I got started on making the garage into a paint booth. I decided to use 3 existing walls and build a new one with a door. I used 2x4's since they were the cheapest wood available. It ended up costing about $80 including 100ft of 4mil plastic sheet, which will cover the ceiling, and all 4 walls. It will be a pressurized booth with filtered air in and out. I set it up with 1x8ft light and 4x4ft lights. I am probably going to add an additional light in back along the garage door.










I added an air line kit to get nice cool clean air. The air comes out of the compressor and travels for 24 ft before it gets to the oil water seperator and fine particle filter, then it goes into the dessicant air drier, then into the manifold, then to three seperate taps, each with a water drain. I have set it up so I can add a second compressor in parallel.










This is my intake (pressure filter setup). I used a standard cheap filter to catch the big stuff, like bugs and grass clippings.



On the second stage I used a mid-grade alergen filter, cuts down on the flow, but should get rid of dust and pollen.



I built it into a plenum using a 3000 cfm squirrel cage blower.







I attached a strip of plastic so I can see the air output.





I decided to add a fan to my exhaust, so I can pull air out a little quicker. also get a good cross flow going. This is a standard Walmart cheap fan with an induction motor, so no spark potential, the switch is not explosion proof, so it was hard wired in to rin at high speed.







This is unde full suction, it collapses a little, but still maintains its shape.





I put a sheet of paper up to the finished exhaust system, it stuck.



I managed to get the 4mil plastic hung all by myself, I used 1 1/2" cardboard strips so the staples wont tear through.



My exhaust fan was made removable from the window so I could hang it out of the way and give me acess to the drill press and vice if needed.



It was a real pain in the arse to get 20 x 2o ft sheet of 4 mil plastic to hang by myself. i used 1 1/2" cardboard stapling strips to keep the plastic from tearing and to add a lot of strength.



Mostly finished, I still need to hang plastic on the front wall, the back garage door, and wash the floors.





The white filter in intake (pressure side) and the blue is exhaust (suction side).

I read on a web forum that the little blower fan you have that is advertised as 3000 cfm, only puts out a few hundred cfm using realistic measurements. I have a $300 squirrel cage blower, the type you use to dry commercial floors, and THAT heavy son of a gun, which has a 10" diameter squirrel wheel that is probably also 10" wide, is a little over 3,000 cfms. It draws over 8 amps. Thre is no way a little plastic fan like that pushes the same amount of air as something with a 3/4 horsepower motor on it. I would replace it with another box fan. A cheap box fan is still going to push a lot more cfm than a tiny blower like that.

This was how I exhausted when I was living in an apt complex (I cut a hole in the ceiling and built a duct that exited under the eaves)

http://s134.photobucket.com/albums/q116 ... etc101.flv

That was a 3,000 cfm fan.

If that fan really did push 3,000 cfms, you would need a lot more filter surface area than one filter to keep the velocity of air across the filters acceptable.

You are probably right, its probably not really 3000 cfm, but it pumps out a lot of air, way more than a box fan does. I am not changing it now.

AmateurPainter wrote:
This was how I exhausted when I was living in an apt complex (I cut a hole in the ceiling and built a duct that exited under the eaves)

http://s134.photobucket.com/albums/q116 ... etc101.flv

that is hilarious! It looked like my old apartment garage, I had to stop painting when the neighbors complained I was killing their pets with the smell.

LOL you found the pics. I sprayed the car in a pro booth, I was just spot priming in the apt. garage.

Don't confuse velocity with volume. I am pretty sure someone tested that Stanley fan you have and came up with around 170 cfm, I don't think I"ll be able to find the website offhand though. I am 100% sure a box fan will have lower velocity but higher volume than a very small squirrel wheel blower like that. If you look at paint booth fans, they are tube axial fans w/ blades, not squirrel wheels. Low velocity high volume. You don't want to find out when you are clear coating that you are not exhausting overspray fast enough and it all lands back in the clear. Most guys seem to run 3 box fans. When I first garage painted a car I ran 2 box fans on high as an exhaust and it did not keep the air completely clear of overspray w/ a cheap HVLP gun. It wasn't bad though. I don't think one exhaust box fan is going to do it personally.

WOW! Nice work. That is a TON of work actually. Should work pretty well. I don't know if I would go through all that trouble. I've painted stuff in an open garage before and had it turn out near perfect..

But, that will keep things clean for sure.

On another note: I have also painted stuff in the garage and had bugs/dust get in it.. So I know what you wanted to do.