my finish....?

[TheIrishAvenger]

So, this last weekend I built a homemade paint booth out of a rubbermaid tub and a bathroom fan. It works fantastic, but it's pulling lots of small hairs and dust mites onto the finish. I'm in the basement, and I do have dogs, so there's a lot of stuff in the air-even more than I thought. So, does anyone have ideas on how to minimize this kind of thing?


Thanks!

Chris

[Richard Baker]

A lot depends on the construction of your paint booth, but getting a furnace filter big enough to cover the inlet of the air system and duct tape into place. If the system is open air with an exhaust side then it becomes more difficult. Arranging several like you were building a card house might work or have an inlet fan also pushing air into the space through a filter. Can you take a photo of the spray booth you built?

.

[Kylwell]

I usually drape a piece of cheesecloth over the working side to catch any stray hairs while the paint dries.

[TheIrishAvenger]

Yeah, that's probably what I'll have to do. Maybe make some sort of "hood" to go on it.

I'll see if I can get a pic up tomorrow.

Chris

[Floyd Walker]

Misting the air with water prior to working can help, too - gets the dust and such to stop floating around.

[Zen-Builder]

You need to clean your work-area well and keep the pets OUT.

I used to live with a cat that loved the spray-booth, She got booted out after I found cat-hair on a painted kit.

HTH.

P.S.: Also banish the carpet monster from your work-area.

[Wug]

Hi,

Floyd Walker has a good suggestion. Here's a repost.

I have a dust problem too. Ever notice married modelers don’t have dust problems? Apparently, the presence of a woman in the house keeps dust and lint from landing on scale models. Here are a few things that help.

A while before you paint, spray the room with a plant mister filled with water. The water mist will knock some of the dust out of the air and help with static electricity.

Cover the model while it dries. I used cardboard boxes then changed to plastic storage containers. Now I use an unplugged food dehydrator with most of the trays cut out to make room for large parts. I cover the food dehydrator with a plastic bag. Remember don’t plug it in.

If you’re painting and dust lands on the model, you might be able to avoid sanding and repainting. Stop painting and let the area around the dust flash dry. Try to blow the dust off. If that doesn’t work, you can try lifting the dust off with some masking tape. In my experience, this works about 20% to 30% of the time for flat paint.

If you want a flawless deep gloss finish that wins at model car contests, you might need a wife or a maid.

HTH,

Mike

[LindaSmile]

How about running the fan in the spray booth for 5 - 10 minutes before painting to suck out the stuff in the near air before spraying? Then after spraying, cover the front of the spray booth so nothing else gets in while it's drying.

[Pat Amaral]

How about running the fan in the spray booth for 5 - 10 minutes before painting to suck out the stuff in the near air before spraying? Then after spraying, cover the front of the spray booth so nothing else gets in while it's drying.

That's what I recommend as well. I usually run the booth's fan for about 30 minutes before a painting session. I also shut off the central air system before I turn on the booth fan. After shooting paint, I put the cover that came with my bin on and leave the fan going until the paint dries. These have helped a lot.

[BERT aka MODEL MAKER]

How about running a clean shop vac in the backround or off to the side somewhere so it will pull all the air and floating dust towards IT and not your booth.

[kenlilly106]

The exhaust from the vac would stir up more dust and get some air currents going.

Doing the water mist trick along with running the booth ahead of time should minimize the amount of dust airborne in the room.

Ken

[batai37]

So, this last weekend I built a homemade paint booth out of a rubbermaid tub and a bathroom fan. It works fantastic, but it's pulling lots of small hairs and dust mites onto the finish. I'm in the basement, and I do have dogs, so there's a lot of stuff in the air-even more than I thought. So, does anyone have ideas on how to minimize this kind of thing?


Thanks!

Chris

1. Get a hygrometer to measure the humidity in the room. I got this one and it works fine:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007W ... ss_product

Monitor it for a few days. If the air is consistently less than 50% +/- 10% humidity, that is probably your problem right there. Plastic and atomized paint attract static and therefore dust and debris, and naturally static increases in a drier environment. In which case you should

2. Get a humidifier. This is the best way to consistently control the humidity in the area. Run it before your paint sessions until the humidity is 50% +/- 10%. As mentioned above, run your fan for a while before painting sessions to get all the local dust/dander/etc. in the immediate area to settle down.

I had the exact same problem, and this solved it for me. And I have a number of cats and two dogs.

[Kylwell]

So, this last weekend I built a homemade paint booth out of a rubbermaid tub and a bathroom fan. It works fantastic, but it's pulling lots of small hairs and dust mites onto the finish. I'm in the basement, and I do have dogs, so there's a lot of stuff in the air-even more than I thought. So, does anyone have ideas on how to minimize this kind of thing?


Thanks!

Chris

1. Get a hygrometer to measure the humidity in the room. I got this one and it works fine:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007W ... ss_product

Monitor it for a few days. If the air is consistently less than 50% +/- 10% humidity, that is probably your problem right there. Plastic and atomized paint attract static and therefore dust and debris, and naturally static increases in a drier environment. In which case you should

2. Get a humidifier. This is the best way to consistently control the humidity in the area. Run it before your paint sessions until the humidity is 50% +/- 10%. As mentioned above, run your fan for a while before painting sessions to get all the local dust/dander/etc. in the immediate area to settle down.

I had the exact same problem, and this solved it for me. And I have a number of cats and two dogs.

We're in the high desert. Only time it gets to 50% humidity is when it rains.

[batai37]

We're in the high desert. Only time it gets to 50% humidity is when it rains.

Hi Kylwell,

So what are you saying? That you live in a mostly dry environment, but don't have the problem described in the OP?

Also, the humidity levels inside and outside your home won't be the same:

"If the outside air temperature in winter is 0°F and the relative humidity is 75 percent, that same air inside your 70°F home will have a four percent relative humidity. That’s dry! The Sahara Desert has an average relative humidity of 25 percent."

Source: http://www.blueflame.org/datasheets/humidity.html

Once I started measuring the humidity in the room where I paint, it indicated that it was consistently very low. Once I added the humidifier and run it until I reached at least 45% humidity and maintained it that high, dust etc. attaching to my paint job essentially stopped being a problem.

[Kylwell]

Just that it's dry here. My booth sucks enough air to clean the room out in an hour or so. I think that's part of why I don't have an issue with dust or cat hair.

[batai37]

Just that it's dry here. My booth sucks enough air to clean the room out in an hour or so. I think that's part of why I don't have an issue with dust or cat hair.

Yeah, for some people just having adequate ventilation is enough. I have *a lot* of cats, and the problem with dust/dander/hair is pretty severe, so in my case I think the humidifier was necessary because of the high contaminant concentration in the air. I even have an air purifier in that room.

[Mark Yungblut]

First change the filter in your furnace or AC every few months. If you have pets get a filter designed for those kind of particulates. I say go with the idea of running the booth for 30 to 45 minutes prior to the painting. I would also get a furnace filter large enough to cover the front of the booth so when you are drying you can still pull fumes out but block the particulates.

Cheers,

Mark