Small Paint Spray Booth

So we have a lot of fans of spray paint and the like at the space, and I'm one of them. Since we had some extra wood kicking around and I pulled a radial exhaust fan out of that HVAC unit I though I'd put together a small paint booth just for that purpose.

Here's a few pictures of it.

I reused the old mounting bracket from the HVAC unit to mount it to the booth without impeding the fan blades, and also make it easier to remove and service if necessary.

Added a gangbox and switch to the side so that I could leave it plugged in somewhere and not have the motor running constantly.

Shot of the front. It's basically a box with one side missing, not too terribly complicated.
The air filter is set at an angle in the back so that the air flow is pulled down and back. 

Air regulator I picked up from the local Grainger; it also has a moisture trap built into the bottom. 

I added a skylight - a glass pane someone pulled from a scanner bed was laying about and one of my friends said that the booth could use more light. 

Mounted the regulator on the side, for easy use. Sorry for blurry picture. 

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment!

The Beginning

Hey, thanks for stopping by. I decided to make this blog for all the things I've been up to, so I can have some semblance of record keeping for the stuff I do that's slightly interesting. I've got quite a backlog of things, so the first few posts are going to be pretty much one on top of the next.

Alright, let's get started.

This is an HVAC furnace (sans the AC condenser part) that I converted into an air scrubber to use in the dirty shop.

Here's the unit without the coil or the intake attached. It still has most of its guts inside (control board, heat transfer mechanisms and blower)

Better shot of the squirrel cage

Coil over here, removed pretty eaily - I only needed to separate it using a putty knife since it was held together by silicone. 

Here's where the hot exhaust from the natural gas burners would exchange heat with the air exiting the main squirrel cage below. 

Hooray! Extra parts. I removed all of this to use for later.

Measuring for a filter. 

Finished product!

On the left: Covered recessed male plug; it receives the female end of an extension cord to minimize clutter when moving the unit around.
On the right; basic lightswitch - I bought a heavy duty one, turns out that this unit rarely pulls over 5 amps and almost never over 10, so it's pretty overbuilt in this regard. 

It's faint, but that's a light coating of sawdust. Looks like it's already proving useful.

So a couple notes here; there's a significant portion of heat-resistant refractory wool in here, and you want to avoid breathing that in since it's not exactly healthy. I ended up coating almost all exposed fibrous insulation with tape, and I suggest similar precautions be taken if you plan to do this yourself. Also, make sure you grab some sort of ammeter and determine whether your motor is overloaded, as it could burn itself out by trying to move too much air. Otherwise, great easy build, and the machine works great and it's perfect for exchanging the air in the small dirty shop we have here at the space.


Questions or suggestions? Leave a comment below!